FINALS UPDATE:America's Got Talent (2.7) and Lethal Weapon (R) (0.6) adjusted up while Imaginary Mary (0.5) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
NBC began what will be a summer of Tuesday dominance with the return of America's Got Talent (2.6) leading into a true breakout showing from new reality series World of Dance (2.4) at 10/9c. Got Talent incredibly tied the raw number of each of its last two season premieres, while World of Dance was sixty percent ahead of last year's Maya and Marty premiere.
ABC had the second Tuesday episode of Downward Dog (0.7), which fell flat as it was joined by comedies instead of Dancing with the Stars this time.
Elsewhere, it was a surprisingly heavy night for leftover originals from regular season series. That included the finales of Prison Break (0.9) on Fox, which had a redemptive bounce-back, and Imaginary Mary (0.6) on ABC. The CW's iZombie (0.3) began its summer run by building from a repeat of The Flash (0.2). And CBS had 48 Hours: NCIS (0.5) back at 10/9c leading out of drama repeats.
A SHIELD Lead-Out Rookie ABC had such high hopes for its new drama Agents of SHIELD that it built an entire three-hour night of new series around it. After the predictably huge 4.7 SHIELD premiere, The Goldbergs hung on to a very solid 3.1 on its September 24, 2013 premiere night. But it was not out of the woods yet; it took a huge drop to 2.2 in week two, then got whacked again to 1.9 and 1.6 the next two weeks. Some of that could be blamed on SHIELD's own drops, but Goldbergs was actually down a lot more by percentage than SHIELD itself in those opening weeks.
Fortunately, that week four 1.6 was pretty much the end of Goldbergs' weakening, and it would linger around that territory for most of the rest of the season, even as SHIELD continued eroding toward the vicinity of 2.0. While the 9:30 comedy Trophy Wife and 10:00 drama Lucky 7 lasted just one season, SHIELD's direct lead-out The Goldbergs had showed enough promise to pull through, even if it was still below the league average in that first season. The Move to Wednesday
Not only did it pull through, but ABC gave it a major timeslot upgrade for season two: the hammock between The Middle and Modern Family on Wednesday. There were good signs about this move even in the summer of 2014, when its repeats would fully retain or build on The Middle. And it was able to turn that into consistent growth from The Middle even during original season. It stayed in the low-2's through most of season two and fell into a 2.0ish range after DST. Fitting in that well with the Wednesday veterans made for a tremendous sophomore bounce, averaging 30% higher than the raw ratings from season one.
The Goldbergs' move to Wednesday led into a banner year for the entire 8:00 hour, with veteran The Middle also upticking to its highest historical-adjusted ratings ever. And both shows managed to get even stronger in 2015-16; The Middle had its first 'hit'-level season, while The Goldbergs hovered around 2.0 all season and ticked up to another new high in A18-49+. Leading Off the Night
The network had so many riches on Wednesday that they opted to spread some of the wealth to another night at the 2016 upfront. Veteran The Middle went to Tuesday, while The Goldbergs was left to lead off the night for the first time. That downgrade stopped Goldbergs' growth streak, but it also didn't hurt either; The Goldbergs exactly maintained its 140 A18-49+ from season three. It was a year of huge league average decline, but breaking even while moving out of that protected hammock was an impressive accomplishment. And it worked out nicely for the network as a whole; both The Middle and The Goldbergs launched successful newbie lead-outs (American Housewife and Speechless, respectively) in their new 8:00 homes.
The Goldbergs stayed close to its A18-49+ peak for basically four years, and to a slightly lesser extent even in season six, but season seven brought the first period of drastic decline. It went below 1.0 for the first time in October 2019 and stayed there for most of the rest of the season, bouncing back only at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown period in March. However, the show has pretty much stayed at that level in seasons eight and nine, allowing it to stick around on the schedule.
Numbers and analysis coming shortly. As The Bachelorette made the annual Memorial Day move to its regular 8/7c timeslot, the network premiered Shondaland drama Still Star-Crossed at 10/9c. NBC had the opener of the Stanley Cup Finals, and the CW began its summer original season with the return of Whose Line Is It Anyway?
