FINALS UPDATE: New Amsterdam (R)
(0.4) and
Masters of Illusion (0.1) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- After just a year off the air, Last Man Standing (1.8) came back on Fox with an absolute boom. It put up a higher raw number than in any of its last four ABC seasons in the same timeslot. (The only time it got higher on Friday was a 2.0 for its very first Friday episode in November 2012.) It'll easily be a series high in A18-49+, handily outrating even its great 3.6 series premiere (152 Plus) on a Tuesday in fall of 2011. It helped lead-out multi-cam comedy The Cool Kids (1.5) to an exceptional start of its own, while Hell's Kitchen (0.9) matched last fall's premiere in a move to 9/8c.
- The CBS drama trio of MacGyver (0.7), Hawaii Five-0 (0.9) and Blue Bloods (0.9) took league average-ish drops from last year's respective 0.8/1.0/1.1 premieres.
- ABC stayed out of the way, going with a Truth & Lies special (0.5/0.6) rather than its new TGIF which will debut next week, as did NBC with encores of successful drama pilots Manifest (0.5) and New Amsterdam (0.5). At 10/9c, 20/20 and Dateline tied at 0.7 (meaning 20/20 was actually above the year-ago Premiere Friday when it led out of Inhumans).
Dateline
Fridays, 10/9c, NBC
FINALS UPDATE: Grey's Anatomy (1.9),
The Big Bang Theory (2.2) and
Thursday Night Football (4.8, +1.5) adjusted up.
WHAT MATTERS:- Not all revivals can take over the TV ratings world, and CBS proved that on Premiere Thursday with an underwhelming start for Murphy Brown (1.1) at 9:30, dropping by two tenths from its Mom lead-in (1.3). It basically looked like a high-end Life in Pieces performance from the last two years in this slot, which is not much of a compliment on opening night.
- CBS had additional problems on the opening Thursday as The Big Bang Theory (2.1) seems to have sprung a leak in its final season, dropping at least three tenths from its already mediocre premiere on Monday, and S.W.A.T. (0.7) had a poor, series low showing with its first look at the Murphy Brown lead-in. The consolation for CBS is that Young Sheldon (1.6) held up a bit better than TBBT in its return to Thursday, and Mom (1.3) looked fine in its return at 9/8c.
- NBC and ABC both combined a one-hour premiere and a two-hour premiere of veteran returnees. ABC's TGIT duo of Grey's Anatomy (1.8) and How to Get Away with Murder (0.8) along with NBC's skew-mismatched The Good Place (1.0) and Law and Order: SVU (1.1) were all down 20-30% from last season's openers. It's a familiar rate of decline for Murder, but rather steep by the standards Grey's and SVU have set in recent years.
- The Premiere Thursday winner was the NFL, as Fox had a marquee matchup for its first edition of Thursday Night Football and looks like it could be up year-to-year vs. the TNF broadcast opener on CBS last season. It may have also been a well above average night on cable news.
This is a sortable list of series and ratings averages for the 2018-19 season, including every series that has a page in the
SpotVault or
War of 18-49. For the first time, it is also a
filterable list, meaning you can boil the table down to just one network, one category of programming or only new shows. (The striped formatting looks kinda ugly when filtered, but hopefully that is worth the added functionality.)
Hello! After
an improved performance for my renew/cancel model last season, I didn't have a ton of time/motivation to change things up this summer. And yet... there is a long post ahead about the things that have changed!
FINALS UPDATE: Survivor (1.7) and
Chicago Fire (1.3) adjusted up while
Star (1.4) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- On Premiere Wednesday, it was ABC's turn to begin rolling out its new fall 2018 slate. Comedy Single Parents (1.3) looked maybe just a hair better than a typical episode of American Housewife in its 9:30 premiere after Modern Family (1.6), while new drama A Million Little Things (1.1) matched the year-ago second season premiere of Designated Survivor. It's a better debut night than last year's 9:30/10:00 premieres of failed The Mayor (1.2) and Kevin (Probably) Saves the World (1.0) on a Tuesday, but perhaps not by the margin ABC was hoping for. Returning comedies The Goldbergs (1.4), American Housewife (1.2 in a move to 8:30) and Modern Family (1.6) were all down 20-25% year-to-year in their season premieres.
- NBC put its three Chicago dramas together on the same night and got 1.2's across the board from Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago PD. It was a competent trio, but the shows generally skewed older than last season (perhaps benefiting in total viewers from no CBS drama competition). It was only a small improvement in Plus on the year-ago evening which led off with The Blacklist and Law and Order: SVU.
