The Breakdown: ABC Thursday in 2015-16 (Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, HTGAWM, The Catch and more!)

It's time for a journey through the ABC Thursday schedule in 2015-16...

The Breakdown: ABC Tuesday in 2015-16 (Fresh Off the Boat, Agents of SHIELD, The Muppets and more)

It's time for a journey through the ABC Tuesday schedule in 2015-16...

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 6/5/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The NBA Finals ended up with a 6.5 demo rating, down by 11% from Game 1 and by 12% from the year-ago Game 2. Miss USA adjusted up to 1.2.
• After a Memorial Weekend hiccup, Game of Thrones (3.95) was back up to very nearly season high levels this week. AMC's Preacher (0.80) looks fairly legit, holding up well after taking last week off and losing its Fear the Walking Dead lead-in. Leading out of Preacher, a preview of Feed the Beast (0.31) was less promising as it prepares to head to Tuesday later this week.

• Game 2 of the NBA Finals was a rout, and the prelims (4.4/5.7/5.8/5.8/5.6) were a little lower than what we saw in Game 1. More to come.

• After over a decade on NBC, Miss USA returned to broadcast with three hours on Fox, averaging a 1.1 from 7:00-10:00. That's down a bit from the 1.3 and 1.4 in its last couple NBC seasons, but those ceremonies didn't have to air in the little-viewed 7:00 hour.

• NBC eked out third place with an American Ninja Warrior repeat (0.7) and its final burn-off hour of Game of Silence (0.6), which beat CBS' repeats of Madam Secretary (0.4/0.3) and Elementary (0.4).

• On Friday, ABC unloaded another original episode of Beyond the Tank (0.7) at 8/7c, holding the summer run of What Would You Do? for an uninterrupted run after the NBA Finals.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 5/20/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Shark Tank (1.3) adjusted up. Everything on the CW - The Originals (0.3) and both Masters of Illusion (0.3/0.3) adjusted down.

• With many of the Friday regulars already wrapped, ABC dominated the final Friday of the season with Beyond the Tank (0.8), Shark Tank (1.2) and an above-average 20/20 (1.2). Beyond the Tank actually rose in each of its last two Friday airings, after its 0.6 premiere may have done the job in assuring the comedy renewals.

• NBC had the two-hour season finale of Grimm (0.9), which was up a tenth from last week, and Dateline (0.9) also inched up at 10/9c. 

• CBS had another of its I Love Lucy colorizations (0.8) at 8/7c, then another fairly poor showing from Undercover Boss (0.7) at 9/8c and a repeat of Blue Bloods (0.7) at 10/9c.

• The CW arguably had the night's most excitement with the double-episode return of Masters of Illusion (0.4/0.4), which was at the high end of its summer 2015 ratings. The Originals (0.4) wrapped up its season at 9/8c and was on the uptick as well.

• And Fox's Easy A (0.6/0.7) had the best ratings of the Friday theatricals so far this May.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 5/13/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Amazing Race (1.1) and Grimm (0.8) adjusted up while 20/20 (0.9) adjusted down.

• There was no bad luck on Friday the 13th for CBS, where The Amazing Race (1.0) ticked up, then CBS closed out its Friday scripted programming for the season as Hawaii Five-0 went 1.1/1.2 for its two-hour finale. Depending on how this is counted/rounded in finals, it could be the end of Five-0's very long run of 1.1 ratings, but the show will happily take it; it was slightly ahead of last year's two-hour finale, which had a 1.1 in each hour.

• ABC's Beyond the Tank (0.7) mercifully got a tenth back in the second week of its brief Friday run, but Shark Tank stayed frozen on a low-end 1.2. 20/20 was flat at 1.0.

• NBC had a low-end Friday with Caught on Camera (0.6), the penultimate week of Grimm (0.8/0.7) and Dateline (0.8).

• CW's The Vampire Diaries edged back up to 0.4, its most frequent Friday rating, but The Originals stayed at 0.3.

• And Fox stayed in movie night mode as Jumping the Broom (0.4) did even worse than last week's movie.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 5/6/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC's Friday comedies may be able to breathe a sigh of relief, as Beyond the Tank (0.6) arrived on Friday with a thud. It was only able to match the final episode of its terrible Tuesday run, and there was also little evidence of any continued Shark Tank synergy boost; that show fell to match its Friday season low at 1.2. 20/20 (1.0) was also on the downswing.

•  CBS wrapped up another rock-solid season of Blue Bloods (1.1) with a somewhat surprisingly low-end result for the finale. Earlier in the night, The Amazing Race (0.9) stayed fractional in the prelims, while Hawaii Five-0 made it nine in a row at 1.1.

