FINALS UPDATE: Chicago Med (R)
(0.7) and
Chicago Fire (R)
(0.6) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- A very cold night in America brought a lot of ratings upticks, but as usual none was more impressive than Fox's The Masked Singer (2.6), which was up a whooping three tenths from last week and doubled everything else on broadcast. Its lead-in 24 Hours to Hell and Back (1.2) was also up for the second straight week, tying its season/series high from premiere night.
- ABC was up at the beginning of the night with The Goldbergs (1.3) and in the second half with Single Parents (0.8) and Match Game (0.6), but Modern Family (1.2) was even while Schooled (1.0) looked a bit shakier than usual at 8:30.
- CBS was up vs. last Wednesday with Celebrity Big Brother (1.2) and even with Criminal Minds (0.8), which had to lead out of comedy repeats (0.6/0.5). The CW (0.4/0.2) was even and NBC's Chicago series were in repeats (0.8/0.7/0.6).
FINALS UPDATE: The Flash (0.7) adjusted up while
The Masked Singer (R)
(0.5) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- Originally slated as a State of the Union date, January 29th saw most of the big four opt for repeats after that fell through. The exceptions were a double dip of Ellen's Game of Games originals on NBC (1.6/1.7), making up for the original episode that was pre-empted by the last political interruption, and CBS' annual Super Bowl commercials special (1.0) which was down a tenth year-to-year.
- The CW had the original scripted landscape to itself, but was nonetheless down a tenth from last week with The Flash (0.6) and Roswell, New Mexico (0.3).
FINALS UPDATE: Magnum P.I. (0.8) adjusted up.
WHAT MATTERS:- It was another virtual dead heat between reality leaders The Bachelor (1.8/1.7) and America's Got Talent: The Champions (1.7/1.8), which each winning one of the two hours. At 10/9c, The Good Doctor (1.1) maintained a lead over Manifest (1.0), but was down a tenth while Manifest was steady.
- Fox dramas The Resident (0.9) and The Passage (0.9) were both down for the second week in a row, while recently renewed Magnum P.I. remained at 0.7 after a lower Celebrity Big Brother (1.1) lead-in. (Though CBB was up from its Friday/Sunday telecasts.) The CW (0.4/0.3) was even.
Siren
Thursdays, 8/7c, Freeform
FINALS UPDATE: America's Funniest Home Videos (R)
(1.0),
Shark Tank (0.9) and
Madam Secretary (0.5) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- Rent (1.4) became the latest musical production on broadcast. It was basically in line with the last couple of Fox productions (The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1.7) in October 2016 and A Christmas Story (1.5) in December 2017), but a far cry from the high points in the tradition like 2013's The Sound of Music and 2016's Grease.
- ABC had another big night with America's Funniest Home Videos (1.3) and the 9/8c Shark Tank (1.1) tying their season highs from two weeks ago, while Shark Tank aired a second original at 10/9c (1.0). AFHV had a decisive head-to-head win against CBS' Celebrity Big Brother (1.0), while NCIS: Los Angeles (0.8) was on the downswing with an incompatible lead-in.
- NBC had a modest American Ninja Warrior special (0.7/0.6), and the CW's Charmed (0.3) inched up from last week's low.
Here's a look at the big Renewology developments in week 18. This week, with a lull on the premiere calendar, I'm taking a look back at all the stuff that has premiered since the new year. With some more data in the books, which perceptions have changed?
FINALS UPDATE: Dynasty (0.1) adjusted down.
FINALS UPDATE: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.9) and
The Good Place (0.7) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
FINALS UPDATE: No adjustments.
WHAT MATTERS:- ABC's Schooled stabilized at 1.1 in its third week, surrounded by even The Goldbergs (1.2) and Modern Family (1.2). However, Single Parents (0.7) fell to a new low at 9:30.
- Fox's The Masked Singer (2.3) had its first up week, and its lead-in 24 Hours to Hell and Back (1.1) was also up a notch. NBC also got some growth with the first two hours of Chicago night (1.3/1.2/1.1).
- Night three brought another drop for Celebrity Big Brother (1.1), followed by the returns of dramas SEAL Team (0.8) and Criminal Minds (0.8). The CW's Riverdale (0.4) dropped from its winter premiere.
FINALS UPDATE: Celebrity Big Brother (1.3) and
The Flash (0.7) adjusted up while
The Kids Are Alright (0.8) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- Finale night for The Conners (1.5) saw a nice two-tenth bump for the series, and its lead-out The Kids Are Alright (0.9) was also up a notch. The growth ended there for ABC; Black-ish (0.8) and The Rookie (0.7) were even, sandwiching a down Splitting Up Together (0.6).
