Spotted Ratings, Friday 6/29/18

FINALS UPDATE: Celebrity Undercover Boss (R) (0.5) and American Ninja Warrior (R) (0.5) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Full table will be posted next week. The CW's Masters of Illusion returned.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 6/28/18

FINALS UPDATE: Big Brother (1.4) adjusted up while Take Two (0.4) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Full table will be posted next week.

A18-49+ Update: The Network Race in 2017-18

Here's a look from several angles at how the big five networks fared in 2017-18.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 6/27/18

FINALS UPDATE: Reverie (0.4) and MasterChef (1.1) adjusted up while Supergirl (R) (0.1) and The Originals (R) (0.1) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Full table will be posted next week. CBS' Big Brother returned.

The Breakdown: CW Tuesday in 2017-18 (The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning and more!)

It's time for a journey through the CW Tuesday schedule in 2017-18...

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 6/26/18

FINALS UPDATE: World of Dance (1.3) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Full table will be posted next week.

The War of 18-49, Black-ish

A Solid Companion for Modern Family

ABC had toiled away for years trying to get edgy, off-brand comedies to work with its big Modern Family lead-in. In fall 2014, they finally went with something that (while topical) still fit nicely as a companion family comedy. Black-ish opened well during premiere week 2014, with 10.85 million viewers and a 3.3 leading out of a 3.9 for Modern Family. After a somewhat unsettling drop to 2.5 in week two, it bounced back to a 2.8 the next week and mostly hovered around the mid-2's in the fall while Modern pulled mid- and low-3's. Not stellar retention, but it looked like a godsend when compared with the Super Fun Nights and Mixologys of the world. In the spring, Black-ish mostly managed low-2's while Modern Family was getting high-2's.

Both Modern Family and Black-ish got a little weaker right from the start of the next season; Black-ish only even broke 2.0 for the season premiere and the winter premiere, spent most of the year in the high-1's, and had a run of mid-1's in April and May. But the duo mostly stabilized (relative to the league average decline) in season three; Black-ish hovered in the general vicinity of 1.5 most of the way, a little higher in the fall and lower in the spring.

Anchoring an Hour on Tuesday

After three years, the Modern Family and Black-ish combo was finally separated in 2017-18. Black-ish headed for the Tuesday comedy block, where it would anchor the 9:00 hour and launch another African-American-led comedy called The Mayor. While The Mayor didn't work, and this arrangement meant a pretty big hit to Black-ish's ratings (it usually pulled very low-1's), it ultimately proved a passable occupant of the slot; it usually matched or slightly built from its 8:30 lead-in Fresh Off the Boat.

In the spring, the entire night got a massive jolt from the revival of Roseanne, and Black-ish happened to be the show that directly led out of its historic one-hour 5.2 premiere. That took Black-ish all the way up to a 2.6 rating, its highest raw number since season one and its highest historical-adjusted rating in series history. Black-ish was an indirect lead-out beyond that first week and fell to the mid-1's and then low-1's, but the Roseanne factor clearly made Black-ish's season average look a lot better than it was gonna be otherwise. In season five, there was no such salvation for Black-ish, and it took easily the largest drop in series history.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	2014-15	Wednesday 9:30	2.28		1.6	3.3	detail
2	2015-16		Wednesday 9:30	1.79	-22%	1.5	2.4	detail	C
3	2016-17		Wednesday 9:30	1.52	-15%	1.2	2.0	detail	B
4	2017-18	Tuesday 9:00	1.19	-22%	0.8	2.6	detail	C+
5	2018-19		Tuesday 9:00	0.78	-34%	0.6	1.1	detail	C-
6	2019-20	Tuesday 9:30	0.59	-25%	0.4	0.8	detail	C
7	2020-21	Wed 9:30, Tue 9:00	0.47	-19%	0.3	0.6	detail	C+
8	Winter 2022	Tuesday 9:30	0.39	-17%	0.3	0.5	detail	C

