The War of 18-49, The Secret Life of the American Teenager

THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER (ABC FAMILY)

Scheduling history: Aside from the first chunk of episodes in summer 2008, Secret Life aired its whole run on Mondays at 8:00.

See (who saw) how it all began: From day one, Secret Life looked like a game-changer for ABC Family. It premiered on July 1, 2008 with 2.82 million viewers and a 0.9 demo rating. The week two numbers were almost identical (2.81m and a 0.9), then it dropped a bit in week three. Then in week four began the show's meteoric rise. It hit a 1.2 demo in week four, a 1.4 demo in week five, and got as high as a 1.8 for the season finale on 9/9/08.

The best of times: Though Secret Life appeared to be on the verge of legitimate breakout status at the end of its first run in summer 2008, that 1.8 demo on 9/9/08 would instead remain a series high, and Secret Life just settled down at basically the same exact demo level (right around a 1.2) for most of the next three seasons, only noticeably dipping for its spring 2011 run.

The worst of times: As impressive as Secret Life was in basically getting the same exact solid ratings for over three years, it was all over starting in 2012. The spring run began in reasonable enough fashion with 2.51 million viewers and a 1.1 demo on March 26, but it quickly collapsed to a 0.8 the next week and would stay around the 0.7/0.8 vicinity until May, when it took another huge step down into the 0.5/0.6 vicinity. The final run in spring 2013 dropped into the 0.4/0.5 range before getting back to a 0.8 for the finale.

Then vs. now: When Secret Life first came on the scene, the "hits" on ABC Family were the likes of Kyle XY and Wildfire, and they usually only pulled like a 0.5 or so at that time. So suffice to say this was one of those shows that singlehandedly changed the game for its network. For awhile it was really on an island, as ABC Family couldn't find anything to perform in the Secret Life stratosphere until Pretty Little Liars debuted two years later, and it took until about 2012 for PLL to emerge as the clearly stronger option over Secret Life. Its audience vanished to an alarmingly fast degree over its last two seasons, but it leaves its network in much better shape than it found it.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Timeslot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1A	Summer 2008	Tuesday 8:00	1.21		0.8	1.8
1B	Winter 2009	Monday 8:00	1.22		1.0	1.5
2A	Summer 2009		1.26	+4%	1.0	1.6
2B	Winter 2010		1.14	-6%	1.0	1.6
3A	Summer 2010		1.19	-6%	1.1	1.3
3B	Spring 2011		0.91	-20%	0.8	1.3
4A	Summer 2011		1.14	-3%	0.6	1.5
4B	Spring 2012		0.71	-22%	0.5	1.1
5A	Summer 2012		0.65	-43%	0.5	0.8
5B	Spring 2013		0.49	-31%	0.4	0.8

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now15	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1A	Summer 2008	37				24	54	27	54
1B	Winter 2009	41				33	50	47	50
2A	Summer 2009	42				33	53	53	47
2B	Winter 2010	41				36	57	57	39
3A	Summer 2010	42				39	46	46	46
3B	Spring 2011	36				31	51	51	35
4A	Summer 2011	45				24	59	59	55
4B	Spring 2012	30				22	45	45	25
5A	Summer 2012	28				20	34	32	31
5B	Spring 2013	23				17	37	29	37

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