Monday, December 22, 2014

Schedules Plus Update, CBS (2001-02 & 2002-03)


Schedules Plus looks at the evolution of network schedules and timeslots using numbers adjusted for historical decline. These update posts, looking back on the newly added 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons, will link back to the now updated full posts for each day, and the update posts have exclusive year-to-year trends and ranks among the 13 iterations of each hour.

Many more disclaimers can be seen on the individual pages, but the most basic one is that the listed schedules are fall lineups, even when midseason replacements may have done much better. (I try to mention those midseason replacements that did better.) Please also note that the 2003-04 thru 2005-06 numbers still contain the "old" A18-49+ scores from before I filled in the missing data from those seasons. So those numbers will change (slightly) when the 2014-15 numbers are entered this summer.

More 2001-03 Schedules Plus updates: ABC | CBS | NBC | Fox | CW



Monday


8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 Avg
2001-02 King of Queens Yes, Dear Everybody Loves Raymond BeckerFamily Law 118
120 123 179 12581
122 152
Rank 6/13 4/13 12/13 10/13
2002-03 King of Queens Yes, Dear Everybody Loves Raymond Still StandingCSI: Miami 132
(+12%)
101 (-16%) 109 (-12%) 156 (-13%) 122 (-3%)154 (+89%)
105 (-14%) 139 (-9%)
Rank 8/13 8/13 4/13 7/13
2003-04 Yes, Dear Still Standing Everybody Loves Raymond Two and a Half MenCSI: Miami 136
(+3%)
87 (-14%) 100 (-8%) 148 (-5%) 137 (+12%)173 (+13%)
94 (-11%) 142 (+2%)
Rank 10/13 7/13 2/13 3/13

Avg 115 143 131 130

With the introduction of CSI: Miami, CBS' full Monday average grew over this period despite the deterioration of the Raymond/King of Queens/Yes, Dear-led comedy generation. The comedy block would continue to decline from here, bottoming out in the first couple years after Raymond exited, then finally rebounded when new tentpoles How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men started picking up steam in 2007-08.



Tuesday


8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 Avg
2001-02 JAG The GuardianJudging Amy 90
91 78 100
Rank 10/13 11/13 2/13 9/13
2002-03 JAG The GuardianJudging Amy 75
(-16%)
70 (-23%) 67 (-15%) 89 (-11%)
Rank 12/13 12/13 6/13 12/13
2003-04 NCIS The GuardianJudging Amy 68
(-10%)
67 (-5%) 63 (-5%) 73 (-18%)
Rank 13/13 13/13 11/13 13/13

Avg 115 107 86 103

Even the 2001-02 lineup was significantly weaker than what CBS has gotten out of this night for the last half decade-plus with NCIS twins. And it got even uglier in the subsequent years as JAG and Judging Amy fell farther. CBS brought The Amazing Race over to the night in 2004-05, which helped turn things around initially, but the rise of NCIS was the real game-changer.



Wednesday


8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 Avg
2001-02 60 Minutes II The Amazing RaceWolf Lake 71
59 91 62
Rank 10/13 10/13 11/13 11/13
2002-03 60 Minutes II The Amazing RacePresidio Med 68
(-3%)
62 (+4%) 83 (-9%) 61 (-2%)
Rank 9/13 13/13 12/13 12/13
2003-04 60 Minutes II King of Queens BeckerBrotherhood of Poland, N.H. 65
(-6%)
53 (-14%) 99 7753 (-13%)
88 (+6%)
Rank 12/13 12/13 13/13 13/13

Avg 86 113 100 100

Wednesday, like Tuesday, was as weak as ever in these opening three years of the era, even though newbie The Amazing Race generated some interest. The lineup immediately got much better in 2004-05 because the string of failed 10/9c dramas gave way to CSI: NY. The introduction of Criminal Minds the following season made less of an immediate impact but more of a long-term one. The network would remain low at 8:00 all the way up to Survivor's move in 2010, but most of the scripted/reality options at least did somewhat better than 60 Minutes II (which ended in 2004-05).



