As The Bachelorette became re-established as a Monday staple, ABC went on a search for a compatible lead-out drama and came up with the soapy Alyssa Milano drama Mistresses. It had only an OK start with a 1.2 demo on 6/3/2013, leading out of a 1.7 from Bachelorette. But it took a surprising upturn to a 1.4 in week two, before returning to the 1.2 in week three. It would manage to hang around the low-1's throughout season one, making it a significant improvement on the year-ago failed reality occupant The Glass House. It fell off a bit after Bachelorette wrapped in August, with one major exception: a surge back to the series high 1.4 on September 2. Overall, it eked out another season.
The pairing produced fairly similar results in season two, with Bachelorette inching down in A18-49+ and Mistresses taking a slightly larger drop to 1.0ish ratings. Once again, it was renewed, but ABC decided to strive for bigger things in the post-Bachelorette hour.
The Thursday Centerpiece
So Mistresses was off to Thursday, as the middle prong in a tri-drama lineup alongside newbie The Astronaut Wives Club and veteran Rookie Blue. It also had to deal with the loss of Milano. Considering all of that, the 44 Plus in this season may have been its strongest season; it outrated Rookie Blue and was building on Astronaut once that show came down from its decent opening weeks. Still, the lineup as a whole was not that impressive, and it was the last we saw of both the surrounding dramas. The one show to survive was Mistresses.
A Disappointing Return to Monday
And after the summer 2015 occupant The Whispers had started well and fizzled, ABC decided to give the increasingly cushy Bachelorette berth back to Mistresses. Considering this upgrade, season four went down as a big disappointment; it couldn't even match the Plus of the Thursday season and was usually managing barely a third of its lead-ins from The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise. That spelled the end of the road for Mistresses.
It felt like four years of barely hanging on, but not many summer scripted shows can make it four years in any fashion. And as the post-Bachelor/Bachelorette bombs have piled up in 2017 with Quantico and Still Star-Crossed, it has become clear that it's not that easy to get people to leave on the TV after these shows. Perhaps what Mistresses did in those first two years was a bit underrated, but it was definitely time to go in season four.
Adults 18-49 info by season:
| Seas | Year | Slot | Avg | y2y | Lo | Hi | Results | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Summer 2013 | Monday 10:00 | 1.15 | 0.9 | 1.4 | detail | ||
| 2 | Summer 2014 | 0.97 | -16% | 0.8 | 1.2 | detail | ||
| 3 | Summer 2015 | Thursday 9:00 | 0.75 | -23% | 0.6 | 0.9 | detail | |
| 4 | Summer 2016 | Monday 10:00 | 0.61 | -19% | 0.4 | 0.8 | detail |
Historical-adjusted ratings by season:
| Seas | Year | A18-49+ | Label | Now17 | y2y | Lo | Hi | Premiere | Finale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Summer 2013 | 55 | marg(sum) | 0.67 | 43 | 66 | 57 | 52 | |
| 2 | Summer 2014 | 51 | marg(sum) | 0.63 | -6% | 42 | 64 | 64 | 48 |
| 3 | Summer 2015 | 44 | flop | 0.54 | -14% | 36 | 54 | 54 | 36 |
| 4 | Summer 2016 | 42 | flop | 0.51 | -6% | 27 | 55 | 48 | 41 |
| AVERAGE: | 48 | flop | |||||||
| CAREER: | 192 | blip | |||||||
The War of 18-49 chronicles the ratings history of veteran primetime series. For more, see the Index.
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