• NBC preempted Grimm for a week to air an enhanced 90-minute repeat (including new footage) of the Adele special that had a sensational 3.0 rating in December. But this time, it averaged just a 0.7.

• The CW's vampire shows The Vampire Diaries (0.3) and The Originals (0.3) each ticked down. 

• And with its original reserves exhausted, Fox went into movie mode with "Think Like a Man" (0.5).

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 5/3/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Flash (1.3) adjusted up to match last week, while Beyond the Tank (0.6) pulled off an uptick in its final Tuesday episode. The Real O'Neals (0.9) adjusted down to its first fractional number with an original lead-in.

• CBS' Person of Interest (1.2) returned to run through its 13-episode final season, mostly on Tuesdays but also with second episodes on Mondays for the rest of May. It was a tenth above the usual late-season Limitless rating in the hour, but significantly behind the normal PoI ratings from last season (though up a notch from the big dip it took on season finale night). It got some help from the NCIS twins, as New Orleans (1.8) was on the upswing at 9/8c while NCIS at least matched the 1.9 from its last original.

• The return of CBS originals was bad news for NBC, where The Voice (1.6) and Chicago Med (1.5) each took hefty declines and fell well behind CBS. Chicago Fire (1.6) declined much less heftily against PoI at 10/9c.

• On Fox, bubble comedies Grandfathered (0.7) and The Grinder (0.5) were original on the same night for the first time in over two months. There has been buzz that studio ownership and acclaim may benefit Grinder, but Grandfathered tried to make its (relative) ratings case by inching up from last week and outrating Grinder by two tenths. Both shows led out of original episodes of New Girl (1.0 at 8:00/0.9 at 9:00).

• On ABC, Fresh Off the Boat (1.1) came back to earth after last week's post-DST high, but The Real O'Neals managed to hang at 1.0 yet again. Agents of SHIELD (0.9) continued its oscillation between 0.9 and 1.0, while a miserable Tuesday run finally ended for Beyond the Tank (0.5). It'll try to improve in potentially friendlier territory starting on Friday.

• Week three of the CW's Containment didn't have to wait till finals for the 0.5 this time, though it looks like a decent bet to hang onto the 0.5 since it had a 0.6 in the 9:00 half-hour. The Flash preliminarily inched down to 1.2.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/19/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: NCIS (1.9), The Flash (1.2) and Fresh Off the Boat (R) (0.8) adjusted up while Containment (0.5) adjusted down.

•  The CW opened new drama Containment with 1.7 million viewers and a 0.6 demo rating, dropping nearly half of its lead-in from The Flash (1.1). It may not even be a safe 0.6, as it has a 0.6 -> 0.5 breakdown and The Flash had a short overrun (listed at 30 seconds). So we know that this didn't open much or even any better than iZombie's usual post-Flash delivery; what we'll find out in the coming weeks is if it's possible for a show to do much worse than iZombie in this slot.

• On CBS, it took over 300 episodes, but NCIS has finally fallen below a 2.0: and with a 1.8 rating last night, there won't even be any finals sweat. NCIS: New Orleans (1.6) was down a tick, and Limitless held at 1.1.

• ABC's The Real O'Neals (0.8) also dropped below its milestone, going fractional for the first time, but it took a repeat lead-in from Fresh Off the Boat (0.7) to get it there. Agents of SHIELD (0.9) gave back last week's uptick, while Beyond the Tank had yet another 0.5.

• It was a roller coaster on NBC as The Voice (1.8) had a really rough night at 8/7c, but Chicago Med (1.6) and Chicago Fire (1.7) did quite well anyway, growing by 0.1 and 0.2 respectively.

• Fox will be airing two New Girl originals per Tuesday for most of the rest of the season, starting this week with back-to-back episodes taking a hit in the 8:00 hour (0.9/0.8). Beyond this week, the second original will air at 9/8c, replacing Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.9) which wrapped up its season last night. The Grinder posted its sixth straight 0.6.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/12/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Voice (2.3) adjusted up and Game of Silence (1.4) and Beyond the Tank (0.5) adjusted down.

• With lots of repeats and low-rated originals elsewhere on the schedule, this Tuesday was all NBC, with two hours of The Voice (2.2) leading into the 10/9c preview of Game of Silence (1.5), which dropped from 1.6 to 1.3 at the half. We have a surprisingly robust sample size for post-Voice previews, so we can say that Game of Silence did OK relatively speaking: a tenth better than Heartbeat (1.4) three weeks ago, and close to the hour of Crowded (1.7/1.4) four weeks ago, despite a weaker The Voice lead-in. I would hesitate to go as far as "promising," especially since it was up against a CBS repeat and Beyond the Tank, and especially since its breakdown means it could adjust down. But it's at least not totally hopeless as it heads to Thursday 10/9c.

