The War of 18-49, The Amazing Race

THE AMAZING RACE (CBS)

Scheduling history: For the first five years of The Amazing Race's existence, the show was something of a utility player, moved six times in a seven season span from 2003 to 2006. But the Sunday 8:00 timeslot was a perfect fit, and it's now been there for well over half of the series' run. However, the first move in nearly a decade came in 2014-15, as it was downgraded to Friday.

See (who saw) how it all began: The Amazing Race kicked off with 11.82 million viewers and a 5.0/13 in adults 18-49 on 9/5/01.  The next Wednesday was 9/12/01, also known as The Day After 9/11, so there was not entertainment programming on the broadcast networks that evening. The show held up OK after that unfortunate break, scoring a 4.6/12 in week two on 9/19/01, but then it dropped into the upper 3's for most of its remaining season 1 episodes.  The season 1 finale perked up quite nicely to 13.65 million viewers and a 6.0/15 demo, one of the show's few 6.0+ airings.

The best of times: The best Amazing Race season ratings-wise was number 7, which averaged more than a half point higher in the demo than any other season. Only three other seasons in Race history have managed even once to hit the average of season 7. After a somewhat rocky first few years for the show, this season seemed to finally lock the show into a two-cycles-per-year pattern.  And the season 7 finale was easily the highest-rated airing out of the data I have, scoring 16.01 million viewers and a 6.8/17 in the demo on 5/10/05.

The worst of times: The show dropped hard from there, with the spring 2006 cycle just a calendar year later rating so badly that CBS shifted it to Wednesday night in the middle of the cycle (using the post-NCIS slot to premiere newbie The Unit) and then to Sunday for the next one. After a consistent run on Sunday, the show fell to a new level of weakness when moved to Friday in fall 2014. It hit a new low 1.0 for the first time in the fall 2014 season, then its first ever fractional ratings came on 4/29/16 and 5/6/16.

Then vs. now: Most shows we've covered find themselves on a consistent downward trajectory, either starting from the very beginning or after a brief period of growth. But The Amazing Race has been a true roller coaster ride, with eight seasons building average-wise on the previous season. Its drops in season 3 caused CBS to relegate it to the summer, but the big season 5 in summer 2004 got it back on the regular season sked, then the huge season 7 in 2005 seemed to lock it in, but by spring 2006 it was dumped on Wednesday, and then by the 2007-08 season CBS was briefly back to ordering only one cycle per season. The show finally found some stability on Sunday nights, with several seasons in a row since that move finishing in the low to mid 3's. After a long run as the bright spot on an otherwise demo-challenged evening for CBS, a rough 2013-14 got it moved to Friday for 2014-15. After two full years on the night, it has moved into more of a utility replacement mode again starting with season 29. It saw a great ratings resurgence (on top of a more favorable timeslot) in season 30, which was used to bridge two Survivor seasons.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	Fall 2001	Wednesday 9:00	4.05		3.1	6.0	detail
2	Spring 2002		Wednesday 9:00	4.57		3.8	6.1		detail
3	Fall 2002		Wednesday 9:00	3.80	-6%	2.9	4.7		detail
4	Summer 2003	Thursday 8:00	3.09	-32%	2.4	3.7	detail
5	Summer 2004	Tuesday 9:00	4.63	+50%	3.9	5.6	detail
6	2004-05		Tuesday 9:00	4.57		3.8	5.2		detail
7	Spring 2005		Tuesday 9:00	5.32	+15%	4.6	6.8		detail
8	Fall 2005		Tuesday 9:00	4.31	-6%	3.5	4.7		detail
9	Spring 2006	Tue 9:00, Wed 8:00	3.44	-35%	2.5	4.1	detail
10	Fall 2006	Sunday 8:00	3.75	-13%	3.3	4.1	detail
11	Spring 2007		Sunday 8:00	3.16	-8%	2.8	3.9		detail
12	2007-08		Sunday 8:00	3.53	-6%	2.8	4.3		detail
13	Fall 2008		Sunday 8:00	3.15	-11%	2.7	3.5		detail
14	Spring 2009		Sunday 8:00	3.11		2.6	3.7		detail
15	Fall 2009		Sunday 8:00	3.38	+7%	2.8	3.7		detail
16	Spring 2010		Sunday 8:00	3.12	+1%	2.6	3.9		detail
17	Fall 2010		Sunday 8:00	3.32	-2%	2.6	3.8	detail	B
18	Spring 2011		Sunday 8:00	2.64	-15%	2.1	3.2	detail	D+
19	Fall 2011		Sunday 8:00	2.88	-13%	2.7	3.3	detail	C
20	Spring 2012		Sunday 8:00	2.62	-1%	2.2	2.9	detail	B+
21	Fall 2012		Sunday 8:00	2.56	-11%	2.4	2.7	detail	C+
22	Spring 2013		Sunday 8:00	2.35	-10%	1.9	2.5	detail	B-
23	Fall 2013		Sunday 8:00	2.02	-21%	1.6	2.4	detail	D+
24	Spring 2014		Sunday 8:00	1.76	-25%	1.5	2.0	detail	D+
25	Fall 2014	Friday 8:00	1.17	-42%	1.0	1.4	detail	D+
26	Spring 2015		Friday 8:00	1.19	-32%	1.1	1.5	detail	C
27	Fall 2015		Friday 8:00	1.11	-5%	1.0	1.2	detail	B
28	Spring 2016		Friday 8:00	1.06	-11%	0.9	1.3	detail	B
29	Spring 2017	Thursday 9:00	0.83	-22%	0.6	0.9	detail	B-
30	Winter 2018	Wednesday 8:00	1.15	+39%	0.9	1.6	detail	A-
31	Spring 2019		Wednesday 8:00	0.85	-26%	0.7	1.2	detail	B
32	Fall 2020		Wednesday 8:00	0.68		0.6	0.8	detail	B
33	Winter 2022		Wednesday 8:00	0.60	-11%	0.5	0.7	detail	A-
34	Fall 2022	Wednesday 9:00	0.37	-39%	0.3	0.5	detail	C
35	Fall 2023	Wednesday 9:30	0.39	+5%	0.3	0.4	detail	A-
36	Spring 2024		Wednesday 9:30	0.37		0.3	0.4		detail	A-

