Schedules Plus, CW Friday

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.

When the CW first came together, Friday wasn't much of a problem; they simply threw on the solid-rated WWE's Smackdown! franchise, which UPN had moved to Friday starting in 2005. The CW parted with that franchise two years later, and it may have been a good financial decision, but from a ratings standpoint the night has (almost) never been the same since. Smallville and Supernatural both cycled through the night for a couple years and actually made Friday one of the network's best nights (especially the year they aired together), but otherwise Friday has been a dumping ground for repeats and low-priority stuff.

WB Friday

	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	Avg
2001-02	Sabrina the Teenage Witch	Maybe It's Me	Reba	Raising Dad	30
	29	25	38	28
	27		33
2002-03	What I Like About You	Sabrina the Teenage Witch	Reba	Greetings from Tuscon	32
	29	29	40	29
	29		34
2003-04	Reba	Like Family	Grounded for Life	The Andersons	31
	38	28	31	27
	33		29
2004-05	What I Like About You	Grounded for Life	Reba	(repeats)	32
	28	30	44	26
	29		35
2005-06	What I Like About You	Twins	Reba	Living with Fran	29
	26	29	34	26
	28		30

UPN Friday

	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	Avg
2001-02	(movies)				24
	24		24
2002-03	(movies)				17
	17		17
2003-04	(movies)				19
	19		19
2004-05	Enterprise		(repeats)		25
	32		18
2005-06	Friday Night Smackdown!				36
	36		36

CW Friday

	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	Avg
2006-07	Friday Night Smackdown!				39
	39		39
2007-08	Friday Night Smackdown!				42
	42		42
2008-09	Everybody Hates Chris	The Game	America's Next Top Model Fall (R)		21
	21	25	18
	23
2009-10	Smallville		America's Next Top Model Fall (R)		27
	36		18
2010-11	Smallville		Supernatural		40
	42		39
2011-12	Nikita		Supernatural		26
	21		31
2012-13	Nikita		America's Next Top Model Fall		20
	16		24
2013-14	The Carrie Diaries		America's Next Top Model Fall		20
	16		23
2014-15	Whose Line Is It Anyway?		America's Next Top Model Fall		27
	32		22
Avg	30		28		29

2014-15 Update: The real interest on the CW Friday in 2014-15 was the winter run of Hart of Dixie (24), which somehow was actually up in raw numbers from the previous mostly-Monday season. They're gonna hope for a similar miracle from CBS Studios survivor Reign, which averaged just a 23 in the post-Vampire Diaries slot last year.

See here for more explanations/disclaimers about Schedules Plus.