Spotted Ratings, Sunday 5/30/21

FINALS UPDATE: NHL Playoffs (0.5, +0.2) adjusted up while Ellen's Game of Games (R) (0.2) and NASCAR (0.5) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 5/28/21

FINALS UPDATE: NBA Playoffs (0.9, +0.3), The Dick Van Dyke Show Now In Living Color (R) (0.3), Magnum P.I. (R) (0.3), The Blacklist (0.4) and WWE SmackDown! (0.5) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 5/27/21

FINALS UPDATE: Station 19 (0.7), Grey's Anatomy (0.7), Young Sheldon (R) (0.5), The Wall Special (0.5), Law and Order: SVU (0.7) and iHeartRadio Music Awards (0.5) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 5/26/21

FINALS UPDATE: Press Your Luck (0.5) and Chicago Fire (0.9) adjusted up while Crime Scene Kitchen (0.6) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted. Fox premiered new reality series Crime Scene Kitchen after the season finale of The Masked Singer. ABC's game shows Press Your Luck and The $100,000 Pyramid returned, with the latter having sat out summer 2020 completely.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 5/25/21

FINALS UPDATE: Movie: Mike Tyson: The Knockout p1 (0.6) and The Voice (0.8) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted. NBC aired the This Is Us season finale at 10/9c following the two-hour season finale of The Voice. Finale night for the CBS dramas meant the end of 18 years on Tuesday at 8/7c for NCIS, with a Monday move coming next season. Fox had a special Tuesday edition of Game of Talents leading into the return of Mental Samurai. And ABC went with the first night of its two-part Mike Tyson doc.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 5/24/21

FINALS UPDATE: 9-1-1: Lone Star (0.9) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 5/23/21

FINALS UPDATE: American Idol (0.9, +0.2), The Equalizer (0.7) and Billboard Music Awards (0.7) adjusted up while America's Funniest Home Videos (0.6) and 60 Minutes (0.7, -0.3) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted. NBC aired the Billboard Music Awards against ABC's American Idol finale. CBS had PGA Championship overrun leading into the season finales of The Equalizer and NCIS: Los Angeles and the series finale of NCIS: New Orleans. Fox's Duncanville returned for two Sunday preview episodes before a Monday summer run.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 5/21/21

FINALS UPDATE: 20/20 (0.5) and The Dick Van Dyke Show Now in Living Color (0.3) adjusted up while Dynasty (0.0) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 5/20/21

FINALS UPDATE: Station 19 (0.8) and United States of Al (0.5) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 5/19/21

FINALS UPDATE: The Goldbergs (0.6), Call Your Mother (0.4) and The Masked Singer (1.2) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 5/18/21

FINALS UPDATE: Pooch Perfect (0.4), FBI: Most Wanted (0.7, +0.2), The Voice (0.6) and The Resident (0.5) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 5/17/21

FINALS UPDATE: The Neighborhood (0.8) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 5/16/21

FINALS UPDATE: America's Funniest Home Videos (0.7, +0.2), American Idol (0.8), The Equalizer (0.7), Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (0.3) and Good Girls (0.4) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 5/14/21

FINALS UPDATE: The Queen Carries On: A Gayle King Special (0.3) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 5/13/21

FINALS UPDATE: Rebel (0.4), Law and Order: SVU (0.8) and Last Man Standing (0.4) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 5/12/21

WHAT MATTERS:

• On a mostly steady Wednesday, One Chicago (0.9/0.9/0.8) once again edged Fox's The Masked Singer (1.0) and Game of Talents (0.5). Week two of Kids Say the Darndest Things remained at 0.3 for CBS.
  

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 5/11/21

FINALS UPDATE: NCIS (0.7), FBI (0.7) and FBI: Most Wanted (0.6) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• This Is Us (0.8) returned for the first time in four weeks, topping its last couple prelims with perhaps some help from The Voice (0.6) as a lead-in. TIU led the night as CBS' NCIS (0.6) and FBI (0.6) gave back their gains from last week.
  

