The War of 18-49, The Biggest Loser

THE BIGGEST LOSER (NBC)

Scheduling history: 12 of the first 13 The Biggest Loser seasons aired on Tuesday, but since then it's been thrown all over the place. It filled the space between seasons of The Voice on Monday in 2013 and 2016, briefly returned to Tuesday in fall 2014, and had an ill-advised fall Thursday season in 2015.

See (who saw) how it all began: The first season premiered on 10/19/04 with a pretty solid 9.90 million viewers and a 4.1/10 in the demo.  It dropped to a 3.7 in week two, but then rose back to a 4.0+ demo for the rest of the originals that season and wrapped up with a 5.9/15 on 1/11/05, the second-highest result for the series to date.

The best of times: The highest-rated season in raw average was the first, which was the only one to consistently score above a 4.0 in the demo. Though the second season also averaged above a 4.0, just four of its 12 airings hit that mark, and the average was heavily inflated by the massive 6.7 demo for the finale on 11/29/05, easily the show's highest-rated airing ever. The show then was highly consistent for the next four cycles before having a bit of a resurgence to its highest relative level ever in calendar year 2009. The season 8 finale was just the third airing in show history that averaged at least a 5.0 in the demo.

The worst of times: Prior to the fall 2010 season, it was tough coming up with a "worst of times" for this show, since most of the worst seasons had fallen right around a low 3 demo. But the fall 2010 season easily set a new low for the show, and it only made a rally into the upper 2's average-wise due to some higher-rated episodes after the show got moved to the 9:00-11:00 block. Before those last three weeks, the show was often lower than a 2.5, which it had never done before. The big drops continued in the 2011-12 season, with the show dropping below a 2.0 for the first time. But the move to Thursday in fall 2014 really took TBL to a new level of low-ratedness. It dropped all the way to a 0.9 rating for a couple airings around the holidays, on 12/18/14 and 1/1/15, then actually hit its first 0.8 against the Grammys on 2/15/16.

Then vs. now: Once consistent The Biggest Loser finally took a significant downturn starting in fall 2010, down more than 15% from any previous season, and the bleeding continued pretty heavily all the way through the 2011-12 season. That put the show into midseason replacement mode for the first time, but that role (plus the return of Jillian Michaels) helped the show rebound quite nicely in early 2013. It fell back off again in its 2013-14 season, despite a beneficial pairing with The Voice's results show in the fall, and the move to Thursday in 2014 didn't go well at all. The future seems more uncertain than ever for the show at this point, but these reality franchises have often been capable of major rejuvenation.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	Fall 2004	Tuesday 8:00	4.40		3.7	5.9	detail
2	Fall 2005		Tuesday 8:00	4.08	-7%	3.0	6.7		detail
3	Fall 2006	Wednesday 9:00	3.34	-18%	2.6	4.8	detail
4	Fall 2007	Tuesday 8:00	3.27	-2%	2.7	4.6	detail
5	2007-08		Tuesday 8:00	3.44		2.9	4.4		detail
6	Fall 2008		Tuesday 8:00	3.25	-1%	2.6	4.6		detail
7	2008-09		Tuesday 8:00	3.78	+10%	3.2	4.7		detail
8	Fall 2009		Tuesday 8:00	3.74	+15%	3.1	5.0		detail
9	2009-10		Tuesday 8:00	3.36	-11%	2.8	4.6		detail
10	Fall 2010		Tuesday 8:00	2.73	-27%	2.3	4.0	detail	D+
11	2010-11		Tuesday 8:00	2.84	-15%	2.3	3.3	detail	D+
12	Fall 2011		Tuesday 8:00	2.21	-19%	1.9	2.7	detail	C-
13	2011-12		Tuesday 8:00	2.18	-23%	2.0	2.4	detail	D+
14	2012-13	Monday 8:00	2.32	+6%	2.0	3.0	detail	A-
15	2013-14	Tuesday 8:00	1.93	-17%	1.7	2.3	detail	C-
16	2014-15	Thursday 8:00	1.24	-36%	0.9	1.6	detail	D
17	2015-16	Monday 9:00	1.07	-13%	0.8	1.2	detail	C

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now16	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	Fall 2004	108	solid	1.58		91	145	101	145
2	Fall 2005	100	solid	1.46	-7%	74	165	81	165
3	Fall 2006	89	marginal	1.29	-12%	69	127	82	127
4	Fall 2007	99	marginal	1.44	+12%	82	139	94	139
5	2007-08	104	solid	1.51		88	133	133	133
6	Fall 2008	108	solid	1.58	+9%	86	153	106	153
7	2008-09	126	hit	1.83	+21%	106	156	150	156
8	Fall 2009	133	hit	1.94	+23%	110	178	135	178
9	2009-10	119	solid	1.74	-5%	99	163	163	139
10	Fall 2010	107	solid	1.56	-19%	90	157	114	157
11	2010-11	112	solid	1.63	-6%	90	130	130	122
12	Fall 2011	93	marginal	1.36	-13%	80	114	97	114
13	2011-12	92	marginal	1.35	-17%	85	102	102	93
14	2012-13	110	solid	1.60	+19%	95	142	142	128
15	2013-14	102	solid	1.49	-7%	90	122	122	117
16	2014-15	74	marginal	1.07	-28%	54	95	95	83
17	2015-16	74	marginal	1.07	+0%	55	82	82	82

For more on The War of 18-49, my look at the history of primetime TV's veteran shows, see the Index.