The War of 18-49, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Monday Dramedy Night

A year after 2014 dramedy Jane the Virgin found surprisingly reasonable ratings on Monday alongside The Originals, the CW brought in another CBS Studios dramedy to join Jane. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend appeared basically dead on arrival, opening with 899,000 viewers and a 0.3 demo on 10/12/15.

CEG didn't tap into the female audience to the same extent as Jane, but it at least didn't really get any worse after that premiere night; aside from a 0.2 hiccup in week three, it stayed at 0.3 for the whole rest of the fall, and even eked out a couple 0.4's soon after its return in the winter. It was steady, albeit at a level that made it one of the weakest shows on broadcast TV. But it had some acclaim and came from a CBS studio that needed content, so it got renewed.

A Long Surrender Friday Run

The CW may have renewed Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, but it didn't waste any more time trying to make it work as a weeknight tentpole. It went to Friday for season two, and there it would stay across the next three seasons, performing just about as poorly as it did on Monday. 0.2 was its number for the next two seasons, followed by mostly 0.1's with some 0.2's in season four. The series finale eked out a 0.2 in the prelims, which would've been its first 0.2 in almost three months, but adjusted down to another 0.1 in the finals.

The season averages below suggest something of a ratings roller coaster for the Friday years, with raw growth in season three followed by a massive drop for the final season. But when talking about numbers this low, it seems likely that can be entirely explained by timeslot changes; it had an OK lead-in from The Vampire Diaries for season two, got the best situation in season three (at 8:00 after local programming), and then was buried behind an equally big flop in Dynasty for season four.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	2015-16	Monday 8:00	0.31		0.2	0.4	detail
2	2016-17	Friday 9:00	0.21	-33%	0.2	0.2	detail	C
3	2017-18	Friday 8:00	0.22	+4%	0.2	0.2	detail	C+
4	2018-19	Friday 9:00	0.13	-38%	0.1	0.2	detail

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now19	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	2015-16	21	flop	0.20		14	27	21	20
2	2016-17	17	flop	0.16	-21%	14	20	14	19
3	2017-18	20	solid(CWFri)	0.19	+17%	16	22	20	16
4	2018-19	14	flop	0.13	-29%	9	18	14	16
AVERAGE:		AVERAGE:	18	flop

The War of 18-49 chronicles the ratings history of veteran primetime series. For more, see the Index.