Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 2/3/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Mindy Project (1.0), About a Boy (0.9), Supernatural (0.8), Marry Me (0.8) and the Parks repeat (0.7) adjusted down.

• On ABC, Agent Carter (1.3) steadied in week four, but it had help from an original episode of Shark Tank (1.9) at 8/7c. Forever (0.9) dropped to a new series low at 10/9c.

• The return of CBS' regular original lineup produced slightly lower ratings than the shows saw in their early January airings. NCIS (2.6) and NCIS: New Orleans (2.2) still dominated their respective hours, but the drop to Person of Interest (1.4) was noticeable, and it also fell behind Chicago Fire for the lead at 10/9c.

• Parks and Recreation (1.2) inched down again at 8/7c, and NBC squeezed in the one Parks repeat (0.8) necessary to get through the 13 episodes in 7 weeks. Despite the weak 8:30 lead-in, Marry Me (0.9), About a Boy (1.0) and Chicago Fire (1.6) were up a touch.

• On the CW, Supernatural (0.9) bounced back from last week's off night, but The Flash (1.3) remained at last week's low point.

• Fox saw MasterChef Junior (1.6) inch down against added competition from Shark Tank but was otherwise steady.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 1/13/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The week-to-week drop for NCIS: New Orleans (2.3) was tempered a bit in finals, while Person of Interest (1.7) also went up to finish even week-to-week.

• NBC found another positive result in one of its between-The Voice timeslots, as the final season premiere of Parks and Recreation (1.5) was up vs. last season's premiere and tied last season's high point. However, Parks was of no help to the rest of the night; Marry Me (0.7) somehow dropped again, About a Boy (0.9) was up a tenth, and Chicago Fire (1.5) dropped two tenths.

• On ABC, week two of Agent Carter (1.5) dropped 21%, tying the low point of Agents of SHIELD. It's not a great result considering the show had help from an original Shark Tank lead-in (1.8), and now it will have to survive a State of the Union preemption next week.

• CBS saw a somewhat sizable drop from NCIS: New Orleans (2.2) despite NCIS (2.8) matching last week's good result, while Fox had minor drops for week two of MasterChef Junior (1.7) and New Girl (1.4).

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 1/6/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• The two-hour premiere of Marvel's Agent Carter scored a middling 2.0 rating at 8:00 and a 1.8 at 9:00. This was an improvement on what ABC usually gets out of Agents of SHIELD, but not a particularly significant one, and it will need to hold up pretty well to be a SHIELD-sized player for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, the fact that this couldn't even beat Sunday's Galavant premiere would seem to suggest that SHIELD has created a certain limitation on what the Marvel brand can do on TV. And the change in lead-in didn't do anything for Forever (1.1).

• Like on Monday, CBS and Fox thrived against lessened competition from NBC. NCIS (2.8) and NCIS: New Orleans (2.5) each hit their highest ratings since the opening week of the season, while Person of Interest (1.7) was also on the high end. Fox's MasterChef Junior (1.8) tied its premiere from the late fall, while New Girl (1.5) was also a bit above average, but The Mindy Project (1.0) was very weak.

•  As for NBC, Marry Me (0.8) completely tanked in its first episode without The Voice support, only tying its lead-in from a Parks and Recreation repeat (0.8), and About a Boy joined them at a new low 0.8. Given those ratings, it's something of a miracle that Chicago Fire (1.7) managed to pull into a tie for first at 10/9c.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 12/9/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show adjusted up to 3.4, putting it even year-to-year. It also edged out the series finale of FX's Sons of Anarchy (3.3) for top series of the night. Sons joined recent finales like Breaking Bad and How I Met Your Mother in ending on a new series high, just barely beating the 3.2 from this season's premiere. Elsewhere, The Voice (2.3) adjusted up to avoid a new low, while Supernatural (1.0) and The Mindy Project (1.1) both went down.

