Schedules Plus, ABC Wednesday

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 Wednesday has centered around one signature show in recent years, but those shows have been very different. At the start of the A18-49+ era, reality series The Bachelor was in charge. Then came breakout drama Lost in 2004. And after a brief stop-off with Private Practice, Wednesday then became a comedy-centric night, led by two-time megahit Modern Family.

ABC Wednesday

	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2001-02	My Wife and Kids	According to Jim	The Drew Carey Show	Whose Line Is It Anyway?	20/20		95
	104	100	97	96	86
	102		97
2002-03	My Wife and Kids	George Lopez	The Bachelor Fall		MDs		113
	101	95	178		64
	98
2003-04	My Wife and Kids	It's All Relative	The Bachelor Fall		Karen Sisco		105
	91	84	159		70
	88
2004-05	Lost		The Bachelor Fall		Wife Swap		120
	169		91		101
2005-06	George Lopez	Freddie	Lost		Invasion		118
	62	68	195		94
	65
2006-07	Dancing with the Stars Tue Fall		Lost		The Nine		130
	128		185		78
2007-08	Pushing Daisies		Private Practice		Dirty Sexy Money		104
	97		127		88
2008-09	Pushing Daisies		Private Practice		Dirty Sexy Money		70
	59		87		64
2009-10	Hank	The Middle	Modern Family	Cougar Town	Eastwick		83
	58	81	134	104	59
	69		119
2010-11	The Middle	Better with You	Modern Family	Cougar Town	The Whole Truth		91
	96	80	174	102	48
	88		138
2011-12	The Middle	Suburgatory	Modern Family	Happy Endings	Revenge		126
	110	110	214	115	104
	110		164
2012-13	The Middle	The Neighbors	Modern Family	Suburgatory	Nashville		113
	108	88	201	101	89
	98		151
2013-14	The Middle	Back in the Game	Modern Family	Super Fun Night	Nashville		107
	109	93	188	94	78
	101		141
2014-15	The Middle	The Goldbergs	Modern Family	Black-ish	Nashville		122
	119	130	190	136	80
	124		163
Avg	100		143		79		107

2014-15 Update: ABC put four family comedies together, and the result was one of the season's biggest ratings bonanzas. The Goldbergs and Black-ish each improved their own timeslots by 40%ish and were able to drag past-their-prime lead-outs Modern Family and Nashville to minor growth as well. The best trend among the incumbents actually belonged to lead-off comedy The Middle, which was up to a historical-adjusted series high in its sixth season. These five will stay together in 2015-16, though Nashville is supposed to make room for Secrets and Lies at midseason.

Notable midseason replacements:

• The only things that really worked after The Bachelor in the early aughts were unscripted: Celebrity Mole (124 in 2003, 99 in 2004) and Extreme Makeover (113 in spring 2003, then 105 for its return in spring 2004).
• After season three of Lost, the arrangement to end the show after season six meant shorter seasons, and ABC held them for midseason consecutive runs. Only one of those seasons went on Wednesday; that was 2008-09's season five (150), which took over after the fall 2007 all-newbies lineup blew up in season two. It was followed by Thursday transplant Life on Mars (62) and preceded by comedies Scrubs (72) and Better Off Ted (59).
• The post-Modern Family midseason replacements: 2010-11's Mr. Sunshine (yay.) (86), 2011-12's Apartment 23 (99), 2012-13's How to Live (101) and 2013-14's Mixology (75). Season one of Happy Endings (70) in 2010-11 mostly aired in the 10:00 hour.

See here for more explanations/disclaimers about Schedules Plus.