Schedules Plus, ABC Tuesday

Schedules Plus is another innovative application of the historical ratings statistic A18-49+. I hope this will be the ultimate resource for comparing the evolution of shows, networks and timeslots over time, complete with ratings numbers that make a fair adjustment for the collective decline. Right now this only includes programs aired in the fall. Much more about the process that went into this at the bottom.

ABC Tuesday, like ABC Friday, starts by chronicling the death of a family comedy night. In its place came the emergence of Dancing with the Stars' second night, along with an incredibly inconsistent cast of characters around it. As you might expect, all the discontinuity came because very little of this stuff worked. Only once in eleven years has this lineup hit league average in the fall, and that was when the 90-minute DWTS performance show inhabited the night.

ABC Tuesday

	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2001-02	Dharma and Greg	Spin City	NYPD Blue		Philly		91
	74	85	110		85
	80
2002-03	8 Simple Rules	According to Jim	Life with Bonnie	Less Than Perfect	NYPD Blue		96
	96	102	88	81	106
	99		85
2003-04	8 Simple Rules	I'm With Her	According to Jim	Less Than Perfect	NYPD Blue		93
	96	81	108	94	90
	88		101
2004-05	My Wife and Kids	George Lopez	According to Jim	Rodney	NYPD Blue		81
	64	71	94	86	84
	68		90
2005-06	According to Jim	Rodney	Commander in Chief		Boston Legal		76
	62	57	92		78
	60
2006-07	Dancing with the Stars Fall			Help Me Help You	Boston Legal		111
	151		151	66	74
			109
2007-08	Cavemen	Carpoolers	Dancing with the Stars Tue Fall		Boston Legal		97
	73	77	144		73
	75
2008-09	Opportunity Knocks		Dancing with the Stars Tue Fall		Eli Stone		81
	54		133		57
2009-10	Shark Tank		Dancing with the Stars Tue Fall		The Forgotten		79
	57		117		63
2010-11	No Ordinary Family		Dancing with the Stars Tue Fall		Detroit 1-8-7		94
	74		149		60
2011-12	Last Man Standing	Man Up!	Dancing with the Stars Tue Fall		Body of Proof		98
	102	78	130		74
	90
2012-13	Dancing with the Stars Tue Fall		Happy Endings	Apartment 23	Private Practice		76
	106		63	55	64
			59
2013-14	Agents of SHIELD		The Goldbergs	Trophy Wife	Lucky 7		85
	127		89	60	53
			74
2014-15	Selfie	Manhattan Love Story	Agents of SHIELD		Forever		73
	62	56	94		65
	59
Avg	85		106		73		88

2014-15 Update: Tuesday was one of ABC's few trouble spots in the fall, with Selfie and Manhattan in particular setting what would be a very easy bar for The Muppets and sophomore Fresh Off the Boat to clear. The network also saw Agents of SHIELD come down significantly from its front-loaded season one average, and newbie Forever didn't do much either. But SHIELD and Forever were big enough improvements on the horrible occupants in the last 90 minutes that the nightly decline wasn't too catastrophic.

Notable midseason replacements:

• ABC began 2001-02 with four comedies on Tuesday, but quickly yanked What About Joan? (70) and Bob Patterson (81), bringing back NYPD Blue in early November and letting veterans Dharma and Greg and Spin City play out the string.
• There are far too many to list on this night, but perhaps the most noteworthy was the final season of Lost (161) in 2009-10.
• Body of Proof made the fall sked in its season two, but the first (92) and third (65) seasons were both held for midseason.
• I put the brief Shark Tank run in the 2009-10 8/7c hole, but it actually only aired four episodes there. Then came the big opening numbers from alien drama V, which averaged a 136 in its four-episode mini-season before taking a four-month hiatus and returning to the 10/9c hour in the spring. It averaged a 99 for the full first season, then a 74 in its second and final season (this time in the 9/8c hour).

See here for more explanations/disclaimers about Schedules Plus.