It's time for a journey through the ABC Tuesday schedule in 2024-25...
fall
| Year | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | Dancing with the Stars | Press Your Luck | 130 | ||||
| 161 | 161 | 67 | |||||
| 2024-25 | Dancing with the Stars | High Potential | 195 (+50%) | ||||
| 245 (+52%) | 245 (+52%) | 93 (+40%) | |||||
| VsAvg | +114% | +105% | +21% | +87% | |||
| Rank | 1/26 | 1/26 | 5/26 | 1/26 | |||
As successful as Dancing with the Stars' return to ABC had been last year, the show took it to a completely different level in its second season. It started well within megahit territory and stayed there almost every week, only dipping sub-200 for the two episodes in the week after a debate preemption. Meanwhile, new drama High Potential launched in the 10/9c hour. While it didn't look that good from a retention standpoint, there were some early indicators of high potential (get it?) in the multiplatform ratings.
winter
| Year | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | Will Trent | The Rookie | The Good Doctor | 82 | |||
| 94 | 93 | 58 | |||||
| 2024-25 | Will Trent | High Potential | The Rookie | 115 (+41%) | |||
| 121 (+29%) | 136 (+46%) | 88 (+51%) | |||||
| VsAvg | +32% | +57% | +22% | +38% | |||
| Rank | 5/26 | 3/26 | 5/26 | 2/26 | |||
Even though Dancing was gone in the winter, High's potential was realized immediately, as the centerpiece of a tri-drama night sandwiched between two returnees. The three shows went on a blistering three-week run in January, with Will Trent blowing away its previous series highs, High Potential touching big hit territory the first two weeks, and The Rookie hitting league average ratings at 10/9c. Those three weeks did come against no competition from CBS, and the lineup came back to earth somewhat when the FBI's returned.
spring
| Year | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | Will Trent | The Rookie | The Good Doctor | 70 | |||
| 86 | 76 | 50 | |||||
| 2024-25 | Will Trent | The Rookie | Bad Romance | 75 (+6%) | |||
| 98 (+14%) | 88 (+16%) | 39 (-21%) | |||||
| VsAvg | +19% | -6% | -44% | -8% | |||
| Rank | 7/26 | 14/26 | 25/26 | 16/26 | |||
High Potential wrapped in early February, but the returnees' apples-to-apples spring ratings backed up the idea that there was a significant dose of real growth in those winter ratings, as Will Trent and The Rookie remained on the double-digit upside. The return of Bad Romance, a special 20/20 series, was the network's only stain on this night.
Rating the Ratings (about grades)
| Name | Lo | Avg | Hi | y2y | Plus | Label | Plusy2y | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dancing with the Stars Fall* | 0.6 | 0.75 | 1.1 | +23% | 237 | megahit | +47% | detail |
| Will Trent | 0.3 | 0.34 | 0.5 | +2% | 108 | solid | +22% | detail |
| The Rookie* | 0.2 | 0.27 | 0.3 | -11% | 86 | marginal | +7% | detail |
| High Potential | 0.2 | 0.36 | 0.5 | 114 | solid | detail | ||
| Bad Romance | 0.1 | 0.14 | 0.2 | 43 | flop |
Dancing with the Stars Fall: It's absolutely wild to think that this was a streaming-only property just two years ago, and now it's suddenly the biggest thing in broadcast entertainment, blowing away its previous series high in Plus by roughly 30%. For so many years, we talked about a show being a flop because it was "fractional." In its November 26 finale (1.14), DWTS became the only broadcast show in the last three seasons to post a "non-fractional" result without huge help from an event lead-in. Grade: A+.
Will Trent: It's a second straight year of 20%+ growth from Will Trent's modest, flop-level beginnings. In season two, you could mostly attribute it to scheduling shenanigans, but in a return to the same timeslot, there's much less of that in play this year. (Though still a bit, since those huge January ratings came after it didn't air in the month at all last year.) The show was actually within striking distance of The Rookie's breakout ratings in this hour two years ago, which is a big win for ABC. With all three dramas you can probably get to an A- if you squint enough, but this kind of growth in the same hour is hard to ignore. Grade: A.
The Rookie: This is the only show where I will actually pull the trigger on a Grade: A-, though it is also a close call. The reason is that it had a breakout season just two years ago and I'm not convinced that it got all the way back to those levels. You can at least debate it, though, since we're talking about much tougher timeslots this year. What you can't debate, especially looking at the spring ratings, is that it bounced back nicely from its drop-off last year.
High Potential: If you want to downgrade it because it had bad retention in the fall, and it was off the air early in the winter before it had to air much against CBS, I could see the case. I just can't get over the awesome three-week run in January, which it's worth noting was at or above the peak Plus from season one of CBS breakout Tracker a year ago. Even if you want to nick it for the two 0.35's once the FBI's returned, it still bounced back well for its finale. Grade: A.
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 ABC Tuesday: 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24
Here's the now updated Schedules Plus for ABC Tuesday.
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