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now22	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	2014-15	136	hit	0.69		95	196	196	95
2	2015-16	123	solid	0.63	-9%	101	163	163	101
3	2016-17	124	solid	0.63	+1%	95	161	161	105
4	2017-18	109	solid	0.55	-12%	78	236	136	112
5	2018-19	83	marginal	0.42	-24%	62	119	109	76
6	2019-20	72	marginal	0.37	-13%	55	104	104	55
7	2020-21	74	marginal	0.38	+2%	48	99	92	54
8	Winter 2022	77	marginal	0.39	+5%	59	104	104	73
AVERAGE:		AVERAGE:	100	solid
CAREER:		CAREER:	797	tentpole

The War of 18-49 chronicles the ratings history of veteran primetime series. For more, see the Index.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 6/25/18

FINALS UPDATE: Mom (R) (0.6) and Man with a Plan (R) (0.5) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Full table will be posted next week. Sophomore CBS drama Salvation made the move to Monday, and the CW's Penn and Teller: Fool Us also returned.

A18-49+ Update: The New Shows in 2017-18

Here's a look at the new scripted series on the big four in 2017-18:

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 6/24/18

FINALS UPDATE: America's Funniest Home Videos (R) (0.7) adjusted up while The $100,000 Pyramid (0.9) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Full table will be posted next week.

The Breakdown: Fox Tuesday in 2017-18 (Lethal Weapon, LA to Vegas, The Mick and more!)

It's time for a journey through the Fox Tuesday schedule in 2017-18...

Spotted Ratings, Friday 6/22/18

FINALS UPDATE: Quantico (0.4), American Ninja Warrior (R) (0.6, -0.2), Dateline (0.6), Harry Potter: A History of Magic (R) (0.2) and Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R) (0.1, -0.2) adjusted down.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 6/21/18

WHAT MATTERS:

• It was a rough start for ABC's summer Thursday lineup. 10/9c drama Take Two (0.5) skewed old and could only tie the premieres of last summer's drama failures Still Star-Crossed and Somewhere Between. And sophomore reality series The Gong Show (0.5), now at 8/7c, was massively below last year's 0.9 premiere (though it did fall as low as 0.5 for its finale last summer).
• The bright spot in the bunch was returning game show Match Game (0.7), which was actually up from the last three times we saw it in the winter (two of which were against the Olympics).

• Week two for the NBC lineup saw Little Big Shots (0.7) and the 9/8c edition of Marlon (0.6) each lose a tenth, but Marlon stayed at 0.6 at 9:30. The Four (0.7) was even for Fox.

SpotVault - Shooter (USA) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - Queen of the South (USA) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - Yellowstone (PARAMOUNT) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - The Gong Show (ABC) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - Take Two (ABC) - Summer 2018 Ratings

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 6/20/18

FINALS UPDATE: MasterChef (1.0) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Gordon Ramsay's MasterChef (0.9) and 24 Hours to Hell and Back (1.0) were both down a tenth in their second week together. That makes 24 Hours an even bigger win when compared with last year's The F Word, as that show collapsed to a 0.7 in its second week.

• NBC began preparing for World of Dance's late July move to Wednesday with two hours of repeats (0.5/0.5). That was unwelcome news for Reverie (0.4), which went another tenth lower in week four. The other two drama originals Code Black (0.7) and The Originals (0.3) were both steady.

The Breakdown: NBC Tuesday in 2017-18 (The Voice, This Is Us, Chicago Med and more!)

It's time for a journey through the NBC Tuesday schedule in 2017-18...

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 6/19/18

FINALS UPDATE: America's Got Talent (2.2) adjusted up while The Middle (R) (0.5), The Middle (R) (0.4), Black-ish (R) (0.4) and Black-ish (R) (0.4) adjusted down.

