Thursday, July 7, 2011

The War of 18-49, Big Brother



BIG BROTHER (CBS)

Scheduling history:  Since airing throughout the week in season one, Big Brother has traditionally been scheduled on three nights per week. Early in the run, the third day was a very low-priority evening (Friday or Saturday), but since season seven it's been Sunday. The first two days have been some mix of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with Wednesday/Thursday/Sunday the arrangement for the last half decade.

See (who saw) how it all began: Though CSI is the best-known show to benefit as a Survivor lead-out, the first long-running show Survivor helped was actually Big Brother. The season and still series high came in Big Brother's post-Survivor series premiere, when it pulled 22.4 million viewers and a 9.9/27 demo on 7/5/00. The first season of Big Brother was a pretty crazily scheduled affair, airing an average of four hours per week across six different nights. There were about seventy airings total in that first season. I don't have a lot of the first season info, so I didn't try breaking it down by day as I do in future seasons, but the show was clearly at its strongest levels ever when it got to air after Survivor, as it did several times in season 1. The actual season 1 average is most likely a lot lower than the one listed below, since most of the missing data is from lower-rated evenings.

The best of times: Big Brother never got stronger in terms of individual episodes than when it aired out of that soaring first season of Survivor in 2000, but the biggest raw season overall was probably the third. Both of the midweek evenings averaged well over a 4.0 demo, and the 6.4 demo on 9/19/02 (leading out of a Survivor season premiere) was the highest rating outside of the first season. However, on a historical-adjusted basis the most recent seasons (16-19) have been the biggest.

The worst of times: A previous War of 18-49 post examined how So You Think You Can Dance basically fell apart the moment it was asked to become a regular season player. Big Brother had the same problems in that situation. Asked to take up a lot of real estate during the WGA strike of 2007-08, Big Brother had easily its weakest season yet during spring 2008. And there was no recovery in the summer, as the summer 2008 season ticked very slightly down overall to what remains the weakest season in the history of the show. Since we don't have all the results from when the show aired on Saturdays during the first half of its run, I'm not totally confident on this one, but the series low out of my data is a 0.9 on the 4th of July in 2018, and it found some more 0.9's in 2019.

Then vs. now: Initially, the stories of both So You Think You Can Dance and Big Brother in the regular season were similar; both dropped below their typical summer numbers in a regular season environment, then the overload negatively impacted the next summer season. From there, though, the stories have diverged. So You Think You Can Dance has continued to limp along, just barely ekeing out its last few renewals. But Big Brother managed to bounce back, and its thirteenth season was amazingly its third straight season of growth. After a hiccup against the Olympics in 2012, it came most of the way back in A18-49+ in 2013 and has been at its strongest yet in 2014, 2015, 2016 and again in 2017. And these hours are ever more valuable for CBS in the summer as their usual menu of repeats continues to sag.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

SeasYearSlotAvgy2yLoHiResultsGrade
2Summer 2001Thursday 8:004.293.56.0
Saturday 8:002.361.93.1
Tuesday 8:004.333.75.5
3Summer 2002Wednesday 9:004.40+2%3.85.6
Thursday 8:004.270%3.16.4
Saturday 8:002.63+11%2.13.7
4Summer 2003Wednesday 9:003.63-17%2.94.2
3.96-7%3.64.3
Friday 8:002.71+3%2.23.0
5Summer 2004Tuesday 8:003.81+5%3.14.4
Thursday 8:003.56-10%3.33.9
Saturday 9:002.46-9%1.82.9
6Summer 2005Thursday 8:003.00-16%2.53.4
Tuesday 9:003.36-12%3.23.6
Saturday 8:002.11-14%1.82.7
7Summer 2006Thursday 8:002.73-9%2.53.2detail
Tuesday 8:003.00-11%2.63.6
Sunday 8:002.51+19%2.13.0
8Summer 2007Thursday 8:002.76+1%2.23.3detail
Sunday 8:002.55+1%2.02.9
Tuesday 9:003.02+1%2.63.4
9Winter Spring 20082.281.92.6detail
Wednesday 8:002.131.92.4
Sunday 8:002.332.22.8
10Summer 20082.11-17%1.92.6detail
Tuesday 9:002.36-22%2.12.7
Wednesday 8:002.17-22%1.82.7
11Summer 2009Thursday 8:002.31+7%1.92.7detail
Sunday 8:002.25+7%1.92.6
Tuesday 9:002.50+6%2.03.0
12Summer 2010Thursday 8:002.42+5%2.22.7detail
Sunday 8:002.46+9%2.22.8
Wednesday 8:002.58+3%2.22.9
13Summer 2011Thursday 9:002.67+10%2.33.1detailA-
Sunday 8:002.71+10%2.43.2
Wednesday 9:302.80+9%2.43.3
14Summer 2012Thursday 9:002.15-19%1.82.6detailC-
Sunday 8:302.19-19%1.92.6
Wednesday 8:002.13-24%1.92.5
15Summer 20132.19+3%1.92.5detailB
Sunday 8:302.22+1%1.82.5
Thursday 9:002.22+3%1.72.5
16Summer 2014Wednesday 8:002.23+2%1.82.6detailA-
Thursday 9:002.16-3%1.62.4
Sunday 8:002.16-3%1.82.5
17Summer 2015Wednesday 8:002.04-9%1.82.2detailB+
Thursday 9:001.99-8%1.82.1
Sunday 8:001.95-9%1.72.3
18Summer 2016Wednesday 8:001.84-10%1.62.1detailB+
Thursday 9:001.80-10%1.71.9
Sunday 8:001.70-13%1.32.1
19Summer 2017Wednesday 8:001.87+2%1.72.2detailA
Thursday 9:001.83+2%1.62.1
Sunday 8:001.80+6%1.42.0
20Summer 2018Wednesday 8:001.52-19%0.91.7detailB
Thursday 9:001.51-18%1.31.7
Sunday 8:001.48-18%1.21.7
21Summer 2019Wed 9:00, Wed 8:001.13-26%1.01.3detailC
Thursday 9:001.06-30%0.91.2
Sunday 8:001.12-25%0.91.3