- Fox brought back the Lee Daniels duo of Empire (1.9) and Star (1.5), combining to go 19% below their premieres on the same night, and two tenths above their May season finales. For Empire, it's a continuation of the improved year-to-year declines that we saw from this show in the spring. (Last year's premiere was down a whooping 42%, and this one will be 20%ish.)
- And after premiering SEAL Team on the opening Wednesday last year, CBS returned to its strategy of offering a 90-minute Survivor premiere (1.6) followed by a 90-minute Big Brother season finale (1.7) on Premiere Wednesday. Survivor looked healthy, within a couple tenths of last fall's premiere, while Big Brother tied its highest rating of the summer but was (like most of the Big Bro season) down 20%ish from last year's finale.
Survivor
Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS
FINALS UPDATE: The Voice (2.2) and
This Is Us (3.0) adjusted up while
New Amsterdam (1.8) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- Premiere Tuesday, much like Premiere Monday, was highlighted by a strong NBC drama launch in the 10/9c hour. This time, it was medical drama New Amsterdam (1.9), going three tenths above the year-ago opener for Law and Order True Crime (1.6). While not quite a breakout on the level of Monday's Manifest, it's once again made more impressive by the fact that the lead-in was much reduced year-to-year; This Is Us (2.9) was off by about a quarter from last year's series high opener. (It was still a great return for TIU, which hasn't hit these levels on Tuesday since October of last year. The Voice (2.1) also ticked up from its somewhat mediocre start on Monday. )
- There was also, like Premiere Monday, a CBS drama premiere at 9/8c, but this one went better; Dick Wolf's FBI (1.3) actually managed to outrate the Monday opener of Magnum P.I. (1.2), and also tied Bull's highest rating in the timeslot last year. Surrounding it were NCIS (1.4) and NCIS: New Orleans (1.0), which looked fairly healthy on a year-to-year basis.
- Fox had a drama duo on premiere Tuesday, young-skewing sophomore The Gifted (0.9) and the third-season premiere of Lethal Weapon (0.8) with a new lead. It will be tough for these shows to survive into whatever New Fox is next year, but they have not taken themselves totally out of the mix at least on premiere night.
- And ABC continued its slow start to the season with another two sluggish hours of Dancing with the Stars (0.9) and a weak 20/20 special at 10/9c (0.5).
FINALS UPDATE: The Big Bang Theory (2.5) adjusted up while
Dancing with the Stars (1.0) and
The Good Doctor (1.3) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- For the second straight year, a new 10/9c drama popped on Premiere Monday. This time, it was NBC's turn, as Manifest (2.2) went big enough to grow on its The Voice lead-in (2.0). It's one of the biggest post-Voice premieres ever in A18-49+, perhaps even beating where This Is Us started two years ago (229), and it didn't get a ton of help from The Voice which was down 20%ish from last fall's premiere.
- Despite bringing The Big Bang Theory (2.4) and Young Sheldon (1.7) over to Monday for a week, CBS was unable to create anything like the spark it got on Sheldon's premiere night a year ago; Big Bang was down close to 40% from the 4.1 on that night, while Sheldon dropped by over half and appears headed for a new series low. The network was then left with a mediocre at best 1.2 for Magnum P.I.'s premiere at 9/8c, as that show faces the prospect of two unproven newbies as its lead-in next week, followed by a 0.9 for the timeslot premiere of Bull at 10/9c.
- Fox debuted its sophomore duo of The Resident (1.1) and 9-1-1 (1.6). The former tied its highest Monday rating from last season, while the latter had basically a typical raw number from season one. There's definitely an opportunity for this to be a big growth night vs. last year's Lucifer and The Gifted (which premiered at 1.1/1.5 last year).
- And the new 10/9c drama that popped a year ago, The Good Doctor (1.4), was taken down a peg by the increased competition in its hour. Even if it doesn't adjust down (and it's pending a Monday Night Football preemption) it would be down over a third from its year-ago premiere, and three tenths below its season finale in March. Dancing with the Stars (1.1) will be down at least three tenths from last fall's 1.4 on premiere Monday (it opened with a 1.6 the previous week).