• CBS ruled Tuesday with the always reliably stout Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (2.8) and The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (3.3) sandwiching a repeat of NCIS (1.7). Both these specials were just barely down from last year (3.0/3.4 respectively) when CBS aired them on separate nights (putting Rudolph a couple weeks earlier and Secret following original episodes of the NCIS twins).

• The superhero shows preliminarily inched down from last week, but The Flash (1.5) was still above its usual level before the Arrow cross-over (and Supernatural (1.1) had a particularly strong night). ABC's fall finales of Agents of SHIELD (1.7) and Forever (1.1) also declined by 0.1 with less lead-in support at 8/7c from Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (1.1), but these shows were still ahead of some previous episodes (when they had more drama competition).

• NBC's struggles continued with another new low for The Voice (2.2) leading to more declines from Marry Me (1.2) and About a Boy (0.9) and a modest Angelina Jolie news special at 10/9c (1.0). Fox's New Girl (1.5) and The Mindy Project (1.2) each picked up a tenth.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 12/2/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Flash (1.6) adjusted up, now up 0.2 week-to-week and hitting its best rating since week two. Chicago Fire (1.7) adjusted up to round out a full night of week-to-week upticks for NBC, while Marry Me (1.3) dropped 0.1 in finals.
  

• ABC got some of its best numbers of the season in the Tuesday 8/7c hour with new holiday special Toy Story That Time Forgot (1.9) leading into classic special A Charlie Brown Christmas (2.1). This was well behind the new Halloween-themed Toy Story special in 2013 (3.1), but Charlie Brown was up two tenths year-to-year. That added lead-in support plus perhaps some audience fleeing CBS repeats produced a positive night for the ABC dramas; Agents of SHIELD (1.8) had its best rating since the season premiere and Forever (1.2) snagged its best rating since late October.

• A good night for superheroes continued on the CW as the first half of a crossover between The Flash and Arrow saw a small uptick for The Flash (1.5). Often it's the second show that benefits more in these situations, so we'll see what happens with Arrow, though last night's story on Flash was largely self-contained.

• With CBS and ABC way down from last week (when CBS had originals and ABC a DWTS finale), there were also some minor upticks on the other original networks. The Voice (2.6), Marry Me (1.4) and About a Boy (1.1) all bounced back from last week's truly egregious numbers, but Chicago Fire (1.6) had no such luck (at least in the demo). MasterChef Junior (1.6) and New Girl (1.4) were up a tenth for Fox.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 11/25/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Dancing with the Stars (3.0) gained a tenth, putting it up 25% year-to-year. NCIS (2.5) gained a tenth, putting it down just a tenth from last week.
  

• ABC took over Tuesday primetime with the two-hour season finale of Dancing with the Stars (2.9) leading out of a recap special at 8/7c (1.9). This finale was up a whooping 21% year-to-year. What had been a pretty quiet season of DWTS for the most part really took an amazing turn for the better in the last couple weeks.

• NBC, probably the lineup most vulnerable to ABC's strengthening, had another very soft night. The Voice (2.3) took another noticeable drop at 8/7c, tying a rating for a recap special just three weeks ago. Comedies Marry Me (1.1) and About a Boy (1.0) got particularly ugly, dropping 0.4 and 0.3 respectively, and Chicago Fire (1.6) gave back a half point after its big rating last week.

• The other three networks were very close to even with last week; only NCIS (2.4) changed by more than a tenth (it was down 0.2), and only Person of Interest (1.7) was up (by 0.1). The Flash hit its fourth straight 1.4, while Supernatural (0.9) and New Girl (1.3) each lost a tenth.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 11/18/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Chicago Fire (2.1) adjusted up in finals to finish down just a tenth week-to-week (and ahead of a year-ago episode that had a Voice lead-in). The Flash (1.4) ended up even for the second straight week, The Voice (2.7) got back a tenth as well, and Marry Me (1.5) lost one.

• After getting mowed down by NBC's event last week, CBS bounced all the way back with NCIS (2.6), NCIS: New Orleans (2.3) and Person of Interest (1.6) all growing by three tenths week-to-week. This put each show right back on par with its season average.

