It's time for a journey through the CW Friday 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 | Dynasty | Crazy Ex-Girlfriend | 17 | ||
| 18 | 15 | ||||
| 2019-20 | Charmed | Dynasty | 18 (+11%) | ||
| 23 (+24%) | 14 (-5%) | ||||
| VsAvg | -20% | -48% | -33% | ||
| Rank | 15/19 | 18/19 | 18/19 | ||
The CW's Surrender Friday had a little less surrender in it in 2019-20, as Charmed moved to the night after a reasonably successful but very front-loaded first season on Sunday. We're talking about pretty small numbers here, but Charmed at 8/7c built enough on Dynasty to offset Dynasty's slight declines vs. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend at 9/8c.
winter
Year | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | Dynasty | Crazy Ex-Girlfriend | 15 | ||
| 17 | 14 | ||||
| 2019-20 | Charmed | Dynasty | 16 (+8%) | ||
| 21 (+27%) | 11 (-16%) | ||||
| VsAvg | -23% | -56% | -39% | ||
| Rank | 14/19 | 18/19 | 16/19 | ||
Basically the same story as the fall, though Dynasty lost a little more steam in the winter.
spring
Year | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | Dynasty | Crazy Ex-Girlfriend | 13 | ||
| 14 | 12 | ||||
| 2019-20 | Charmed | Dynasty | 13 (+0%) | ||
| 17 (+21%) | 9 (-25%) | ||||
| VsAvg | -30% | -62% | -45% | ||
| Rank | 15/19 | 18/19 | 17/19 | ||
And they basically had the same raw numbers for their post-pandemic episodes, which CVPlus interprets as a decent-sized spring decline. The nightly average was only even here, but in Classic Plus it's the best period of the year!
Rating the Ratings
Name | Lo | Avg | Hi | y2y | Plus | Label | Plusy2y | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charmed | 0.1 | 0.17 | 0.2 | -36% | 20 | solid(CWFri) | -26% | detail |
| Dynasty | 0.1 | 0.10 | 0.1 | -38% | 12 | flop | -29% | detail |
Charmed: This one involves not only the increasingly pressing question about how much of a downgrade it is to air on Friday, but also has to account for the fact that Charmed season one was so incredibly front-loaded. I actually don't think this is much of a timeslot downgrade, but comparing Charmed with just its winter/spring 2019 episodes makes a huge difference. It suggests a show that was still weaker, but nothing near what the full-season trend is saying. In other words, it probably did what should've been reasonably expected. Grade: C+.
Dynasty: The show is still a big flop in the Nielsen ratings but like some other CW streaming stars it trended wayyy better (like down only 10%ish) in the L7+ ratings. 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.
Previous Breakdowns for CW Friday: 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19
Here's the now updated Schedules Plus for CW Friday.
