Friday, June 1, 2018

The Breakdown: CBS Monday in 2017-18 (Kevin Can Wait, Man with a Plan, Scorpion and more!)




It's time for a journey through the CBS Monday schedule in 2017-18...


fall

Year8:008:309:009:3010:0010:30Avg
2016-17Kevin Can WaitMan with a Plan2 Broke GirlsThe Odd CoupleScorpion110
15210811482102
13098
2017-18Kevin Can WaitMan with a PlanSuperior Donuts9JKLScorpion85 (-23%)
108 (-29%)93 (-15%)83 (-27%)72 (-12%)76 (-26%)
100 (-23%)78 (-21%)
VsAvg-15%-44%-39%-33%
Rank13/1717/1716/1717/17

Kevin Can Wait's season two premiere got a huge boost thanks to the enormous The Big Bang Theory / Young Sheldon premiere night, but it shifted over to a 9JKL lead-in starting in week two (after getting TBBT for five weeks last fall) which makes its comparison above a bit misleading. But it was clear the night in general was becoming weaker, with each slot down double digits in the fall and winter. Scorpion led out of a series of failed newbies in not-pictured Me, Myself and I, 9JKL and Living Biblically, and its 20%+ declines throughout the year were a particularly sore spot.

winter

Year8:008:309:009:3010:0010:30Avg
2016-17Kevin Can WaitMan with a PlanSuperior Donuts2 Broke GirlsScorpion108
12511210411099
119107
2017-18Kevin Can WaitMan with a PlanSuperior Donuts9JKLScorpion88 (-19%)
110 (-12%)99 (-12%)89 (-15%)80 (-27%)76 (-23%)
104 (-12%)84 (-21%)
VsAvg-11%-38%-36%-29%
Rank12/1717/1716/1716/17

The winter comparisons are a little more representative of the season as a whole. The first half of the night was clearly weaker year-to-year, and the second half was just a huge mess. The string of 9:30 flops looked particularly rough after the new year when they started getting compared against 2 Broke Girls.

spring

Year8:008:309:009:3010:0010:30Avg
2016-17Kevin Can WaitMan with a PlanSuperior Donuts2 Broke GirlsScorpion88
9584838490
9083
2017-18Kevin Can WaitMan with a PlanSuperior DonutsLiving BiblicallyScorpion73 (-17%)
86 (-10%)84 (-1%)73 (-12%)61 (-27%)67 (-26%)
85 (-6%)67 (-19%)
VsAvg-12%-45%-41%-34%
Rank13/1717/1715/1717/17

Man with a Plan notably held up a good bit better in the spring than it did last year, while Kevin and Superior Donuts stayed in the realm of double-digit declines. 9:30 to 11:00 were a complete debacle once again, setting the bar low for next year's Magnum P.I. and Bull.

Rating the Ratings

NameLoAvgHiy2yPlusLabelPlusy2yResults
Kevin Can Wait0.81.182.3-27%108solid-18%detail
Man with a Plan0.80.991.2-20%91marginal-10%detail
Superior Donuts0.70.891.1-25%81marginal-16%detail
Me, Myself and I0.71.001.691marginaldetail
9JKL0.70.961.688marginaldetail
Living Biblically0.60.690.863flopdetail
Scorpion0.70.811.0-32%74marginal-24%detail

Kevin Can Wait: As I said above, the trend is a bit exaggerated because it had only one week with a huge lead-in vs. five last season. But this show was just not shaping up like something to build a night around. Grade: C.

Man with a Plan: Looking at the full season trends, MWAP looks a little better than I was expecting when compared with its teammates, so I can kinda see why it would get saved for a backup role rather than the stronger yet unowned/expensive Kevin Can Wait. Grade: C+.

Superior Donuts: It's debatable whether CBS even needed MWAP, a decent live retainer with very little DVR audience. So they definitely didn't need a slightly weaker version which was trending worse year-to-year. Grade: C-.

Me, Myself and I: Pulled after six episodes. Grade: D-.

9JKL: The only one of CBS' three Monday comedy newbies that actually got through all of its ordered episodes (and actually got a small extension beyond the initial 13). Still not worthy of renewal, but I would argue it was a clear notch ahead of the other two for what little it's worth. Grade: D+.

Living Biblically: Pulled after eight episodes. Grade: D-.

Scorpion: It had a lot more competition in the fall with The Good Doctor, and a lot less lead-in help especially after the new year. And as you might expect under those circumstances, it became a bit better DVR gainer this year. But that's nowhere close to making up for declines of this size. It will be interesting to see how much better Bull can do here, but I can't really blame them for trying something else. Grade: D+.

The names in this last table link to the shows' War of 18-49 pages. Links with an asterisk(*) have been updated with the new info. Updates to younger shows will come later in the summer.

Here's the now updated Schedules Plus for CBS Monday.

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