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

SeasYearA18-49+LabelNow19y2yLoHiPremiereFinale
3Summer 2002102hit(sum)0.978813095130
99hit(sum)0.947214972149
61solid(Fri)0.5849864974
4Summer 200382solid(sum)0.78-20%65958695
89solid(sum)0.85-10%81978395
61solid(Fri)0.580%50685961
5Summer 200494hit(sum)0.89+15%7610894103
88solid(sum)0.83-2%81969186
60solid(Fri)0.58-1%44714971
6Summer 200574solid(sum)0.70-16%61848474
83solid(sum)0.79-12%79888479
52flop0.49-14%44664766
7Summer 200667marg(sum)0.64-9%62796979
74solid(sum)0.70-11%64896976
62marg(sum)0.59+19%52745264
8Summer 200773solid(sum)0.70+9%58887288
68marg(sum)0.64+9%53775666
80solid(sum)0.76+8%69906990
9Winter Spring 200869flop0.6657797673
64flop0.6157736073
70marginal0.6767856770
10Summer 200864marg(sum)0.61-6%57796367
71solid(sum)0.68-11%63826782
66marg(sum)0.62-11%54825482
11Summer 200977solid(sum)0.73+17%63907686
75solid(sum)0.71+17%63866670
83solid(sum)0.79+16%661007093
12Summer 201086solid(sum)0.82+12%78968992
87solid(sum)0.83+17%78998578
92hit(sum)0.87+10%7810382103
13Summer 2011105big hit(sum)1.00+22%9012211094
107big hit(sum)1.01+22%941269894
110big hit(sum)1.05+20%94130102114
14Summer 201291hit(sum)0.87-13%7611011085
93hit(sum)0.88-13%8011097102
90hit(sum)0.86-18%8010685106
15Summer 2013104hit(sum)0.99+15%90119104119
105big hit(sum)1.00+14%8511990109
105big hit(sum)1.00+16%8111981104
16Summer 2014119big hit(sum)1.13+14%96138122138
115big hit(sum)1.09+9%85127122117
115big hit(sum)1.09+9%9613396133
17Summer 2015121big hit(sum)1.15+2%107131125131
118big hit(sum)1.13+3%107125125119
116big hit(sum)1.10+1%101137107107
18Summer 2016126big hit(sum)1.20+4%113141127138
124big hit(sum)1.18+4%113132117118
117big hit(sum)1.11+1%93141106125
19Summer 2017153mega(sum)1.45+21%139176139176
150mega(sum)1.42+21%127167132148
147mega(sum)1.40+26%116159116156
20Summer 2018139big hit(sum)1.32-9%87155136155
138big hit(sum)1.31-8%119151128139
135big hit(sum)1.28-8%112160112125
21Summer 2019119big hit(sum)1.13-14%106137134132
111big hit(sum)1.06-19%92125118116
117big hit(sum)1.12-13%98135108134

For more on The War of 18-49, my look at the history of primetime TV's veteran shows, see the Index.

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