The Breakdown: CBS Thursday in 2023-24 (Young Sheldon, Ghosts, So Help Me Todd and more!)

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


fall

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2022-23	Young Sheldon	Ghosts	So Help Me Todd		So Help Me Todd	CSI: Vegas		CSI: Vegas	93
	2022-23	130	131	80		80	67			67	93
	2022-23										130	131	80	80	67	67	93
	2022-23	131				131				80	80	67	67	93
2023-24	Buddy Games		Buddy Games	Big Brother		Big Brother	The Challenge: USA		The Challenge: USA	87 (-6%)
	2023-24	72 (-45%)		72.039332282562	130 (+63%)		130 (+63%)	59 (-12%)			59 (-12%)	87.2343820859823
VsAvg	-53%		-0.531075061698331	-7%		-0.0710038941478564	-36%		-0.363585318242907	-32%
Rank	23/25		23/25	11/25		11/25	23/25		23/25	22/25

CBS was able to ride out the first half of the fall with its late summer unscripted fare, then relied on reruns the rest of the way, including a CBS run for the first Paramount+ season of SEAL Team.

winter

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2022-23	Young Sheldon	Ghosts	So Help Me Todd		So Help Me Todd	CSI: Vegas		CSI: Vegas	101
	2022-23	149	139	88		88	71			71	101
	2022-23										149	139	88	88	71	71	101
	2022-23	144				144				88	88	71	71	101
2023-24	Young Sheldon	Ghosts	So Help Me Todd		So Help Me Todd	Elsbeth		Elsbeth	101 (0%)
	2023-24	144 (-4%)	138 (0%)	85 (-3%)		85 (-3%)	76 (+8%)			76 (+8%)	100.884349477002
	2023-24										143.639400343889	138.368229689067	85 (-3%)	85 (-3%)	76 (+8%)	76 (+8%)	100.884349477002
	2023-24	141 (-2%)				141.003815016478				85 (-3%)	85 (-3%)	76 (+8%)	76 (+8%)	100.884349477002
VsAvg	-15%		-0.15387887682936	-39%		-0.38960247547852	-21%		-0.205964415126002	-25%
Rank	16/25		16/25	23/25		23/25	17/25		17/25	20/25

CBS got its powerful comedy hour back on the air in mid-February alongside middling drama performer So Help Me Todd, and both hours were basically in line with last season. The network got a little improvement at 10/9c with new drama Elsbeth, built around Carrie Preston's character from The Good Wife.

spring

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2022-23	Young Sheldon	Ghosts	So Help Me Todd		So Help Me Todd	CSI: Vegas		CSI: Vegas	90
	2022-23	129	123	81		81	62			62	90
	2022-23										129	123	81	81	62	62	90
	2022-23	126				126				81	81	62	62	90
2023-24	Young Sheldon	Ghosts	So Help Me Todd		So Help Me Todd	Elsbeth		Elsbeth	97 (+8%)
	2023-24	140 (+8%)	130 (+5%)	87 (+7%)		87 (+7%)	69 (+11%)			69 (+11%)	96.8368434384787
	2023-24										139.686022352773	129.582945264364	87 (+7%)	87 (+7%)	69 (+11%)	69 (+11%)	96.8368434384787
	2023-24	135 (+7%)				134.634483808569				87 (+7%)	87 (+7%)	69 (+11%)	69 (+11%)	96.8368434384787
VsAvg	-11%		-0.10557611980847	-33%		-0.333066848690678	-21%		-0.209728845329637	-21%
Rank	16/25		16/25	22/25		22/25	18/25		18/25	20/25

The trends improved somewhat in the spring, with Sheldon riding a Big Bang Theory-esque finale spike to 0.71/0.76.

Rating the Ratings

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
Buddy Games	0.2	0.28	0.3		73	marginal		detail
Young Sheldon*	0.4	0.53	0.8	-8%	141	hit	+4%	detail
Ghosts	0.4	0.50	0.7	-10%	133	hit	+1%	detail
Big Brother Thu*	0.5	0.58	0.7	-18%	136	big hit(sum)	-2%
So Help Me Todd	0.3	0.33	0.4	-7%	86	marginal	+5%	detail
The Challenge: USA	0.2	0.28	0.3	-27%	67	marg(sum)	-13%	detail
Elsbeth	0.2	0.28	0.3		72	marginal		detail

Young Sheldon: This placed somewhere between the final seasons of The Big Bang Theory (huge finale spike but a largely underwhelming final season overall) and How I Met Your Mother (which showed marked improvement throughout the season). For Young Sheldon, it was more of a... whelming final season. There was no real heat outside the finale and maybe the first couple weeks, but in general it was pretty close to even. Overall, the show ended up with a very productive last few seasons, after it was looking circa seasons three and four like it could fall off much more. Grade: B.

Ghosts: Ghosts had a crazily high premiere (0.67, building on Sheldon's 0.63) and then immediately settled right back in with the same almost 100% retention it had all of last year. It will keep the 8:30 slot next year as the Young Sheldon spin-off inherits 8/7c. Grade: B.

So Help Me Todd: The show was pretty steady throughout season one and basically provided more of the same in season two. That level felt pretty borderline last year and apparently needed to show more improvement to continue. Grade: B-.

Elsbeth: There was no guarantee that a spin-off from The Good Wife universe would do much since TGW itself was never really a linear performer, but Elsbeth actually did fine. It was a little stronger than what CBS has gotten here from declining vets like Bull and CSI: Vegas, and considerably stronger than most of the newbies from before that like Tommy and Clarice. 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 CBS Thursday: 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 Thursday.