- Night two of Celebrity Big Brother (1.2) was two tenths lower than the Monday premiere. Though it had similar raw numbers to usual occupant NCIS, it was far less compatible with FBI (0.8), and that show plummeted to a new low at 9/8c. NCIS: New Orleans stayed at 0.8.
- Week two stayed promising for Roswell, New Mexico, which hung onto a 0.4 leading out of The Flash's 0.6 for the second straight week. (Roswell was down a tick in A18-34 and A25-54, and by about 20% in total viewers, so it may have taken some hit in the un-rounded.)
- NBC was down a tenth from last week with Ellen's Game of Games (1.6) and This Is Us (1.9), while The Gifted remained at 0.5 after a repeat of Lethal Weapon (0.5).
FINALS UPDATE: No adjustments.
WHAT MATTERS:- CBS brought back Celebrity Big Brother (1.4) for a second run, and it started a little weaker in Plus than the inaugural season which opened at 1.8 a year ago. Considering it was up against two reality heavyweights in The Bachelor (1.6) and America's Got Talent: The Champions (1.5/1.6), CBS will probably take it.
- But the bigger lead-in (plus Sunday's big game exposure) did absolutely nothing for Magnum P.I., which is at its second straight preliminary 0.7 and will need more adjustment help to avoid a new low in finals.
- While the reality staples on ABC and NBC were down a touch, the 10/9c dramas held up; The Good Doctor matched last week's 1.2, and Manifest (1.0) preliminarily managed to get back a tenth after last week's large drop.
- On Fox, week two of The Passage (1.0) was down three tenths from last week's premiere, not a catastrophic drop but a little higher than the average newbie. It matched lead-in The Resident (1.0), which was down a notch from last week's season high.
- And Black Lightning (0.3) made the move to Monday on the CW, where it was a tenth below its Arrow lead-in (0.4) and in line with what it did for most of the fall after The Flash.
FINALS UPDATE: AFC Championship (16.3, +1.8) adjusted up while
Magnum P.I. (2.4, -1.4) and
Charmed (0.2) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- Numbers to come. Overtime in the AFC Championship led to a late start (10:39ish ET) for a special Magnum P.I. on CBS. Shark Tank was the only entertainment original elsewhere on the big four, while the CW returned to action with Supergirl and Charmed.
Here's a look at the big Renewology developments in week 17.
FINALS UPDATE: No adjustments.
WHAT MATTERS:- With the usually dominant Fox comedies in repeats (0.7/0.6), ABC's comedies were on the high end with Fresh Off the Boat (0.7) and Speechless (0.6) both tying season highs. That led to a strong night for 20/20 (0.7/0.8) as well.
- CBS had matching 0.8's for MacGyver and Hawaii Five-0, marking an uptick for Mac and a downtick for Five-0. (Blue Bloods (0.6) was in repeats.) NBC was even with Blindspot (0.6), The Blacklist (0.6) and Dateline (0.6), while the CW got back up to 0.2 with the return of Dynasty (0.2), and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (0.2) followed suit.
FINALS UPDATE: Mom (1.2) and
Fam (0.9) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- A new timeslot provided some solid initial results for A Million Little Things (1.1), as the ABC drama went to Thursday 9/8c and tied its series premiere rating. That's a major boost over its usual 0.7's on Wednesday, and it hadn't done better than a 0.8 since week two. It's also better than what ABC usually got from fall occupant Station 19 (though Station did better on crossover nights). It was surrounded by Grey's Anatomy (1.9, up a notch from its fall finale) and How to Get Away with Murder (0.7, down a tick).
- NBC Thursday took a noticeable hit with The Titan Games (1.3) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.9) both down by three tenths from last week. The Good Place (0.8) was down one tenth, and Law and Order: SVU (0.9) actually managed an uptick at 10/9c.
- On CBS, week two of Fam (1.0) was down a typical two tenths, and the other three comedies (2.3/1.7/1.3) were all down at least a tenth as well.
- Fox's dramas (0.7/0.7) were even, while the CW's Supernatural (0.4) kicked off 2019 by tying its fall finale.
FINALS UPDATE: No adjustments.
WHAT MATTERS:- Week two of Schooled (1.1) was down two tenths from last week's premiere, though it also had less help as both The Goldbergs (1.2) and Modern Family (1.2) inched down. Match Game (0.5) was down as well at 10/9c, leaving Single Parents (0.8) as the only ABC show to avoid a decline in the rounded numbers.
- On Fox, it was a relatively stable week three for The Masked Singer (2.2), down just a tenth more following last week's sizable drop, while 24 Hours to Hell and Back (1.0) shed another tenth at 8/7c.