On the first day of summer, Fox was the only network starting a new original lineup with game shows Beat Shazam (1.2) and Love Connection (1.1). This is a strong start by summer standards, but especially when compared with the summer newbies Fox was premiering a year ago: American Grit (0.8), Houdini and Doyle (0.7) and Coupled (0.5).
After two years of low-rated Red Nose Day specials (0.8 in 2015 and 0.6 in 2016), NBC has shrunk the official event (0.7) for the second year in a row, now occupying just the 10/9c hour. To try to drum up interest in the concept, it was tied to special episodes of the network's regular series: American Ninja Warrior (1.1) at 8/7c and Running Wild (0.9) at 9/8c. That was certainly a positive for the nightly average as a whole.
CBS had Thursday's only other original episode, and it was a rough night for The Amazing Race (0.6).
FINALS UPDATE:Movie: Dirty Dancing (1.4) and Empire (2.5) adjusted up while Survivor (1.3) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
The 2016-17 season came to an end with a slew of finale bumps. Empire (2.4) was on top with its best rating since late March (albeit still 40%ish behind the year-ago finale), and the finale of Shots Fired also picked up to its first 0.9 in over a month.
It's been even longer (late February) since Law and Order: SVU (1.3/1.4) has gotten this high, and it managed to come close to even Plus-wise with the year-ago 1.6 finale.
On CBS, Survivor (1.9/1.8) got a bit of a finale bump, and was slightly up in Plus from the spring 2016 finale (2.1). The reunion averaged a 1.4 in the 10:00 hour but that includes some finale.
And despite not having its regular series, ABC was very much in the mix with its three-hour reimagining of Dirty Dancing, which averaged a 1.3 in each hour.
Headed for Thursday next season, the CW's Arrow finished a five-year Wednesday run with an uptick to 0.6. Unlike most of the other marginal CW shows, The 100 actually gets to finish its year within the regular season, and it posted its usual 0.3.
FINALS UPDATE:Dancing with the Stars (1.4) adjusted up while iZombie (0.3) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
ABC and NBC both had comedies leading into their reality tentpole finales with mixed results. The maneuver helped Downward Dog (1.0) hold up rather nicely in its first week on Tuesday, but it seemingly did no favors for the 150-minute Dancing with the Stars finale (1.3) itself; it was down a whooping half point from the Monday performance finale, and three tenths behind the year-ago Tuesday finale.
Meanwhile, NBC's Great News (0.7/0.8) at least rallied by a touch from its low points last week, and The Voice (1.8/1.9) widened its usual lead over DWTS from 9:00 to 11:00; this was a similar Plus to last spring's 2.2 finale.
On CBS, Bull (1.1) was left alone to air its season finale with a repeat NCIS (0.9) lead-in, and fell to tie its series low from a month ago. It led into another edition of 48 Hours: NCIS (0.6) at 10/9c.
Fox's Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.7/0.6) was steady, but Prison Break (0.7) crashed to a new low against the reality finales.
And the CW was preliminarily on the uptick with the season finale of The Flash (1.1) and iZombie (0.4). If it holds, it would be the highest rating for Flash in almost three months.
FINALS UPDATE:The Voice (2.0) adjusted up while Jane the Virgin (0.3) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
ABC's summer tentpole The Bachelorette (1.8/1.7) made its usual return on the last Monday of the regular season and took a slightly less than league average drop from last year's 2.0 premiere. It led out of a promising final Monday of the season from Dancing with the Stars (1.8), which was preliminarily just a tenth below the year-ago performance finale.
NBC's The Voice (1.9) also looked strong on performance finale night; like DWTS, it was just a tenth below what it did on the final Monday last spring. It led into a special edition of Running Wild (0.9), which fell behind recent The Wall outings in the hour.
CBS was the last of the big three networks to go with a two-hour Princess Diana special this month (0.7/0.8), and it mustered up roughly the same kind of upper-0 demo we saw from NBC's Dateline (0.8) on May 5 and ABC's last 100 days special (0.9) on May 7. It led into a Carpool Karaoke special (0.7) at 10/9c.
