Friday, January 30, 2015

War of 18-49 Update, The Amazing Race (Fall 2014)


Let's take a look at the fall 2014 season (the twenty-fifth overall) of The Amazing Race on CBS.

Timeslot Lo Avg Hi y2y A18-49+ Label y2y Results
Friday 8:001.0 1.171.4 -42%69*solid(Fri) -35%* detail

*- For this winter's War of 18-49 updates, the A18-49+ is based on a projected league average, calculated by applying the league average's current year-to-year trend (thru 1/18/15) to the final 2013-14 average. This should help make these numbers compare more fairly with fall seasons past.

Rating the Ratings: The Amazing Race had struggled in the year before its move to Friday, and unfortunately the new night didn't do anything to reinvigorate the show. Instead, it was down 42% and a considerable downgrade on last year's Undercover Boss ratings. Based on how CBS has fared with Undercover Boss reinstalled this January, the Race seems to have played a significant role in derailing the whole night for CBS. I think it looks a little worse than it really is because of how well Hawaii Five-0 made the transition to Friday last season, but it's still a disappointment. I'm giving it the same grade I gave the last two seasons which dropped 20%+ on Sunday, as well as the same grade I gave CSI: NY in a -42% Friday move several years back. Grade: D+.

Here's the now updated War of 18-49 post for The Amazing Race.

8 comments:

Spot said...

This continues to hammer the point home that it makes no sense for CBS to bring this show back in the Spring. I would have rather seen The Mentalist's final season here, or give CSI a full-season order and moved it to Fridays. Save The Amazing Race for Summer Sundays or Thursdays following Big Brother, CBS!

Spot said...

I would probably have given it an even lower grade. There is no excuse for it. FOX wasn't even on a map with another reality show like they've been in years past. It was just horrible.

Spot said...

I think the Spring placement is only all about reducing repeats and all. The Mentalist is doing a nice job as bridge for Survivor and Good Wife while the Boss wouldn't have enough episodes to last the entire season there. Using CSI would be possible I guess but the show would also run out of originals and they wouldn't have been able to have the all new Sunday lineup that they liked so much back in December if they saved up CSI back then.


If TAR is back in the fall schedule I will say you are right but right now it feels to me it went there for lack of better options from CBS and that they won't do it next year. I think the night should be POI | H50 | BB. Ideally it would be Boss but that show cannot last the whole season there.

Spot said...

This show really has no excuse. It's family friendly content that fits Friday. And it's not like it was losing a big lead in (like CSI: NY and a lesser extent Hawaii 5-0) when it trasitioned over. I full expect another drop this spring

Spot said...

I think it would be doable but the thing is that CBS is still using all the Boss episodes it could possibly use. It it really that much worse to bring TAR back instead of Boss repeats? I can't imagine it making much of a difference (which per se is a very bad thing for TAR, but still).

The thing is that I believe CBS is clearly committed to reducing repeats this year, they are doing a lot in that sense. Maybe it is some thing with advertisers or whatever, I don't know, but they are working a lot for that goal and not bringing TAR back would go against it. That's why I think they are bringing it back now but won't bring it back next Spring. I stand corrected if in May we hear about TAR staying put though.

Spot said...

CBS is clearly dedicated to eliminating repeats this season...unless it's The Big Bang Theory. :-)

I just think they could be smarter about it. Using low-viewed December to fly through dead shows walking like The Mentalist, CSI, and Stalker would make sense. Using that month to fly through a true utility player like UB doesn't.

Spot said...

Last season, CBS ran Undercover Boss from September through March and then slotted Unforgettable there to finish up the season. It could have been a similar set-up this season once it was obvious TAR wasn't cutting it and placed 13-16 episodes of UB on Fridays from January to May. That's not even that big of an ask since CBS has two Fridays preempted for March Madness and they typically wrap up shop earlier during May sweeps than ABC, NBC, and Fox.

Even if UB had a shorter episode order, I'd tack a few episodes to CSI's order and just wrap up the show here. Instead CBS is most likely going to go sub-1 here in the Spring by sticking with TAR.

Spot said...

I agree with you that a better strategy could have been employed there ;)

Post a Comment

© SpottedRatings.com 2009-2022. All Rights Reserved.