- NBC's Chicago Med (1.2) and Chicago Fire (1.1) were both down from last week's returns, but Chicago PD (1.1) picked up a tenth against CBS repeat competition at 10/9c.
- And the CW was back in business on Wednesday with Riverdale up to 0.5 for the first time since week three of the season, but All American stuck with another 0.2.
FINALS UPDATE: New Amsterdam (1.0) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- After 0.5, 0.3 and 0.2 for its series premieres in the fall, the CW added a 0.4 to the mix with new drama Roswell, New Mexico (0.4). It was a couple tenths behind its The Flash lead-in (0.6), making it a much less impressive premiere than what Black Lightning did here a year ago, but it was at the high end of what Black Lightning season two has been doing in the fall.
- NBC completed its winter lineup with the return of This Is Us (2.0) at 9/8c; while it was down a notch from the fall finale, it seemed to help out Ellen's Game of Games (1.7), which grew two tenths from last week's season premiere. New Amsterdam (1.1) was up a notch at 10/9c, matching what it was doing after TIU in the late fall.
- ABC was down in the 8/7c hour with The Conners (1.3) and especially with The Kids Are Alright (0.8), but Black-ish (0.8) and Splitting Up Together (0.7) matched last week's address-delayed ratings. Back to airing on time, The Rookie (0.7) was up a tenth.
- CBS' NCIS (1.3) grew a tenth from last week, while the delayed returns of FBI (1.0) and NCIS: New Orleans (0.8) both matched their fall finales. Fox's Lethal Weapon stayed at 0.7 while The Gifted dropped back to 0.5.
FINALS UPDATE: The Bachelor (1.7),
The Neighborhood (1.3) and
Magnum P.I. (0.8) adjusted up while
Bull (0.7) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- Fox got a nice premiere rating for 9/8c genre drama The Passage (1.3), if not quite as strong as last January's 9-1-1 launch. On most networks, Passage would be starting with a lot of room to work with; on new Fox, it may have to hold up quite well from here. Its lead-in The Resident (1.1) tied with the season premiere for its highest rating this season.
- In the unscripted wars, The Bachelor (1.6) upticked from last week's premiere and pulled to within a tenth of America's Got Talent: The Champions (1.7), which was down a notch. But ABC pulled even or maybe even a bit ahead for the full nightly average; The Good Doctor (1.2) returned with an uptick at 10/9c and handily defeated Manifest (0.9), which saw its run of 1.1's come to a crashing halt.
- CBS had its own best-since-premiere rating with The Neighborhood (1.2), and an OK send-off for Happy Together (0.9) at 8:30. But Magnum P.I. (0.7) had a bitter start to 2019, returning on a new low as it prepares to air after the AFC Championship game on Sunday.
FINALS UPDATE: NFL Overrun 7:30 (10.1, +0.7) adjusted up while
The Simpsons (3.2, -0.6),
Bob's Burgers (2.1),
Family Guy (1.7) and
Rel (1.0) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- Fox had postseason NFL (10.7/9.4) running slightly into the 8:00 hour, so there may be some downward adjustments for The Simpsons (3.8), Bob's Burgers (2.2), Family Guy (1.8) and Rel (1.1). We'll see if the comedies can match or beat last year's ratings on the year-ago evening (3.3/2.1/1.8/1.2).
- With no Golden Globes competition, it was a breakout night for America's Funniest Home Videos (1.3) and Shark Tank (1.1) on ABC, as both built significantly on last week's already season high levels.
- The CBS dramas (0.9/0.9/0.6) all matched last week, while the CW did well by its standards with the Critics Choice Awards (0.2/0.4/0.4).
FINALS UPDATE: MacGyver (0.7),
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R)
(0.2) and
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R)
(0.2) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- Like on Thursday, the winter bounce seemed to come a week late for much of Friday. Fox comedies Last Man Standing (1.2) and The Cool Kids (1.0) both surged by two tenths from last week, while Hell's Kitchen (0.8) was up a notch. CBS dramas MacGyver (0.8) and Hawaii Five-0 (0.9) also grew by a tenth.
- And in its first episode of the winter, NBC's Blindspot rose to 0.6 for the first time all season, joined by another 0.6 at 9/8c from The Blacklist.
- The exception to the upward momentum was ABC, where Fresh Off the Boat (0.7) and Speechless (0.5) matched last week, while another two-hour 20/20 (0.6) couldn't hold onto last week's big surge. And the CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was back from a month off with a return to 0.1.
Here's a look at the big Renewology developments in week 16. Let's talk about some solid comedy premieres!
