Cablemetrics: Fear the Walking Dead, The Strain, Public Morals, Switched at Birth

These numbers are current through Thursday, August 27.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Plenty has already been said about the huge debut of Fear the Walking Dead (4.93), which enters this table at well over four times the next biggest show. There are definitely a lot of different ways of looking at this. If it were a The Walking Dead episode, it would be just the forty-seventh biggest episode of that series. But if it were a broadcast drama episode, it would be the ninth-biggest one of those in the last four-plus years! (Trailing only six Empires and two Super Bowl lead-outs.) The bottom line is that it's OK to be a tad underwhelmed by this 4.93 in the context of The Walking Dead's history, but TWD is such an incredible anomaly that it will still be unbelievably enormous in any other context.
  

• Of the shows that had to face FtWD head-to-head, it was FX's similar-themed The Strain that had the ugliest result, down 33% to a 0.40. It's already renewed, but this is pretty marginal territory, and it'd be nice to see a rebound last night when it overlapped with FtWD for only like a minute or so. Showtime's dramas Ray Donovan (0.43) and Masters of Sex (0.10) were also on the down swing, while HBO's Ballers (0.71) and The Brink (0.36) finales went down a notch. But TNT's The Last Ship (0.70) and Falling Skies (0.47) held up quite well.

• Late August is an uncommon time for premieres, and the other ones this week didn't go quite as well as FtWD. TNT's period drama Public Morals (0.28) held less than half of its lead-in from Rizzoli and Isles (0.63) on premiere night. Unless it can turn things around in subsequent weeks, it will be a downgrade on the already low-rated previous occupant Proof. 

• And ABC Family brought back Switched at Birth (0.35) for the second half of season four, just barely edging the series low from March. This is another one of those points that has a pretty reasonable year-to-year decline (-19%), but it grew significantly post-premiere last year so it will have to do it again to stay on that pace. Seems unlikely, but then I said that about Ray Donovan... 

• And finally, since we mentioned the low-rated FX comedies last week, it's worth noting that SexDrugsRockRoll (0.40) and Married (0.32) had huge bounce-backs to new season highs this week, riding a big 0.9 movie lead-in. (And if cable movies half similar half-hour breakdowns to broadcast ones, it may have been much higher than 0.9 by the end.) These points won't really matter if they go all the way back to normal next week, but it seems to have at least gotten them some extra sampling.

FULL TABLE:

Show	Net	This Week			This Season
		Ep#	A18-49	Last	Seas	Avg	y2y	Proj	Proj +	Skew
Fear the Walking Dead	AMC	1	4.93	n/a	1	4.93	n/a	4.93	293	62%
Rick and Morty	ADSM	5	1.06	+12%	2	1.03	+78%	1.17	69	63%
The Haves and the Have Nots	OWN	21	0.98	+13%	2	0.91	-1%	0.91	54	37%
Ballers	HBO	10	0.71	-8%	1	0.84	n/a	0.84	50	63%
The Last Ship	TNT	11	0.70	+1%	2	0.72	-32%	0.72	43	31%
Rizzoli and Isles	TNT	11	0.63	-15%	6	0.69	-28%	0.69	41	20%
The Strain	FX	7	0.40	-33%	2	0.62	-42%	0.59	35	56%
Suits	USA	10	0.62	+2%	5	0.61	-21%	0.61	36	35%
Power	STRZ	10	n/a	n/a	2	0.57	+78%	0.57	34	57%
Girl Meets World	DISN	14	0.46	-6%	2	0.51	-15%	0.50	30	29%
Teen Wolf	MTV	10	0.44	-2%	5	0.50	-30%	0.49	29	54%
Mr. Robot	USA	9	n/a	n/a	1	0.48	n/a	0.48	29	43%
Falling Skies	TNT	9	0.47	+7%	5	0.47	-37%	0.45	27	31%
Devious Maids	Life	13	0.55	+20%	3	0.46	-24%	0.46	28	44%
The Brink	HBO	10	0.36	-10%	1	0.46	n/a	0.46	27	54%
Ray Donovan	SHO	7	0.43	-20%	3	0.44	-3%	0.50	30	42%
Tyrant	FX	11	0.42	+17%	2	0.37	-31%	0.37	22	40%
Young and Hungry	ABCF	12	0.31	-26%	2	0.37	-10%	0.37	22	63%
Switched at Birth	ABCF	11	0.35	n/a	4	0.35	-19%	0.45	27	45%
Scream	MTV	9	0.28	-7%	1	0.34	n/a	0.33	20	57%
Murder in the First	TNT	12	0.28	-15%	2	0.31	-30%	0.31	19	19%
Hell on Wheels	AMC	6	0.29	-6%	5	0.31	-21%	0.29	17	22%
Graceland	USA	10	0.30	-3%	3	0.29	-39%	0.29	17	44%
SexDrugsRockRoll	FX	7	0.40	+111%	1	0.29	n/a	0.32	19	55%
Public Morals	TNT	1	0.28	n/a	1	0.28	n/a	0.28	17	17%
Dominion	Syfy	8	0.21	-19%	2	0.27	-43%	0.27	16	36%
Chasing Life	ABCF	8	0.28	+4%	2	0.27	-45%	0.27	16	48%
Defiance	Syfy	12	0.24	+14%	3	0.25	-47%	0.25	15	28%
Dark Matter	Syfy	11	0.26	+24%	1	0.25	n/a	0.25	15	31%
Killjoys	Syfy	10	0.21	+5%	1	0.23	n/a	0.23	14	31%
Married	FX	7	0.32	+68%	2	0.22	-42%	0.21	12	60%
Kevin from Work	ABCF	4	0.10	-50%	1	0.17	n/a	0.13	8	54%
Playing House	USA	5	0.17	-15%	2	0.16	-55%	0.18	11	53%
Masters of Sex	SHO	7	0.10	-41%	3	0.14	-49%	0.13	8	29%
True Detective	HBO				2	1.15	+17%	1.15	68	56%
Pretty Little Liars	ABCF				6	0.89	-7%	0.89	53	56%
The Game	BET				9	0.63	-24%	0.63	37	56%
Major Crimes	TNT				4	0.60	-29%	0.60	36	18%
The Fosters	ABCF				3	0.48	-18%	0.48	29	51%
Clipped	TBS				1	0.45	n/a	0.45	26	46%
Humans	AMC				1	0.39	n/a	0.39	23	42%
Baby Daddy	ABCF				4	0.37	-14%	0.37	22	61%
Melissa and Joey	ABCF				4	0.36	-21%	0.36	22	62%
Complications	USA				1	0.35	n/a	0.35	21	31%
Royal Pains	USA				7	0.35	-35%	0.35	21	31%
Stitchers	ABCF				1	0.34	n/a	0.34	20	51%
Proof	TNT				1	0.31	n/a	0.31	19	19%
UnREAL	Life				1	0.27	n/a	0.27	16	49%
Halt and Catch Fire	AMC				2	0.16	-35%	0.16	10	39%
Becoming Us	ABCF				1	0.11	n/a	0.11	6	46%

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