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...


fall

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2016-17	NCIS		NCIS	Bull		Bull	NCIS: New Orleans		NCIS: New Orleans	130
	2016-17	152		152	133		133	103			103	130
2017-18	NCIS		NCIS	Bull		Bull	NCIS: New Orleans		NCIS: New Orleans	111 (-15%)
	2017-18	131 (-14%)		130.897466663676	109 (-18%)		109 (-18%)	92 (-11%)			92 (-11%)	110.657278891862
VsAvg	+3%		0.0317558563331459	-4%		-0.036052226389537	+2%		0.0247647697186054	+1%
Rank	9/17		9/17	11/17		11/17	9/17		9/17	10/17

NCIS and Bull were declining double digits in Plus in the winter and spring of last year, and that pretty much rolled on into this season, with Bull taking a particularly stark drop vs. the opening weeks of the series last year.

winter

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2016-17	NCIS		NCIS	Bull		Bull	NCIS: New Orleans		NCIS: New Orleans	115
	2016-17	143		143	111		111	92			92	115
2017-18	NCIS		NCIS	Bull		Bull	NCIS: New Orleans		NCIS: New Orleans	110 (-5%)
	2017-18	132 (-8%)		132.37902795645	109 (-1%)		109 (-1%)	87 (-5%)			87 (-5%)	109.702007343939
VsAvg	+7%		0.0749775670357293	-1%		-0.0058366244588485	+1%		0.00520482189948835	+3%
Rank	9/17		9/17	12/17		12/17	10/17		10/17	10/17

All three shows slowed into the single digits after the new year, with Bull holding up the best.

spring

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2016-17	NCIS		NCIS	Bull		Bull	NCIS: New Orleans		NCIS: New Orleans	103
	2016-17	121		121	99		99	89			89	103
2017-18	NCIS		NCIS	Bull		Bull	NCIS: New Orleans		NCIS: New Orleans	104 (+1%)
	2017-18	122 (+0%)		121.81409168495	107 (+8%)		107 (+8%)	82 (-7%)			82 (-7%)	103.602095621815
VsAvg	+13%		0.127456544890177	+6%		0.0621974107548288	+2%		0.024338375084241	+8%
Rank	8/17		8/17	9/17		9/17	9/17		9/17	8/17

And the first two shows did even better in the last section of the season, with Bull on the upside and NCIS riding its Pauley Perrette farewell to a break-even spring despite the sudden arrival of huge competition from Roseanne.

Rating the Ratings

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
NCIS*	1.1	1.40	1.6	-18%	128	hit	-9%	detail
Bull	1.0	1.19	1.3	-16%	109	solid	-7%	detail
NCIS: New Orleans	0.8	0.96	1.1	-18%	88	marginal	-8%	detail

NCIS: It would've been a double-digit decline if not for the Perrette farewell, but I like that it generally got healthier as the season progressed. The double-digit declines basically lasted for one full year and then ended. Next year: life without Abby. Grade: C+.

Bull: This show started the worst of the three but even accounting for the Roseanne factor at 8/7c, I would say it ended the best. That spring retention is basically as good as what it was doing in the fall of its first season. Grade: B-.

NCIS: New Orleans: I'm being a little harder on this one because it seemed to really lag farther behind the other two in the spring. It's up against two new dramas which will be intriguing ratings-wise (The Rookie and New Amsterdam) next fall; will that help or hurt? Grade: C.

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 Tuesday.