The War of 18-49, Wipeout

WIPEOUT (ABC)

Scheduling history: ABC premiered Wipeout on Tuesday in summer 2008 and has shuffled it around quite a bit since. Season two aired on Wednesdays, and then the next four summer seasons aired on some combination of Tuesday and Thursday. The long-troubled Thursday 8/7c hour became Wipeout's home during its two regular season runs. In season seven, it got its first crack at Sunday.

See (who saw) how it all began: For much of the middle part of the 2000s, ABC was a bit of a disaster area during the summer, but things turned around with the resurrection of The Bachelorette and, perhaps even more importantly, the premiere of Wipeout. Wipeout began on 6/24/08 with 9.97 million viewers and a 3.7/12 demo. It dropped just one tenth in week two, then in week three it rose to a 4.0 demo for the first and only time in series history.

The best of times: The strongest sustained run for Wipeout was probably the first half of season 1, with the first five episodes of the series producing four of the series' six demos of 3.5 or higher. The high point was the show's third week on the air, when it produced 10.60 million viewers and a 4.0/13 in adults 18-49. It looked for the next couple years like the show may never rival those numbers again, but the show's regular season debut in 2011 produced shockingly high initial numbers, starting with a 3.8 and 3.7 demo in its first two weeks. But then...

The worst of times: ...American Idol entered the Thursday mix. Idol's first week back saw Wipeout drop from 3.7 to 2.6, and within about a month after that Wipeout was producing some of its worst numbers ever. The summer runs have also gotten quite weak since Wipeout took on the regular season. Summer 2012 saw the show settle at a low-1's level down the stretch, and most of the summer 2013 run remained mired in the low-1's. It was usually sub-1 in the second half of season seven, including a mere 0.6 over Labor Day weekend on 8/31/14.

Then vs. now: When looking at any season of Wipeout ratings, what sticks out is how people seem to tire of it within every season. The winter/spring run in 2011 was the most pronounced example (see the drop from 3.8 to 1.4), but almost every season takes an abnormally big drop from beginning to end. But the fascinating thing is that each time a new season starts, a lot of the interest is rekindled. Again, the winter premiere is the most pronounced example, as the show suddenly hit a 3.8 demo after having not posted those kinds of numbers in about 2.5 years. The one exception was in summer 2011, when Wipeout never really bounced back at all, perhaps because its previous run had ended so recently. ABC seemed to learn that lesson, as the summer 2012 Wipeout season came in off of a longer hiatus, and it was indeed up a bit at the beginning. But that interest fizzled as quickly as it has in most Wipeout seasons, leaving the show at lowest-ever levels. It maintained those low-1's for most of its sixth season and then took a league average drop in season seven, leaving its fate uncertain as of this writing.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Timeslot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	Summer 2008	Tuesday 8:00	3.11		2.0	4.0	detail
2	Summer 2009	Wednesday 8:00	2.66	-14%	1.8	3.3	detail
3	Summer 2010	Tue 8:00, Thu 8:00	2.77	+4%	2.4	3.1	detail
4	Summer 2011		1.94	-30%	1.4	2.4	detail	D
5	Summer 2012	Thu 9:00, Thu 8:00	1.55	-20%	1.1	2.2	detail	D+
6	Summer 2013	Thursday 8:00	1.08	-30%	0.9	1.3	detail	D-
7	Summer 2014	Sunday 8:00	0.96	-11%	0.6	1.4	detail	B-

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	Summer 2008	95	hit(sum)	1.79		61	122	113	61
2	Summer 2009	89	solid(sum)	1.68	-6%	60	111	111	70
3	Summer 2010	99	hit(sum)	1.87	+11%	86	111	111	93
4	Summer 2011	77	solid(sum)	1.45	-22%	55	95	67	91
5	Summer 2012	66	marginal(sum)	1.24	-15%	47	93	85	51
6	Summer 2013	51	marginal(sum)	0.97	-22%	43	62	62	43
7	Summer 2014	51	marginal(sum)	0.96	-1%	32	74	58	48
AVERAGE:		75	solid(sum)

Winter Wipeout adults 18-49 ratings by season:

Seas	Year	Timeslot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	2010-11	Thursday 8:00	2.29		1.4	3.8	detail
2	2011-12		1.86	-19%	1.5	2.7	detail	D+

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	2010-11	91	marginal	1.71		55	150	150	67
2	2011-12	79	marginal	1.48	-13%	63	114	80	63
AVERAGE:		85	marginal

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