Fox's Gotham (1.0) was up a notch, while Lucifer (0.8) continued to look a little soft at 9/8c.
And the CW wrapped up its Monday dramas with the finales of Supergirl (0.6) and Jane the Virgin (0.4). If these actually hold in finals, it would continue Jane's bizarre oscillation between 0.2 and 0.4 in the last month.
FINALS UPDATE:Billboard Music Awards (2.6), Bob's Burgers (0.8) and Family Guy (1.1) adjusted up while America's Funniest Home Videos (0.8) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
ABC took over on the last Sunday of the season with the Billboard Music Awards (2.1/2.5/2.4). The show adjusted up three tenths last year in its first live-in-all-time-zones telecast, but it's still looking at close to a 20% year-to-year decline vs. last year's 3.2 final.
With the highest-rated shows on NBC and CBS sitting out, the only broadcast show outside of ABC to crack a 1.0 was the one-hour finale of Family Guy (1.0). It followed the finales of Bob's Burgers (0.7), The Simpsons (0.9) and Making History (0.6).
CBS had two hours of 60 Minutes (0.8/0.8) plus the season-enders for Madam Secretary (0.7) and Elementary (0.5), while NBC had two hours apiece of Dateline (0.8/0.9) and Shades of Blue (0.7/0.7).
FINALS UPDATE:Undercover Boss (0.8) adjusted up while Movie: Maid in Manhattan (0.4), The Originals (0.2) and Reign (0.2) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
The final Friday of the regular season brought not a single scripted original on the big four. CBS tried to mix it up to no avail with an I Love Lucy special (0.5) at 9/8c, leading out of Undercover Boss (0.7) and into a repeat of Blue Bloods (0.5).
NBC easily won the night with its usual First Dates (0.7) and Dateline (0.9/1.0), as Dates scored yet another victory over the two-hour finale of The Toy Box (0.5/0.6) on ABC. Fox had movie Maid in Manhattan (0.4/0.5).
The CW continued on with The Originals (0.3) and Reign (hoping to hold onto 0.3 for the first time this season), and both will have more new episodes deep into June.
FINALS UPDATE:Grey's Anatomy (2.0) and The Amazing Race (0.8) adjusted up.
WHAT MATTERS:
Numbers and analysis coming shortly. On the first day of the last week of the regular season, it was 'Two-Hour Finale Night' as Scandal, The Blacklist, MasterChef Junior and Supernatural all wrapped up with double-length airings. CBS' The Amazing Race also aired for two hours but was not a finale.
FINALS UPDATE:Blindspot (0.9) and Empire (2.2) adjusted up.
WHAT MATTERS:
ABC got the summer off to an early start with a special preview of comedy Downward Dog (1.1) at 9:30, where it opened just below Black-ish's lowest rating of the season. But ABC had some positive news with the surrounding season finales, as The Goldbergs (1.4), Speechless (1.2), Modern Family (1.7) and Designated Survivor (1.1) were all up a tenth from last week.
On CBS, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (0.7/0.7) double-pumped the final two episodes of its run, leading out of ever-steady Survivor (1.7) at 8/7c.
NBC was even with Blindspot (0.8) and the Chicago PD (1.3) finale surrounding an upticking Law and Order: SVU (1.2), which will be back with a two-hour finale next Wednesday.
Fox was also close to steady with another Shots Fired (0.8) and Empire (2.1) combo.
And Arrow (0.5) gave back last week's uptick, leading into a seventh straight 0.3 from The 100.
FINALS UPDATE:NCIS (1.5) and Bull (1.3) adjusted up while The Middle (1.2) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
It was a night of finales on ABC, with The Middle (1.3) picking up a tenth and cancelled Imaginary Mary (0.8) losing one. American Housewife (1.2), Fresh Off the Boat (1.0) and Agents of SHIELD (0.7) were all even.
CBS had its final all-original instance of a Tuesday lineup that will return intact next season. NCIS (1.4) and Bull (1.2) were even (with Bull coming back for one last original next week) while NCIS: New Orleans (1.1) went out on an uptick.
