The Breakdown: NBC Thursday in 2015-16 (Heroes Reborn, The Blacklist, Shades of Blue and more!)

It's time for a journey through the NBC Thursday schedule in 2015-16...


fall

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2014-15	The Biggest Loser		The Biggest Loser	Bad Judge	A to Z	Parenthood		Parenthood	68
	2014-15	74		74	63	51	74			74	68
	2014-15										74	74	63	51	74	74	68
	2014-15			74	74	57				57	74	74	68
2015-16	Heroes Reborn		Heroes Reborn	The Blacklist		The Blacklist	The Player		The Player	84 (+23%)
	2015-16	93 (+25%)		92.6823952487332	103 (+81%)		103 (+81%)	57 (-23%)			57 (-23%)	84.2913965019343
VsAvg	-20%		-0.196292393595406	-20%		-0.199650605671357	-57%		-0.565851842255686	-33%
Rank	7/15		7/15	11/15		11/15	12/15		12/15	11/15

The revival of Heroes was front-loaded and fell to bubble levels by season's end, but it was still a definite improvement on most of what NBC has been airing on Thursday since The Office. And a stable fall for The Blacklist got a chance to run up some huge gains relative to last year's dud comedies Bad Judge and A to Z. The gains promptly ended at 10/9c with weak newbie The Player.

winter

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2014-15	The Biggest Loser		The Biggest Loser	The Blacklist		The Blacklist	Allegiance		Allegiance	79
	2014-15	72		72	113		113	51			51	79
2015-16	You, Me and the Apocalypse		You, Me and the Apocalypse	The Blacklist		The Blacklist	Shades of Blue		Shades of Blue	78 (-1%)
	2015-16	50 (-31%)		50.0190704516973	102 (-10%)		102 (-10%)	83 (+62%)			83 (+62%)	78.4040756279627
VsAvg	-54%		-0.544332034532014	-23%		-0.234997933823599	-32%		-0.321043444734364	-36%
Rank	15/15		15/15	12/15		12/15	8/15		8/15	13/15

The Blacklist continued to hold up well early in the winter, as You, Me and the Apocalypse wasn't too big of a problem at least at the start, and Shades of Blue brought some real interest to the 10/9c hour. Most of Apocalypse's true megabomb results came after Blacklist embarked on a lengthy hiatus. And that hiatus made Shades of Blue's continued 1.0+ results look all the better.

spring

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2014-15	Dateline		Dateline Wed	The Blacklist		The Blacklist	Dateline		Dateline Wed	72
	2014-15	65		65	92		92	57			57	72
2015-16	Strong		Strong	The Blacklist		The Blacklist	Game of Silence		Game of Silence	59 (-17%)
	2015-16	47 (-28%)		47.1993679507437	87 (-5%)		87 (-5%)	44 (-24%)			44 (-24%)	59.418078788209
VsAvg	-54%		-0.537716527617005	-30%		-0.296763543914238	-63%		-0.632357646405528	-48%
Rank	15/15		15/15	11/15		11/15	14/15		14/15	14/15

Blacklist had at least one respectable companion in the first two sections of the season, but not so much in spring when it was joined by Strong and Game of Silence. Despite huge flops in both surrounding hours, it was down just a bit in Plus for the spring episodes.

The Shows

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
Heroes Reborn	1.0	1.27	2.0		87	marginal		detail
You, Me and the Apocalypse	0.5	0.69	1.2		47	flop		detail
Strong	0.6	0.73	0.9		50	flop		detail
The Blacklist	1.2	1.43	1.8	-31%	98	marginal	-20%	detail
The Player	0.7	0.83	1.2		57	flop		detail
Shades of Blue	1.0	1.17	1.8		80	marginal		detail
Game of Silence	0.5	0.71	1.4		49	flop		detail

Heroes Reborn: It beat the last season of the original series in Plus, which goes down as a good result considering how fast that show was decaying. But the network had enough other successes this season that I agree with their decision to not roll the dice again with this limited series.

You, Me and the Apocalypse: This year's textbook of example of "the media isn't good at interpreting series premiere ratings." Felt like we were gearing up for a five-year run based on all the lauds that 1.2 got!

Strong: Not strong.

The Blacklist: This show set a high standard on Monday after The Voice, and I think the general sense is that it has not lived up to that billing on Thursday. But getting league average-ish ratings essentially on an island should not be discounted. The massively DVRed series is heading for 10/9c, which will probably further hurt its ability to get ratings counted within the Same Day window. Grade: C+.

The Player: Not a player.

Shades of Blue: Nice work with a ton of repeat lead-ins in the second half of the season. Season two is headed for Sunday at midseason. If nothing else, Chicago Justice should at least be a consistently original lead-in?

Game of Silence: Silent.

The names in this last table link to the shows' War of 18-49 pages. Links with an asterisk(*) have been updated with the new info. Updates to younger shows will come later in the summer.

Check back tomorrow for this day's new Schedules Plus! Till then, you can refer to the old version.