Young Sheldon
Thursdays, 8:30/7:30c, CBS
The Voice
Mondays, 8/7c, NBC
FINALS UPDATE: Big Brother (1.4),
Sunday Night Football (6.4, +0.7),
The OT (3.7, +0.2) and
9-1-1 (2.6, +0.4) adjusted up while
60 Minutes (R)
(1.0),
NCIS: Los Angeles (R)
(0.4),
Football Night in America p2 (1.5, -0.6),
Football Night in America p3 (2.9, -1.4),
NFL Overrun (4.9, -0.3),
Family Guy (R)
(0.8) and
Rel (R)
(0.5) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- Fox used its second late afternoon NFL lead-in of the season for a Sunday preview of sophomore drama 9-1-1 (2.5/2.0), which moves to its new Monday 9/8c timeslot starting tonight. Like Rel from two weeks ago, this show aired live in all time zones and thus should adjust up in finals. It's abundantly clear that this show moved the needle much, much more than Rel; its 2.5 in the 8:00 half-hour was 47% above last week's Rel prelim, even though the NFL 7:30 prelim was down about 20% (3.5 vs. a 4.4 two weeks ago).
- Elsewhere on the eve of the new season, ABC finished up its summer of game shows with new season lows for Celebrity Family Feud (0.6) and a double dose of The $100,000 Pyramid (0.6/0.5). NBC had a slightly down Sunday Night Football (5.5/6.0/5.2) and CBS' Big Brother (1.3) had its last Sunday airing of the summer.
FINALS UPDATE: 20/20 (0.5) adjusted up while
Masters of Illusion (R)
(0.1) adjusted down.
FINALS UPDATE: Young Sheldon (R)
(1.1),
Big Brother (1.5),
S.W.A.T. (R)
(0.5, -0.2),
The Good Place (R)
(0.4, -0.2),
The Good Place (R)
(0.4, -0.2) and
Law and Order: SVU (R)
(0.5, -0.3) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- Numbers to come. CBS and NBC preliminaries are pending local Thursday Night Football preemptions.
FINALS UPDATE: Big Brother (1.5),
America's Got Talent (2.1) and
MasterChef (1.0) adjusted up while
SEAL Team (R)
(0.4) and
I Feel Bad (1.1) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- NBC used its two-hour America's Got Talent finale (2.0) for a double-episode preview of Thursday-bound sitcom I Feel Bad (1.2/0.8). Talent was down a steep 33% from last season's 3.0 finale, while I Feel Bad was at least preliminarily down 23% vs. last year's 1.3 hour of The Good Place. But if Talent adjusts up and/or IFB adjusts down (and Talent ran two minutes into the 10:00 hour), the year-to-year declines will end up similar.
- Fox's MasterChef (0.9/1.1) also finished its season, down two tenths/one tenth from last year's final two hours (though the half-hours (0.9/1.0/1.1/1.2) suggest one or both hours could be close to adjusting up). CBS' Big Brother (1.4) will continue into Premiere Wednesday next week.
FINALS UPDATE: Castaways (0.4) and
America's Got Talent (2.3) adjusted up while
NCIS: New Orleans (R)
(0.5),
The Paley Center Salutes This Is Us (0.8),
The Flash (R)
(0.2) and
Legends of Tomorrow (R)
(0.2) adjusted down.
FINALS UPDATE: Primetime Emmy Awards (2.4, +0.3) adjusted up while
Castaways (0.5),
Castaways (0.4, -0.2) and
The Good Doctor (R)
(0.3, -0.3) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
- It was NBC's turn with the Primetime Emmy Awards, which meant the show couldn't air in its usual Sunday slot thanks to the NFL, though it did air much closer to the start of the season compared with the last several late-August ceremonies on NBC. The preliminary hours (2.2/2.3/1.9) were virtually identical to last year's 2.2/2.3/2.0 on CBS, which later adjusted up to a 2.5.
- With the Monday reality staples wrapped for the summer, there was not much audience elsewhere on broadcast. Two hours of Castaways on ABC (0.6) were preliminarily close to a special on the Manson cult on Fox (0.6/0.7). CBS dramas Salvation (0.4) and Elementary (0.5) wrapped for the season.
FINALS UPDATE: Sunday Night Football (7.0, +0.8) adjusted up while
60 Minutes (R)
(2.2, -0.4),
NCIS: Los Angeles (R)
(0.6),
Football Night in America p2 (2.0, -0.4),
Football Night in America p3 (3.6, -1.2) and
Bob's Burgers (R)
(0.4, -0.5) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- Back from a week off and up against week two of the NFL, Celebrity Family Feud (0.9) and The $100,000 Pyramid (0.7) each fell to new season lows. (They still made for an improvement on the same night a year ago, when Pyramid fell to a 0.5 at 10/9c against the NFL and the Emmys.)
