Monday, June 14, 2021

The Breakdown: CBS Monday in 2020-21 (The Neighborhood, Bob Hearts Abishola, All Rise, Bull)




It's time for a journey through the CBS Monday schedule in 2020-21...

NOTE: In addition to classic A18-49+, Breakdown posts with 2019-20 ratings 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. Also see here for information on the 2020-21 league average.


fall

Year8:008:309:009:3010:0010:30Avg
2019-20The NeighborhoodBob Hearts AbisholaAll RiseBull89
113958182
104
2020-21The NeighborhoodBob Hearts AbisholaAll RiseBull84 (-6%)
117 (+3%)93 (-3%)76 (-6%)71 (-14%)
105 (+0%)

VsAvg-10%-42%-39%-31%
Rank12/2020/2019/2020/20

The CBS Monday lineup returned intact, but not until mid-November due to COVID production delays. (Big Brother and import drama Manhunt: Deadly Games were both close to qualifying as the most frequent occupants in the fall.) The late fall episodes experienced only a modest decline from the fall 2019 numbers, with the comedies closer to even and Bull faring worse.

winter

Year8:008:309:009:3010:0010:30Avg
2019-20The NeighborhoodBob Hearts AbisholaAll RiseBull86
112937678
103
2020-21The NeighborhoodBob Hearts AbisholaAll RiseBull92 (+7%)
136 (+21%)108 (+16%)78 (+2%)76 (-3%)
122 (+19%)

VsAvg+4%-39%-32%-23%
Rank9/2019/2019/2016/20

But the winter brought a pleasant surprise for this lineup, as The Neighborhood and Bob Hearts Abishola had an old-fashioned winter bounce the likes of which we rarely seem anymore. The Neighborhood even hit 1.0 a couple times in January, some of the biggest comedy episodes of the entire season (excluding football-boosted eps on Sundays). They easily outrated the bounce-less winter episodes a year ago, and also managed to pull the drama duo much closer to even.

spring

Year8:008:309:009:3010:0010:30Avg
2019-20The NeighborhoodBob Hearts AbisholaAll RiseBull79
104896973
97
2020-21The NeighborhoodBob Hearts AbisholaAll RiseBull76 (-4%)
105 (+1%)89 (-1%)64 (-7%)69 (-6%)
97 (+0%)

VsAvg+1%-44%-36%-28%
Rank8/2019/2016/2018/20

The momentum basically dissipated by the springtime, as the comedies returned to even-ish and the dramas returned to down somewhat. Keep in mind that Neighborhood and Bob were among the stronger performers during the COVID lockdowns in winter 2020, so matching those numbers was still pretty good.

Rating the Ratings

NameLoAvgHiy2yPlusLabelPlusy2yResults
The Neighborhood0.60.761.0-15%118solid+8%detail
Bob Hearts Abishola0.50.620.8-17%96marginal+5%detail
All Rise0.40.460.5-26%71marginal-6%detail
Bull*0.40.460.5-28%71marginal-8%detail

The Neighborhood: In season one of The Neighborhood I found myself torn between A- and B+, and I'm kinda back in that same spot here. What tips me toward the more generous grade is pulling this off amid the general malaise for broadcast comedy. This hour is really the closest thing we have to a "growth story" in the entire space, and pulling off a virtual tie for #1 comedy with Young Sheldon is a nice achievement. Could it get an even more decisive #1 next season? Grade: A-.

Bob Hearts Abishola: Similarly, a second-year comedy growing in year two is a bit of a unicorn these days; The Neighborhood itself couldn't do it last year. Its retention got a touch worse in each period, but it's looking like a long-term player now. Grade: B+.

All Rise: A little disappointing that it didn't fare better given the comedy momentum, but overall not really that surprising of a result. CBS knew the level they were getting when they renewed this, and they got more of it. It wasn't enough for a season three. Grade: C.

Bull: Identical Live+SD numbers to All Rise and basically the same y2y trends as well. It's considerably stronger in DVR (as expected when comparing a 10:00 show to a 9:00 one), which made it a more sensible renewal, but it's shipped off to the Thursday 10/9c hour where it will be a bit of an afterthought. Grade: C.

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 Monday: 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20

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

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