The War of 18-49, NCIS: New Orleans

Two Years with The Mothership

CBS kept the first NCIS spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles joined at the hip with the mother series for a whooping five years. In fall 2014, they finally found something that inspired them to separate the two: another NCIS spin-off! For the most part, New Orleans didn't look too different from what Los Angeles had been doing in the slot. It opened with a 2.5 demo out of a 2.9 NCIS lead-in, which seemed kind of underwhelming for a series premiere night, but the retention really didn't get any worse beyond that. It held in the low-2's pretty much through the winter and hit high-1's during the spring. The 124 Plus was a bit below all five previous NCIS: LA seasons, but the NCIS mothership was also a little weaker than it did been during LA's run in the slot.

NCIS: NO had a surprisingly shaky start to season two, hovering around a 1.7 which was down a quarter to a third vs. the low-2's from the previous fall. But it pretty much held at that level for the entire rest of the season, and it looked a lot better in the spring than it did in the fall. In the end, it was a small downtick in Plus for New Orleans, while the mothership had a small uptick in its Michael Weatherly send-off season.

The Move to 10/9c

NCIS: LA got five years in the cushy 9/8c slot, but New Orleans only managed two; for fall 2016, the network sent it to 10/9c in order to accommodate Michael Weatherly's new series Bull. It was a really compatible night, but New Orleans still got nicked pretty hard in the later hour; after a 1.4 and 1.5 in the first two weeks, it was down to the low-1's the rest of the way. Season four saw another decline in the ratings, from 1.0ish in the fall to consistently fractional by February. It feels like this show has been just a bit disappointing at each step along the way. But when you're an NCIS spin-off, just a bit disappointing means you can run for a very long time.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	2014-15	Tuesday 9:00	2.08		1.6	2.5	detail
2	2015-16		Tuesday 9:00	1.73	-17%	1.5	2.5	detail	B-
3	2016-17	Tuesday 10:00	1.18	-32%	1.0	1.5	detail	C+
4	2017-18		Tuesday 10:00	0.96	-18%	0.8	1.1	detail	C
5	2018-19		Tuesday 10:00	0.78	-18%	0.6	1.0	detail	C+
6	2019-20	Tue 10:00, Sun 10:00	0.65	-17%	0.5	0.8	detail	B
7	2020-21	Sunday 10:00	0.50	-22%	0.4	0.6	detail	B-

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now21	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	2014-15	124	solid	0.80		95	149	149	101
2	2015-16	119	solid	0.77	-4%	101	168	117	124
3	2016-17	96	marginal	0.62	-19%	82	119	116	90
4	2017-18	88	marginal	0.56	-9%	75	101	92	82
5	2018-19	83	marginal	0.53	-6%	64	108	108	67
6	2019-20	79	marginal	0.51	-4%	56	104	89	67
7	2020-21	78	marginal	0.50	-1%	62	91	91	74
AVERAGE:		AVERAGE:	95	marginal
CAREER:		CAREER:	666	staple

The War of 18-49 chronicles the ratings history of veteran primetime series. For more, see the Index.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 6/18/18

FINALS UPDATE: Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R) (0.2) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC gave The Bachelorette lead-in (1.4) to new unscripted series The Proposal (0.8). While an improvement on recent scripted series that have aired here, it barely managed half of its lead-in's rating.

• On NBC, American Ninja Warrior (1.0) finally made the move to Monday, now at 9/8c leading out of Running Wild (0.7). ANW found itself below anything it had done on Wednesday earlier in the summer, and heavily below the year-ago 1.5.

• The CW's Supergirl finished its season with an uptick to 0.5, and Fox's So You Think You Can Dance (0.8) was also on the upswing.

SpotVault - The Proposal (ABC) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - Shades of Blue (NBC) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - The Four (Fox) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - The Affair (Showtime) - Summer 2018 Ratings

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 6/17/18

FINALS UPDATE: The $100,000 Pyramid (1.0) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• It was back to earth for ABC's Sunday Fun & Games as Celebrity Family Feud (1.1) plummeted by a massive seven tenths vs. last week's Kardashian-fueled premiere. The show was up 20% year-to-year last week but actually down about the same amount vs. last year's week 2.

• Later in the night, The $100,000 Pyramid (0.9) also took a sizable fall (though it matched week two of last year which aired at 10/9c), while To Tell the Truth (0.8) suddenly looked a lot more respectable as it matched last week's premiere.

