It's time for a journey through the CBS Thursday schedule in 2025-26...
fall
| Year | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage | Ghosts | Matlock | Elsbeth | 111 | ||
| 142 | 138 | 115 | 79 | ||||
| 140 | |||||||
| 2025-26 | Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage | Ghosts | Matlock | Elsbeth | 88 (-21%) | ||
| 127 (-11%) | 119 (-14%) | 83 (-28%) | 58 (-27%) | ||||
| 123 (-12%) | |||||||
| VsAvg | -19% | -40% | -37% | -31% | |||
| Rank | 21/27 | 23/27 | 25/27 | 23/27 | |||
The CBS comedies were unable to match the first part of Georgie and Mandy's rookie season in the fall, but that was nothing compared to the carnage that unfolded in the last two hours. Coming off a 0.48 season one finale, Matlock returned to its regular timeslot with a 0.18!! That ultimately proved to be an outlier even within a hugely down season, as it jumped to 0.24 the next week and eventually as high as 0.30 later in the fall. Elsbeth was in the same boat at 10/9c, opening on a 0.14 but later getting up to 0.20.
winter
| Year | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage | Ghosts | Matlock | Elsbeth | 110 | ||
| 142 | 137 | 110 | 82 | ||||
| 140 | |||||||
| 2025-26 | Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage | Ghosts | Matlock | Elsbeth | 83 (-25%) | ||
| 139 (-3%) | 115 (-16%) | 73 (-33%) | 48 (-41%) | ||||
| 127 (-9%) | |||||||
| VsAvg | -23% | -46% | -48% | -37% | |||
| Rank | 22/27 | 26/27 | 27/27 | 25/27 | |||
Like with other CBS scripted lineups, we're looking at only a couple episodes in the post-Olympic winter window. Georgie and Mandy did well out of the gate, the dramas did not, and on to the next.
spring
| Year | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage | Ghosts | Matlock | Elsbeth | 109 | ||
| 127 | 120 | 125 | 80 | ||||
| 124 | |||||||
| 2025-26 | Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage | Ghosts | Matlock | Elsbeth | 84 (-24%) | ||
| 123 (-3%) | 119 (-1%) | 71 (-43%) | 59 (-26%) | ||||
| 121 (-2%) | |||||||
| VsAvg | -19% | -45% | -31% | -31% | |||
| Rank | 21/27 | 26/27 | 25/27 | 25/27 | |||
In the spring, the comedies were looking healthier, but the dramas most certainly were not. Matlock was forced to go up against its red-hot spring results from last year, but it couldn't even recapture its boomlet from late fall of this season, instead deteriorating back into the 0.2's and ending on a season low 0.17. Elsbeth rallied back to its fall level, but that was still a bad level.
Rating the Ratings (about grades)
| Name | Lo | Avg | Hi | y2y | Plus | Label | Plusy2y | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage | 0.3 | 0.37 | 0.4 | -13% | 125 | hit | -8% | detail |
| Ghosts* | 0.2 | 0.34 | 0.4 | -19% | 113 | solid | -14% | detail |
| Matlock | 0.2 | 0.25 | 0.5 | -33% | 83 | marginal | -29% | detail |
| Elsbeth | 0.1 | 0.18 | 0.3 | -28% | 61 | flop | -24% | detail |
Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage: This is probably more of a C+ in a vacuum but the comedies just seem like such a minor problem compared to what happened in the last two hours, plus Monday/Tuesday/Friday on CBS. Plus, a big chunk of the drop was concentrated in the fall and it held up well in the spring. Grade: B-.
Ghosts: Again, probably more of a C trend-wise but it held up much better late. Grade: C+.
Matlock: If you throw out the Sunday premieres both seasons, this season averaged a 77 Plus, down 34% from the Thursday average last year! In other words, this hour that CBS seemed to have fixed is suddenly right back into So Help Me Todd territory, if not even a little worse. Considering the momentum it had at the end of last year, it's staggering enough to make me think there's some methodological thing going on, but even grading on a "CBS curve" it's at the low end of that curve, alongside Fire Country. It's getting held for midseason to give another Kings drama a shot post-Elsbeth. Grade: D.
Elsbeth: It definitely held up better late in the season than Matlock but that's about the only positive in another ugly drop. It plummeted well below not just last year but also its post-Todd season one average. Not really the kind of showing that warrants an upgrade to the 9/8c hour, but that's what is happening. 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.
Previous Breakdowns for CBS Thursday: 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25
Here's the now updated Schedules Plus for CBS Thursday.
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