The Breakdown: CBS Thursday in 2021-22 (Young Sheldon, United States of Al, Ghosts and more!)

It's time for a journey through the CBS Thursday schedule in 2021-22...


fall

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2020-21	Young Sheldon	B Positive	Mom	The Unicorn	Star Trek: Discovery		Star Trek: Discovery	73
	2020-21	117	88	93	69	35			35	73
	2020-21									117	88	93	69	35	35	73
	2020-21	103		103	81				81	35	35	73
2021-22	Young Sheldon	United States of Al	Ghosts	B Positive	Bull		Bull	89 (+23%)
	2021-22	131 (+12%)	92 (+5%)	108 (+15%)	82 (+19%)	62 (+78%)			62 (+78%)	89.3531941113022
	2021-22									130.516411341419	92.3470311368574	107.810802860246	82.0832249049602	62 (+78%)	62 (+78%)	89.3531941113022
	2021-22	111 (+9%)		111.431721239138	95 (+17%)				95 (+17%)	62 (+78%)	62 (+78%)	89.3531941113022
VsAvg	-34%		-0.339158257201392	-37%		-0.373655874833693	-38%		-0.384140494838278	-36%
Rank	19/21		19/21	19/21		19/21	20/21		20/21	19/21

Fall 2021 was the beginning of a nice comeback season for Young Sheldon, and the start of something new with promising 9/8c comedy Ghosts. Sophomores United States of Al and B Positive filled out the night, with Al typically posting worse retention than the year-ago occupants and B Positive improving significantly on The Unicorn at 9:30. Bull made the move to Thursday, where it fell off from the comedies but got to crush last year's historically weak occupants.

winter

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2020-21	Young Sheldon	B Positive	Mom	The Unicorn	Clarice		Clarice	90
	2020-21	132	102	99	72	68			68	90
	2020-21									132	102	99	72	68	68	90
	2020-21	117		117	86				86	68	68	90
2021-22	Young Sheldon	United States of Al	Ghosts	B Positive	Bull		Bull	100 (+10%)
	2021-22	137 (+4%)	100 (-3%)	122 (+23%)	91 (+26%)	74 (+9%)			74 (+9%)	99.5266394370022
	2021-22									136.653692976104	99.643317795076	121.532177769732	91.0091192976104	74 (+9%)	74 (+9%)	99.5266394370022
	2021-22	118 (+1%)		118.14850538559	106 (+24%)				106 (+24%)	74 (+9%)	74 (+9%)	99.5266394370022
VsAvg	-31%		-0.306100713282079	-28%		-0.277089094746183	-27%		-0.271841213345474	-29%
Rank	18/21		18/21	18/21		18/21	18/21		18/21	19/21

Sheldon did not get quite as much of a winter bounce as last year, but the growth actually increased in the 9/8c hour, where Ghosts had an impressive 0.70/0.65/0.68 in its three January episodes.

spring

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2020-21	Young Sheldon	United States of Al	Mom	B Positive	Clarice		Clarice	73
	2020-21	108	84	92	73	40			40	73
	2020-21									108	84	92	73	40	40	73
	2020-21	96		96	83				83	40	40	73
2021-22	Young Sheldon	United States of Al	Ghosts	How We Roll	Bull		Bull	85 (+17%)
	2021-22	119 (+11%)	88 (+5%)	112 (+22%)	66 (-10%)	63 (+57%)			63 (+57%)	85.3364296705286
	2021-22									119.245281951484	87.882139301231	112.384594496741	65.9338794351919	63 (+57%)	63 (+57%)	85.3364296705286
	2021-22	104 (+8%)		103.563710626358	89 (+8%)				89 (+8%)	63 (+57%)	63 (+57%)	85.3364296705286
VsAvg	-32%		-0.316856707976268	-35%		-0.345070390522773	-31%		-0.312759998039081	-33%
Rank	20/21		20/21	20/21		20/21	19/21		19/21	20/21

The first three comedies held up decently enough in the spring, but the 9:30 slot went to newbie How We Roll which was much weaker than B Positive right out of the gate.

Rating the Ratings

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
Young Sheldon*	0.6	0.66	0.8	-13%	130	hit	+9%	detail
United States of Al	0.4	0.47	0.5	-7%	92	marginal	+18%	detail
Ghosts	0.5	0.57	0.7		112	solid		detail
B Positive	0.4	0.44	0.5	-21%	86	marginal	0%	detail
How We Roll	0.3	0.34	0.4		66	flop		detail
Bull*	0.2	0.34	0.4	-27%	66	flop	-8%	detail

Young Sheldon: Nice rebound after three straight declines to open its run. It not only topped last year by 9% but also narrowly outrated season three. Grade: B+.

United States of Al: The growth here is because of Sheldon's growth, plus the fact that it got to air in the fall/winter after being spring-only in its freshman year. It was not a disaster or anything but it had somewhat worse retention than last year's occupants (including itself in the spring) all year long. Grade: C.

Ghosts: This show was basically in the same ballpark as the first couple Thursday seasons of Mom, behind the two Mom seasons that aired directly after Young Sheldon, and well ahead of the last couple seasons of Mom. For a single-camera show with a weird premise, that's a big win. But its time as an anchor was short-lived, as CBS is cutting the 9/8c comedy hour and moving it to 8:30. Grade: B+.

B Positive: It did get to miss out on the spring after airing a lot of late spring eps last year, but breaking even in Plus while moving from 8:30 to 9:30 still seems decent. It wouldn't have been the end of the world if CBS had wanted to just bring one or both of these sophomores back and keep rolling with two comedy hours. But the network wanted three new dramas and didn't have a lot of places to put them, so Al and B got cut. Grade: B-.

How We Roll: It only got to air three episodes after an original Ghosts, and it actually held up well post-premiere even after Ghosts was gone, which gets it a better grade than a lot of this year's failures. But the die was pretty much cast on premiere night. Starting at unacceptable levels and just keeping that audience was not gonna be enough. Grade: D+.

Bull: Rescued the hour from its unfathomable depths last year, but still nothing to write home about. Considering it was coming from an All Rise lead-in on Monday, Bull probably could've done a little better. It's over after six seasons, and CSI: Vegas will bring the franchise back to the night where it had five megahit seasons in the early aughts. 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 CBS Thursday: 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21

Here's the now updated Schedules Plus for CBS Thursday.