Chicago Fire Gets a Spin-Off
When Chicago PD was announced, there were a lot of questions about whether a one-season, below-league average series like Chicago Fire should already be tapped as the start of a franchise. But on premiere night, PD appeared to pass the test, with a solid enough 2.0 leading out of a well above-average 2.1 from Law and Order: SVU. Then it took a similar path to the opening weeks of Fire, with a sizable drop to 1.5 in week two (but it actually built on its 1.4 SVU lead-in), but then a bounce-back to high-1's for most of the rest of the season.
In what would become a trend, the season highlight came thanks to a crossover event; it grew to a season high 2.2 for its first crossover with Law and Order: SVU on 2/26/14. The crossovers have been a big boon for PD in years to follow: historical-adjusted series high so far came in another crossover, a 1.9 / 155 Plus sandwiched by Fire and the premiere of Chicago Justice.
Growth, Growth and More Growth
After four seasons, there isn't a whole lot more to say about PD's story because it's the same thing every year: it has always been on Wednesday at 10/9c after SVU, and it has always been up year-to-year in A18-49+. Combined with Chicago Fire's continued growth on Tuesday, Dick Wolf has set up quite the little dynasty in the 10:00 hour.
Season three was the biggest growth season, but two and four were notable as well because those years had a noticeably better trend compared with the SVU lead-in. The retention has subtly improved over the years, to the point that PD had a higher average than SVU for the first time in 2016-17. A 10/9c drama pulling that off as the hour seems to get tougher every year is quite a success story. Next year, the familiar pairing with SVU continued into a fifth season, and in the Dick Wolf tradition, the loss of series lead Sophia Bush didn't make a lot of difference.
In 2018-19 came more improvement, as the tail end of a three-hour #OneChicago night with Chicago Med at 8/7c and Chicago Fire at 9/8c. While the other shows had moved around a lot, for Chicago PD it marked a sixth consecutive year in the same timeslot, and the compatibility helped it eke out a new series high. In season seven, the whole lineup took a major upswing to new series highs, with PD's growth the most robust of all.
Adults 18-49 info by season:
| Seas | Year | Slot | Avg | y2y | Lo | Hi | Results | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2014 | Wednesday 10:00 | 1.65 | 1.4 | 2.2 | detail | ||
| 2 | 2014-15 | 1.58 | -5% | 1.4 | 2.2 | detail | ||
| 3 | 2015-16 | 1.54 | -3% | 1.2 | 2.0 | detail | A- | |
| 4 | 2016-17 | 1.36 | -11% | 1.1 | 1.9 | detail | B+ | |
| 5 | 2017-18 | 1.20 | -12% | 0.9 | 1.4 | detail | B | |
| 6 | 2018-19 | 1.10 | -9% | 0.9 | 1.4 | detail | B+ | |
| 7 | 2019-20 | 1.09 | -1% | 1.0 | 1.4 | detail | A | |
| 8 | 2020-21 | 0.86 | -20% | 0.8 | 1.0 | detail | B | |
| 9 | 2021-22 | 0.72 | -16% | 0.6 | 0.9 | detail | B+ | |
| 10 | 2022-23 | 0.55 | -24% | 0.4 | 0.7 | detail | C |
Historical-adjusted ratings by season:
| Seas | Year | A18-49+ | Label | Now23 | y2y | Lo | Hi | Premiere | Finale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2014 | 88 | marginal | 0.37 | 74 | 117 | 106 | 85 | |
| 2 | 2014-15 | 94 | marginal | 0.40 | +7% | 83 | 131 | 113 | 83 |
| 3 | 2015-16 | 105 | solid | 0.45 | +12% | 86 | 135 | 116 | 96 |
| 4 | 2016-17 | 111 | solid | 0.47 | +6% | 94 | 155 | 130 | 108 |
| 5 | 2017-18 | 110 | solid | 0.47 | -2% | 79 | 125 | 118 | 110 |
| 6 | 2018-19 | 115 | solid | 0.49 | +5% | 92 | 147 | 123 | 100 |
| 7 | 2019-20 | 133 | hit | 0.57 | +15% | 117 | 165 | 133 | 134 |
| 8 | 2020-21 | 134 | hit | 0.57 | +1% | 118 | 152 | 152 | 132 |
| 9 | 2021-22 | 142 | hit | 0.60 | +6% | 127 | 171 | 171 | 145 |
| 10 | 2022-23 | 130 | hit | 0.55 | -9% | 103 | 159 | 157 | 106 |
| AVERAGE: | 116 | solid | |||||||
| CAREER: | 1161 | star | |||||||
The War of 18-49 chronicles the ratings history of veteran primetime series. For more, see the Index.
No comments:
Post a Comment