Thursday, January 15, 2015

Schedules Plus Update, The WB/UPN (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. 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.
It was a bit awkward to do historical "ranks" for the WB/UPN networks since these networks merged in 2006, so for each night I'm just including the full A18-49+ era averages during WB/UPN times (2001-06) and during CW times (2006-14).

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



Monday

WB 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 Avg
2001-02 7th Heaven Angel 61
71 51
2002-03 7th Heaven Everwood 62
(+2%)
71 (-0%) 54 (+5%)
2003-04 7th Heaven Everwood 52
(-17%)
57 (-20%) 47 (-13%)

WBAvg 61 44 52
CWAvg 30 31 31

UPN 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 Avg
2001-02 The Hughleys One on One The Parkers Girlfriends 40
34 40 42 44
37 43
2002-03 One On One The Parkers Girlfriends Half and Half 39
(-3%)
39 (+13%) 36 (-9%) 43 (+2%) 37 (-15%)
37 (+1%) 40 (-7%)
2003-04 The Parkers Eve Girlfriends Half and Half 39
(+1%)
37 (-5%) 39 (+8%) 41 (-4%) 40 (+7%)
38 (+1%) 41 (+1%)

UPNAvg 36 40 38
CWAvg 30 31 31

Monday was really the only night on which both the WB and UPN did significantly better than the average in the CW era. 7th Heaven was a monster at the beginning of this era but took its first huge drop in the 2003-04 season; the second huge drop came in its final season on the CW. The UPN Monday African-American comedy lineup was remarkably consistent during these years but began to tail off in the last couple UPN seasons, and then even more in the first couple CW seasons (leading to the Dawn Ostroff comedy purge).



Tuesday


8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 Avg
2001-02 Gilmore Girls Smallville 62
55 70
2002-03 Gilmore Girls Smallville 73
(+17%)
58 (+6%) 87 (+25%)
2003-04 Gilmore Girls One Tree Hill 44
(-40%)
49 (-15%) 38 (-56%)

WBAvg 56 59 57
CWAvg 39 30 35


8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 Avg
2001-02 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roswell 46
61 31
2002-03 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Haunted 36
(-22%)
50 (-19%) 22 (-28%)
2003-04 One On One All of Us Rock Me Baby The Mullets 30
(-17%)
31 38 25 25
35 (-30%) 25 (+12%)

UPNAvg 41 24 32
CWAvg 39 30 35

Though they may not seem perfectly compatible, Gilmore Girls and Smallville made for quite the powerhouse night, especially in Smallville's sophomore season. That 2002-03 lineup sits over 10 points ahead of the next-biggest combo on a netlet in the last 14 years. While it will be difficult for this season's The Flash (86 as of this writing) and Supernatural (53) to match that 73 average, they definitely seem to be on track to come in second.

On UPN, things kept getting worse in the years after the end of Buffy. In 2004-05, the 8/7c comedy hour got much weaker leading into modest newbie Veronica Mars. Then the network ended up airing a large volume of repeats on the night in its last season.



Wednesday


8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 Avg
2001-02 Dawson's Creek Felicity 43
48 38
2002-03 Dawson's Creek Birds of Prey 50
(+15%)
52 (+7%) 48 (+26%)
2003-04 Smallville Angel 56
(+12%)
60 (+15%) 52 (+9%)

WBAvg 50 39 44
CWAvg 54 34 44


8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 Avg
2001-02 Enterprise Special Unit 2 60
79 41
2002-03 Enterprise The Twilight Zone 38
(-36%)
47 (-40%) 29 (-28%)
2003-04 Enterprise Jake 2.0 31
(-19%)
39 (-17%) 23 (-21%)

UPNAvg 57 31 44
CWAvg 54 34 44

No night was more important in the shift in power from UPN to the WB across this three year period than Wednesday; Enterprise lost half of its Plus juice from season one to season three and brought its soft 9/8c lead-outs down with it. Meanwhile, Angel came to Wednesday in January 2003 and Smallville the next fall, providing a nice increase on the last couple seasons of Dawson's Creek.



Thursday


8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 Avg
2001-02 Popstars Elimidate Deluxe Charmed 36
22 2050
21
2002-03 Family Affair Do Over Jamie Kennedy Off Centre 22
(-38%)
21 (-7%) 19 (-7%) 29 20
20 (-7%) 24 (-51%)
2003-04 Steve Harvey's Big Time Challenge The Jamie Kennedy Experiment What I Like About You Run of the House 24
(+7%)
28 (+36%) 27 (+45%) 20 (-31%) 19 (-3%)
28 (+40%) 20 (-20%)

WBAvg 31 30 30
CWAvg 55 36 46


8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 Avg
2001-02 WWE Smackdown! 59
59 59
2002-03 WWE Smackdown! 48
(-18%)
48 (-18%) 48 (-18%)
2003-04 WWE Smackdown! 48
(+0%)
48 (+0%) 48 (+0%)

UPNAvg 47 45 46
CWAvg 55 36 46

Though it's been the CW's best night historically, Thursday was a nearly impossible frontier for ABC and Fox to conquer in the days of the epic duels between Survivor and Friends, and it was not much easier for the netlets. The WB got good numbers from Charmed in the years leading into the era but was mired in sub-mediocrity after moving it to Sunday, while UPN succeeded by targeting a different demo with wrestling. Neither network really made a mark with scripted series until 2005-06, when the WB brought in Smallville and UPN had the breakout start from Everybody Hates Chris.



Friday


8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 Avg
2001-02 Sabrina the Teenage Witch Maybe It's Me Reba Raising Dad 30
29 25 38 28
27 33
2002-03 What I Like About You Sabrina the Teenage Witch Reba Greetings from Tuscon 32
(+5%)
29 (+1%) 28 (+12%) 40 (+4%) 29 (+4%)
29 (+6%) 34 (+4%)
2003-04 Reba Like Family Grounded for Life The Andersons 30
(-6%)
37 (+27%) 25 (-12%) 29 (-28%) 27 (-6%)
31 (+8%) 28 (-19%)

WBAvg 28 33 30
CWAvg 30 29 29


8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 Avg
2001-02 (movies) 27
27 27
2002-03 (movies) 19
(-30%)
19 (-30%) 19 (-30%)
2003-04 (movies) 20
(+5%)
20 (+5%) 20 (+5%)

UPNAvg 27 24 26
CWAvg 30 29 29

Reba was truly a hero for the WB on Friday, making the network's stab at a TGIF-esque lineup more competitive than it probably had any right to be. The only things the CW has ever had at Reba levels on Friday were Smackdown! and the last couple seasons of Smallville.



Sunday


8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 Avg
2001-02 The Steve Harvey Show Men, Women and Dogs Nikki Off Centre 26
30 26 25 24
28 24
2002-03 Charmed Angel 49
(+85%)
51 (+82%) 46 (+88%)
2003-04 Charmed Tarzan 46
(-6%)
54 (+5%) 38 (-17%)

WBAvg 44 32 38
CWAvg 18 16 17

After toiling away with a largely uncompetitive comedy night in 2001-02, the WB moved Charmed to Sunday for 2002-03. It had a very solid run on Sunday for the last four years of the WB's existence, and the CW was never capable of even getting in the same stratosphere ratings-wise on the night.

1 comment:

Spot said...

Spot,
What would Enterprise's Plus be it you strip out the big premiere number

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