Cablemetrics: The Leftovers, Veep, Doctor Who, Better Call Saul

These numbers are current through Monday, April 17.

WHAT MATTERS:

• HBO will have to wait longer than usual for its Game of Thrones return, which would usually come about this time of year. But the network got some good news on a much smaller scale as the return of acclaimed drama The Leftovers (0.39) was up by six hundredths from its last premiere back in October 2015.

• The channel then said good-bye to Girls (0.35), which tied its season high and capped off a strong growth trend in its final season, and then saw the return of veteran comedy Veep (0.27) at 10:30. Without the familiar Game of Thrones halo, Veep was down by more than half from its 2017 premiere.
• The night had some gender whiplash as Leftovers skewed 60% male. Girls grew from Leftovers by over 25% in W18-49 (0.31 -> 0.39) but shed over a third of its M18-49 (0.47 -> 0.30). And then Veep jerked back to a Leftovers-esque gender skew, inching up from Girls in M18-49 (0.30 -> 0.31) but collapsing by over 40% in W18-49 (0.39 -> 0.23). Incorporating Silicon Valley, which returns at 10:00 next week, should make the gender flow a lot smoother.

• On BBC America came the return of British import Doctor Who (0.32) at a staggering sixty-three percent behind last year's premiere. That's rough, but this show has a long history of being ridiculously premiere-loaded. (It went 0.85 -> 0.49 in its first two weeks two years ago, and an even crazier 0.87 -> 0.37 last season.) The 0.32 would actually be a pretty typical post-premiere rating from last season, so if it stops exhibiting the same kind of collapse, it could improve its trends considerably. (Or if it doesn't, it could be headed for the low 0.1's next week................)
• Leading out of Doctor Who was a new Who spin-off called Class (0.19), which actually looked OK for a post-Who program; it tied the season high from the last Orphan Black season that aired in this slot in spring 2015.

• In AMC news, Into the Badlands (0.52) was down 10% in its second ep without The Walking Dead, staying very close to the trajectory it took after Dead ended last season. Better Call Saul (0.54) did not hold up as well; its 23% drop in week two was a lot bigger than it took in the same week last season. I also added AMC's new ancient-skewing Saturday drama The Son to the list; it premiered to a two-hour 0.19 two weeks ago and dipped just a bit to 0.17 last Saturday.

FULL TABLE:

Name	Net	Ep	A18-49	Last	Seas	Avg	y2y	Proj	ProjPlus	Skew	Male
Into the Badlands	AMC	5	0.52	-10%	2	1.07	-46%	0.97	79	53%	58%
Better Call Saul	AMC	2	0.54	-23%	3	0.62	-39%	0.54	44	48%	65%
American Dad!	TBS	9	0.53	+8%	13	0.56	+1%	0.55	45	68%	58%
Bates Motel	A&E	9	0.42	0%	5	0.44	-21%	0.44	36	44%	41%
The Detour	TBS	9	0.37	-14%	2	0.44	+7%	0.43	35	51%	52%
The Leftovers	HBO	1	0.39		3	0.39	+18%	0.39	32	55%	60%
Greenleaf	OWN	5	0.33	+6%	2	0.37	-39%	0.38	31	35%	31%
Archer	FXX	2	0.29	-29%	8	0.35	-26%	0.30	24	72%	62%
Feud: Bette and Joan	FX	7	0.36	+29%	1	0.34		0.35	28	32%	47%
Doctor Who	BBC-	1	0.32		10	0.32	-63%	0.13	11	44%	52%
The Magicians	SYFY	12	0.26	+8%	2	0.31	+3%	0.31	25	50%	57%
The Arrangement	E!	7	0.26	-7%	1	0.31		0.29	24	58%	19%
Angie Tribeca	TBS	2	0.30	-3%	2	0.30	+20%	0.30	24	64%	57%
The Fosters	FREE	20	0.30	+15%	4	0.29	-7%	0.29	24	52%	24%
Girls	HBO	10	0.35	+6%	6	0.28	+16%	0.28	23	56%	43%
Veep	HBO	1	0.27		6	0.27	-48%	0.24	19	52%	57%
Major Crimes	TNT	21	0.29	+16%	5	0.26	-38%	0.27	22	14%	37%
Billions	SHOW	9	0.29	+4%	2	0.26	-21%	0.26	21	39%	59%
Imposters	BRAV	10	0.28	-3%	1	0.25		0.25	21	44%	25%
Baby Daddy	FREE	6	0.19	-17%	6	0.22	-12%	0.23	19	60%	30%
Outsiders	WGNA	11	0.21	+24%	2	0.22	-22%	0.22	18	35%	53%
The Americans	FX	6	0.18	+6%	5	0.22	-18%	0.21	17	34%	55%
Switched at Birth	FREE	10	0.19	-5%	6	0.21	-57%	0.21	17	53%	23%
Underground	WGNA	6	0.12	-43%	2	0.21	-31%	0.22	18	43%	34%
Detroiters	COME	10	0.18	0%	1	0.20		0.20	16	68%	66%
Class	BBC-	1	0.19		1	0.19		0.14	12	45%
The Son	AMC	2	0.17	-11%	1	0.18		0.15	13	13%
The Expanse	SYFY	11	0.15	-6%	2	0.17	-21%	0.17	14	40%
Sun Records	CMT	8	0.11	+10%	1	0.13		0.13	11	28%	46%

The Cablemetrics table can be sorted by clicking any of the categories at the top (and a second click will sort in the other direction.) After having sorted by a category, you can hold SHIFT and click another category to sort by the second category within the first.