The War of 18-49, The Glades

THE GLADES (A&E)

Scheduling history: A&E aired The Glades on Sunday at 10:00 for its first two seasons, then moved it to 9:00 in season three to launch newbie Longmire. The fourth and final season saw the Glades/Longmire pair head out of the crowded Sunday fray to Monday.

See (who saw) how it all began: The Glades launched on July 11, 2010 with 3.55 million viewers and a 0.9 adults 18-49 rating. It dropped in each of the next two weeks, first to 3.35m/0.8, then to 2.92m/0.7, but it pretty much stabilized in that 0.7 to 0.8 range for most of the rest of season one.

The best of times: The Glades had its best raw numbers average in season one, typically hanging a 0.7 or 0.8, and it got as high as a 1.0 demo on 8/22/10. However, one might argue its most valuable season was the third, when it had its highest A18-49+, grew by a hundredth year-to-year and moved to 9:00 to help launch newbie Longmire.

The worst of times: Most of The Glades' worst numbers came in the fourth and final season after a move to Monday night, when it had to tangle with one of the most potent crime procedurals on cable (TNT's Major Crimes). It got a 0.6 rating most weeks in season four, with the occasional 0.5 or 0.7, before a big spike to a 0.9 for the finale on 8/26/13. It wasn't actually confirmed it would be the series finale at the time, so some of the spike might have resulted from Major Crimes' season being over by then.

Then vs. now: Cable has many shows like The Glades, shows that blazed the trail into scripted programming for their networks. While it wasn't the first A&E drama, and it was never a truly breakthrough performer, it at least put the network's scripted presence on the map, and there's very little doubt it leaves its network in better shape than it found it. Though the network's still defined by unscripted programs like Duck Dynasty, it's also got two solid dramas on the roster going forward: Longmire and Bates Motel.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Timeslot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	Summer 2010	Sunday 10:00	0.77		0.6	1.0
2	Summer 2011		0.72	-7%	0.6	0.9
3	Summer 2012	Sunday 9:00	0.73	+1%	0.5	0.9
4	Summer 2013	Monday 9:00	0.60	-17%	0.5	0.9

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now15	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	Summer 2010	27				21	36	32	21
2	Summer 2011	28				24	35	35	28
3	Summer 2012	31				22	37	37	29
4	Summer 2013	29				21	41	34	41

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