The Breakdown: CBS Sunday in 2022-23 (The Equalizer, East New York, NCIS: Los Angeles and more!)

It's time for a journey through the CBS Sunday schedule in 2022-23...


fall

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2021-22	60 Minutes	The Equalizer		The Equalizer	NCIS: Los Angeles		NCIS: Los Angeles	SEAL Team	142
	2021-22	296	132		133	105		111		76	142
	2021-22										296	132	133	105	111	76	142
	2021-22	214		214	119		119	93		93	142
2022-23	60 Minutes	The Equalizer		The Equalizer	East New York		East New York	NCIS: Los Angeles	148 (+4%)
	2022-23	332 (+12%)	138 (+4%)		164 (+24%)	98 (-7%)		108 (-2%)		86 (+13%)	154.360120715625
	2022-23										332.229246530813	137.693667553779	164.160333579931	97.9099132423162	108.463077543883	85.7044858430291	154.360120715625
	2022-23	235 (+10%)		234.961457042296	118 (-1%)		131 (+10%)	92 (-1%)		97 (+4%)	154.360120715625
VsAvg	+83%		0.82573619200712	+40%		0.399585298077098	+18%		0.180318288804422	+52%
Rank	1/24		1/24	1/24		1/24	4/24		4/24	1/24

The late afternoon NFL lead-outs continued to push CBS upward, with 60 Minutes growing in its fall episodes and keeping The Equalizer rock solid. 9/8c newbie East New York immediately looked somewhat weaker than NCIS: Los Angeles, but Los Angeles was initially enough of an improvement in its shift to 10/9c to make up for it.

winter

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2021-22	The Equalizer		The Equalizer	NCIS: Los Angeles		NCIS: Los Angeles	S.W.A.T.		S.W.A.T.	101
	2021-22	118		118	95		95	90			90	101
2022-23	The Equalizer		The Equalizer	East New York		East New York	NCIS: Los Angeles		NCIS: Los Angeles	86 (-15%)
	2022-23	97 (-18%)		96.737339431031	85 (-11%)		85 (-11%)	77 (-14%)			77 (-14%)	86.340518304302
VsAvg	+9%		0.0850283908758785	-2%		-0.0180334938244816	-2%		-0.0172554715007132	+2%
Rank	9/24		9/24	12/24		12/24	15/24		15/24	11/24

But the NCIS: Los Angeles comparisons at 10/9c got much worse once it started going up against S.W.A.T., which had overachieved in the hour a year ago. Meanwhile, The Equalizer somewhat quizzically had rather terrible comparisons in this period. It seems to be largely about not airing in January and then following relatively weak 60 Minutes episodes in the late winter, because it doesn't really line up with the rest of the season.

spring

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2021-22	The Equalizer		The Equalizer	NCIS: Los Angeles		NCIS: Los Angeles	S.W.A.T.		S.W.A.T.	95
	2021-22	109		109	91		91	85			85	95
2022-23	The Equalizer		The Equalizer	East New York		East New York	NCIS: Los Angeles		NCIS: Los Angeles	85 (-10%)
	2022-23	109 (+0%)		108.881853905057	77 (-16%)		77 (-16%)	70 (-18%)			70 (-18%)	85.0209074595382
VsAvg	+26%		0.259017908417732	-6%		-0.0627322447803989	-6%		-0.0559497894211866	+5%
Rank	5/24		5/24	16/24		16/24	16/24		16/24	10/24

Equalizer's comparisons were much better in the spring, but again that seems to be driven in part by a big episode right at the start of the spring window, and the typical episode was down a little in Plus. The East New York and NCIS: LA comparisons only got worse.

Rating the Ratings

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
60 Minutes*	0.4	0.78	1.6	-12%	183	big hit	+5%	detail
The Equalizer	0.4	0.50	0.8	-17%	117	solid	-1%	detail
East New York	0.3	0.38	0.6		89	marginal		detail
NCIS: Los Angeles*	0.2	0.35	0.5	-30%	81	marginal	-16%	detail

60 Minutes: Pretty standard season for 60 Minutes at this point, roughly even in Plus in non-sports episodes (bottoming out around the league average) but driven upward by its bigger sports lead-out episodes. Grade: B.

The Equalizer: It's a bit tough to disentangle all the sports stuff going on with these shows but my best impression is that it was "Truly" down a little in Plus through the winter/spring, and bumped up to near even by some better 60 Minutes lead-ins. Going 116 -> 119 -> 117 in its first three seasons is quite consistent, though. Grade: B-.

East New York: After a few years of prosperity with the NCIS spin-offs, season one of East New York generally looked like a step in the wrong direction, but (perhaps thanks in part to Equalizer) still not yet as bad ratings-wise as the Madam Secretary/The Good Wife days. Grade: C.

NCIS: Los Angeles: I don't think going -16% in Plus is particularly shocking in a move to 10/9c with a much worse lead-in, but it was still down more year-to-year vs. S.W.A.T. than even East New York was at 9/8c. Perhaps that's more a testament to what S.W.A.T. did last year than anything, but LA was still a little weaker than NCIS: New Orleans in this slot two years ago. 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 Sunday: 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22

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