On NBC, things got even worse for one of the most surprising renewals of upfront season, Great News (0.7/0.6), as its lead-in The Voice (1.5) was also on the downswing. But NBC took some solace in an uptick from the Chicago Fire (1.3) finale.
Fox's steady Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.7/0.6) and Prison Break (0.9) will both be back next week.
And the CW had a preliminarily downtick from The Flash (0.9) leading into another 0.3 from iZombie.
This is a live record of what's renewed, what's cancelled and what's to be determined as news comes in during the newsiest days of the TV year. Everything is listed in a big table and there's also a 'live-blog' beneath the table, because it might be neat to look back on what time everything happens. Enjoy the madness, and check back often!
FINALS UPDATE:NCIS: Los Angeles (1.2) adjusted up while The Simpsons (R) (0.4) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
ABC featured the two-hour Not-So-Final Battle on Once Upon a Time (0.9), leading out of a retrospective special (0.8) at 7/6c. It was three tenths behind the year-ago finale but up a tenth from last week's musical. Then came another episode of Match Game (0.6) in the 10/9c hour, which fell to tie the low point from its 9/8c run.
With its fate still inexplicably up in the air, Chicago Justice (1.1) aired another episode at 9/8c and was on the upswing. Its lead-in Little Big Shots (1.3) and lead-out Shades of Blue (0.9) were also up, with Shades a particular highlight in hitting its best rating since week two of the season.
Fox's comedies took the night off in favor of Miss USA (0.6/0.9). It took a brutal year-to-year drop in its second year on Fox, after averaging a 1.2 in June a year ago.
And CBS had its own upticks in the first half of the night with 60 Minutes (1.0) and NCIS: Los Angeles (1.1), while Madam Secretary (0.7) and Elementary (0.6) were even.
FINALS UPDATE:Shark Tank (0.9) and 48 Hours: NCIS (0.7) adjusted up while The Originals (0.3) and Reign (0.2) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
ABC's Shark Tank (0.8) finished out another season in weirdly dreadful fashion, falling two tenths behind its previous season low. It can blame its surroundings to some degree, as The Toy Box fell to a new low 0.5 while 20/20 (0.6) was at its lowest mark since Thanksgiving weekend.
ABC's loss was CBS' gain, as the Hawaii Five-0 finale (1.0) was on the upswing. It had some help from a recharged (and celebrity-themed) Undercover Boss (0.9). The network then tried another episode of newsmagazine 48 Hours: NCIS (0.6) at 10/9c.
On the CW, The Originals (0.4) and Reign (0.3) were bigger than usual in the prelims, but often that means preemptions...
And NBC was even with First Dates (0.7) and Dateline (0.8) while Fox stayed in repeat mode (0.3/0.3).
FINALS UPDATE:The Big Bang Theory (2.7) and MasterChef Junior (0.9) adjusted up while The Blacklist (0.8) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
CBS finished out its season of Thursday original comedy with at least a tenth of growth for The Big Bang Theory (2.6), another nice showing from Mom (1.5) with help from a repeat of Big Bang (1.8), and a relatively soft Life in Pieces (1.1) at 9:30. The Amazing Race, which will be back with two hours next week, was steady at last week's high-end 0.9.
ABC bid farewell to The Catch (0.6), while Grey's Anatomy (1.8) was even and Scandal (1.4) up a tenth.
NBC had upticks of its own with recently renewed dramas Chicago Med (1.2) and The Blacklist (0.9), as a repeat of Law and Order: SVU (0.5) filled in at 8/7c.
MasterChef Junior (0.8) was a notable exception in a sea of upticks, as it fell to what would be a new low. Brooklyn Nine-Nine repeats (0.5/0.5) rounded out the night and were not that far from the show's original ratings on Tuesday.
And after adjusting down from a preliminary 0.4 last week, Riverdale is back at a preliminary 0.4 and will hope to hold on this time. Supernatural had its fifth straight 0.5.