- CBS' lineup, including 60 Minutes (3.2/1.9) and Big Brother (1.8/1.5), started 7 minutes after their listed times due to overrun from the national late-afternoon NFL window. With the Dallas Cowboys in primetime, NBC's Sunday Night Football (6.3/6.5/5.8) was preliminarily down a touch from last week's Sunday opener.
FINALS UPDATE: American Ninja Warrior (R)
(0.5) adjusted down.
FINALS UPDATE: The Big Bang Theory (R)
(1.1),
Young Sheldon (R)
(1.0),
Big Brother (1.6),
S.W.A.T. (R)
(0.5),
The Good Place (R)
(0.5),
The Good Place (R)
(0.4),
The Good Place (R)
(0.4),
The Good Place (R)
(0.4) and
Law and Order: SVU (R)
(0.4) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
FINALS UPDATE: Big Brother (1.5) and
America's Got Talent (1.6) adjusted up while
American Housewife (R)
(0.6),
Modern Family (R)
(0.6),
Castaways (0.3) and
SEAL Team (R)
(0.4) adjusted down.
FINALS UPDATE: Castaways (0.4) and
Brooklyn Nine-Nine Presents NBC Fall 2018 (0.7) adjusted down.
FINALS UPDATE: Bachelor in Paradise (1.1, -0.3),
The Good Doctor (R)
(0.4, -0.2),
Penn and Teller: Fool Us (R)
(0.2),
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R)
(0.2) and
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R)
(0.2) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- ABC (Los Angeles/Oakland) and CW (New York) preliminary ratings are pending Monday Night Football preemptions.
FINALS UPDATE: Big Brother (1.6),
Sunday Night Football (7.5, +0.9) and
Rel (1.9, +0.2) adjusted up while
60 Minutes (R)
(0.8),
Hawaii Five-0 (R)
(0.4),
Football Night in America p2 (1.2, -1.2),
Football Night in America p3 (3.4, -2.2),
NFL Overrun (5.6),
The OT (4.2, -0.2) and
Family Guy (R)
(0.6) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- Fox got off to an early start with its 2018-19 entertainment slate, using its first late afternoon NFL lead-in (with a 4.4 rating in the 7:30 half-hour) to preview upcoming sitcom Rel (1.7); it'll return in its regular 9:30/8:30c slot in three weeks. This looks to be down quite a bit from last year's preview of The Orville, which had a 2.3 prelim for the full 8:00 hour, including a 2.6 in the 8:00 half-hour, leading out of an even lower preliminary 7:30 NFL rating (4.2).
- NBC had its first Sunday night NFL game of the season, averaging a preliminary 6.6ish from 8:30 to 11:00. That's down in the 15-20% range from last year's opening Sunday, which had an 8.0 prelim (later adjusting up to 9.1).
- And ABC saw a severe year-to-year decline from the Miss America Competition (0.7). It was down four tenths vs. last year's 1.1.
FINALS UPDATE: Big Brother (1.5) and
Sunday Night Football (6.7) adjusted up while
Football Night in America p3 (2.8, -1.1) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- The NFL regular season kicked off on NBC, a little later than the scheduled start time due to a rain delay. Preliminary ratings in the 9:00 (7.0) and 10:00 (6.1) hours were down in the general vicinity of 10% from the kickoff game last year (which had 7.6/6.9 in those preliminary hours).
FINALS UPDATE: Big Brother (1.6),
America's Got Talent (1.5) and
World of Dance (1.1) adjusted up while
The Goldbergs (R)
(0.6),
American Housewife (R)
(0.5) and
SEAL Team (R)
(0.4) adjusted down.
The Breakdown
The Breakdown is a comprehensive look at the broadcast networks' performance in the most recent season, comparing the season's historical-adjusted ratings with the previous season (and the historical averages).
FINALS UPDATE: Castaways (0.4),
Bull (R)
(0.5),
Making It (0.7),
The Flash (R)
(0.1) and
The Outpost (R)
(0.1) adjusted down.
FINALS UPDATE: Mom (R)
(0.6) and
American Ninja Warrior (1.1) adjusted up.
FINALS UPDATE: Saturday Night Football (2.0) and
Big Brother (1.3) adjusted up while
The Goldbergs (R)
(0.5, -0.3),
60 Minutes (R)
(0.5),
NCIS: Los Angeles (R)
(0.3) and
NCIS: Los Angeles (R)
(0.3) adjusted down.
FINALS UPDATE: American Ninja Warrior (R)
(0.4) and
Masters of Illusion (R)
(0.1) adjusted down.
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Here are War of 18-49 records for currently airing CW scripted series that are not yet four years old (and thus don't have stand-alone War pages).