• Despite a low rating for The Voice (2.6) at 8/7c, NBC saw Marry Me (1.6) and About a Boy (1.3) bounce back to near the numbers when they last followed a fully original Voice three weeks ago. And Chicago Fire (2.0) had a particularly promising night at 10/9c; this was its highest result of the season leading out of About a Boy, and just two tenths behind the post-Voice ep last week.

• ABC shook it up at 8/7c again and improved on recent comedy hours with a Shark Tank repeat (1.1). This may have helped Agents of SHIELD (1.6) a little bit.

• MasterChef Junior (1.5) finally came back to earth somewhat on Fox; maybe some of its viewers flocked to the Shark Tank repeat? But New Girl (1.4) gained a tenth opposite less competition from NBC.

• And the CW's The Flash (1.3) was down a tenth and Supernatural (1.0) up a tenth.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 11/4/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Fox's good night (and CBS' strong repeats) went unchanged in finals, but it got even worse for the comedies elsewhere. Selfie is now at twin 0.9's, while About a Boy (0.9) adjusted down by a truly brutal two tenths.

• On a night with a lot of repeats, clip shows and pre-emptions due to election coverage, Fox had the entertainment world almost completely to itself, and it appears they took major advantage. MasterChef Junior (1.8) returned two tenths above last year's Friday premiere and well above what the network has been getting lately from Hell's Kitchen. It'll probably drop once NCIS and The Voice are back; but if it holds close to this in finals (not sure about local pre-emptions), it seems likely to remain a stronger option than Hell's. This lead-in support also vaulted New Girl (1.6) and The Mindy Project (1.3), which had best-since-premiere numbers and beat the competing NBC comedies in the 9/8c hour.

• The comedies on other networks didn't benefit against reduced competition; Marry Me (1.3) and About a Boy (1.1) each dropped again following a The Voice clip show (2.3), while a double-dose of Selfie was down for ABC (1.0 at 8:00, 0.9 at 8:30). ABC then sat out Agents of SHIELD for a weaker Marvel special (1.2). CBS and the CW were in full repeat/election coverage mode.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 10/28/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: CBS got some more help for NCIS (2.6) and Person of Interest (1.7), each now up two tenths from last week. The Flash (1.4) cut its week-to-week drop to 0.1, but Agents of SHIELD (1.7) didn't get its usual finals uptick. On NBC, The Voice (2.9) was up but Marry Me (1.5) lost another precious tenth.
• The World Series got a 3.5, a series high but a simply miserable number for a Game 6 historically speaking. (Recent Game 6's, even one that didn't end the series like in 2011, took well over a point jump from Game 5. This was up 0.2...)

• ABC pre-empted its low-rated comedy hour in favor of special The Great Halloween Fright Fight (1.1), presumably a spin-off of its The Great Christmas Light Fight series. It was an improvement on the usual comedy ratings, especially at 8:30 vs. Manhattan Love Story. And that may have helped Agents of SHIELD (1.7), which bounced back by a tick and may even be up two after finals. Forever (1.1) was down a tenth.

• NBC had a brutal Tuesday as The Voice (2.8) took a half-point drop at 8/7c. That helped further derail Marry Me (1.6), About a Boy (1.2) and even Chicago Fire (1.7), all two tenths behind last week.

• On a second World Series Tuesday, the CW had a third straight two-tenth drop for The Flash (1.3) and a third straight one-tenth drop for Supernatural (0.8). CBS was steady as NCIS (2.5) increased for the first time all season and Person of Interest (1.6) also inched up.

