Wednesday, July 23, 2014

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.

Timeslot Lo Avg Hi y2y A18-49+ Label y2y Results
Wednesday 9:001.4 1.792.7 +4%95marginal +16% detail

Rating the Ratings: It was a surprisingly positive season for the longest-running active drama in primetime, which may be picking back up on some casual NBC viewership that wasn't available during the network's darkest days. The biggest shock of all was the two-hour season premiere, whose 2.7 demo was up nearly 30% year-to-year and bigger than any SVU rating from the previous two seasons. Beyond that, the show was rather inconsistent; it proved capable of breaking 2.0 even late in the season for big episodes in the Mariska Hargitay storyline. But other weeks usually managed just a 1.5-1.6ish. Maybe that means this rating level is a bit fragile moving forward, but the powers that be deserve a lot of credit for finding a storyline that meaningfully moved the needle. Getting to the original Law and Order's 20 seasons still seems like an uphill battle for SVU (it was a late renewal even on the heels of this very good season), but keeping up this ratings pace will make it much harder for NBC to part ways. Grade: A-.

Here's the now updated War of 18-49 post for Law and Order: SVU.

7 comments:

Spot said...

Really amazing season for SVU, both creatively and numbers-wise. I do think you're right though, that the show might have some trouble holding on to some of the casual viewers that came out this season. I'm not a regular viewer, but I'm pretty sure the over-arching "Save Benson Saga" came to a close towards the end of this season. But I think its ability to launch Chicago PD this season proves that the show has a little life left in it. NBC has definitely found a good pairing with SVU and PD, but I'm betting the show survives no more than 3 more seasons.

Spot said...

I still think the late renewal was about Dick Wolf wanting NBC to blink first over costs for a 16th season pickup after he lost over the Law & Order mothership. But this time he had several arguments in his favor: the crossover potential between SVU & the Chicago dramas, the added value an additional season would have in syndication, and NBC's bigger problems to address (Thursdays and the dumpster fire that is their comedy brand) that require stability elsewhere on the schedule.

Spot said...

I think Revolution did help a bit this year. Last year it mostly had Guys with Kids as a lead in. Even if Revolution didn't significantly improve on the slot, I promise it was a lot more compatible than GWK. I think it should get credit for staying strong despite it trading in growing Chicago Fire as a lead out for mega flop Ironside in the fall.

Spot said...

Elementary repeat getting a .5 out of a 2.2 is just sad. CBS should have just burned off Bad Teacher there instead

Spot said...

Funny how the Monday/Friday results for CW comedies are the same

Spot said...

.23 is bad. Where did you get that demo from? Any possible way you can get the total viewers too?

Spot said...

Some of the lower cable numbers are posted at showbuzzdaily.com. They didn't post viewers but they probably have it, so you could try asking them.

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