The War of 18-49, Criminal Minds

CRIMINAL MINDS (CBS)

Scheduling history: With two exceptions (a post-CSI preview to kick off the series on 9/22/05 and a post-Super Bowl airing on 2/4/07) Criminal Minds has aired all of its episodes on Wednesdays. The first dozen seasons were at 9/8c, followed by a move to the 10/9c hour.

See (who saw) how it all began: Criminal Minds premiered on a Thursday night, getting a boost from a then-extremely potent CSI on 9/22/05 and drawing 19.57 million viewers and a 6.5/17 in the demo.  While that seemed solid, it lost almost half of that in its first episode on Wednesday, getting just 10.57 million viewers and a 3.3/8 on 9/28/05. But it would recover from the slow start with a 4.2 just two weeks later and develop into a solid performer.

The best of times: Its two special airings (10.0 post-Super Bowl and 6.5 post-CSI) are easily its two strongest ratings ever, but aside from an above average episode the Wednesday after the Super Bowl, neither had a meaningful impact on future episodes. The show has always suffered in the spring from having to face American Idol, so its best extended run was probably early season 2 in fall 2006, when it was usually at a 4.5 or higher and produced the only three in-timeslot 5.0+ results in series history.

The worst of times: Season one remains Criminal Minds' weakest season on a historical-adjusted basis. After an incredibly consistent run from 2007-08 through 2011-12, barely dropping at all in raw numbers, it finally took a significant downturn in 2012-13, and was down about the same amount the next three seasons. It was at its ugliest in fall 2015, going as low as a 1.5 on 11/18/15, before rallying impressively in the second half of season eleven. It fell to new raw lows again in season twelve, but was still stronger than it was in season one in historical-adjusted metrics. The show finally hit its weakest Plus levels ever with the move to 10/9c in season 13, and went fractional (0.9) several times throughout the season. Season 14 was all fractional, including a slew of 0.7's.

Then vs. now: While Criminal Minds was essentially hitting the same raw numbers over a five-year period, the rest of the original series programming on the big four dropped by nearly 30%. As a result, Criminal Minds quietly became a much more valuable show in the landscape, eventually overshadowing its once much larger lead-out CSI: NY. 2012-13 brought its first noticeable ratings hit in many years, but it's still a considerably stronger relative show than in the first half of its run. There was a delay in getting Criminal Minds renewed for 2013-14, but there was little doubt it would actually happen. At moments of weakness, there have been rumors about it moving to the 10/9c hour, but 2017-18 was the year when it finally actually happened.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	2005-06	Wednesday 9:00	4.10		3.3	6.5	detail
2	2006-07		Wednesday 9:00	4.27	+4%	3.3	5.2		detail
3	2007-08		Wednesday 9:00	3.64	-15%	3.1	4.5		detail
4	2008-09		Wednesday 9:00	3.61	-1%	3.0	4.7		detail
5	2009-10		Wednesday 9:00	3.60	0%	3.1	4.4		detail
6	2010-11		Wednesday 9:00	3.46	-4%	2.9	4.0	detail	B-
7	2011-12		Wednesday 9:00	3.39	-2%	2.8	4.1	detail	B
8	2012-13		Wednesday 9:00	2.87	-15%	2.4	3.1	detail	C
9	2013-14		Wednesday 9:00	2.49	-13%	2.2	2.8	detail	C+
10	2014-15		Wednesday 9:00	2.14	-14%	1.8	2.7	detail	C+
11	2015-16		Wednesday 9:00	1.78	-17%	1.4	2.2	detail	B-
12	2016-17		Wednesday 9:00	1.38	-22%	1.2	1.8	detail	C
13	2017-18	Wednesday 10:00	0.99	-29%	0.9	1.3	detail	B-
14	2018-19		Wednesday 10:00	0.76	-23%	0.7	0.9	detail	C
15	Winter 2020	Wednesday 9:00	0.71	-6%	0.5	0.9	detail	B+

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now20	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	2005-06	101	solid	0.83		81	160	160	89
2	2006-07	113	solid	0.93	+12%	88	138	119	98
3	2007-08	110	solid	0.90	-3%	94	136	106	103
4	2008-09	120	solid	0.98	+9%	100	156	156	116
5	2009-10	128	hit	1.05	+7%	110	156	156	110
6	2010-11	136	hit	1.11	+6%	114	157	157	130
7	2011-12	144	hit	1.18	+6%	119	174	174	152
8	2012-13	136	hit	1.12	-5%	114	147	147	133
9	2013-14	132	hit	1.08	-3%	117	149	149	143
10	2014-15	127	hit	1.04	-4%	107	161	161	107
11	2015-16	122	solid	1.00	-4%	100	148	135	122
12	2016-17	113	solid	0.92	-8%	96	151	151	127
13	2017-18	90	marginal	0.74	-20%	79	120	120	79
14	2018-19	80	marginal	0.66	-11%	69	90	78	88
15	Winter 2020	87	marginal	0.71	+9%	67	111	90	96
AVERAGE:		AVERAGE:	116	solid
CAREER:		CAREER:	1739	icon

The War of 18-49 chronicles the ratings history of veteran primetime series. For more, see the Index.