FINALS UPDATE:Speechless (1.1), Modern Family (1.6), Criminal Minds (1.6), Chicago PD (1.3) and Empire (2.2) adjusted up.
WHAT MATTERS:
It was one oddly mixed Wednesday night for ABC as Black-ish wrapped up its season, with Black-ish (1.3) and Designated Survivor (1.0) both up from last week. But the first half of the night was brutal, with The Goldbergs (1.3) inching down to a preliminary new low while Speechless (1.0) and recently-renewed Modern Family (1.5) were down two more tenths from already soft results last week.
On CBS, the late-season strength from Criminal Minds (1.5) continued into its finale, but surrounding programs Survivor (1.7) and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (0.8) both shed a tenth in the prelims.
Fox had a sigh of relief with Empire (2.1), which recovered to its two-weeks-ago rating following last week's low. Shots Fired made it four in a row at 0.8.
NBC's Blindspot hung onto those 0.9's just long enough to get renewed, and this week was down to 0.8 for the first time since DST. Law and Order: SVU (1.1) made up for it with an uptick, while Chicago PD stayed at 1.2.
And Arrow is preliminarily eyeing an uptick to 0.6 for the first time since early March. The 100 was at 0.3 yet again.
Part two of the upfront previewis the SCHEDULE-centric portion, examining
the big-picture scheduling questions each network faces on each night
in the final week before its upfront.
On each
night, you can see the network's average 2016-17 ratings with its most
frequent occupant in three different sub-sections of the year: "fall"
(premiere week through December 31), "winter" (January 1 to the
beginning of Daylight Saving Time) and "spring" (the start of DST
through Thursday, May 4). You can also switch from the A18-49 ratings to
the True ratings, which should make the comparisons across nights and
across the season a bit more fair.
Last week's Renewology was the SHOW-centric portion, drilling more into the merits of individual shows: CW Renewology
More Upfront Questions: NBC | Fox | ABC | CBS | CW
FINALS UPDATE:The Voice (1.7) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.7) adjusted up while iZombie (0.3) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
ABC had even nights for The Middle (1.2), American Housewife (1.2) and Fresh Off the Boat (1.0) and a hail Mary spike from Imaginary Mary (0.9) on the eve of its fate being decided. Agents of SHIELD hung at 0.7 again.
On NBC, week three of Great News (0.8/0.7) was up a tenth in the 9:30 hour, but that's probably not going to suffice; it's still below Trial and Error at its worst. The Voice (1.6) and Chicago Fire (1.2) were even.
Fox went into double-pump mode with Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.6/0.6) but could not bounce back from last week's low. However, Prison Break preliminarily got back last week's loss.
CBS' NCIS (1.4) preliminarily inched down but Bull (1.2) and NCIS: New Orleans (1.0) were steady.
And the CW's iZombie ticked up to a preliminary 0.4 again, leading out of another 1.0 from The Flash.
Part two of the upfront previewis the SCHEDULE-centric portion, examining
the big-picture scheduling questions each network faces on each night
in the final week before its upfront.
On each
night, you can see the network's average 2016-17 ratings with its most
frequent occupant in three different sub-sections of the year: "fall"
(premiere week through December 31), "winter" (January 1 to the
beginning of Daylight Saving Time) and "spring" (the start of DST
through Thursday, May 4). You can also switch from the A18-49 ratings to
the True ratings, which should make the comparisons across nights and
across the season a bit more fair.
Last week's Renewology was the SHOW-centric portion, drilling more into the merits of individual shows: CBS Renewology
More Upfront Questions: NBC | Fox | ABC | CBS | CW
FINALS UPDATE:Man with a Plan (1.0), Gotham (1.0) and Jane the Virgin (0.4) adjusted up while Quantico (0.5) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
NBC's winter game show success The Wall (1.1) returned to the 10/9c hour to fill out the gap between Taken and the summer. While a big improvement on the last half of Taken's season, it was also much lower than the mid-1 ratings it was getting on Tuesday at 8/7c in the winter. It led out of an upticking from The Voice (1.9).