• As for Fox, its 6th game of the World Series was a massive blowout and is thus only barely ahead of the Tuesday rating a week ago in prelims. But Fox at least got the winner they wanted; namely, the team down 3-2 survived, setting up a decisive Game 7 and a likely significant spike tonight.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 10/21/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The World Series had its lowest Game 1 ever in adults 18-49 (3.4) and was down 19% from last year's opener (and two tenths behind the previous low from 2012). The superhero shows got some finals help, as Agents of SHIELD (1.6) avoided a new low and The Flash (1.5) ended up down just two tenths. The finals were not so kind to Marry Me (1.8), now 22% behind the premiere. And its The Voice lead-in (3.3) got a two-tenth boost, making Marry Me look even worse by comparison.

• NBC's comedies Marry Me (1.9) and About a Boy (1.4) were each down nearly 20% in week two. Marry Me probably shouldn't be counted out, as this is still just a touch behind the pace AaB set last spring. But it's not a good development for AaB, which dropped to the low end of what NBC got from Growing Up Fisher. Again, Chicago Fire (1.9) looked like a big winner in all this, even week-to-week despite the drops in the 9/8c hour.

•  The CW's The Flash (1.4) took a bigger drop in week three than it did in week two, but apparently it was even in 18-34. So maybe Fox's older-skewing World Series had the same kind of bizarrely large effect that it's always had with Arrow.

• On ABC, the bookend shows that dropped big last week each bounced back by a tenth: Selfie (1.1) and Forever (1.2). However, Agents of SHIELD (1.5) could be headed for another new low at 9/8c. This may be another World Series thing, but it can also at least partly thank a truly horrendous showing from Manhattan Love Story (0.7). The comedies are pre-empted next week anyway, but it's pretty hard to see Manhattan coming back on the other side of that.

• CBS saw the NCIS mothership (2.4) continue its kinda worrying downward trickle but got a promising hold from NCIS: New Orleans (2.4).

• And Fox had Game 1 of the World Series, moving Game 1 to Tuesday after it opened on Wednesday for the last seven years. (Presumably this is a move to help it avoid the NFL as much as possible.) The overnights indicate it was down double digits from last year's opener, not a stunner given the smaller-market matchup. More after finals!

SpotVault - About a Boy (NBC) - 2014-15 Ratings

About a Boy

Tuesdays, 9:30/8:30c, NBC

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 10/14/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: NBC avoided a drop for Marry Me, but About a Boy (1.7) and Chicago Fire (1.9) looked a little worse. The superhero shows remained tied as The Flash (1.7) and Agents of SHIELD (1.7) each added a tenth. That means Flash had an above-average week two hold of an incredible premiere number.

• NBC had a pretty "meh" start to its latest post-The Voice (3.3) comedy effort. Marry Me (2.3) began a couple tenths below About a Boy's first original in the hour in March, and it may adjust down. And the season two premiere of About a Boy (1.8) was just kind of there at 9:30, down a half point from Marry Me but bouncing back a bit from its late-spring episodes after The Voice. It wasn't an awful hour for NBC, especially since The Voice was kinda soft, but it's not a great base to start from since The Voice tends to drop later in the season. The show that looked best in all this was the 10/9c occupant Chicago Fire (2.0), which grew from About a Boy as it did from Growing Up Fisher in the spring.

• Tuesday's big winner was again The Flash (1.6) on the CW, down a perfectly typical 16% in week two. When you're starting from a premiere as huge as last week's, a typical week two drop is a very good thing. And it could adjust up again.

• Nobody in the 9/8c hour seemed to benefit from NBC no longer airing two-hour The Voice episodes. NCIS: New Orleans (2.2) was down a tenth (just like the other two CBS shows), while New Girl (1.2) may have been more affected by having to compete with a comedy. ABC's Tuesday problems intensified as Selfie (1.0) and Forever (1.1) each shed a couple more tenths.

The Question, Tuesday 10/14/14: Will Audiences Say "I Do" to Marry Me?

The 20th and final leg of our 30-day The Question marathon is NBC's biggest comedy hope of the fall, Marry Me. It doesn't have an obvious built-in advantage like Matthew Perry in Go On, or even a connection to a well-known movie like About a Boy. So if Marry Me is going to thrive where those have turned out mediocre, it will be because of quality. But coming from the creator of well-regarded Happy Endings, it might actually have a shot to do that. Will audiences say "I do" to Marry Me? That's The Question for Tuesday, October 14, 2014.

