Schedules Plus, CW Monday

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.

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.