The Breakdown: Fox Thursday in 2015-16 (Bones, Sleepy Hollow, American Idol, American Grit)

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


fall

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	Avg
2014-15	Bones		Bones	Gracepoint		Gracepoint	67
	2014-15	85		85	50			50	67
2015-16	Bones		Bones	Sleepy Hollow		Sleepy Hollow	71 (+5%)
	2015-16	79 (-7%)		79.333079060644	63 (+25%)			63 (+25%)	70.9897564430883
VsAvg	-4%		-0.0383236637571256	-17%		-0.166948519256599	-10%
Rank	7/15		7/15	10/15		10/15	9/15

Sleepy Hollow was a shell of its former self on Thursday, to say the least. But it still had enough juice to represent a significant improvement on the year-ago bomb Gracepoint. Bones kept chugging along with small declines in Plus.

winter

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	Avg
2014-15	American Idol Thu		American Idol Thu	Backstrom		Backstrom	110
	2014-15	149		149	71			71	110
2015-16	American Idol Thu				American Idol Thu	American Idol Thu	American Idol Thu	150 (+36%)
	2015-16	150 (+1%)		150 (+112%)	150 (+112%)		150 (+112%)		150 (+112%)
VsAvg	+6%		0.05539465551372	+68%		0.678062482083495	+30%
Rank	7/15		7/15	2/15		2/15	5/15

American Idol had a strong final season, and aired for two hours on Thursday throughout the winter.

spring

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	Avg
2014-15	Bones		Bones	Backstrom		Backstrom	56
	2014-15	65		65	48			48	56
2015-16	Bones		Bones	American Grit		American Grit	52 (-8%)
	2015-16	59 (-10%)		59.0421184547485	45 (-6%)			45 (-6%)	51.8334877131804
VsAvg	-38%		-0.377762357790365	-37%		-0.368918202026445	-37%
Rank	12/15		12/15	14/15		14/15	14/15

After Idol's finale, Bones returned to 8/7c with similar Plus declines to the ones in the fall. American Grit couldn't improve on the dying days of Backstrom from a year ago.

The Shows

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
Bones*	0.7	0.99	1.4	-21%	68	flop	-9%	detail
American Idol Thu*	1.7	2.16	3.0	-4%	149	hit	+11%	detail
Sleepy Hollow	0.6	0.82	1.1	-47%	56	flop	-39%	detail
American Grit	0.5	0.65	0.8		45	flop		detail

Bones: Most of the damage to this show was done last year, but there was no real hint of a bounce-back this year. Maybe for the final season? Grade: C.

American Idol Thu: Already updated.

Sleepy Hollow: Improving upon Gracepoint and then holding up OK in the move to Friday were sort of positive, and enough to keep it from a failing grade. But they should not obscure the fact that the show was still in complete free-fall compared to its past history. Grade: D-. The good news is maybe it's gotten low enough that losing Nicole Beharie can't make things much worse?

American Grit: Mentioned a couple times that it was interesting how much younger/maler this show skewed compared to Bones. But I wouldn't have thought it was interesting enough for an actual renewal. Apparently Fox did; now, can they actually come up with a situation that could tap into that...?

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.