• ABC's Pooch Perfect fell to a prelim 0.3 for the first time, but Big Sky was back up to a preliminary 0.4 after hitting 0.3 prelim/0.4 final the last couple weeks. The dramas on Fox (0.5/0.4) and the CW (0.2/0.1) were even.
  

Determining the League Average for the 2020-21 Season

As I wrote last summer, COVID-19 stay-at-home orders completely distorted the entire shape of the 2019-20 TV season, significantly increasing overall viewership and wiping out what would normally be a spring decline period. In response to the league average inflation, I created a second version of A18-49+ called "CVPlus," which used two separate league averages to  with typical spring declines.

In the 2020-21 season, COVID has remained with us, but the viewing inflations are pretty much gone. At least in terms of the external environment, the 2020-21 season is taking on a much more normal "shape," as shows have experienced their typical spring declines. Perhaps there could be some concern about even bigger spring declines, as the improving weather coincides with states lifting COVID restrictions, but this distortion is nothing like what we saw last year.

However, portraying the landscape in the 2020-21 season is still a unique challenge. This time, it's not about a change in the environment, but about a change in what the networks have actually aired. Due to production shutdowns, all the regular scripted options had their season premieres at least a month later than usual, and some delays were much longer. In place of these shows were a slew of filler programs, the likes of which we almost never see on the broadcast stage in the regular season. It's somewhat similar to the writers' strike year of 2007-08, which had several months completely dominated by unscripted programming.

So we don't need to use multiple league averages the way we did last year, because individual shows are behaving more normally. But we may need to make sure that the one 2020-21 league average is painting a fair picture. What do we do with the filler programming from the fall? Should it all be automatically included? In 2007-08, all of it was included, and (as I've acknowledged before) the LA that season was probably a bit deflated. Tinkering with what goes into the league average for 2020-21 might be setting a new precedent, so we should tread lightly.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 5/10/21

FINALS UPDATE: 9-1-1: Lone Star (0.8) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• A mostly down night for broadcast saw both 9-1-1 (0.8) and The Voice (0.6) crash to new lows in the prelims, while 9-1-1: Lone Star (0.7) and the CBS comedies (0.6/0.5) were down as well. The CBS dramas (0.4/0.5) and The Good Doctor (0.5) were even.
  

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 5/9/21

FINALS UPDATE: America's Funniest Home Videos (0.7), 60 Minutes (0.6), The Equalizer (0.7), NCIS: Los Angeles (0.6), American Ninja Warrior Special (0.4) and Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (0.3) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC had a positive evening with American Idol (0.7/0.8) steady or up and The Rookie rising to a preliminary 0.6 for the first time since February. They held off a steady to narrowly down CBS with The Equalizer (0.6), NCIS: Los Angeles (0.5) and NCIS: New Orleans (0.5).
  

• Fox had mixed news as The Simpsons dropped to its first ever preliminary 0.3 at 8/7c, but Bob's Burgers (0.5) and Family Guy (0.5) were up in the 9/8c hour. NBC had a two-hour American Ninja Warrior special (0.3/0.4) leading into Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (0.2) and Good Girls (0.3).
  

Spotted Ratings, Friday 5/7/21

FINALS UPDATE: No adjustments.

WHAT MATTERS:

• The CW reunited its 2019-20 Friday pairing of Charmed (0.1) and Dynasty, and the latter came right out of the gate with its first ever preliminary 0.0.
  

• Fox's WWE (0.6) was on top of the big four as Shark Tank (0.5) came back on the low side, and CBS' Magnum P.I. (0.4) and Blue Bloods (0.4) aired after a Kids Say the Darndest Things encore (0.3).
  

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 5/6/21

FINALS UPDATE: Station 19 (0.8) and Young Sheldon (0.6) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC's Station 19 (0.7), Grey's Anatomy (0.9) and Rebel (0.5) returned even or slightly up, dominating the night as CBS got a horrible showing from Young Sheldon (0.5) at 8/7c, but was actually up with Mom (0.6) and B Positive (0.5) later in the night.
  

