The Breakdown: CW Monday in 2019-20 (All American, Black Lightning, Roswell, New Mexico)

It's time for a journey through the CW Monday schedule in 2019-20...

NOTE: In addition to classic A18-49+, Breakdown posts in 2019-20 also use CVPlus, comparing spring ratings against a higher league average due to viewership inflation from COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. See here for more.


fall

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	Avg
2018-19	Arrow		Arrow	Legends of Tomorrow		Legends of Tomorrow	40
	2018-19	46		46	33			33	40
2019-20	All American		All American	Black Lightning		Black Lightning	30 (-23%)
	2019-20	31 (-33%)		30.9541919507513	30 (-9%)			30 (-9%)	30.4589969079091
VsAvg	-30%		-0.303547433807118	-16%		-0.161779368977034	-24%
Rank	14/19		14/19	14/19		14/19	14/19

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	Avg
2018-19	Arrow		Arrow	Legends of Tomorrow		Legends of Tomorrow	40
	2018-19	46		46	33			33	40
2019-20	All American		All American	Black Lightning		Black Lightning	29 (-28%)
	2019-20	29 (-37%)		29.1355356316932	28 (-14%)			28 (-14%)	28.6694348580623
VsAvg	-34%		-0.343051398965465	-21%		-0.208977136858024	-28%
Rank	14/19		14/19	14/19		14/19	16/19

Echoing Riverdale a couple years earlier, sophomore drama All American moved to an 8/7c slot in season two and saw improved raw numbers, though it still substantially trailed the year-ago occupant Arrow. Black Lightning basically matched its lead-in at 9/8c.

winter

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	Avg
2018-19	Arrow		Arrow	Black Lightning		Black Lightning	32
	2018-19	35		35	29			29	32
2019-20	All American		All American	Black Lightning		Black Lightning	29 (-11%)
	2019-20	31 (-10%)		31.4848352413356	26 (-11%)			26 (-11%)	28.7075241968987
VsAvg	-20%		-0.196633238979126	-17%		-0.169761369655119	-18%
Rank	12/19		12/19	13/19		13/19	13/19

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	Avg
2018-19	Arrow		Arrow	Black Lightning		Black Lightning	32
	2018-19	35		35	29			29	32
2019-20	All American		All American	Black Lightning		Black Lightning	27 (-16%)
	2019-20	30 (-16%)		29.6350019568079	24 (-17%)			24 (-17%)	27.0208666880137
VsAvg	-24%		-0.241950399822404	-22%		-0.216529082556848	-23%
Rank	14/19		14/19	14/19		14/19	14/19

All American was probably even more impressive in the winter period, at least in same-day numbers, as it pulled off a rather memorable four-week streak in February/early March of ekeing out rounded 0.3's.

spring

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	Avg
2018-19	Legends of Tomorrow		Legends of Tomorrow	Arrow		Arrow	25
	2018-19	28		28	21			21	25
2019-20	Whose Line Is It Anyway?	Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R)	Roswell, New Mexico		Roswell, New Mexico	18 (-27%)
	2019-20	23 (-18%)	20 (-27%)	14 (-33%)			14 (-33%)	17.9611938204958
	2019-20							22.7395781474198	20.2812453747258	14 (-33%)	14 (-33%)	17.9611938204958
	2019-20	22 (-23%)					21.5104117610728	14 (-33%)	14 (-33%)	17.9611938204958
VsAvg	-41%		-0.410895851177059	-53%		-0.532884679369169	-47%
Rank	16/19		16/19	18/19		18/19	18/19

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	Avg
2018-19	Legends of Tomorrow		Legends of Tomorrow	Arrow		Arrow	25
	2018-19	28		28	21			21	25
2019-20	Whose Line Is It Anyway?	Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R)	Roswell, New Mexico		Roswell, New Mexico	20 (-17%)
	2019-20	26 (-7%)	23 (-17%)	16 (-24%)			16 (-24%)	20.3796207350482
	2019-20							25.801401786032	23.0120610524069	16 (-24%)	16 (-24%)	20.3796207350482
	2019-20	24 (-12%)					24.4067314192194	16 (-24%)	16 (-24%)	20.3796207350482
VsAvg	-33%		-0.334353491127152	-47%		-0.471737556335812	-40%
Rank	15/19		15/19	18/19		18/19	17/19

Summer staple Whose Line Is It Anyway? was called off the bench in the spring and did its usual thing, but sophomore Roswell, New Mexico did not prove a good fit and usually couldn't even eke out a 0.2 at 9/8c.

Rating the Ratings

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
All American	0.2	0.24	0.3	+10%	29	marginal(CW)	+27%	detail
Black Lightning	0.2	0.22	0.3	-28%	26	marginal(CW)	-17%	detail
Roswell, New Mexico	0.1	0.13	0.2	-53%	16	flop	-45%	detail

All American: This was one of the more dramatic streaming -> ratings stories in recent memory. I was tempted to grade it behind Riverdale a couple years ago: smaller percent growth and from a smaller starting base. But managing to exist basically on the border between 0.2 and 0.3 was definitely a pleasant and welcomed surprise for a network that had mostly had very rough returnee trends this year. What tipped me into giving it an "A" was the realization that the Plus growth was actually considerably more profound in the DVR numbers. It had some 100%+ bumps in the fall, which it was never close to doing in season one. Grade: A.

Black Lightning: I wanted to go a tick higher because the previous season had some post-The Flash episodes. But even when compared against itself in the winter, it was still down double digits, and the DVR ratings (which were down every bit as much as the Live+SD ones) don't suggest a meaningful downgrade. Grade: C-.

Roswell, New Mexico: This is another show moving from post-Flash to a much weaker lead-in in 2019-20. It also got shifted a couple months later on the calendar. Unlike with Black Lightning, all this did make a real difference here; a chunk of the gap is closed in Live+7 since it had some truly huge percentage gains. Unfortunately, when half the Live+SD audience goes away, it's still gonna be a huge drop even if it has a delayed audience. It was a disappointing outcome for a show that was a decent post-Flash option in season one. Grade: D.

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.

Previous Breakdowns for CW Monday: 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19

Here's the now updated Schedules Plus for CW Monday.