As of the WB/UPN merge, both networks had a reasonably successful Monday lineup; the WB had family dramas 7th Heaven and Everwood, while UPN had a two-hour block of African-American sitcoms. The new CW initially went with the WB approach but quickly audibled into the UPN one. Then in 2008, they set out on their own direction: Dawn Ostroff's infamous teen soaps. While it's not remembered too fondly nowadays, the inaugural lineup in 2008-09 was actually quite successful. But after five years of fairly rapid decline, Monday is now the CW's only major problem weeknight.
WB Monday
8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | Avg | |
2001-02 | 7th Heaven | Angel | 61 | ||
71 | 51 | ||||
2002-03 | 7th Heaven | Everwood | 63 | ||
71 | 54 | ||||
2003-04 | 7th Heaven | Everwood | 53 | ||
59 | 47 | ||||
2004-05 | 7th Heaven | Everwood | 50 | ||
55 | 44 | ||||
2005-06 | 7th Heaven | Just Legal | 38 | ||
52 | 25 |
UPN Monday
8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | Avg | |
2001-02 | The Hughleys | One on One | The Parkers | Girlfriends | 41 |
35 | 40 | 43 | 45 | ||
38 | 44 | ||||
2002-03 | One On One | The Parkers | Girlfriends | Half and Half | 39 |
40 | 36 | 43 | 38 | ||
38 | 41 | ||||
2003-04 | The Parkers | Eve | Girlfriends | Half and Half | 40 |
37 | 41 | 44 | 40 | ||
39 | 42 | ||||
2004-05 | One On One | Half and Half | Girlfriends | Second Time Around | 36 |
33 | 37 | 41 | 33 | ||
35 | 37 | ||||
2005-06 | One On One | All of Us | Girlfriends | Half and Half | 36 |
30 | 35 | 41 | 36 | ||
33 | 38 |
CW Monday
8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | Avg | |||
2006-07 | Everybody Hates Chris | All of Us | Girlfriends | The Game | 31 | ||
31 | 30 | 33 | 31 | ||||
31 | 32 | ||||||
2007-08 | Everybody Hates Chris | Aliens in America | Girlfriends | The Game | 29 | ||
30 | 23 | 29 | 36 | ||||
26 | 33 | ||||||
2008-09 | Gossip Girl | One Tree Hill | 47 | ||||
46 | 47 | ||||||
2009-10 | One Tree Hill | Gossip Girl | 39 | ||||
39 | 39 | ||||||
2010-11 | 90210 | Gossip Girl | 34 | ||||
34 | 34 | ||||||
2011-12 | Gossip Girl | Hart of Dixie | 26 | ||||
25 | 27 | ||||||
2012-13 | 90210 | Gossip Girl | 19 | ||||
18 | 21 | ||||||
2013-14 | Hart of Dixie | Beauty and the Beast | 19 | ||||
21 | 16 | ||||||
2014-15 | The Originals | Jane the Virgin | 31 | ||||
34 | 29 | ||||||
Avg | 31 | 31 | 31 |
2014-15 Update: Though there was a much flashier night in the CW's 2014-15 resurgence, don't discount the Monday improvement, as the network finally had enough depth to turn its Surrender Night into something in line with the CW's historical Monday average. The Originals was a massive improvement, even if down a lot from its season one ratings on Tuesday. And newbie Jane the Virgin did surprisingly OK at 9/8c. But the Monday respectability will be put to the test this fall as The Originals departs to try to help patch up flailing Thursday. That makes the new Monday (with former Showtime pilot Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) seemingly more compatible but also more of a wild card.
Notable midseason replacements:
As noted on the Sunday post, the CW began with 7th Heaven and Runaway but swapped that lineup over to Sunday after just two weeks, returning the UPN sitcoms to Monday.
See here for more explanations/disclaimers about Schedules Plus.