The War of 18-49, Rizzoli & Isles

RIZZOLI & ISLES (TNT)

Scheduling history: Rizzoli and Isles got two full seasons leading out of TNT's flagship procedural The Closer on Monday. Since then, it's moved to Tuesday and successfully anchored that night.

See (who saw) how it all began: Rizzoli and Isles began on 7/12/10 with a whooping 7.55 million viewers and a slightly less whooping 1.6 demo rating. That put it just barely behind its The Closer lead-in's total viewership (7.66 million), but it was actually a tick ahead of The Closer's demo (1.5). That dynamic would continue through Rizzoli's first season; it dropped into the low 1's but stayed about a tenth ahead of The Closer in the demo.

The best of times: Rizzoli and Isles still hasn't topped the 1.6 demo from series premiere night, though it hit a couple other 1.6's later in season one (on 8/9/10 and 8/23/10). While Rizzoli and Isles was at its strongest raw levels in its pairing with The Closer, it has arguably become much more valuable since the move to Tuesday, where it has been a lead-in for other series. It dropped just 11% in its first summer run, then went up by 6% in summer 2013.

The worst of times: Since season two, Rizzoli and Isles has gotten the split-season treatment, airing a small portion of its season against regular-season competition. Usually, the 'buzzier' shows hold up better than the 'casual tune-in' shows, and Rizzoli is squarely in the casual category. Last season, it still hung around 1.0 during the summer, but didn't break 1.0 for a winter episode in its last several years. It got as low as a 0.36 on 3/1/16.

Then vs. now: Rizzoli and Isles had a great formula for success, leading out of highly compatible The Closer and bringing together recognizable stars from two of the biggest syndicated procedurals (NCIS and Law & Order). And it's delivered exactly what all of those built-in audiences wanted. Despite its productivity, the emergences of Falling Skies and later The Last Ship mean it it hasn't actually been TNT's top demo drama since season one (and even then it beat The Closer by less than a tenth). With the fall of The Last Ship and The Librarians in 2015-16, Rizzoli was finally able to go out on top in its final season.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	Summer 2010	Monday 10:00	1.46		1.30	1.60	detail
2	Summer 2011		Monday 10:00	1.23	-16%	1.10	1.40		detail
	2		Fall 2011	Monday 10:00	0.94		0.80			1.10	detail
3	Summer 2012	Tuesday 9:00	1.09	-11%	0.83	1.29	detail
	3		Fall 2012	Tuesday 9:00	0.79	-16%			0.70	0.86	detail
4	Summer 2013		Tuesday 9:00	1.15	+6%	1.01	1.42		detail
	4		Winter 2014	Tuesday 9:00	0.75	-5%	0.67			0.88	detail
5	Summer 2014		Tuesday 9:00	0.96	-17%	0.83	1.10	detail	B
	5	Winter 2015	Tue 9:00, Tue 8:00	0.63	-16%	0.56	0.76			detail	B
6	Summer 2015	Tuesday 9:00	0.70	-27%	0.57	0.82	detail	C-
	6	Winter 2016	Tue 9:00, Tue 10:00	0.43	-32%	0.36			0.50	detail	C-
7	Summer 2016	Monday 9:00	0.58	-17%	0.50	0.70	detail	B

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now16	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale	N
1	Summer 2010	52				46	57	57	53	10
2	Summer 2011	48				43	55	47	43	10
	2	Fall 2011	40				34	47	34	47	5
3	Summer 2012	46				35	55	51	55	10
	3	Fall 2012	38				33	41	36	39	5
4	Summer 2013	55				48	68	68	57	12
	4	Winter 2014	40				36	46	38	39	4
5	Summer 2014	51				44	59	54	54	12
	5	Winter 2015	37				33	45	45	37	6
6	Summer 2015	42				34	49	45	49	12
	6	Winter 2016	29				25	34	28	32	6
7	Summer 2016	40				34	48	40	48	13

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