The War of 18-49, Walker

The CW's Last Gasp

By January 2021, it had become clear that the CW's tentpoles from the second half of the 2010s (Riverdale and the superhero shows) were on the way out, and it was uncertain whether the network had any real chance of replacing them in remotely adequate fashion. But the network's return week after COVID delays offered surprisingly real glimmers of hope on that front, starting with a career-high return for All American on Monday, then going nearly that high on Thursday with the premiere of newbie Walker, which averaged 2.44 million viewers and a 0.37 in the demo. Walker seemed to offer a pathway to broadening out the network's appeal, as it achieved an All American-esque demo rating with more than double the total viewership.

The Potential Peters Out

Unfortunately, Walker just didn't have enough legs to sustain that new path. It actually held quite well in week two (0.34), but then tumbled to 0.27 and 0.21 the next two weeks. It rallied a bit later in February and March, but by the spring it was basically stuck in the 0.15ish range. Walker remained as the Thursday anchor for the next couple seasons, but hovering around a 20 Plus, it just wasn't much of a tentpole to build around. The network still tried some in-house productions, including the ultimately failed spin-off Walker Independence in 2022-23, but never had anything remotely as promising as the 2021 Walker premiere.

Walker made it to a fourth season, but by the time it returned from writers' strike delays in spring 2024, it found itself on a network that had almost completely given in to unscripted programming and acquired scripted series. Walker couldn't even make it to a 0.10 the whole season, and thus didn't particularly stand out even among the much cheaper programming. That meant the Walker run came to an end after four seasons, leaving only All American and a long-delayed final season of Superman and Lois to bear the flag for the CW's old way of operating.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	2021	Thursday 8:00	0.20		0.1	0.4	detail	B
2	2021-22		Thursday 8:00	0.11	-47%	0.1	0.1	detail	D
3	2022-23		Thursday 8:00	0.08	-21%	0.0	0.1	detail	C+
4	Spring 2024	Wednesday 8:00	0.06	-26%	0.0	0.1	detail	C

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now24	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	2021	31	marginal(CW)	0.12		19	58	58	19
2	2021-22	21	flop	0.08	-33%	14	29	22	14
3	2022-23	20	flop	0.07	-6%	12	30	19	16
4	Spring 2024	16	flop	0.06	-17%	11	21	16	18
AVERAGE:		AVERAGE:	22	flop

The War of 18-49 chronicles the ratings history of veteran primetime series. For more, see the Index.