• On NBC, Shades of Blue (0.6) returned for its third and final season at 10/9c, coming in below the low point of last season (which also aired on Sunday at 10/9c but during the spring). It led out of an America's Got Talent encore (0.5/0.8).

The Breakdown: CBS Tuesday in 2017-18 (NCIS, Bull, NCIS: New Orleans)

It's time for a journey through the CBS Tuesday schedule in 2017-18...

Spotted Ratings, Friday 6/15/18

FINALS UPDATE: 20/20 (0.5), Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R) (0.2), Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R) (0.2) and Life Sentence (0.1, -0.2) adjusted down.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 6/14/18

FINALS UPDATE: The Big Bang Theory (R) (1.0) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• NBC's Little Big Shots (0.8) and Marlon (0.7/0.6) returned for a five-week run together on Thursday. LBS returned at the same 0.8 with which it limped through most of April, and Marlon was far behind its reasonably successful first season in the late summer of last year (when it had mostly low-1's leading out of low-2's from America's Got Talent).

• The only other broadcast original was The Four (0.7) which matched last week's premiere in rounded numbers. But the preliminary hours (0.6/0.7) were both down a tenth, so it's definitely a weaker 0.7.

SpotVault - Marlon (NBC) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - 24 Hours to Hell and Back (Fox) - Summer 2018 Ratings

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 6/13/18

FINALS UPDATE: Shark Tank (R) (0.5) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Fox added another entry to the Gordon Ramsay portfolio with a nice premiere for 24 Hours to Hell and Back (1.1), up a tenth from its lead-in from MasterChef (1.0). That's also up a tenth from where last year's Ramsay newbie The F Word started (1.0 leading out of a 1.1 MasterChef).

• On NBC, it was the last Wednesday airing for American Ninja Warrior (1.0/1.1), which could only manage a tie head-to-head with Fox and was actually down from last week when it was facing the NBA Finals. Reverie held onto a 0.5 at 10/9c.

• CBS' Code Black (0.7) and CW's The Originals (0.3) both got back the tenth they lost against the NBA last week, while the ABC comedy repeats returned (0.7/0.7/0.7/0.6) and looked a little better than two weeks ago.

The Breakdown: ABC Tuesday in 2017-18 (Roseanne, The Middle, Black-ish and more!)

It's time for a journey through the ABC Tuesday schedule in 2017-18...

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 6/12/18

FINALS UPDATE: America's Got Talent (2.3) and Beat Shazam (0.8) adjusted up while World of Dance (1.4), The Flash (R) (0.2) and The 100 (R) (0.1, -0.2) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• NBC's America's Got Talent (2.0/2.3) and World of Dance (1.5) were even to narrowly down in their third weeks, remaining down some in Plus from the year-ago performance.

• ABC joined the original game on Tuesday with the premiere of Viola Davis-produced documentary series The Last Defense (0.5) at 10/9c. The Fox game shows (0.7/0.5) and 48 Hours: NCIS (0.5) matched last week.

SpotVault - Animal Kingdom (TNT) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - The Last Defense (ABC) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - The Bold Type (Freeform) - Summer 2018 Ratings

The War of 18-49, How to Get Away with Murder

TGIT Is Born

With Scandal catching fire in the 2013-14 season, ABC decided to slide both Grey's Anatomy and Scandal down by an hour, plugging up the long-troubled Thursday 8/7c hour and giving the Scandal lead-in juice to a third Shondaland show that could create a full themed night. And they came up with just the right show for that plan: How to Get Away with Murder, a legal thriller starring legit movie star Viola Davis. On premiere night, Scandal (3.8) built big from its Grey's Anatomy lead-in (3.1). And at 10/9c, Murder matched Scandal's 3.8 while building noticeably in total viewers.