• With the CBS dramas (1.2/1.3/1.2) and ABC's comedies (0.8/0.7) all in repeats, many of the remaining originals took advantage fairly well. Fox's recently renewed New Girl (1.1) was up to its best rating since before Daylight Saving Time, while Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.9) and The Grinder (0.6) were both even. (Grandfathered (0.6) was in repeats.)

• ABC's Agents of SHIELD (1.0) and Beyond the Tank (0.6) each gained a tenth.

• And the two-hour finale of iZombie (0.5/0.5) proved one last time just how incompatible it is with The Flash, posting its normal rating (and up a tenth from last week) despite not having the CW's biggest show around.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 3/29/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Voice (2.4) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.9) adjusted up while Chicago Fire (1.7) adjusted down, as did Beyond the Tank (0.5) into full-on Of Kings and Prophets territory.

• NBC's Chicago Med (1.8) and Chicago Fire (1.8) finally returned after over a month off. Med handily outrated almost all of its episodes during The Voice's hiatus, but was down from its last couple post-Voice eps. Fire was up a couple ticks from its last two winter episodes, though it had several 1.8's earlier in the year.
• At 8/7c, The Voice was down again to 2.3, though this was one of its better Tuesday year-to-year trends this spring.

• ABC's struggling Tuesday lineup was mostly steady with Fresh Off the Boat (1.2), The Real O'Neals (1.0), Agents of SHIELD (1.0) getting out of fraction-town, and no week two help for Beyond the Tank (0.6).

• The CW's The Flash (1.3) rebounded nicely after a modest return from hiatus last week. It doesn't seem to be much related to Monday's Supergirl crossover (as it didn't really skew any older), but probably more just a bounce-back from underachieving last week. iZombie had another 0.5.

• CBS had repeats of the NCISes (1.2/1.2) leading into a James Corden special (0.9) at 10/9c.

• And Fox offered up another weird mix of originals (New Girl (0.9) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.8)) and repeats (Grandfathered (0.5) and The Grinder (0.4)).

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 3/22/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Voice (2.5) adjusted up and Grandfathered (R) (0.5) adjusted down.

• NBC's post-Voice preview tour continued with medical drama Heartbeat (1.4), which held just under 60% of its The Voice (2.4) lead-in. This was far below the premiere of Chicago Med (2.2) in this slot earlier this season. In comparing it to the comedy Voice previews, it was a little below last week's 10/9c hour of Crowded (1.7/1.4) but still a fair amount better than Telenovela (1.4/0.9) in December. We'll see how long (or at all?) it can avoid the zeroes when it leads off on Wednesday.
• NBC rounded out the night with a rare repeat of Chicago Fire (0.8), which is finally back from a long hiatus next week.

• The CW was back in business on Tuesday and saw a pretty substantial crash from The Flash (1.1), dealing with Daylight Saving Time for the first time this year. iZombie (0.5) also inched down to the low end of its normal range.

• On CBS, NCIS (2.0) held off its first ever trip into the ones for yet another week. And the rest of the CBS evening perked up nicely against a much weaker NBC: NCIS: New Orleans (1.8) and Limitless (1.3) were each up by two tenths.

• ABC was up a notch at 8/7c with Fresh Off the Boat (1.2) and steady at 1.0 with The Real O'Neals. But Agents of SHIELD (0.9) found yet another new low at 9/8c, and the emergency return of Beyond the Tank (0.6) just barely beat last week's Of Kings and Prophets rating. It seems possible this could get better since there was so little time to promote BTT's return, but that's a rough number.

• On Fox, New Girl (1.0) was the only original. The repeats went 0.6/0.6/0.4.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 1/28/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• NBC opened new dramedy You, Me and the Apocalypse (1.2) to soft but not-totally-awful results, going a couple ticks above recent episodes of Heroes Reborn in the hour. It will have to do well going forward to stay at Heroes levels long-term (and it avoided both The Big Bang Theory and Grey's Anatomy on this night), but it may at least be able to meet the low expectations that come with a foreign co-production.
• And at least for now, Apocalypse wasn't a drag on the lead-out dramas, as The Blacklist hung yet another 1.6 at 9/8c. Shades of Blue inched back down to 1.3.

• It was an encouraging second week for the CW's new Thursday lineup, as Legends of Tomorrow (1.1) and The 100 (0.6) each dropped just a tenth in week two.

• CBS went with repeats of The Big Bang Theory (2.0), Mom (1.6) and The Big Bang Theory (1.7) in the first 90 minutes. The second TBBT meant the network was hitting its normal number at 9/8c, and thus the lead-out originals of Angel from Hell (1.4) and Elementary (1.1) stayed steady.