FINALS UPDATE: Mom (1.4) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- After five years on Fox, Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.2) made the move to NBC, airing at 9/8c after week two of The Titan Games (1.6). It was a nice week two hold for Titan, and Brooklyn had its highest raw ratings in over two calendar years (since New Year's Day 2017). It's a Plus level the show almost never saw on Fox without big NFL help (though it's actually rather close to the series premiere, which had a 138 in September 2013).
- The Good Place (0.9) went to 9:30, where it was head-to-head with new CBS comedy Fam (1.2). The CBS newbie actually managed to outrate the Murphy Brown premiere (1.1) from the fall, though it also had more help from a season high edition of Mom (1.4). Earlier in the evening, the winter bounces came a week late for the Sheldon-verse, as The Big Bang Theory (2.4) and Young Sheldon (1.9) each piled another couple tenths on top of their winter premiere ratings from last week.
- On Fox, The Orville (0.7) showed some much-needed life in its second Thursday airing of the season, growing by just over a full tenth from last week in the un-rounded prelims. ABC's Truth and Lies special on Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton (0.7) matched last week's JFK, Jr. special.
FINALS UPDATE: Chicago Fire (1.2) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- About a quarter of the demo audience came out of The Masked Singer phenomenon (2.3) in week two, though that still left it at megahit levels and nearly double anything else on Wednesday. Its lead-in 24 Hours to Hell and Back (1.1) held up better, dropping just a tenth and still tied with its highest rating from last summer.
- ABC featured the premiere of The Goldbergs spin-off Schooled (1.3), which promisingly managed to match both its lead-in from The Goldbergs mothership (1.3) as well as lead-out Modern Family (1.3). That's better than anything American Housewife has done in the timeslot all season, and two tenths above last year's 8:30 newbie Alex, Inc. Things soured in the second half of the ABC evening, with Single Parents falling to a 0.8 at 9:30 and Match Game (0.6) returning at 10/9c, down a third from last year's winter premiere.
- NBC's One Chicago returned with Chicago Med (1.3) and Chicago Fire (1.3) both up from their fall finales, but Chicago PD (1.0) down a notch. It was also a mixed bag on CBS, as SEAL Team (0.8) was even against the return of Fire but Criminal Minds (0.8) managed an increase at 10/9c.
Match Game
Wednesdays, 10/9c, ABC
Good Trouble
Tuesdays, 8/7c, Freeform
FINALS UPDATE: Black-ish (0.8) and
The Gifted (0.6) adjusted up while
NCIS: New Orleans (R) (0.5) adjusted down. (The address ratings were not released in finals; the prelims are still listed below.)
WHAT MATTERS:- The 8:00 hour saw the original return of last winter's unscripted smash Ellen's Game of Games (1.5). It took the victory in a tough 8/7c hour, but still looked to have softened even relative to its lowest points last winter. It was up against ABC's The Conners (1.4, matching its fall finale) and The Kids Are Alright (1.0, up a tenth), CBS' NCIS (1.2, down a tenth) and Fox's Lethal Weapon (0.7, matching last week).
- Then a presidential address and Democratic response threw a wrench into the 9:00 half-hour. The 20ish-minute interruption meant that ABC's Black-ish (0.7), Splitting Up Together (0.7) and The Rookie (0.6) along with Fox's The Gifted (0.5) all started late and aired in their entirety. The prelims do not match up exactly with when these shows aired, so stay tuned for finals.
- CBS took a different approach, pulling its scheduled originals of FBI and NCIS: New Orleans in favor of repeats (0.6/0.6). And NBC took a bit of a hybrid path, pulling the planned 9:00 original of Game of Games for a repeat joined in progress (1.4), but still airing an original New Amsterdam (1.0) at 10/9c.
FINALS UPDATE: No adjustments.
WHAT MATTERS:- The first Monday of 2019 saw only a partial return for broadcast programming, with many shows holding off for a week due to the NCAA football championship game on ESPN. NBC kicked off America's Got Talent: The Champions (1.8/1.9), a regular season version of the summer staple. It couldn't live up to the enormous standards of the summer edition (which opened on a 2.5 in 2018), but still did very well to give NBC a number just below The Voice's fall premiere and above its fall average.
- AGT: Champions also became the new lead-in for Monday 10/9c drama Manifest (1.1), and despite a small lead-in upgrade it came back on the same 1.1 it posted in its last three fall outings.
- ABC was a very close second for the night thanks to a healthy three-hour return of The Bachelor (1.5/1.5/1.4). Last season opened with a 1.5 on New Year's Day and fell to a 1.4 against the football game on the year-ago evening.