Matching Scandal ultimately proved unsustainable, but Murder was darn close throughout season one. It fell to a 3.2 in week two and took another steep-ish drop to 2.8 in week four. But it managed to stay in the high-2's for the whole rest of the season, never venturing out of big hit territory. Despite airing at 10/9c, Murder amazingly ended up having the highest ratings average of any of the TGIT shows in 2014-15, though it did so on a bit of a technicality (since its short seasons allowed it to end in late February, while Scandal plowed on into the deep spring).

Murder Plummets Alongside Scandal

How to Get Away with Murder never really looked like that dazzling rookie series again. It came back for fall 2015 on a new series low 2.6 and was south of 2.0 a month later. That's not all on Murder; Scandal had hit its decline phase in this season as well, and Murder was still not that much lower than what Scandal was rating. But after a fall of 30%ish year-to-year declines, things got particularly rough when Murder came back for six weeks in early 2016. It opened the winter on a 1.8 (tying its series low), then fell to 1.5 for two weeks and 1.4 for the last three. That was more like 50% below where Murder had been at the end of season one.


The declines continued with a long run of low 1's early in season three, but this time it had a good reason: since Scandal was held for TGIT, the network had thrown new drama Notorious into the 9/8c hour and gotten terrible results. So while Notorious had gone fractional with the Grey's lead-in, Murder was doing really solid work just to get back to a 1.2ish at 10/9c. That became clearer when Murder increased in the ratings after Scandal's return in the winter. Compared with the dreadful end to season two, the last episodes of season three were virtually even in Plus, and the 1.4 finale actually managed to match the last year's raw numbers.

But whatever resurgence appeared to be happening in season three did not carry over to season four; it opened with a 1.0 after the Grey's Anatomy premiere (2.3) and was mostly fractional even with the return of Scandal as a lead-in in the fall. It upticked a little bit to 1.0ish after the new year, but in the end season four was down just about as much as season three, and season five took another similar-sized drop. The same declines appeared to be in store for the final season, but the final six episodes performed respectably, with help from a Grey's Anatomy lead-in and COVID-19 viewing inflation.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	2014-15	Thursday 10:00	2.96		2.7	3.8	detail
2	2015-16		Thursday 10:00	1.86	-37%	1.4	2.6	detail	D
3	2016-17		Thursday 10:00	1.30	-31%	1.1	1.5	detail	B
4	2017-18		Thursday 10:00	0.94	-27%	0.8	1.1	detail	C-
5	2018-19		Thursday 10:00	0.67	-29%	0.5	0.8	detail	C-
6	2019-20		Thursday 10:00	0.52	-21%	0.4	0.7	detail	C

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now20	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	2014-15	176	big hit	1.44		161	226	226	167
2	2015-16	128	hit	1.05	-27%	93	177	177	99
3	2016-17	106	solid	0.87	-17%	87	124	116	118
4	2017-18	86	marginal	0.70	-19%	74	97	96	88
5	2018-19	70	marginal	0.58	-18%	57	83	83	63
6	2019-20	64	flop	0.52	-9%	49	82	68	82
AVERAGE:		AVERAGE:	105	solid
CAREER:		CAREER:	630	staple

The War of 18-49 chronicles the ratings history of veteran primetime series. For more, see the Index.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 6/11/18

FINALS UPDATE: Mom (R) (0.8) and Man with a Plan (R) (0.7) adjusted up while The $100,000 Pyramid (R) (0.6) and NCIS: New Orleans (R) (0.4) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Back on the schedule after a quick end to the NBA Finals, ABC's The Bachelorette (1.4/1.3) stumbled back toward its premiere rating in week three, while Fox's So You Think You Can Dance (0.7) matched last week's premiere. The networks had minor interruptions from the news departments due to the North Korea nuclear summit.

•  NBC (probably anticipating an NBA Finals game) was in repeat mode with Running Wild (0.6) and American Ninja Warrior (0.7), and both shows will be back original next week. In the scripted world, Elementary (0.6) was even but Supergirl (0.4) ticked down.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 6/10/18

FINALS UPDATE: Celebrity Family Feud (1.8) adjusted up while To Tell the Truth (0.8) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC's Sunday Fun & Games was back with all returnees this year, and a big boost for a Kardashian/West episode of Celebrity Family Feud (1.7) which was two tenths above its year-ago premiere. The $100,000 Pyramid returned to the 9/8c hour and tied last year's 10/9c opener (a tenth below the Steve Harvey's Funderdome premiere a year ago). To Tell the Truth posted a 0.9 at 10/9c, 25% below the year-ago Pyramid.