Fall 2014 Best Case/Worst Case, Tuesday 9/8c

Best Case/Worst Case moves to the Tuesday 9/8c hour, always the longest post of the year due to all the half-hour comedies. ABC's getting out of the comedy logjam this year, but NBC and Fox will still duel.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 5/13/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• How do you give a new series launch the least possible media coverage? Premiere it during upfront week. How do you give it the least possible lead-in support? Put it after Glee. Throw in the show's total lack of inherent appeal and you get a 0.5 rating for the premiere of summer improv comedy show Riot. The only silver lining is that it might be able to get some "momentum" since its lead-in will improve with American Idol's performance finale next week. Arguably even more egregious was Glee dive-bombing to 0.6 in its penultimate season finale. Fox is still figuring out the "right" number of episodes for Glee's final season, but that number is pretty clearly zero. If you're keeping score at home, this was seventy percent below last year's finale (2.0).

• Most of the shows on other networks are eyeing week-to-week increases in their season finales.
• CBS seemed to fare best with NCIS (2.6), the final Tuesday edition of NCIS: Los Angeles (2.5) and Person of Interest (1.9) all up by multiple ticks;
• The last two About a Boy episodes (1.6/1.5) each improved their slots after last week's terrible numbers;
• ABC's Agents of SHIELD got it usual adjustment and thus inched up week-to-week, while the comedies were each up two;
• And the CW lost some steam in finals due to a New York city pre-emption but still had a nice two-tenth rebound for The Originals.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 5/6/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• Fox's embattled live-action comedy department is officially closed for the season with the upticking finales of New Girl (1.2) and The Mindy Project (1.3). The latter ended up with its first-ever growth from an original of the former, and it was easily Mindy's biggest rating since its return from hiatus in April. New Girl reportedly has the larger order of the two for next season (22 vs. 15), but the momentum seems to be moving in the other direction in these last few weeks. (Just look at the finales' year-to-year trends; New Girl was -43%, Mindy even.)

• Perhaps owing in part to Fox's uptick, there was major comedy carnage on the other two networks; The Goldbergs (1.3), Trophy Wife (0.7), About a Boy (1.5) and Growing Up Fisher (1.2) all hit new lows. It was not a good final impression for the NBC shows heading into the upfront, to say the least, though they got no help from an also particularly weak The Voice (2.5) at 8/7c.

• In drama land, NCIS (2.3) gave back some of last week's rebound, and Agents of SHIELD (1.9) adjusted off the tie-series low but was still down week-to-week. Glee (0.8) was not so lucky, notching yet another new low. And at 10/9c, an unusually impressive Chicago Fire (1.9) thumped Person of Interest (1.7).

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/22/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• The Voice (2.8) took a week-to-week drop on Tuesday, just as for its live premiere on Monday, but comedies About a Boy (1.9) and Growing Up Fisher (1.5) held up. The comedy results looked especially decent after the shows avoided their usual downward finals adjustments, leaving AaB up week-to-week.

• Agents of SHIELD (1.9) fell back into a tie with the last 8/7c episode two weeks ago, though that's still not great given CBS' NCIS went into repeats.

• Supernatural's huge plummet to 0.7 last week was pretty odd, but fortunately for the CW it was just a fluke; it got back to a more normal 0.9 this week. The Originals (0.6) had another new low in the prelims, and this time it didn't adjust up as it did last week.

• The Mindy Project (1.0) was steady even as New Girl (0.6) went back into repeats, and Glee (0.9) inched down to tie its low.

