The Breakdown: CBS Monday in 2018-19 (The Neighborhood, Magnum P.I., Bull and more!)

It's time for a journey through the CBS Monday schedule in 2018-19...


fall

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2017-18	Kevin Can Wait	Man with a Plan	Superior Donuts	9JKL	Scorpion		Scorpion	85
	2017-18	108	93	83	72	76			76	85
	2017-18									108	93	83	72	76	76	85
	2017-18	100		100	78				78	76	76	85
2018-19	The Neighborhood	Happy Together	Magnum P.I.		Magnum P.I.	Bull		Bull	93 (+10%)
	2018-19	117 (+8%)	89 (-4%)	91 (+18%)		91 (+18%)	84 (+11%)			84 (+11%)	92.7519416056015
	2018-19										116.532896153572	88.7250352475036	91 (+18%)	91 (+18%)	84 (+11%)	84 (+11%)	92.7519416056015
	2018-19	103 (+2%)				102.628965700538				91 (+18%)	91 (+18%)	84 (+11%)	84 (+11%)	92.7519416056015
VsAvg	-13%		-0.126769391570986	-33%		-0.331528049439996	-31%		-0.305262042862135	-26%
Rank	12/18		12/18	17/18		17/18	16/18		16/18	17/18

CBS' big news at the 2018 upfront was its wholesale overhaul of Monday, and the network's 2018-19 attempt brought modest improvement, but not a lot of flash. The clear winner was The Neighborhood, giving the network a lead-off anchor to build around. In the fall, there was actually more percentage growth at 9/8c with newbie Magnum P.I. and at 10/9c with transplanted Bull, but those shows' improvements would fade over time.

winter

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2017-18	Kevin Can Wait	Man with a Plan	Superior Donuts	9JKL	Scorpion		Scorpion	88
	2017-18	110	99	89	80	76			76	88
	2017-18									110	99	89	80	76	76	88
	2017-18	104		104	84				84	76	76	88
2018-19	The Neighborhood	Man with a Plan	Magnum P.I.		Magnum P.I.	Bull		Bull	92 (+5%)
	2018-19	131 (+19%)	100 (+1%)	81 (-4%)		81 (-4%)	80 (+6%)			80 (+6%)	92.3002749392904
	2018-19										130.907512014355	99.9435664711168	81 (-4%)	81 (-4%)	80 (+6%)	80 (+6%)	92.3002749392904
	2018-19	115 (+11%)				115.425539242736				81 (-4%)	81 (-4%)	80 (+6%)	80 (+6%)	92.3002749392904
VsAvg	-2%		-0.017480806119462	-39%		-0.389220429823992	-31%		-0.309153382162401	-24%
Rank	10/18		10/18	18/18		18/18	14/18		14/18	16/18

The Neighborhood's value became even clearer in 2019, as it got a thrilling winter bounce. But that didn't extend to later in the night; Man with the Plan returned to 8:30 at familiar levels, while Magnum P.I. and Bull both faded a bit.

spring

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2017-18	Kevin Can Wait	Man with a Plan	Superior Donuts	Living Biblically	Scorpion		Scorpion	73
	2017-18	86	84	73	61	67			67	73
	2017-18									86	84	73	61	67	67	73
	2017-18	85		85	67				67	67	67	73
2018-19	The Neighborhood	Man with a Plan	The Code		The Code	Bull		Bull	74 (+2%)
	2018-19	106 (+24%)	85 (+2%)	59 (-12%)		59 (-12%)	68 (+1%)			68 (+1%)	74.1230811797143
	2018-19										106.316428929209	84.9753775170769	59 (-12%)	59 (-12%)	68 (+1%)	68 (+1%)	74.1230811797143
	2018-19	96 (+13%)				95.6459032231428				59 (-12%)	59 (-12%)	68 (+1%)	68 (+1%)	74.1230811797143
VsAvg	-1%		-0.00672178131931416	-51%		-0.506147251454481	-39%		-0.387882334848277	-32%
Rank	9/18		9/18	18/18		18/18	15/18		15/18	17/18

CBS barely eked out year-to-year improvement in all three phases of the season, but that was no thanks to the late spring 9/8c newbie The Code; it was a noticeable step below even the cancelled 9/8c comedies from a year ago.

Rating the Ratings

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
The Neighborhood	1.0	1.12	1.4		118	solid		detail
Happy Together	0.7	0.85	1.0		89	marginal		detail
Man with a Plan	0.7	0.86	1.1	-13%	91	marginal	+0%	detail
Magnum P.I.	0.7	0.85	2.4		90	marginal		detail
The Code	0.5	0.59	0.7		62	flop		detail
Bull	0.6	0.75	0.9	-37%	79	marginal	-27%	detail

The Neighborhood: Feels like this one is right on the border between A- ("breakout") and B+ ("significant success"). The closest comps since I've been giving grades to newbies are probably Kevin Can Wait and American Housewife, both of which got B+. But I'm gonna be kinder to this one, since it was a self-starter from day one and also came in with fairly low expectations. Grade: A-.

Happy Together: The 9JKL of 2018-19. The raw numbers are a little deceiving; it had no DVR interest, and is not what you're looking for leading out of something as potent as The Neighborhood. Grade: D+.

Man with a Plan: It just keeps plugging away and ekeing out renewals. Nothing really new or different to say about it. Since it had improved lead-ins it was a touch weaker in True Plus, but not much. Grade: B-.

Magnum P.I.: This was the 2018-19 version of SEAL Team in 2017-18: much-maligned but, in the end, probably not a "bad" renewal. Maybe it had higher expectations because of the brand name behind it, but it also had a lower bar to clear because of the troubles in the timeslot recently. Grade: C.

The Code: (Above includes results through May 20.) After premiering to a 0.7 after NCIS and then getting a 0.5 on its first Monday, it looked like there was potential for a massive megabomb. But it held up well enough from there to avoid flunking out. Grade: D.

Bull: It was an improvement on the fast-tanking final season of Scorpion, but not by much. To be fair, it faced two really strong opponents in the fall/winter, and it didn't get a lot of help from Magnum P.I., but I'm still thinking CBS was hoping for a little better hold here. 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 Monday.