| Timeslot | Lo | Avg | Hi | y2y | A18-49+ | Label | y2y | Results |
| Sunday 8:00 | 0.6 | 0.96 | 1.4 | -11% | 51 | marginal(sum) | -1% | detail |
Rating the Ratings: Did one of ABC's oldest summer staples save itself for one more year? It took basically a league average drop from its weak ratings last year, which has it squarely on the bubble once more. But something worth noting in analyzing the ratings average is that ABC kinda threw it under the bus. Its low-1's from early in the summer were surprisingly respectable; as late as July 20, it was actually up year-to-year in raw numbers. But it ended up airing three times in the 7:00 hour and another episode on the most viewing-depressed night of Labor Day weekend. If they had to air it at 7:00 so often, the least they could've done was put it there when ABC had the NBA playoffs directly leading in, but it didn't happen. So you can make a real argument that it was "truly" down well less than average. But I still won't go higher than my usual "league average drop" grade because the ratings are still pretty bad. Grade: B-.
Here's the now updated War of 18-49 post for Wipeout.
5 comments:
Wipeout is the best example of why I really like the summer-specific labels. Without them, it's a marginal/flop show so it becomes confounding why ABC would keep renewing it. Now there's an actual trajectory and it more accurately reflects when Wipeout was a big deal for ABC.
As for this specific season, I do think its results should convince ABC to pick it up again. They found a way to cut costs by essentially using the same obstacle courses all season with minimal variations, and they stopped saying the winner's prize was $50,000.00 which makes me think they lowered it (though I could be wrong here). And they did the show a disservice with the bad 7:00 start times; why America's Funniest Home Videos got the NBA playoffs and World Cup lead-in instead of Wipeout or Rising Star I'll never know.
I also maintain that a Wipeout/Whodunnit pairing this season would have been a good one.
Mondays at the early part of this season are absolutely insane thanks to The Big Bang Theory's temporary residency, the introduction of Gotham & Scorpion, The Voice a borderline megahit, and Dancing with the Stars continue to hold strong. Clearly that won't sustain going forward but it's very impressive.
Meanwhile on Thursdays, ABC's dominance in originals is canceled out by NBC & Fox's combined weakness? Very impressive for TGIT. Again, something that won't carry through for the rest of the season since the night's average should grow with CBS getting back in the game and NBC adding The Blacklist in.
And Sunday's original average at the outset feels pretty wrapped up in how much stronger ABC came back in general and Once Upon a Time's growth specifically. Now if Sunday can follow the same trajectory as last season that'd be very promising.
The worst part about 7:00 o'clock airings were that they were preempting a solid repeater (AFV almost always around a .9) for something that not only got hurt by it, but did worse than the repeater. The 1.4 it had on World Cup day shows it can still do very well with a decent lead in (1.5)
Wipeout is still unrenewed correct? I mean they renewed the Taste and Great Christmas Light Fight with similar ratings and are using them as regular season players. Honestly, Winter Wipeout would probably do as well as The Taste
Mondays have been clearly the stronger night but a lot of that is about to change sans Big Bang and with the weaker portion of the voice.
Still, I would argue that Mondays are on another level from the other shows. So far, it's been:
- Mondays: 2.26
- Tuesdays (1.79), Wednesdays (1.68), Thursday (1.61) an Sundays (1.74). I would group them all together for the time being
- Fridays (1.03)
So Mondays really are on another level from the other nights I would say. I think it's because nobody, not even the CW, is truly incompetent, and FOX is even strong (which is very rare on these nights).
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