On CBS, it was a night of many finales as Kevin Can Wait (1.1), Superior Donuts (0.9) and The Great Indoors (0.7) all shed a tenth to finish out their seasons. Only Man with a Plan (0.9) and Scorpion (1.1) will return with originals next week.
In their second week back together, both Gotham (0.9) and Lucifer (0.9) were down a tenth.
ABC's Dancing with the Stars (1.5) also inched down, leading into another 0.6 from Quantico.
And at least preliminarily, the CW's Supergirl (0.6) and Jane the Virgin (0.3) came up from their lows.
Part two of the upfront previewis the SCHEDULE-centric portion, examining
the big-picture scheduling questions each network faces on each night
in the final week before its upfront.
On each
night, you can see the network's average 2016-17 ratings with its most
frequent occupant in three different sub-sections of the year: "fall"
(premiere week through December 31), "winter" (January 1 to the
beginning of Daylight Saving Time) and "spring" (the start of DST
through Thursday, May 4). You can also switch from the A18-49 ratings to
the True ratings, which should make the comparisons across nights and
across the season a bit more fair.
Last week's Renewology was the SHOW-centric portion, drilling more into the merits of individual shows: ABC Renewology
More Upfront Questions: NBC | Fox | ABC | CBS | CW
FINALS UPDATE:Little Big Shots (R) (0.6) adjusted up.
WHAT MATTERS:
ABC livened up the second half of its primetime a bit with a two-hour documentary on the last 100 days of Princess Diana (0.9). But it didn't help out the first half of the night, where America's Funniest Home Videos (1.0) and the much-promoted musical episode of Once Upon a Time (0.8) were each down from last week.
NBC also gave back its upticks from a week ago, with Little Big Shots (1.2) eyeing a new low in the prelims and Chicago Justice (1.0) and Shades of Blue (0.7) also down by a notch.
On Fox, the one-hour finale of The Last Man on Earth (0.7) hit a new series low at an inopportune moment, with a worse lead-in than usual from Making History (0.6). The Simpsons (1.0) was even while Bob's Burgers (0.9) did better than usual for a 7:30 episode.
CBS was up a tick at 7:00 with 60 Minutes (0.9) and at 10:00 with Elementary (0.6), sandwiching steady NCIS: Los Angeles (1.0) and Madam Secretary (0.7).
Part two of the upfront previewis the SCHEDULE-centric portion, examining
the big-picture scheduling questions each network faces on each night
in the final week before its upfront.
On each
night, you can see the network's average 2016-17 ratings with its most
frequent occupant in three different sub-sections of the year: "fall"
(premiere week through December 31), "winter" (January 1 to the
beginning of Daylight Saving Time) and "spring" (the start of DST
through Thursday, May 4). You can also switch from the A18-49 ratings to
the True ratings, which should make the comparisons across nights and
across the season a bit more fair.
Last week's Renewology was the SHOW-centric portion, drilling more into the merits of individual shows: Fox Renewology
More Upfront Questions: NBC | Fox | ABC | CBS | CW
Part two of the upfront previewis the SCHEDULE-centric portion, examining
the big-picture scheduling questions each network faces on each night
in the final week before its upfront.
On each
night, you can see the network's average 2016-17 ratings with its most
frequent occupant in three different sub-sections of the year: "fall"
(premiere week through December 31), "winter" (January 1 to the
beginning of Daylight Saving Time) and "spring" (the start of DST
through Thursday, May 4). You can also switch from the A18-49 ratings to
the True ratings, which should make the comparisons across nights and
across the season a bit more fair.
Last week's Renewology was the SHOW-centric portion, drilling more into the merits of individual shows: NBC Renewology
More Upfront Questions: NBC | Fox | ABC | CBS | CW
ABC's Shark Tank (1.0) and 20/20 (0.9) returned from a week off, with Tank matching last time and the only broadcast show to break a preliminary 1.0. They led out of yet another 0.6 from The Toy Box.
On CBS, it was finale night for Blue Bloods (0.9), and it got back a tenth after last week's brutal drop. Hawaii Five-0 (0.9) was even and Undercover Boss (0.7) was down a notch in its second Friday airing.