Thursday


8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 Avg
2001-02 Survivor CSIThe Agency 162
197 204 86
Rank 4/13 5/13 13/13 5/13
2002-03 Survivor CSIWithout a Trace 179
(+10%)
187 (-5%) 228 (+12%) 121 (+41%)
Rank 5/13 3/13 5/13 4/13
2003-04 Survivor CSIWithout a Trace 190
(+7%)
199 (+7%) 233 (+2%) 139 (+15%)
Rank 3/13 2/13 3/13 2/13

Avg 171 174 117 154

Early in season one, Without a Trace struggled to post even half of CSI's ratings, but it was looked on more favorably because of its vast improvement on The Agency. It paid off, as WaT strengthened significantly in seasons two and three. The rise of the crime dramas helped to offset Survivor coming back to earth somewhat, leading to a stellar four-year run with a 175+ average for this night.



Friday


8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 Avg
2001-02 The Ellen Show Danny That's Life48 Hours 49
48 445050
46
Rank 13/13 12/13 11/13 13/13
2002-03 48 Hours HackRobbery Homicide Division 52
(+6%)
56 (+22%) 52 (+5%) 47 (-7%)
Rank 9/13 11/13 13/13 11/13
2003-04 Joan of Arcadia JAGThe Handler 59
(+14%)
65 (+15%) 59 (+13%) 53 (+14%)
Rank 8/13 9/13 10/13 10/13

Avg 67 62 66 65

CBS has done well on Friday for nearly a decade now, and for much of the Ghost Whisperer/Numb3rs heydays they were basically the only network that could get any kind of audience at all on the night. So it's pretty striking to see just how much of a mess they were for the first four years of the era on Friday. They seemed to be getting their act together with the introduction of Joan of Arcadia and the move of JAG in 2003-04, but both those shows fell apart in the second year of the combo. That put them right back at about the 2001-02 level until Numb3rs came along at midseason.



Sunday


8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 Avg
2001-02 The Education of Max Bickford (movies) 79
54 91 91
Rank 13/13 3/13 3/13 10/13
2002-03 Becker Bram and Alice (movies) 63
(-20%)
55 5467 (-26%)67 (-26%)
55 (+1%)
Rank 12/13 11/13 12/13 13/13
2003-04 Cold Case (movies) 83
(+32%)
86 (+57%) 81 (+21%) 81 (+21%)
Rank 11/13 7/13 6/13 9/13

Avg 99 83 81 88

Like the ABC Sunday movie night, the CBS version was thriving in 2001-02, and that was in spite of pretty terrible lead-ins at 8/7c. (But it is worth noting that the enormous made-for-TV documentary 9/11 (16.2 rating!) inflates that 2001-02 average by a full ten points.) Also like the ABC movie night, the CBS version dropped to a large degree in 2002-03. Unlike the ABC night, CBS stuck this one out into 2003-04. They saw a pretty impressive rebound, perhaps owing in part to Cold Case cleaning up the 8/7c hour, and that kept the movie night alive for another couple years. But by 2005-06 it had returned to 2002-03 levels, and that was it.

2 comments:

Spot said...

I forgot that Becker got thrown to Sundays, and that it got "rescued" from that terrible slot to Wednesdays. CBS, in general, pretty much struggled to establish a comedy block outside of Mondays. It took megahit The Big Bang Theory for one to stick on a different night. And by the time they finally expanded to 4 blocks in 2013-2014 they ended up retrenching anyway thanks to HIMYM ended, weak comedy development, and Scorpion's ascendance during pilot season.

I know we aren't getting a table for it, but do you have the Plus numbers for CBS' Saturday shows: Touched by an Angel, The District, The Agency's 2002-2003 season, Hack's 2003-2004 season, and Citizen Baines? I'm curious how it related to Fridays.

Speaking of Fridays, Joan of Arcadia's fall from grace (pun intended) did mystify me at the time. Unless Dateline was a more potent force in 2004-2005, the externals should have favored the then-sophomore show as ABC at least got much weaker.

Spot said...

I might do a CBS Saturday post at some point, especially if I ever get more seasons. But until then, here's what it would be:


2001-02: Touched by an Angel (51) | Citizen Baines (43) | The District (66)
2002-03: Touched by an Angel (41) | The Agency (49) | The District (51)
2003-04: 48 Hours (44) | Hack (40) | The District (47)

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