• NBC's Manifest (0.5/0.5) aired two more hours, likely to top last week's 0.5's which adjusted up from 0.4 in the prelims. The CW's Walker (0.1) and Legacies (0.1) returned from a few weeks off, with the former posting its first preliminary 0.1.
  

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 5/5/21

FINALS UPDATE: Kids Say the Darndest Things (0.4), Chicago Med (0.9), Chicago Fire (1.0) and The Masked Singer (1.1) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Well over a year after its fall 2019 run on ABC, the Tiffany Haddish-hosted Kids Say the Darndest Things (0.3) re-appeared on CBS. It looked much weaker than even the modest-rated ABC run and also went below all Tough As Nails prelims in this timeslot. SEAL Team (0.4) and S.W.A.T. (0.4) rounded out the night in typical fashion.
  

• Fox had new season lows in the prelims for The Masked Singer (1.0) and Game of Talents (0.5), dropping Fox's nightly average behind NBC with Chicago Med (0.8), Chicago Fire (0.9) and Chicago PD (0.9).
  

• The CW's Kung Fu fell to its first prelim 0.1, while ABC was even with The Goldbergs (0.5), Home Economics (0.4) and A Million Little Things (0.3) sandwiching The Conners repeats (0.3).

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 5/4/21

FINALS UPDATE: Big Sky (0.4) and FBI (0.8) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• The CBS dramas mostly had a bounce-back night, as NCIS (0.8) got back to relative normal after last week's low and FBI (0.7) was up vs. last week's prelim as well. But FBI: Most Wanted (0.5) lost a tenth at 10/9c.
  

• NBC's Young Rock (0.5) and New Amsterdam (0.4) along with Fox's Prodigal Son (0.4) were also up a notch vs. their last prelims, but the recently renewed Big Sky (0.3) was not able to rebound.

• The CW had the only relatively down night with The Flash (0.2) and Supergirl (0.1).
  

Spotted Ratings, Monday 5/3/21

FINALS UPDATE: 9-1-1 (1.0) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Fox stayed on top with an uptick from 9-1-1: Lone Star (0.8) following the mothership 9-1-1 (0.9). CBS' comedy hour of The Neighborhood (0.7) and Bob Hearts Abishola (0.6) grew from last week, while the dramas All Rise (0.4) and Bull (0.5) were even.
  

• NBC's The Voice (0.8/0.7) and Debris (0.4) were steady along with the CW's Black Lightning (0.1). ABC aired theatrical Incredibles 2 (0.5).
  

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 5/2/21

FINALS UPDATE: American Idol (0.8), 60 Minutes (0.6), The Equalizer (0.7), Ellen's Game of Games (R) (0.3), The Simpsons (R) (0.3) and Bob's Burgers (0.4) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Disney Night on American Idol (0.7) matched the show's last prelim from two weeks ago, while lead-out The Rookie (0.5) was on the upswing at 10/9c. It was a fairly close race against CBS as The Equalizer (0.6) matched its last prelim while NCIS: Los Angeles (0.6) and NCIS: New Orleans (0.5) were up.
  

• On NBC, Ellen's Game of Games (0.4) actually hit its highest prelim since the move to Sunday, and Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (0.3) was up in prelims as well, matching Good Girls (0.3). Fox was only partially original with Bless the Harts (0.2), Bob's Burgers (0.3) and Family Guy (0.4).
  

• And the return of DC's Legends of Tomorrow (0.1) did not liven up CW Sundays, while Batwoman (0.1) moved to 9/8c.
  

Spotted Ratings, Friday 4/30/21

FINALS UPDATE: NFL Draft (0.5) and Magnum P.I. (0.5) adjusted up while World's Funniest Animals (0.1) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Night two of ABC's NFL Draft coverage (0.5/0.4/0.4) was, like Thursday, down from the big numbers a year ago (0.73) but should end up just a little off from the raw rating from two years ago (0.53).
  

• CBS' MacGyver came to a quiet end with its usual 0.4 prelim, which has generally been adjusting up in recent weeks. Lead-outs Magnum P.I. (0.4) and Blue Bloods (0.4) looked weaker than usual against the draft competition.