• Cable: FX's Fargo (0.65) was down 20% from its already modest premiere, but compared to the second weeks of fellow FX offerings The Americans (-32%) and The Bridge (-43%) that doesn't look so bad. The second week of Awkward (0.61) also had a significant dip, as did BET's comedies.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/15/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• A special 9/8c tryout for Agents of SHIELD (2.1) was of some benefit, amounting to a two-tenth uptick week-to-week. That doesn't seem like much, but given what happened on the other networks... anyway, more on that in a minute. ABC also launched a new season of Celebrity Wife Swap (1.0) at a mere shadow of what the show got in the regular season last year (including a 2.4 premiere on 2/26/13). But this was pretty close to what it averaged over the summer, and sadly an improvement on almost every regularly-scheduled original in the 10/9c slot this season. (Only the premieres of Lucky 7 and Mind Games did better!)

• The other good news was NBC's The Voice (3.0) and About a Boy (1.8) bouncing back a bit. But those really only look encouraging because they dropped so much last week.

• Then there was everybody else, where season lows were all over the place, though many of the outright lows were adjusted away after finals. Here are the details:
• CBS: NCIS (2.2, a low by two tenths even after a finals uptick), NCIS: Los Angeles (2.1, tie) and Person of Interest (1.8, adjusted up from a tie to not a low).
• NBC: Chicago Fire (1.7, new low).
• Fox: Glee (1.0, NOT A LOW!), New Girl (1.2, adjusted up to a tie), The Mindy Project (1.0, tie).
• CW: The Originals (0.7, adjusted up to a tie), Supernatural (0.7, adjusted down to a low by two tenths).

• FX launched new drama Fargo (0.8), which basically tied the 18-49 average of previous occupant Justified. But it was a bit below their last drama launch The Bridge (0.9 on 7/10/13), and most other recent launches of note on the network were in the 1's. This network has become somewhat famous for massive post-premiere drops, so they'll have to hope this modest premiere bucks the trend.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/8/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• Marvel Studios had a great weekend at the box office with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but that did not translate to the small screen. Even though Agents of SHIELD picked up a second straight two-tenths uptick in the final ratings, it was disappointingly still down week-to-week. The ABC comedies also suffered, as The Goldbergs (1.4) and Trophy Wife (0.8) each tied series lows.

• NBC also caught the Tuesday blues; the Tuesday edition of The Voice (2.9) continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate, and now it's taking comedies About a Boy (1.7) and Growing Up Fisher (1.5) down with it. Chicago Fire (1.8) ended up looking good despite being down a tick at 10/9c, albeit against repeats on both competing networks.

• Only CBS had a remotely good evening as NCIS (2.6) bounced back a bit, but NCIS: Los Angeles (2.3) inched down the week after it fully retained the mothership.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/1/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• April got off to a foolish start for Fox, where Glee (0.9) reverted to a tie with its series low from three weeks ago and the one-hour return of The Mindy Project (1.0) was at a new series low. Something to note about these shows is that while both are big W18-34 draws, they have very different 18-49 skews; Glee had about 700,000 more total viewers. This probably means Glee leans much more toward the teen end of that 18-34 demo and Mindy much more toward the 35-49 end. Given this incompatibility, I don't think Fox could've expected a lot more out of Mindy. We already know that it gets bad 18-49 ratings, and they'll always be worse without New Girl leading in. But they'll have to put up with another full hour of Mindy next week before New Girl comes back.

• On ABC, Agents of SHIELD (2.0) was back with a two-tenths upward adjustment in finals that makes this feel like a much better result than the 1.8 in prelims. It was still a tenth behind its last original episode, but now two tenths ahead of the 1.8 when it last returned from hiatus (and when it last faced NCIS). And The Goldbergs (1.5) was back down even with the lead-in increase, continuing to appear more tied to the presence of comedy competition than to the lead-in.

• CBS' NCIS (2.4) adjusted up off of its new low, so it's now only tied for a season low (and NCIS: Los Angeles (2.4) only tied it rather than beat it).

• Like many of the other ugly results in the 8/7c, The Voice (3.1) adjusted up in finals, but it was still down another three tenths. but they can take some solace in lead-out comedies About a Boy (2.0) and Growing Up Fisher (1.6) continuing to hold.