Spotted Ratings, Weekend Roundup 8/22-8/24/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• The series finale of True Blood (2.1) was only up 14% from last week and didn't even set a new season high. Though it may have been an underwhelming final season, it still goes out as easily the top drama of the summer. More importantly for HBO going forward, this bounce helped vault rookie The Leftovers (0.9) to a new high. In other finale news, TNT's The Last Ship (1.0) was exactly even week-to-week, wrapping up a first season that had nearly the exact same rating every week.

• On Saturday, the return of Doctor Who (0.85) and the introduction of a new Doctor exploded for BBC America, way up from the 0.6 that began the last season in March 2013. But new lead-out Intruders (0.23) retained very little of that audience. Fox's second and final Saturday Glee repeat (0.2) once again failed to hit a 0.1, though it was very close (since the 9:30 half-hour averaged 0.1).

• MTV ruled Sunday with the Video Music Awards (4.2), though they were down a full point from last year (and merely tied Monday's Emmys). Despite that, ABC's finale of Rising Star (1.0) was up two tenths to the show's best rating in over a month. I wouldn't think this would be enough for renewal, but I guess we'll see. And CBS saw a big bounce for Big Brother (2.5), which not only set a new season high but tied last season's high as well. (One of the many times it hit 2.5 last season was on this night 52 weeks ago.)

• With all the national NFL preseason games in the books, we can pretty confidently say it was not a good preseason for the league. Four of the five games were steeply behind the corresponding games last year, including all three this weekend.

SUNDAY 8/24/14 FULL TABLE:

Info		Show						Timeslot		True
	A18-49	Skew	Last		LeLa	Rank	y2y	TLa	Ty2y
Wipeout	0.8	32%	-11%	-0.1	n/a	9/10	-33%	-14%	-9%	1.0
Rising Star	1.0	36%	+25%	+0.2	-0.1	5/10	n/a	+25%	+5%	1.3
Castle (R)	0.6	22%						-14%	+0%	0.9
							ABC:	-4%	-3%
60 Minutes (R)	1.2	18%						+41%	+9%	1.6
Big Brother Sun	2.5	44%	+14%	+0.3	+0.4	1/9	+0%	+14%	+2%	3.3
Unforgettable	0.9	18%	+13%	+0.1	+0.3	3/8	-18%	+13%	-22%	1.3
Reckless	0.5	16%	+0%	+0.0	+0.1	6/8	n/a	-9%	-38%	0.7
							CBS:	+16%	-7%
Dateline Sun (S)	0.9	21%	+0%	+0.0	n/a	1/2	n/a	+64%	+29%	1.2
NFL Preseason Football	2.1	38%	+110%	+1.1	n/a	2/5	-22%	+168%	-21%	2.7
							NBC:	+148%	-27%
NFL Overrun	2.0	41%	n/a	n/a	n/a	1/1	-81%	+300%	+82%	2.8
The Simpsons (R)	1.0	53%						+11%	-9%	1.2
The Simpsons (R)	1.0	51%						-44%	-29%	1.4
Bob's Burgers (R)	0.8	55%						-62%	-20%	1.1
Family Guy (R)	1.1	61%						-50%	-8%	1.5
Bob's Burgers (R)	1.0	63%						-55%	-23%	1.2
							Fox:	-29%	-3%
							Big4:	+17%	-14%
True Blood	2.09	66%	+14%	+0.25		2/10	-9%
The Strain	1.06	55%	+5%	+0.05		3/7	n/a
The Last Ship	1.01	29%	+0%	+0.00		8/10	n/a
The Leftovers	0.94	64%	+18%	+0.14		1/9	n/a
Falling Skies	0.70	35%	+8%	+0.05		6/10	-44%
Teen Wolf	0.68	60%	+5%	+0.03		7/10	-18%
Ray Donovan	0.47	44%	-2%	-0.01		4/7	-13%
Witches of East End	0.46	57%	-2%	-0.01		5/7	-11%
Masters of Sex	0.28	42%	+12%	+0.03		3/7	-19%
The Lottery	0.18	37%	-18%	-0.04		6/6	n/a
Manhattan	0.07	24%	-13%	-0.01		4/5	n/a

FRIDAY 8/22/14 FULL TABLE:

Info		Show						Timeslot		True
	A18-49	Skew	Last		LeLa	Rank	y2y	TLa	Ty2y
Last Man Standing (R)	0.6	22%						-14%	+0%	1.0
Last Man Standing (R)	0.7	25%						-13%	+40%	1.2
Shark Tank (R)	1.0	31%						+5%	+5%	1.7
20/20 (S)	0.7	24%	-30%	-0.3	+0.1	14/14	-22%	-30%	-22%	1.1
							ABC:	-13%	-2%
NFL Preseason Football	1.5	35%	-29%	-0.6	n/a	3/3	-29%	+131%	-35%	2.4
							CBS:	+131%	-35%
Running Wild (R)	0.4	24%						-43%	-38%	0.7
Dateline Fri (S)	1.1	26%	+10%	+0.1	-0.1	6/10	n/a	-2%	+16%	1.8
							NBC:	-12%	+2%
MasterChef (R)	0.6	42%						+20%	-14%	1.0
Bones (R)	0.5	30%						+0%	+67%	0.9
							Fox:	+10%	+10%
Masters of Illusion	0.4	37%	+100%	+0.2	n/a	1/4	n/a	+100%	+100%	0.7
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R)	0.3	40%						+50%	+50%	0.4
America's Next Top Model (R)	0.2	46%						-20%	+0%	0.3
							CW:	+22%	+38%
							Big5:	+24%	-15%

SATURDAY 8/23/14 FULL TABLE:

Info		Show						Timeslot		True
	A18-49	Skew	Last		LeLa	Rank	y2y	TLa	Ty2y
NASCAR	1.2	30%	-25%	-0.4	n/a	6/6	-25%	+106%	-27%	1.9
							ABC:	+106%	-27%
NFL Preseason Football	1.0	28%	-33%	-0.5	n/a	4/4	-17%	+107%	-15%	1.6
							CBS:	+107%	-15%
P&G Gymnastics Championships	0.4	25%	n/a	n/a	n/a	1/1	-33%	-47%	+0%	0.6
Law and Order: SVU (R)	0.5	26%						+0%	+43%	0.9
							NBC:	-35%	+13%
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (R)	0.3	38%						+0%	-25%	0.5
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (R)	0.2	32%						-33%	-60%	0.5
Glee (R)	0.2	42%						+0%	-56%	0.5
							Fox:	-10%	-50%
							Big4:	+45%	-22%

KEY (click to expand)

A18-49 - Adults 18-49 rating. Percentage of US TV-owning adults 18-49 watching the program.
Skew - Percentage of adults 18-49 within the show's total viewership.
Last - A18-49 difference (percent and numerical) from the show's previous episode.
LeLa - A18-49 difference between the show's lead-in and its lead-in for the previous episode.
Rank - The A18-49 rating's rank among the show's episodes so far this season.
y2y - Percent difference between A18-49 and the show's rating a year ago.
TLa - Percent difference between A18-49 and the network's rating in the timeslot one week ago.
Ty2y - Percent difference between A18-49 and the network's rating in the timeslot one year ago.
True - A metric that adjusts the A18-49 rating for overall viewing levels, competition and lead-in. PRELIMINARY CALCULATION. For finals, see SpotVault.

(R) - Repeat.

Much more detail on these numbers at the New Daily Spotted Ratings page.

More Spotted Ratings in the Index.