War of 18-49 Update, Archer (2013-14)

Let's take a look at the 2013-14 season (the fifth overall) of Archer on FX.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 7/24/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• On a generally steady Thursday night, the biggest notable was a show that should've bounced: the season finale of Hell's Kitchen (1.7), instead merely even and thus 26% behind last summer's finale. It now begins just a seven-week hiatus before becoming one of the first fall premieres on September 10. To make matters worse for Fox, Gang Related (0.7) gave back its spike from last week in its last episode with a good lead-in; it'll have to follow Sleepy Hollow repeats for the next three weeks.

• After a decent start for FX's comedies last week, Married (0.41) and You're the Worst (0.29) pretty much tanked in week two, each down over 30%. USA's disappointing premieres held up better; Rush (0.48) was actually up from last week's 0.39, while Satisfaction (0.44) down about 10%. Still... no winners among this bunch.

War of 18-49 Update, Justified (2013-14)

Let's take a look at the 2013-14 season (the fifth overall) of Justified on FX.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 7/23/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• The Wednesday original debut of America's Got Talent (2.4) went below the 2.8 Wednesday debut from last year, though that was two weeks earlier on the calendar; it tied the 52-weeks-ago airing on 7/24/13 and also tied this week's Tuesday airing. 

• That lead-in injection pumped up Taxi Brooklyn (1.0), but only back to its premiere number and no higher. For now, that's lower than what The Night Shift was getting even when it aired after Got Talent repeats. The more relevant comparison for Taxi's fate may be last year's Camp, which had a 1.0 on this night last year and settled at 0.9 in the back half of its season.

• If there was one show on another network hurt by Talent's arrival as competition, it was definitely Extant (1.1), down a brutal four tenths to more than cancel out its overachieving hold from last week. Motive (0.6) also took a hit at 10/9c opposite a stronger Taxi. The unscripted competition ironically fared best, with So You Think You Can Dance (1.1) and Big Brother (2.3) each on the upswing.

A18-49+: The League Averages Post

The A18-49+ theme posts combine all of the individual season info in one specific category, allowing us to line up the last eleven seasons of collective Live+SD ratings declines on a relatively apples-to-apples basis. In future seasons I will update these pages with the new season numbers.

Since the introduction of A18-49+, I've had some requests for a post that simply lists what the "league average" is in each season. So here they are, plus a few rambling thoughts on the evolution of the league average.

To reiterate, "league average" is defined here as the Live+SD adults 18-49 rating for the average moment of original non-sports series programming on the big four networks during the 35- or 36-week TV regular season. All the A18-49+ numbers on this site are calculated by dividing a rating or average rating by its season's league average and multiplying by 100.

War of 18-49 Update, CSI (2013-14)

Let's take a look at the 2013-14 season (the fourteenth overall) of CSI on CBS.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 7/22/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• NBC's new reality series Food Fighters (1.0) had a mediocre start at 8/7c, going in the same general area as most of NBC's scripted premieres this summer. As for recent NBC unscripted comparisons, it went well behind last summer's Get Out Alive (1.5) and Hollywood Game Night (1.4) debuts but slightly ahead of this spring's American Dream Builders (0.9). Lead-out America's Got Talent (2.4) was finally back in originals and 14% behind the first live show last season.

War of 18-49 Update, Law and Order: SVU (2013-14)

Let's take a look at the 2013-14 season (the fifteenth overall) of Law and Order: SVU on NBC.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 7/21/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• For the first time in 686 days, Fox's Hotel Hell (1.5) was on the air, ending a crazy hiatus for a show never actually removed from the network roster. Though it probably didn't have as many male viewers (and won't have as many DVR viewers) as previous occupant 24: Live Another Day, it pretty much brought a typical 24 same-day rating to the table (and just two tenths behind last week's finale). The 1.5 was almost exactly the historical-adjusted equivalent of the 1.9 with which it began season one in 2012, though season one aired at 8/7c with no big lead-in from MasterChef (2.1). This was a decent start, but it's unclear how committed Fox really is here given the long absence.

• MasterChef had the only outright season high among Monday's reality veterans, but fellow series American Ninja Warrior (1.9) and The Bachelorette (1.8) were also on the high end. CBS' Under the Dome (1.5) took a big week-to-week hit, falling well behind all of them. (Once again, it followed the lead-in; Two and a Half Men (1.0) was six tenths behind last week's The Big Bang Theory.)

• And after just one week, the CW re-arranged its Monday lineup. It helped significantly on the whole, as the boost to the Whose Line Is It Anyway? repeat (0.6) at 8:30 far exceeded the losses from weak comedies Seed (0.2) and Backpackers (0.1).

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 7/20/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC's Sunday lineup gave back its World Cup-fueled bounce from last week... and in the case of Rising Star (1.0), it gave back that bounce and then some, dropping by 0.3 to go 0.2 beneath its previous low. Last week's World Cup lead-in was perfectly timed so that ABC execs could talk about this show's ratings momentum at press tour, but that's clearly gone now (if it was ever there).

• Unforgettable (1.0) picked up another notch in its second week at 9/8c, putting it pretty close to what it was delivering after Big Brother last summer.

• On cable, FX's The Strain (1.0) was down two tenths in week two, while Lifetime's new drama The Lottery (0.4) drew little initial interest.