Thursday, June 25, 2020

The Breakdown: CBS Tuesday in 2019-20 (NCIS, FBI, FBI: Most Wanted and more!)




It's time for a journey through the CBS Tuesday schedule in 2019-20...

NOTE: In addition to classic A18-49+, Breakdown posts in 2019-20 also use CVPlus, comparing spring ratings against a higher league average due to viewership inflation from COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. See here for more.


fall


Year8:008:309:009:3010:0010:30Avg
2018-19NCISFBINCIS: New Orleans114
13711293
2019-20NCISFBINCIS: New Orleans116 (+2%)
145 (+6%)111 (-1%)93 (0%)
VsAvg+13%-2%+3%+5%
Rank9/1912/199/199/19

The same three shows from 2018-19 returned to CBS Tuesday in the fall, and according to CVPlus things looked pretty steady. NCIS perked up a little, while FBI was basically even with the early part of season one (which was an impressive rally from lower numbers in the winter/spring).

winter


Year8:008:309:009:3010:0010:30Avg
2018-19NCISFBINCIS: New Orleans104
1319982
2019-20NCISFBIFBI: Most Wanted114 (+9%)
136 (+4%)113 (+15%)91 (+11%)
VsAvg+10%+4%+5%+6%
Rank9/1911/1910/1910/19

The last two hours took a more positive turn in the winter, as FBI stayed at the same ratings level compared with the ratings slipping in season one. FBI spin-off FBI: Most Wanted took over at 10/9c and had roughly the same retention as NCIS: NO, making for double-digit growth since FBI was up so much.

spring


Year8:008:309:009:3010:0010:30Avg
2018-19NCISFBINCIS: New Orleans93
1179271
2019-20NCISFBIFBI: Most Wanted107 (+15%)
130 (+11%)110 (+21%)81 (+14%)
VsAvg+19%+10%+2%+11%
Rank5/198/1910/196/19

NCIS and FBI were almost out of episodes by the time the pandemic hit; NCIS aired just three episodes and the FBI mothership just two after the lockdowns (with the FBI finale coming on March 31, still at the height of viewership inflation), so their spring averages are probably a bit favorably skewed. FBI: Most Wanted, meanwhile, didn't really decline as much in retention as is suggested here, since the average includes a couple late spring episodes with repeat lead-ins.

Rating the Ratings

NameLoAvgHiy2yPlusLabelPlusy2yResults
NCIS*1.01.121.3-8%136hit+6%detail
FBI0.70.891.2-9%108solid+6%detail
NCIS: New Orleans*0.50.650.8-17%79marginal-4%detail
FBI: Most Wanted0.60.741.091marginaldetail

NCIS: If you assume the spring number is a little inflated, this was just a year of consistent small Plus growth. That's good news for a show that has mostly been on a slow downward trickle for the better part of a decade. Grade: B+.

FBI: Could definitely make the case for A- here since the growth was more dramatic once you got past the fall comparisons. I will stick with B+ just because but I found the DVR bumps a bit underwhelming by comparison. So maybe it was less about "growth" and more about becoming more compatible with the NCIS live audience. Either way, it's a good story. Grade: B+.

NCIS: New Orleans: The fall trend was dead even, which seems like a pretty good indication of where the show "Truly" was. Then it got sent off to Sunday which was certainly a worse situation. Grade: B.

FBI: Most Wanted: This show did about what I suspect NCIS: New Orleans would've done had it stayed put all season, which is never a bad thing. It could run for many years with that kind of performance. Grade: B.

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.

Previous Breakdowns for CBS Tuesday: 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19

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

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