• On CBS, The Tony Awards (1.0/1.1/1.0) are going to be up from last year's 0.9, while Fox featured the return of long-forgotten comedy Ghosted with 0.4's at 8:30 and 9:30. That's down 75% from its last original, which got a 1.6 on an NFL playoff night in January.

SpotVault - Celebrity Family Feud (ABC) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - The $100,000 Pyramid (ABC) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - To Tell the Truth (ABC) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - Claws (TNT) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - NBA Finals (ABC) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - Stanley Cup Finals (NBC) - Summer 2018 Ratings

The Breakdown: CW Monday in 2017-18 (Supergirl, Valor, iZombie and more!)

It's time for a journey through the CW Monday schedule in 2017-18...

Spotted Ratings, Friday 6/8/18

FINALS UPDATE: NBA Finals (5.4, +1.0) adjusted up while Jimmy Kimmel Live: Game Night (0.9, -1.5), NBA Countdown (1.5, -0.9), American Ninja Warrior (R) (0.5) and My Last Days (0.1) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• The NBA Finals came to a very early end with Game 4 on Friday. The preliminary hours (4.1/4.7) are actually down close to 20% vs. last year's 5.0/5.9 for Game 4, and will clearly come nowhere close to the deciding Game 5 from last year (9.0 on a Monday).

• Elsewhere, the finale of Fox's Phenoms is eyeing what would be the first 0.1 for a big four network on a night other than Saturday. (Five telecasts in 2016 and 2017, including an original episode of Doubt, have hit the mark on a Saturday.) EDIT: I missed a Brooklyn Nine-Nine repeat which hit a 0.1 against the Super Bowl on February 4. So this would be the seventh total, and second original to do it.

SpotVault - Cloak and Dagger (Freeform) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - Queen Sugar (OWN) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - Nashville (CMT) - 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - Younger (TV LAND) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - Humans (AMC) - Summer 2018 Ratings

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 6/7/18

FINALS UPDATE: Stanley Cup Finals (2.2, +0.3) adjusted up while Young Sheldon (R) (0.9) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Fox's The Four returned for a summer run, but the late winter heat did not carry over for this show; after starting with a 1.2 in January and ending with a 1.3 in February, it opened its season in June with just a 0.7. That put it in fourth place, behind repeats of ABC game shows and CBS comedies head-to-head.

• NBC dominated with the fifth and final game of the Stanley Cup Finals (2.2). It was wayyy up from Game 5 last year (which was not the final game of the series) and actually came very close to the sixth and final game last year (which averaged 2.3 on a Sunday).

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 6/6/18

FINALS UPDATE: NBA Finals (6.4, +1.2) and American Ninja Warrior (1.2) adjusted up while Jimmy Kimmel Live: Game Night (1.1, -1.5) and NBA Countdown (1.7, -0.9) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC dominated with Game 3 of the NBA Finals (4.8/5.6), with the preliminary hours this time down a little over 10% year-to-year but up a teeny bit vs. Game 1 on Thursday. The nightmare scenario for ABC execs (a four-game sweep) is still alive, and the series could be over as early as Friday.

• Unlike on the first two NBA nights, there were some actual important pieces of entertainment programming, and they were all down at least a little bit. NBC's American Ninja Warrior (1.1/1.2) held up decently while 10/9c drama newbie Reverie (0.5) lost a tenth in week two.

•  Fox's MasterChef (0.9/0.9) was also down (especially in the 9:00 hour when facing the actual game), CBS' Code Black (0.6) inched down, and the CW's The Originals fell to its first 0.2 of the season.

