A18-49+ Update: Originals vs. Repeats, Comedies vs. Dramas in 2014-15

Here's a look at the different types of programming in 2014-15. This post will combine the broad programming categories (originals, repeats, sports, specials, movies) as well as the sub-categories within the original series realm (comedies, dramas, reality, news).

Big Four Category Ratings

Year	Overall	Originals	Reruns	Movies	Sports	Specials
2001-02	98	100	81	76	152	100
2002-03	93	100	75	64	132	86
2003-04	94	100	75	66	159	90
2004-05	93	100	69	63	154	80
2005-06	92	100	65	54	146	80
2006-07	90	100	60	52	136	84
2007-08	90	100	55	53	152	80
2008-09	92	100	53	52	162	71
2009-10	95	100	50	47	193	101
2010-11	93	100	51	47	192	98
2011-12	97	100	50	45	223	101
2012-13	98	100	49	47	227	100
2013-14	103	100	47	49	250	113
2014-15	102	100	47	50	254	118

All the categories were even or up compared to the rate of original decline, but overall ratings still dropped a tick more than the originals league average. This is because the two strongest categories (sports and specials) were also down in real estate.

Big Four Category Real Estate

Year	Originals	Reruns	Movies	Sports	Specials
2001-02	58%	13%	14%	8%	7%
2002-03	63%	14%	13%	6%	5%
2003-04	61%	19%	11%	5%	4%
2004-05	63%	19%	8%	6%	5%
2005-06	62%	20%	8%	7%	3%
2006-07	63%	23%	5%	6%	3%
2007-08	61%	23%	5%	7%	3%
2008-09	65%	19%	4%	6%	6%
2009-10	62%	22%	4%	8%	4%
2010-11	64%	21%	4%	6%	4%
2011-12	66%	20%	2%	7%	4%
2012-13	64%	21%	2%	8%	5%
2013-14	62%	20%	2%	9%	6%
2014-15	66%	18%	3%	8%	6%

Despite the talk of timeslot sharing, there hasn't really been a significant upturn in original volume across the regular season since the start of the era. But was 2014-15 the beginning of that finally happening? The season didn't quite set a new high for original volume, as it was ever-so-slightly behind 2011-12 (65.7% to 66%). But this was still right at the high end historically, and it's noteworthy that ABC and CBS became the first and second networks in the whole 14-year era to program 70% originals. If not for Fox actually swinging in the other direction and programming one of its lightest original slates in the era (61%), this may have been a new record.

The decline in repeat volume was even more significant, as this was the outright lowest percentage of series repeats since 2002-03. And the 2002-03 numbers aren't apples-to-apples, since so much of that filler real estate was devoted to movies back then. If repeats/movies are combined into a single "cheap filler" category, it'd be the lowest total for that category in the era.

Big Four Original Sub-Category Ratings

Year	Drama	Sitcom	Reality	News
2001-02	104	122	98	69
2002-03	97	116	122	64
2003-04	96	101	141	66
2004-05	113	83	116	61
2005-06	111	77	118	61
2006-07	107	84	111	61
2007-08	101	97	111	63
2008-09	100	102	116	62
2009-10	99	101	117	61
2010-11	94	110	121	61
2011-12	94	117	115	59
2012-13	94	103	120	65
2013-14	94	102	118	71
2014-15	95	107	120	70

Once again, the individual categories almost all went up, yet still average out to 100 because the two below-average categories (dramas and news) increased drastically in real estate.
 

Big Four Original Sub-Category Real Estate

Year	Drama	Sitcom	Reality	News
2001-02	44%	21%	17%	19%
2002-03	43%	19%	21%	18%
2003-04	41%	20%	20%	19%
2004-05	41%	16%	26%	17%
2005-06	45%	16%	24%	14%
2006-07	48%	11%	29%	12%
2007-08	40%	9%	38%	12%
2008-09	49%	11%	28%	12%
2009-10	45%	13%	30%	12%
2010-11	43%	14%	30%	13%
2011-12	41%	16%	30%	12%
2012-13	40%	19%	29%	12%
2013-14	44%	20%	27%	9%
2014-15	50%	15%	24%	11%

The explosion of multiple veteran comedies in 2011-12 caused the sitcom volume to return to early aughts levels for a couple years. But some disappointing development since then means we seem to be past those days, as the 15% sitcoms was a drastic and sudden step downward. Fox killed a comedy hour (Tuesday 8/7c), CBS killed a comedy hour (Monday 9/8c), and NBC aired just one hour on its vaunted Thursday night (and not even for the full season). Another notable here is the somewhat drastic decline in unscripted programming over the last couple years. Part of this is the cancellation of The X Factor and reduced real estate for stuff like American Idol, Dancing with the Stars and The Biggest Loser, and another part is that it seems like very little new unscripted product is getting tried in the regular season these days.

The winner, then, was dramas. Half of the original non-sports series real estate in 2014-15 went to dramas, a new record for the A18-49+ era. The form doesn't seem as healthy as it did the last time the networks went drama-crazy in the late aughts, but it seems drama is the way the development wind has been blowing in the last couple years.

Here's the now updated A18-49+ programming categories post.

Here's the now updated A18-49+ original sub-categories post.