Thursday, July 31, 2014

The War of 18-49, Bob's Burgers



BOB'S BURGERS (FOX)

Scheduling history: Aside from a few odd 9:30 episodes, the first three and a half seasons of Bob's Burgers aired on Sunday at 8:30 after The Simpsons. A shake-up to the animated lineup bumped Bob's Burgers to 7:00 in spring 2014, and it's returned to the earliest hour (at 7:30) starting in fall 2015. Fall 2018 will finally see a regular return to the 8:30 timeslot.

See (who saw) how it all began: In the last few years, Fox's best animated ratings have regularly come on the night after Fox has a late-afternoon NFL playoff game. That made it a great place to launch something new, and Bob's Burgers responded with 9.38 million viewers and a 4.5 demo on 1/9/11 (down from The Simpsons' 12.55 million and 5.7). It was the biggest scripted series premiere of the 2010-11 season. No NFL help brought Bob's back to reality; it dropped 44% to a 2.5 demo the next week, then to a 2.2 in week three. It held in the low 2's for the rest of the season, a bit behind its usually mid-2's Simpsons lead-in.

The best of times: Bob's Burgers has never again gotten remotely close to the 4.5 on premiere night. After being held for midseason again in 2011-12, Bob's Burgers got its first whack at the fall in 2012-13 and thus grew a bit in that season. After several low 2's ratings through the fall, it got up to a 3.1 with NFL playoff help (on 1/6/13, two years after the series premiere). It then got as high as a 2.9 in the 2013-14 season, once again in the same week.

The worst of times: Bob's Burgers was actually down less than the league average as of the end of January 2014, possibly headed for its biggest season yet in Plus, when the scheduling of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey intervened. Both Burgers and American Dad! got shoved to the 7:00 hour, and Fox opted to give the better 7:30 slot to the show that was about to leave the network. At 7:00, Bob's opened at a series low 0.9, briefly improved into the low 1's, then dropped again in April. It got as low as a measly 0.6 rating for an Easter Sunday 7:00 airing on 4/20/14, and took five years to get back to that raw low again.

Then vs. now: Part of the initial appeal of Bob's Burgers was that it came from an alternative voice in a Fox animation world increasingly overrun with Seth MacFarlane shows. That may be a big part of why it's now outlived second-tier MacFarlane cartoons The Cleveland Show and American Dad! (at least on Fox). However, Fox seems to have pretty much given up on making this show anything better than a second-tier performer. It was eyebrow-raising when Bob's got the worse slot in the 7:00 hour and outgoing American Dad! went to 7:30, and the preferential treatment for Dad! has continued during summer rerun season. It all led to a fall schedule in which Bob's Burgers will be back in the lowest-viewed hour, only airing when there's no direct NFL lead-in. But Fox needed it as a stopgap after the Mulaney debacle, and then again after the failure of Cooper Barrett's Guide in early 2016. In fall 2018, after Fox wiped out its live-action comedies, it will finally get regularly scheduled in a 'main' timeslot.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

SeasYearSlotAvgy2yLoHiResultsGrade
12011Sunday 8:302.331.94.5detail
2Spring 20121.87-20%1.72.1detail
32012-131.93+4%1.53.1detail
42013-14Sun 8:30, Sun 7:001.47-24%0.62.9detail
52014-15Sun 7:30, Sun 9:301.23-16%0.92.0detail
62015-16Sunday 7:301.04-16%0.91.4detailB-
72016-170.95-8%0.71.5detailA-
82017-181.00+6%0.72.1detailA-
92018-19Sunday 8:301.04+3%0.62.1detailB+
102019-20Sunday 9:000.73-29%0.42.1detailC-
112020-210.51-30%0.40.8detailC+
122021-220.44-15%0.30.7detailB
132022-230.34-23%0.20.6detailC
142023-240.33-4%0.20.5detailC

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

SeasYearA18-49+LabelNow24y2yLoHiPremiereFinale
1201192marginal0.357517717783
2Spring 201279marginal0.30-14%72898072
32012-1392marginal0.35+16%7114712376
42013-1478marginal0.30-15%3215411748
52014-1573marginal0.28-6%541198965
62015-1671marginal0.27-3%62968262
72016-1778marginal0.29+9%571229057
82017-1892marginal0.35+18%6019411668
92018-19109solid0.41+19%6621912066
102019-2090marginal0.34-18%502549061
112020-2180marginal0.30-11%5712010660
122021-2286marginal0.33+8%5713112269
132022-2379marginal0.30-7%4513813445
142023-2486marginal0.33+8%4714010347

AVERAGE:85marginal
CAREER:1184star


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

1 comment:

Spot said...

It's four episode winter trajectory was simply ridiculous! 2.9, 2.0, 1.5, .9 all in a row. It had a *reason* for each. Simpsons boosted by the Wildcard game, regular Simpsons lead in, Grammy's/Pro Bowl competition, coming back from extended hiatus in a less desirable timeslot at the start of DST.

This is a case where a "dedicated fanbase" simply wasn't that dedicated. I don't think King of the Hill, American Dad!, or Cleveland show ever hit a 32 plus while being exiled by FOX. Seriously, the Easter .6 matched last years Easter REPEAT im that slot with less viewers

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