The Breakdown: CBS Friday in 2023-24 (S.W.A.T., Fire Country, Blue Bloods and more!)

It's time for a journey through the CBS Friday schedule in 2023-24...


fall

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2022-23	S.W.A.T.		S.W.A.T.	Fire Country		Fire Country	Blue Bloods		Blue Bloods	98
	2022-23	99		99	101		101	93			93	98
2023-24	Let's Make a Deal Primetime		Let's Make a Deal Primetime	Raid the Cage		Raid the Cage	Blue Bloods (R)		Blue Bloods (R)	58 (-41%)
	2023-24	65 (-34%)		65.0111047427998	63 (-37%)		63 (-37%)	45 (-52%)			45 (-52%)	57.5924201174953
VsAvg	-8%		-0.0843226534776796	-13%		-0.126028618214123	-39%		-0.387149897330674	-20%
Rank	17/25		17/25	19/25		19/25	25/25		25/25	21/25

CBS got through the meat of the fall with game shows, as newbie Raid the Cage aired after a mix of The Price Is Right and Let's Make a Deal. All these shows later did much better on Wednesday bridging the period between Survivor seasons.

winter

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2022-23	S.W.A.T.		S.W.A.T.	Fire Country		Fire Country	Blue Bloods		Blue Bloods	104
	2022-23	102		102	115		115	94			94	104
2023-24	S.W.A.T.		S.W.A.T.	Fire Country		Fire Country	Blue Bloods		Blue Bloods	107 (+4%)
	2023-24	111 (+8%)		110.694583751254	117 (+2%)		117 (+2%)	95 (+1%)			95 (+1%)	107.473312795529
VsAvg	+50%		0.49686222281867	+55%		0.54735443888364	+24%		0.235810352844786	+43%
Rank	1/25		1/25	1/25		1/25	2/25		2/25	1/25

In mid-February, CBS brought back its historically high-rated Friday lineup from a year ago, and it continued to perform at historically high levels.

spring

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2022-23	S.W.A.T.		S.W.A.T.	Fire Country		Fire Country	Blue Bloods		Blue Bloods	83
	2022-23	86		86	89		89	75			75	83
2023-24	S.W.A.T.		S.W.A.T.	Fire Country		Fire Country	Blue Bloods		Blue Bloods	87 (+4%)
	2023-24	88 (+1%)		87.6332121364092	95 (+7%)		95 (+7%)	78 (+4%)			78 (+4%)	86.817435725544
VsAvg	+44%		0.438937717318198	+48%		0.483568242602114	+10%		0.101700527814587	+33%
Rank	1/25		1/25	1/25		1/25	8/25		8/25	1/25

The minor year-to-year timeslot growth continued into the spring, but without the fall results, the shows' full-season averages were even to slightly down.

Rating the Ratings

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
S.W.A.T.*	0.3	0.36	0.5	-13%	95	hit(Fri)	-2%	detail
Raid the Cage	0.2	0.26	0.3		68	solid(Fri)		detail
Fire Country	0.3	0.39	0.5	-23%	102	hit(Fri)	-13%	detail
Blue Bloods*	0.2	0.31	0.4	-16%	83	hit(Fri)	-6%	detail

S.W.A.T.: After another year of great Friday ratings, S.W.A.T. deservedly got rescued yet again from a planned cancellation. As far as I can tell, this renewal didn't even come with a final season announcement! Grade: B.

Fire Country: Throwing out last season's football episode, it was dead even in Plus with a 102 both years. Even usually means a B but I'm giving it a few more flowers since that's great for a sophomore and it's still one of the highest-rated Friday scripted shows in the Plus era. Grade: B+.

Blue Bloods: It was down a bit from the last two years but still in the same general area it's been at for the last decade. That level has increasingly gotten overshadowed by the heat in the first two hours, but it'll be interesting to see what CBS comes up with after Blue Bloods finishes its run in the fall, as they haven't had to worry about this timeslot for 15 years! 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 Friday: 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23

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