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.