The CW's The Originals (0.3) and Reign (0.2) as well as NBC's First Dates (0.7) and Dateline (0.8/0.9) were close to even. And with Rosewood wrapped, Fox went full repeat as Lucifer (0.3) joined Lethal Weapon (0.4).
FINALS UPDATE:Grey's Anatomy (1.8), The Big Bang Theory (2.5) and MasterChef Junior (1.0) adjusted up while Riverdale (0.3) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
One of CBS' strongest comedies, repeats of The Big Bang Theory, took over at 8:30 and seemed to lift all boats later in the night, with Mom (1.5), Life in Pieces (1.2) and The Amazing Race (0.9) all on the upswing. TBBT (R) doing better than the bubble comedies is not exactly a new phenomenon, but it's still not a great look for The Great Indoors.
Elsewhere, Grey's Anatomy (1.7) and Scandal (1.3) took minor dips in the prelims, while NBC finished out the Superstore season with another 0.8 at 8:30 while Chicago Med (1.1) inched up. Fox replaced Kicking and Screaming with a repeat hour of The Mick (0.5) and saw no week-to-week change, while the CW's Riverdale was preliminarily up to 0.4 for the first time in over a month.
Welcome to Upfront Renewology! This is the SHOW-centric half of the upfront preview, digging into the merits of individual shows by network. The next round will be Upfront Questions,
the SCHEDULE-centric look ahead to upfront week. The following week, the schedules come out,
and with them come the Upfront Answers.
Welcome to Upfront Renewology! This is the SHOW-centric half of the upfront preview, digging into the merits of individual shows by network. The next round will be Upfront Questions,
the SCHEDULE-centric look ahead to upfront week. The following week, the schedules come out,
and with them come the Upfront Answers.
FINALS UPDATE:Modern Family (1.7), Criminal Minds (1.5), Chicago PD (1.2) and Empire (1.9) adjusted up while The 100 (0.3) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
After nearly a month off, Modern Family (1.6) was back at a painful new low, and it was no help to the shows around it either. The Goldbergs (1.4) and Speechless (1.2) matched last week, while Black-ish (1.2) was down from last week's 9:30 episode. And Designated Survivor (0.9) returned to fractional territory after recovering in the last two weeks.
Fox's late-season Empire struggles continued, as the show crashed again to a new low 1.8. Its lead-in Shots Fired hung at 0.8.
Amid a mostly down night, CBS was an exception once again. Survivor (1.8), Criminal Minds (1.4) and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (0.9) were all on the upswing. Minds had its best number since January while the other two tied season highs.
NBC's Law and Order: SVU (1.0) and Chicago PD (1.1) were both down a notch to new season lows, but Blindspot held up yet again at 0.9.
And after hitting a strong prelim 0.3 last week, this time The 100 eked out a preliminary 0.4. It followed another 0.5 from Arrow.
Welcome to Upfront Renewology! This is the SHOW-centric half of the upfront preview, digging into the merits of individual shows by network. The next round will be Upfront Questions,
the SCHEDULE-centric look ahead to upfront week. The following week, the schedules come out,
and with them come the Upfront Answers.
FINALS UPDATE:The Middle (1.2) and NCIS (1.5) adjusted up while Prison Break (0.8) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
All the Tuesday regulars were back to originals, and that was not great news for NBC's Great News (0.8/0.6). Week two of the comedy tumbled by an enormous four tenths from last week in both the 9:00 and 9:30 half-hours. That instantly put it behind anything that Trial and Error had done in each of those half hours. Its surrounding programs The Voice (1.6) and Chicago Fire (1.2) were down by much less, but also hit season lows.
ABC's own Tuesday newbie Imaginary Mary (0.7) had a rough night of its own, dropping from last week despite the return of lead-in Fresh Off the Boat (1.0) to originals. Elsewhere on the network, The Middle (1.1) is headed for a new low in the lead-off role, but American Housewife (1.2), Fresh and Agents of SHIELD (0.7) were steady.
CBS had the only upticks of the evening as NCIS (1.4) and Bull (1.2) came up from their new lows from two weeks ago. However, NCIS: New Orleans (1.0) was down a notch.