The Breakdown: Fox Monday in 2017-18 (Lucifer, The Gifted, The Resident)

It's time for a journey through the Fox Monday schedule in 2017-18...

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 6/5/18

FINALS UPDATE: Splitting Up Together (R) (0.4) and World of Dance (1.5) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• America's Got Talent (2.0/2.3) took a pretty big hit in week two, down at least three tenths from last week's premiere and now down in Plus vs. last year's enormous levels. At 10/9c, World of Dance (1.6) at least preliminarily appears to have held up better (though it's coming from a very high 1.7 last week).

• They were still miles and miles ahead of the competition, as Fox's game shows Beat Shazam (0.7) and Love Connection (0.5) each shed a tenth to hit the low end of their season one ratings. The 100 (0.3) returned even with two weeks ago on the CW, and CBS' 48 Hours: NCIS (0.5) was also steady.

The War of 18-49, The Flash

Speeding Out of the Gate

Two years after the CW found success with Arrow, it was ready to try a second entry from DC Comics. And it was clear on premiere night that The Flash was not just an extension of the brand, but a major expansion of it. Arrow never had a Plus higher than 64 in its first two seasons, but The Flash roared out of the gate with 4.83 million viewers and a 1.9 demo rating (113 Plus). It dropped from there, but by genre show standards, it was a great hold; it held onto 1.7 in week two, fell again to 1.5 in week three, but then spent almost the entire rest of season one in the 1.3-1.5 range (excepting a single 1.6 late in the fall and a single 1.2 in the spring). The first season averaged an 86 Plus, which at the time was bigger than any drama season in the CW's previous eight years... by nearly 50 percent! (The previous record holder was season one of The Vampire Diaries at 60.)

The Record-Setting Prime Years

But as that great hold across season one might have suggested, The Flash was far from a one-season wonder. It returned to a 1.4 demo and basically hovered around that point for the next five months; while there were a couple bad comparisons vs. the early season one episodes, it was very close to even in raw numbers for the rest of the season. Even with a minor softening in the spring, The Flash coasted to another CW record with a whooping 94 Plus.

With another good hold in spring 2016, it didn't seem impossible that The Flash could actually make it to the big four league average for season three. But those hopes were dashed pretty early, as it fell from a 1.3 premiere to 1.1 and 1.0 the next two weeks. It spent most of season three between 0.9 and 1.1, but did take the time to hit a series high Plus in a DC universe-wide crossover in late November. The Flash was still huge (exactly as huge as season one, in fact), but it was a bit of a downturn from season two and not particularly close to the 100 mark.

The Superhero Empire Begins to Crumble

And in season four, it was finally time for The Flash to take its first major step down from the historic heights of the first three seasons. It premiered to a 1.1 and still managed several 0.9's and 1.0's early in the season, but The Flash finally behaved like a mortal show in the second half of the season and fell to a bunch of 0.7's and even a few 0.6's. It was a 15% decline in Plus for The Flash, and pretty much all the superhero shows it had helped spawn elsewhere on the network took similar (or even bigger) declines in 2017-18. But at this 72 Plus level, The Flash would've still been the biggest drama in CW history if not for those first three seasons.

And with another 11% decline in season five, it managed to tie the largest non-Flash season in CW history (season four of Arrow). The downhill trend only continued in seasons six and seven, with its largest declines yet (though the season seven ones are somewhat inflated because it didn't return till March).

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	2014-15	Tuesday 8:00	1.44		1.2	1.9	detail
2	2015-16		Tuesday 8:00	1.36	-6%	1.1	1.6	detail	A
3	2016-17		Tuesday 8:00	1.04	-23%	0.8	1.5	detail	C+
4	2017-18		Tuesday 8:00	0.79	-24%	0.6	1.1	detail	C
5	2018-19		Tuesday 8:00	0.61	-23%	0.5	0.8	detail	C+
6	2019-20		Tuesday 8:00	0.44	-28%	0.3	0.6	detail	C
7	2021		Tuesday 8:00	0.21	-52%	0.1	0.3	detail	C-
8	2021-22	Tue 8:00, Wed 8:00	0.13	-38%	0.1	0.2	detail	C-
9	Spring 2023	Wednesday 8:00	0.09	-28%	0.1	0.1	detail	C+

