Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 5/22/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• The finale-filled last day of the 2012-13 regular season wasn't all that exciting. Nobody had a spike of note, and most shows were even to a little bit up from last week, from The Middle to Modern Family to Law and Order: SVU to Criminal Minds to Nashville. The only noticeable finale dropper was Chicago Fire, probably nicked by tougher than usual CBS competition in the second half of Minds.

• Fox continued its early transition to summer with the return of MasterChef, which was down a couple ticks from last summer's premiere and identical with the spring premiere of fellow Gordon Ramsay show Hell's Kitchen (2.1/2.3 on March 15).

The Climate, Weeks 33/34

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 5/21/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC bid farewell to the Tuesday edition of Dancing with the Stars with a finale that went just a tick above Monday's episode and was down 18% year-to-year. It appears to have been hurt by all the musical reality competition in the 9:00 hour, as it preliminary spiked from a 2.3 at 9:30 up to a 2.7 at 10:00 and a 2.9 at 10:30.

• Meanwhile, Fox's So You Think You Can Dance grew a tick week-to-week in its first two-hour edition of the season (though it was down from the post-Idol Wednesday ep) and didn't seem to suffer against the competition at 9:00. And NBC led off with an Oklahoma-themed news special, which matched last week's The Voice recap and easily handled ABC's competing special about The Bachelor (which basically matched last week's Wipeout).

Spotted Ratings, Monday 5/20/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• The last Monday of the regular season was highlighted by the transition to summer, as ABC premiered Motive in the 10:00 hour at 40% behind last week's Castle numbers, while Fox began its burn-off of The Goodwin Games. Motive will have to hope to stay near this level in its regular Thursday slot, and the best case to make for that actually happening is that ABC mostly promoted the show's Thursday premiere rather than last night's "preview."

• With the finale tonight, ABC had a nice final Monday bounce from Dancing with the Stars.

The Question, Wednesday 5/22/13: Can Fox Premiere Masterfully On a Night of Finales?

Many scripted season finales populate the final night of the 2012-13 regular season, but I'm opting for the biggest unknown: the return of Fox's Gordon Ramsay show MasterChef. It's been a bit weaker than Hell's Kitchen and stronger than So You Think You Can Dance, so I'm going in the middle of their respective 2.2 and 1.9 premieres this regular season. It has surprisingly little competition at 8:00, but it'll be hard-pressed to grow at 9:00 vs. the Modern Family/Criminal Minds/SVU finale gauntlet.

Over/Under: 2.05.

The True Top 25, Week Ending 5/19/13 (2012-13 Week 34)

In the last full week of the 2012-13 season, The Big Bang Theory had one last big win, spiking in the True2 numbers thanks to greater competition than usual. Once the TV event of the season, Thursday's finale of American Idol was a very distant second and could've easily been even lower. Several other shows like NCIS, How I Met Your Mother and The Office were hugely above average thanks to impressive finale bumps.

The season finale of Shark Tank finished off an incredible season with one last berth to represent Friday night programming, while a very impressive penultimate week of Chicago Fire managed to eke out a spot for the underwhelming new class of 2012-13. The return of So You Think You Can Dance managed the #24 spot (with the Tuesday premiere just a hundredth behind at #26).

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 5/19/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• Awards shows remain one of the best (only?) ways the broadcast networks can draw viewers to Sunday. ABC's Billboard Music Awards were up a whooping 30% from last year's 2.7 and the show's biggest rating since December 2003 (when it aired on Fox). They nearly doubled last week's ABC drama finales. CBS curiously aired an ACM Tim McGraw special against it and didn't do much.

• The other two networks wrapped up their seasons of Sunday entertainment programs with Celebrity Apprentice only barely growing week-to-week and Fox hosting one-hour finales for The Cleveland Show, The Simpsons and Family Guy. The last two were close to even year-to-year, but Celebrity Apprentice was down huge from last year's 2.2.

Spotted Ratings, Saturday 5/18/13

Spotted Ratings, Friday 5/17/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• It was mostly an unscripted game on the season's last Friday, with ABC comfortably winning thanks to two hours of Shark Tank and 20/20. The 8:00 episode in a special hour was way below average, but it still held off CBS' Undercover Boss, which was similarly weak.

• Most of the Friday scripted excitement either wrapped up earlier or got moved to another night; the finale of Nikita was the only scripted original, though it held its 0.4 in finals to pull off a +100% week-to-week.

The Question, Tuesday 5/21/13: Will the Dancing Finale Get a Gold Star?

Tonight brings what may be the last-ever airing of Dancing with the Stars on Tuesday night. While the last couple Dancing finales have spiked to 3.0+ from seasons in the 2's, those finales also completely avoided The Voice. This one has to face it head-to-head in the 9:00 hour, along with So You Think You Can Dance. However, DWTS may draw more of those viewers than normal since The Voice's season still has a few weeks to go. That seemed to be in play for Monday's airing, which grew to a preliminary 2.5.

Over/Under: 2.75.