War of 18-49 Updates for Summer 2018: America's Got Talent, The Bachelorette, Big Brother and more!

Here's a quick catch-up on War of 18-49 pages for the summer broadcast shows that have already existing War pages. Another edition of this for cable is coming soon! Click the names in each one of these tables to see the now-updated War of 18-49 page.

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Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
American Ninja Warrior	0.9	1.06	1.2	-26%	97	hit(sum)	-18%	detail

Of the summer staples, Ninja Warrior was definitely the most disappointing in 2018. Not only did it have the largest decline, but it also wasn't coming back down from historic heights like Got Talent and Big Brother were; it had been down in Plus in 2017 as well. NBC did it no favors by trying to schedule it from 9:00 to 11:00 (with Running Wild at 8:00), but that arrangement only lasted a couple weeks. This drop took Ninja Warrior from a three-year heyday way above the league average back down to about its 2014 level. Another drop of this size would leave it all the way back at the Plus of its first couple NBC years. Grade: D+.

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
America's Got Talent Tue	1.8	2.09	2.5	-20%	191	mega(sum)	-11%	detail
America's Got Talent Wed	1.5	1.70	2.1	-26%	155	mega(sum)	-18%	detail

Got Talent couldn't make it two years in a row at regular season megahit levels, though that's partly just because the league average had such a healthy regular season. (With a 1.05 or lower, which did not seem like a crazy prediction before the season, Talent would've gotten there for the Tuesday eps.) It's a sharp change in direction after such incredible growth the previous two years, but it's also still comfortably the second-biggest Plus in the history of the show, so I won't be too hard on it. Grade: B.

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
The Bachelorette	1.2	1.47	1.8	-8%	134	big hit(sum)	+2%	detail

Unlike its Monday opponent American Ninja Warrior, The Bachelorette was able to pull off a bit of a comeback season in 2018. This put it right back at its 2016 Plus, which was the highest for a summer Bachelorette season. Grade: B+.

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
Big Brother Wed	0.9	1.52	1.7	-19%	139	big hit(sum)	-9%	detail
Big Brother Thu	1.3	1.51	1.7	-18%	138	big hit(sum)	-8%	detail
Big Brother Sun	1.2	1.48	1.7	-18%	135	big hit(sum)	-8%	detail

Basically the same story here as with America's Got Talent. It was down to be sure, but it was down from historic levels of amazingness, and it looks a bit worse than it should in Plus because of the healthy league average. Still a career second-best in Plus. Grade: B.

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
MasterChef	0.9	0.99	1.2	-8%	91	hit(sum)	+3%	detail

MasterChef became the only one of these staples to grow in Plus for two straight summers, accompanied by a much stronger Ramsay newbie in 24 Hours to Hell and Back. Like last summer, I will note it's still shy of its league average or better heyday in 2012-2014, but it's inching closer. Grade: B.

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
So You Think You Can Dance	0.5	0.61	0.8	-12%	56	marg(sum)	-1%	detail

Another year, another one of these posts in which we don't know whether So You Think You Can Dance is coming back yet. It's a pretty underwhelming Plus level, but it's already been renewed three times with basically these ratings (even worse than this in 2016), so who knows? It's managed to stabilize here and not become a megabomb, which I guess is something. Grade: B-.