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now23	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	2014-15	86	hit(CW)	0.37		71	113	113	89
2	2015-16	93	hit(CW)	0.40	+9%	78	111	95	87
3	2016-17	85	hit(CW)	0.36	-9%	69	125	102	90
4	2017-18	72	hit(CW)	0.31	-15%	57	96	96	73
5	2018-19	64	hit(CW)	0.27	-11%	49	81	81	59
6	2019-20	53	hit(CW)	0.23	-17%	39	79	73	45
7	2021	32	marginal(CW)	0.14	-39%	22	47	47	25
8	2021-22	25	marginal(CW)	0.11	-22%	16	45	45	22
9	Spring 2023	22	flop	0.09	-13%	14	26	23	21
AVERAGE:		AVERAGE:	59	hit(CW)

The War of 18-49 chronicles the ratings history of veteran primetime series. For more, see the Index.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 6/4/18

FINALS UPDATE: Man with a Plan (R) (0.7) and Stanley Cup Finals (1.6) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• The Bachelorette (1.6/1.5) got its post-Memorial Day rebound, putting it down by a tenth or two from the post-Memorial day episode a year ago. 10/9c dramas The Crossing (0.6) and Elementary (0.6) were also on the upswing.
  

• After stopping off on NBCSN on Wednesday (1.32) and Saturday (1.11), the Stanley Cup Finals returned to the broadcast network with a preliminary 1.5 on Monday. The cable games were both up about a tenth year-to-year, but it looks like this blowout will be down a good bit from the 2.0 for Game 4 last year.

• It was a quiet return for Fox's So You Think You Can Dance (0.7), down by two tenths vs. last year's premiere, while 9-1-1 (0.5) began repeating in its fall timeslot.

• And the CW was on the high side with Supergirl (0.5) and the double-episode return of Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.3/0.4). Whose Line? only got to 0.4 a couple times all of last summer, so this would be good if it holds in finals.

SpotVault - Whose Line Is It Anyway? (CW) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - So You Think You Can Dance (Fox) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - Dietland (AMC) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - Succession (HBO) - Summer 2018 Ratings

SpotVault - Pose (FX) - Summer 2018 Ratings

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 6/3/18

FINALS UPDATE: NBA Finals (6.5, +1.3), Bob's Burgers (R) (0.4) and Family Guy (R) (0.5) adjusted up while Jimmy Kimmel Live: Game Night (0.7, -1.5), NBA Countdown (1.3, -1.2) and The Simpsons (R) (0.3) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• It was another mostly unchecked night for the NBA Finals (4.8/5.8/5.1) on ABC. These prelims are tracking close to 10% behind the 5.2/6.3/5.6 preliminary hourlies for Game 2 of last season (which later adjusted up to 7.1).

• CBS' Instinct (0.5) was the only entertainment original on broadcast and bounced back a touch from its Memorial Weekend lows, but NBC was the best of the counter-programming with movie Jurassic World (0.7/1.0/1.1) as a sequel hits theaters in about three weeks. Fox began encores of the Nat Geo series One Strange Rock (0.2) at 7/6c.

The Breakdown: NBC Monday in 2017-18 (The Voice, The Brave, Good Girls and more!)

It's time for a journey through the NBC Monday schedule in 2017-18...

Spotted Ratings, Friday 6/1/18

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 5/31/18

FINALS UPDATE: NBA Finals (6.3, +1.2) adjusted up while Jimmy Kimmel Live: Game Night (0.9, -1.6) and NBA Countdown (1.6, -1.4) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers to come. The NBA Finals opened with Game 1 on ABC, and all other four networks were in complete repeat mode against it.

The Breakdown: CBS Monday in 2017-18 (Kevin Can Wait, Man with a Plan, Scorpion and more!)

It's time for a journey through the CBS Monday schedule in 2017-18...