The War of 18-49, CSI

CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION (CBS)

Scheduling history: CSI has aired about 10.5 of its seasons to date as one of the defining shows of Thursday night. Only the first half of season 1 on Friday and the three Wednesday seasons have gone elsewhere. It moved to Sunday, its fourth regular night, in 2014-15.

See (who saw) how it all began: CSI began on 10/6/00 with 17.0 million viewers and a 5.4 demo (preliminary), which don't really look like anything too world-shattering considering it was twelve years ago. But of course, the important thing to note is that this was a Friday number. By Friday standards, even back then, it was a pretty pleasant surprise, and seemed to suggest there was a lot of potential there. Most of its Friday airings during fall 2000 would score in the mid- to upper-4's in the demo.

The best of times: But CSI was not going to achieve its maximum ratings on Friday. It had to be moved, and a post-Survivor slot on Thursday was the ticket. Its demos shot up at least three points in the second half of season 1, and the growth would continue for the next couple seasons until the show settled in with an average between a 9.0 and 10.0 from seasons 3 through 6. The series high was an 11.6 demo, achieved on 10/17/02 and for the 100th episode on 11/18/04. It cracked the double digit demo plateau during 5 different seasons (2 through 6) and was one of the monsters of primetime for at least half a decade, even if sometimes overshadowed on its own night by the ratings of Friends and ER.

The worst of times: The first real challenge to CSI's dominance was ABC's move of Grey's Anatomy to the night in fall 2006, and what a challenge it was! After airing six seasons without a single season-to-season drop larger than 9%, beginning with the Grey's arrival the drops were -24%, -16%, -18%, a whooping -28% in 2009-10, and another -13% in 2010-11. As with ER, the show went from the top of the pedestal to a very middle of the road program in just a few short years. The show held up quite well in the first year of its Wednesday run, but it dropped big again in 2012-13 and 2013-14. That led to a Sunday move for 2014-15, where the show went far below anything it had done in previous seasons. If it gets cancelled, the series low would actually come for the series finale: a pair of 1.1 ratings on 2/15/15.

Then vs. now: Of course, we can't give Grey's Anatomy all the credit for the fall of CSI. After all, that show did plenty of its own ratings plummeting. Especially in the last couple years, more of the credit in the CSI case should go to the cast upheavals. This show has not been able to keep its core cast intact, and especially the loss of William Petersen in season 9 had a tangible effect on the show within that season and especially in the 28% drop in season 10. 2009-10 marked the first season ever that CSI was actually outrated by one of its spinoffs. However, the show managed to reverse its course of bad casting in 2011-12, as the Ted Danson/Elisabeth Shue pair helped the show withstand its first timeslot move in over a decade. CSI's first season on Wednesday amazingly saw its smallest year-to-year decline in six years, and the cancellation of CSI: NY means that CSI has officially outlived both of its very successful spin-offs.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Timeslot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	2000-01	Fri 9:00, Thu 9:00	6.70		4.4	9.3	detail
2	2001-02	Thursday 9:00	8.88	+33%	6.6	10.5	detail
3	2002-03		10.01	+13%	8.3	11.6	detail
4	2003-04		9.47	-5%	6.5	10.8	detail
5	2004-05		9.95	+5%	8.3	11.6	detail
6	2005-06		9.09	-9%	7.4	10.6	detail
7	2006-07		6.91	-24%	5.2	8.4	detail
8	2007-08		5.77	-17%	4.2	8.2	detail
9	2008-09		4.75	-18%	3.4	7.1	detail
10	2009-10		3.40	-28%	2.8	4.1	detail
11	2010-11		2.96	-13%	2.3	3.4	detail	C+
12	2011-12	Wednesday 10:00	2.72	-8%	2.3	3.4	detail	B
13	2012-13		2.30	-16%	1.9	2.6	detail	C
14	2013-14		1.90	-17%	1.6	2.1	detail	C
15	2014-15	Sunday 10:00	1.35	-29%	1.1	1.8	detail	C-

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now15	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
2	2001-02	206	megahit	3.47		153	244	181	225
3	2002-03	226	megahit	3.81	+10%	188	262	260	188
4	2003-04	234	megahit	3.93	+3%	160	267	239	217
5	2004-05	244	megahit	4.10	+4%	204	284	280	260
6	2005-06	224	megahit	3.77	-8%	182	261	251	204
7	2006-07	184	big hit	3.09	-18%	138	223	204	165
8	2007-08	174	big hit	2.93	-5%	127	248	248	148
9	2008-09	158	big hit	2.66	-9%	113	236	236	113
10	2009-10	121	solid	2.03	-24%	99	146	146	117
11	2010-11	116	solid	1.96	-4%	90	134	134	102
12	2011-12	115	solid	1.93	-1%	97	144	135	102
13	2012-13	109	solid	1.83	-5%	90	123	119	95
14	2013-14	101	solid	1.70	-7%	85	111	106	101
15	2014-15	80	marginal	1.35	-20%	65	107	83	107
AVERAGE (2001-15):		164	big hit
CAREER (2001-15):		2293

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