- The only original on the other three networks was the penultimate episode of CBS' Happy Together (0.8), which got a boost from a The Big Bang Theory repeat lead-in (1.1).
FINALS UPDATE: Golden Globe Awards (5.2, +0.7) adjusted up.
WHAT MATTERS:- Sunday event season began with NBC getting two events in one night: an NFL playoff game (with a preliminary 11.2 in the 7:00 hour) leading directly into the Golden Globe Awards (5.8/4.3/3.3). Despite a ton of erosion during the broadcast, that would average out to an increase vs. last year's 4.2 prelim, which later adjusted up to 5.0.
- The rest of the big four brought back their regular lineups, with ABC sending America's Funniest Home Videos (0.9) originals back to the 8/7c hour to lead into Shark Tank (0.9). It was a nice reunion, as AFHV tied its season high while Shark Tank set a new one, though they were still way off of their best days together a year ago.
- CBS had dramas God Friended Me (0.9), NCIS: Los Angeles (0.9) and Madam Secretary (0.6); it was one of GFM's better recent showings without an NFL boost. And Fox was at relatively typical non-NFL levels with The Simpsons (0.9), Bob's Burgers (0.9), Family Guy (1.0) and Rel (0.5).
Happy 2019! I have always believed that on a daily ratings basis, midseason is more interesting than fall, simply because there are more developments staggered across the calendar. The fall eventually devolves into the same old lineups airing over and over again. So I'm hoping that midseason will also prove more conducive to a weekly "column" of sorts; toward the second half of the fall, I eventually got tired of writing about the same few bubble shows (mostly ABC comedies and CBS dramas) every single week. Here goes.
FINALS UPDATE: No adjustments.
WHAT MATTERS:
FINALS UPDATE: No adjustments.
WHAT MATTERS:- On the opening Thursday of 2019, it was NBC's turn for a high-profile reality launch. While The Titan Games (1.7/1.8) paled somewhat in comparison to what Fox pulled off on Wednesday, it was still a very good start in its own right, only a little less impressive than what Ellen's Game of Games (2.2/2.4) did in the same week a year ago.
- At 10/9c, NBC brought The Blacklist (0.9) back for a one-time stop in a timeslot it used to regularly occupy, before it heads for its regular timeslot on Friday.
- Meanwhile, Fox reunited its fall 2017 Thursday duo of Gotham (0.7) and The Orville (0.6). We already know it's the final season for Gotham, and this surprisingly DOA result makes a similar fate look likely for Orville; a show that regularly built on Gotham two falls ago went a staggering three tenths behind its previous series low.
- CBS held off on originals in the 9/8c hour for a week, but The Big Bang Theory (2.2) and Young Sheldon (1.7) were back at just a tenth above their last originals in December. The good news was S.W.A.T. (0.9) had a pretty great night at 10/9c, with a lead-in from a Young Sheldon repeat (0.9) and no SVU competition to deal with.
- And ABC managed a virtual tie with Fox for third with The Conners repeats (0.7/0.6) and an old-skewing John F. Kennedy Jr. special (0.7).
Grown-ish
Wednesdays, 8/7c, Freeform
FINALS UPDATE: The Masked Singer (3.0) adjusted up while
Young Sheldon (R)
(0.8) and
SEAL Team (0.8) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:- The new year began on a smashing note for Fox Wednesday, as reality newbie The Masked Singer (2.9) went simply massive in its 9/8c debut. This easily more than doubled last January's launch of The Four (1.2) on Fox, and even dismantled the huge Ellen's Game of Games launch on NBC (2.2/2.4) rather comfortably. Its lead-in was the return of Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back (1.2), which was pulled up to a new series high in the process. UPDATE: The Masked Singer has ticked up to 3.0 in time zone-adjusted fast nationals.
- Fox's opening night had little standing in the way; CBS dramas SEAL Team (0.9) and Criminal Minds (0.7) returned and were down a notch from their fall finales. The 8/7c hour along with everything on ABC, NBC and CW were in repeat mode.
FINALS UPDATE: No adjustments.
WHAT MATTERS:- Fox was the only network airing original material on the first night of 2019, flipping the timeslots of Tuesday dramas Lethal Weapon (0.7) and The Gifted (0.5). For Lethal, it marked a return to the 8/7c hour that it occupied for all of last season, and it remained in line with recent episodes. Meanwhile, Gifted fell to a new low in its 9/8c debut.
- Among all the repeats elsewhere, Ellen's Game of Games (1.0) towered over the competition, a week before its return to originals, while ABC's 8/7c The Conners (0.7) was a distant second.
FINALS UPDATE: Bull (R)
(0.3) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
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