The Breakdown: NBC Friday in 2019-20 (The Blacklist, Lincoln Rhyme, Dateline)

It's time for a journey through the NBC 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	10:00	10:30	Avg
2018-19	Blindspot		Blindspot	Midnight, Texas		Midnight, Texas	Dateline		Dateline	52
	2018-19	48		48	42		42	64			64	52
2019-20	The Blacklist		The Blacklist	Dateline				Dateline	Dateline	Dateline	67 (+31%)
	2019-20	66 (+35%)		65.6034392757283	68 (+63%)		68 (+6%)	68 (+6%)		68 (+6%)		67.2849743104637
VsAvg	+17%		0.172335148652159	+3%		0.0255819673619975	-4%		-0.0431023507738056	+4%
Rank	5/19		5/19	11/19		11/19	8/19		8/19	9/19

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2018-19	Blindspot		Blindspot	Midnight, Texas		Midnight, Texas	Dateline		Dateline	52
	2018-19	48		48	42		42	64			64	52
2019-20	The Blacklist		The Blacklist	Dateline				Dateline	Dateline	Dateline	63 (+23%)
	2019-20	62 (+27%)		61.7490304906251	64 (+53%)		64 (0%)	64 (0%)		64 (0%)		63.3317700432654
VsAvg	+11%		0.107471546053644	-3%		-0.031603052721785	-10%		-0.0966501024467654	-2%
Rank	8/19		8/19	11/19		11/19	11/19		11/19	10/19

After stumbling through last fall with a struggling Blindspot and ill-fitting Midnight, Texas, NBC put its best foot forward in fall 2019 with The Blacklist taking over at 8/7c and the network following ABC's lead by expanding its newsmagazine to two hours on a regular basis.

winter

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2018-19	Blindspot		Blindspot	The Blacklist		The Blacklist	Dateline		Dateline	58
	2018-19	57		57	60		60	58			58	58
2019-20	Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt For the Bone Collector		Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt For the Bone Collector	Dateline				Dateline	Dateline	Dateline	70 (+19%)
	2019-20	59 (+4%)		59.1516781157314	75 (+26%)		75 (+26%)	74 (+27%)		74 (+27%)		69.532046639251
VsAvg	-6%		-0.0564235032547493	+15%		0.148561473465177	+5%		0.048354174585837	+5%
Rank	11/19		11/19	4/19		4/19	5/19		5/19	6/19

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2018-19	Blindspot		Blindspot	The Blacklist		The Blacklist	Dateline		Dateline	58
	2018-19	57		57	60		60	58			58	58
2019-20	Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt For the Bone Collector		Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt For the Bone Collector	Dateline				Dateline	Dateline	Dateline	65 (+12%)
	2019-20	56 (-2%)		55.6763306293806	71 (+19%)		71 (+19%)	70 (+20%)		70 (+20%)		65.4468197918273
VsAvg	-11%		-0.109262607282072	+8%		0.0849331851437026	-1%		-0.0100306587253754	-1%
Rank	14/19		14/19	8/19		8/19	8/19		8/19	8/19

NBC's smallest growth of the season came in the winter, when new drama Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt For the Bone Collector filled in for The Blacklist during its midseason hiatus. But Dateline had its strongest period of the season, including huge growth against its year-ago 10/9c ratings, and that kept the nightly growth well into the double digits.

spring

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2018-19	Blindspot		Blindspot	The Blacklist		The Blacklist	Dateline		Dateline	52
	2018-19	45		45	55		55	57			57	52
2019-20	The Blacklist		The Blacklist	Dateline				Dateline	Dateline	Dateline	64 (+22%)
	2019-20	64 (+41%)		64.1715333976583	64 (+18%)		64 (+18%)	64 (+11%)		64 (+11%)		63.9728039387361
VsAvg	+24%		0.236037592138322	+5%		0.052859438277464	-2%		-0.0211196554934018	+8%
Rank	5/19		5/19	9/19		9/19	7/19		7/19	7/19

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2018-19	Blindspot		Blindspot	The Blacklist		The Blacklist	Dateline		Dateline	52
	2018-19	45		45	55		55	57			57	52
2019-20	The Blacklist		The Blacklist	Dateline				Dateline	Dateline	Dateline	73 (+39%)
	2019-20	73 (+60%)		72.812059471148	73 (+34%)		73 (+34%)	72 (+26%)		72 (+26%)		72.5865716198285
VsAvg	+39%		0.390288626261128	+19%		0.185776720658415	+10%		0.103032204922145	+22%
Rank	2/19		2/19	1/19		1/19	5/19		5/19	3/19

The Blacklist came back in a big way during the COVID-19 viewership inflation, setting new season highs and beating the year-ago Blindspot by even bigger margins (at least in CVPlus). The growth for the full night was a little less since there was no more Midnight, Texas to kick around, but Dateline still grew even in the 10:00 hour.

Rating the Ratings

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
The Blacklist*	0.4	0.55	0.8	-4%	67	solid(Fri)	+11%	detail
Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt For the Bone Collector	0.4	0.47	0.6		57	flop		detail
Dateline Fri*	0.4	0.56	0.7	-3%	68	solid(Fri)	+13%	detail

The Blacklist: We've seen even within this show's previous history that moving to 8/7c will unlock a lot of this show's substantial DVR audience, and it seems like COVID-19 just amplified that in the spring. I'm handing it the same grade I gave to the other Friday stars during the pandemic (Shark Tank and MacGyver), in part because it had so much timeslot improvement. But this one is closer to a B because it was not up in the DVR numbers as much as MacGyver, even if has much bigger delayed bumps overall. Grade: B+.

Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt For the Bone Collector: Basically had the same Plus as the winter ratings of Blindspot in the last couple seasons, which is not a huge compliment, but NBC has certainly done worse on Fridays in the past. Even the DVR numbers were OK. It was not The Blacklist but it wouldn't have been a huge reach renewal. Grade: C.

Dateline Fri: Like with 20/20, it did fine but the two-hour episodes have always been juiced historically. And this was a nearly full season of one-hour vs. two-hour comparisons. It was a big bounce-back from last season but toward the low end of what Dateline had been doing in the second half of the 2010s. Grade: B.

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 NBC Friday: 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19

Here's the now updated Schedules Plus for NBC Friday.