Fox joined in on the new ugliness with new lows for Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.6) and the finale of The Mick (0.7), though Prison Break (0.9) remained resilient at 9/8c.
And the CW was even with The Flash (1.0) and iZombie (0.3).
American Gods, the latest from Bryan Fuller, premiered on Starz to a 0.36, in a dead heat with The Leftovers for the premium. Power it is not, but that was close to the last Outlander premiere (0.39) from about a year ago.
FINALS UPDATE:Man with a Plan (1.0), Superior Donuts (1.0) and Scorpion (1.1) adjusted up.
WHAT MATTERS:
After more than three months off the air, Lucifer returned to Fox with a 1.0 demo rating, matching its lead-in from Gotham (1.0). This was below what Lucifer had been doing in the much more favorable January, but it had several points around this rating in the fall.
On CBS, Kevin Can Wait (1.2) got a bit of a bump with a guest spot from Kevin James' King of Queens co-star Leah Remini. But it was a terrible night for the rest of the comedies, with Man with a Plan (0.9) and Superior Donuts (0.9) both crashing to new lows. So did The Great Indoors (0.8), as it took over for 2 Broke Girls to air its last two eps on Monday. Scorpion (1.0) looked positive next to the comedies but it was also on the downswing.
The other three networks looked pretty similar to last week, with The Voice (1.7/1.8) down a bit on NBC leading into Taken (0.8) while Dancing with the Stars (1.5/1.6) and Quantico (0.6) were even-ish. The CW didn't get any bounce back from last week's Supergirl (0.5) and Jane the Virgin (0.2) low points.
Welcome to Upfront Renewology! This is the SHOW-centric half of the upfront preview, digging into the merits of individual shows by network. The next round will be Upfront Questions,
the SCHEDULE-centric look ahead to upfront week. The following week, the schedules come out,
and with them come the Upfront Answers.
FINALS UPDATE:America's Funniest Home Videos (1.2) and Chicago Justice (1.1) adjusted up while Little Big Shots (R) (0.7) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
In a rare twist, it was a mostly even or up Sunday for broadcast TV. The highlight was NBC's Little Big Shots (1.5) picking up by two tenths from its recent level. Chicago Justice held at 1.0 while Shades of Blue was up to 0.8 for the first time in over a month.
Fox's animated anchors The Simpsons (1.0) and Family Guy (1.2) were both up in their returns from hiatus, but nothing at the bottoms of the hours saw any benefit; Bob's Burgers (0.7) inched down while live-actioners Making History (0.6) and The Last Man on Earth (0.8) were both even.
ABC had another NBA-boosted high-end America's Funniest Home Videos (1.1), and this time it spilled into upticks for Once Upon a Time (0.9), Match Game (0.8) and the American Crime (0.4) finale.
CBS actually had the worst night by merely breaking even across the board with 60 Minutes (0.8), NCIS: Los Angeles (1.0), Madam Secretary (0.7) and Elementary (0.5).
Welcome to Upfront Renewology! This is the SHOW-centric half of the upfront preview, digging into the merits of individual shows by network. The next round will be Upfront Questions,
the SCHEDULE-centric look ahead to upfront week. The following week, the schedules come out,
and with them come the Upfront Answers.
A classic CBS Friday trio was reunited as Undercover Boss (0.8) returned to Friday for some late-season filler duty, leading into Hawaii Five-0 (0.9) and Blue Bloods (0.8). The Boss had last been seen getting very low-1's on Wednesdays in December and January. The new lead-in did no favors to the other two dramas, which were both fractional for the first time this season.
On ABC, The Toy Box (0.6) teamed up with low-rated ABC News documentary Let It Fall: LA 1982-1992 (0.6).
Fox had the season or series finale of Rosewood (0.5), leading into another repeat of Lethal Weapon (0.4), and both shows lost a tenth from last week.
NBC had First Dates (0.7) and two more back-to-earth hours of Dateline (0.8), while the CW was back to new episodes with The Originals (0.3) and Reign (0.2).