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now24	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	Fall 2001	94	marginal	0.36		72	140	116	140
2	Spring 2002	106	solid	0.40		88	142	91	121
3	Fall 2002	87	marginal	0.33	-8%	66	108	89	108
4	Summer 2003	71	solid(sum)	0.27	-33%	55	85	85	85
5	Summer 2004	114	big hit(sum)	0.43	+61%	96	138	106	138
6	2004-05	112	solid	0.43		93	128	123	128
7	Spring 2005	131	hit	0.50	+15%	113	167	120	167
8	Fall 2005	106	solid	0.40	-5%	86	116	108	116
9	Spring 2006	85	marginal	0.32	-35%	62	101	101	84
10	Fall 2006	100	solid	0.38	-6%	88	109	104	109
11	Spring 2007	84	marginal	0.32	-1%	74	104	82	88
12	2007-08	107	solid	0.40	+7%	85	130	130	94
13	Fall 2008	105	solid	0.40	-2%	90	116	106	103
14	Spring 2009	103	solid	0.39		86	123	86	103
15	Fall 2009	120	solid	0.46	+14%	99	131	121	131
16	Spring 2010	111	solid	0.42	+7%	92	139	99	103
17	Fall 2010	131	hit	0.50	+9%	102	149	149	146
18	Spring 2011	104	solid	0.39	-6%	83	126	98	102
19	Fall 2011	122	solid	0.46	-7%	114	140	127	140
20	Spring 2012	111	solid	0.42	+7%	93	123	119	114
21	Fall 2012	121	solid	0.46	0%	114	128	119	123
22	Spring 2013	112	solid	0.42	+1%	90	119	119	114
23	Fall 2013	107	solid	0.41	-12%	85	127	106	111
24	Spring 2014	93	marginal	0.35	-16%	80	106	80	96
25	Fall 2014	69	solid(Fri)	0.26	-35%	59	83	65	77
26	Spring 2015	71	solid(Fri)	0.27	-24%	65	89	89	65
27	Fall 2015	76	hit(Fri)	0.29	+10%	69	82	82	69
28	Spring 2016	73	solid(Fri)	0.28	+3%	62	89	89	76
29	Spring 2017	67	flop	0.26	-7%	49	73	73	65
30	Winter 2018	105	solid	0.40	+56%	78	145	145	82
31	Spring 2019	89	marginal	0.34	-15%	72	125	125	78
32	Fall 2020	105	solid	0.40		88	124	112	124
33	Winter 2022	118	solid	0.45	+13%	92	135	135	129
34	Fall 2022	86	marginal	0.33	-27%	63	113	108	113
35	Fall 2023	102	solid	0.39	+18%	87	116	95	116
36	Spring 2024	98	marginal	0.37		90	111	98	108

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