The Breakdown: CBS Sunday in 2016-17 (60 Minutes, NCIS: Los Angeles, Elementary and more!)

It's time for a journey through the CBS Sunday schedule in 2016-17...


fall

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2015-16	60 Minutes	Madam Secretary		Madam Secretary	The Good Wife	CSI: Cyber		CSI: Cyber	92
	2015-16	181	88		92	74	59			59	92
	2015-16										181	88	92	74	59	59	92
	2015-16	135		135	83					83	59	59	92
2016-17	60 Minutes	NCIS: Los Angeles		NCIS: Los Angeles	Madam Secretary	Elementary		Elementary	108 (+17%)
	2016-17	213 (+18%)	120 (+36%)		122 (+33%)	81 (+9%)	56 (-6%)			56 (-6%)	107.959551410881
	2016-17										213.341528375333	120.004609711125	122.453683378699	80.7287245978088	56 (-6%)	56 (-6%)	107.959551410881
	2016-17	167 (+24%)		166.673069043229	102 (+22%)					102 (+22%)	56 (-6%)	56 (-6%)	107.959551410881
VsAvg	+47%		0.466146073262585	+17%		0.170576596208606	-29%		-0.294424444346743	+16%
Rank	1/16		1/16	4/16		4/16	16/16		16/16	2/16

The injection of NCIS: Los Angeles and the ever-growing football lead-ins made CBS more of a player on Sunday than it had been for most of The Good Wife's time on the night. LA was heavily above Madam Secretary's 8:00 performance in each section of the year.

winter

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2015-16	Madam Secretary		Madam Secretary	The Good Wife		The Good Wife	CSI: Cyber		CSI: Cyber	70
	2015-16	77		77	69		69	64			64	70
2016-17	NCIS: Los Angeles		NCIS: Los Angeles	Madam Secretary		Madam Secretary	Elementary		Elementary	73 (+4%)
	2016-17	100 (+30%)		99.5956624813416	67 (-2%)		67 (-2%)	52 (-19%)			52 (-19%)	72.7465585701603
VsAvg	+13%		0.130665605673652	-21%		-0.214782963893818	-35%		-0.354420919499745	-14%
Rank	4/16		4/16	13/16		13/16	16/16		16/16	12/16

The downside on the night is that Elementary wasn't able to even match the year-ago CSI: Cyber. And as football ended, Madam Secretary's trends relative to The Good Wife got worse.

spring

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2015-16	Madam Secretary		Madam Secretary	The Good Wife		The Good Wife	Elementary		Elementary	65
	2015-16	70		70	71		71	54			54	65
2016-17	60 Minutes	NCIS: Los Angeles	Madam Secretary		Madam Secretary	Elementary		Elementary	74 (+15%)
	2016-17	133 (+91%)	94 (+35%)	63 (-11%)		63 (-11%)	47 (-14%)			47 (-14%)	74.2982864627105
	2016-17										132.65815699359	93.8811572570024	63 (-11%)	63 (-11%)	47 (-14%)	47 (-14%)	74.2982864627105
	2016-17	113 (+63%)				113.269657125296				63 (-11%)	63 (-11%)	47 (-14%)	47 (-14%)	74.2982864627105
VsAvg	+29%		0.291960691408095	-23%		-0.23297826740983	-36%		-0.3599328885014	-8%
Rank	2/16		2/16	14/16		14/16	15/16		15/16	10/16

The spring drops were mostly pretty typical, but Madam continued to fall farther behind The Good Wife due to TGW perking up at the end of its final season.

Rating the Ratings

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
60 Minutes	0.6	1.55	3.4	-4%	127	hit	+14%	detail
NCIS: Los Angeles*	1.0	1.31	1.7	0%	107	solid	+19%	detail
Madam Secretary	0.7	0.88	1.1	-27%	71	marginal	-13%	detail
Elementary*	0.5	0.63	0.8	-34%	52	flop	-22%	detail

60 Minutes: As I have said in the past, this show is on kind of an inevitable upward trajectory due to the NFL's growth, so that has to be factored in. Looking at just the spring episodes tells a story that is much closer to even in Plus. But like I also said last year, this is still a lot of growth even by this show's standards. Grade: B+.

NCIS: Los Angeles: I will give it only a Grade: A- because moving from 10:00 to 8:00 was even more of a timeslot upgrade than I think we understood at the time, which you can see in the fact that it actually had less delayed DVRing year-to-year as more of those viewers were counted as Live+SD. I almost wonder in retrospect if CBS should've done this with the younger Scorpion instead, having seen how it went down. But it still overachieved and deserves much credit for rejuvenating CBS' Sunday ratings, consistently at 30% or more above what Madam Secretary did with the 8:00 berth last year.

Madam Secretary: If LA got an upgrade, then Madam Secretary got a downgrade by moving an hour farther from 60 Minutes and the NFL. I doubt it would've broken even in Plus at 8:00 but it would've been closer. Grade: C.

Elementary: Since it was moved from Thursday to Sunday late last season, the spring comparisons are the only ones that are close to apples-to-apples. But those comparisons are not exactly flattering either, still suggesting a double-digit decline in Plus. Still think this is the perfect show to try with full-time originals on Saturday, but CBS isn't going that route for now. Grade: D+.

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.

Here's the now updated Schedules Plus for CBS Sunday.