• ABC mercifully bid farewell to its uncompetitive bridge lineup of Beyond the Tank (1.1) and My Diet is Better Than Yours (0.7), each up a tenth from recent results. BTT will be back for one more Thursday at 10/9c leading out of the Madoff miniseries.

• And Fox's American Idol (2.3) quietly won another Thursday, down a tenth from last week. More on Fox News' Trump-less Republican debate after finals!

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 1/21/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Blacklist (1.6) adjusted up and My Diet is Better Than Yours (0.6) adjusted down. The CW's shows did not adjust, leaving The 100 with its first 0.7+ since the second week of the series (3/26/14).

• On perhaps the highest-stakes night of the season for the CW, the results were reasonably positive but not spectacular. DC's Legends of Tomorrow didn't come anywhere near the fall 2014 The Flash opener (1.9 on 10/7/14), but it still opened with a great-for-CW 3.14 million viewers and a 1.2 demo rating. That nestles it right between this week's episodes of The Flash (1.3) and Arrow (1.1). As with any series premiere, it's unlikely to sustain this level, but it's certainly given itself a lot of room to work with.
• Leading out was the season three premiere of The 100, whose 0.7 preliminary rating would top anything from season two. It should be strongly stressed here that Legends of Tomorrow ran three minutes into the 9:00 hour, so The 100 will adjust down (at least in the un-rounded numbers). But the worst-case scenario is a tie with last season's high point, so it's a fine to good start either way.

• The big four generally had an encouraging night as well, as perhaps some viewers came back to broadcast from last week's GOP debate. The best news came on CBS, which got its first look at an original Life in Pieces (2.0) with a repeat lead-in from The Big Bang Theory (2.2). Life in Pieces was actually even with last week when TBBT had a 3.8, a rather shockingly strong hold that makes the show's best renewal case yet.
• The network also held up well in the last two hours with Mom (1.7), Angel from Hell (up a tenth to 1.4 in week three) and Elementary (1.1).

• NBC had its own positive newbie result as Shades of Blue (1.4) recouped a tick after last week's big drop. Earlier in the night, the finale of Heroes Reborn (1.0) saw no bounce (perhaps hurt by the CW competition), while The Blacklist (1.5) inched down.

• The unscripted offerings were steady as American Idol (2.4) won the night again for Fox and ABC dropped into fifth place with Beyond the Tank (1.0) and My Diet is Better Than Yours (0.7/0.6). 

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 1/14/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Big Bang Theory (3.8) and The Blacklist (1.6) ticked up.
• USA's Colony opened with a very middling 0.44 rating. This was about on par with USA's summer launches of Mr. Robot (0.46) and Complications (0.41), and behind the Dig opener from a year ago (0.56).
• The Republican debate averaged a 1.85 in the demo with just over 11 million total viewers.

• Week two brought a disappointing drop for NBC's Shades of Blue (1.3), shedding a half-point (or over 25%) of last week's solid premiere. This exhausts a lot of the show's considerable premiere cushion, and it'll have to hold up pretty well from here just to stay on the bubbly tier with The Mysteries of Laura. Shades' lead-in The Blacklist (1.5) was down a tenth in its second episode of 2016, while the penultimate Heroes Reborn (1.0) was even.

• CBS' own week two newbie Angel from Hell also hit a 1.3. This is a more reasonable week-to-week drop from last week's 1.6 premiere, but that premiere was modest enough that this isn't exactly good news. It now seems pretty clearly weaker than most of the other middling CBS comedies. CBS had a slew of small drops elsewhere with The Big Bang Theory (3.7), Life in Pieces (2.0), Mom (1.7) and Elementary (1.1).

• It was a tough night for most of the unscripted options, too. Fox's American Idol (2.2) won another night in broadcast primetime but was down a half-point from last week (though just another low-teens decline year-to-year). ABC's Beyond the Tank held at 1.0, but My Diet is Better Than Yours (0.6) dropped a tenth from last week's already awful premiere. And The World Dog Awards on the CW (0.3) were down noticeably from last year's 0.5.

• These broadcast declines have at least some excuse as another big GOP debate aired on Fox Business. Household overnights suggest it was the lowest-rated debate yet this cycle (and about 15% below the previous FBN debate), but it still probably broke 10 million viewers. More after finals!

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 1/7/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Life in Pieces (2.1) adjusted down.

• NBC continued its stout opening to 2016 with a nice sampling for the new Jennifer Lopez drama Shades of Blue (1.8), not far from where Heroes Reborn opened the fall (2.0) and growing from The Blacklist (1.6) lead-in on premiere night. Blacklist itself also did pretty well, upticking to its best rating since the season premiere. However, NBC had another low-end performance in the 8/7c hour as Heroes Reborn (1.0) did not return well.

• CBS also had a scripted series premiere in the Jane Lynch sitcom Angel from Hell (1.6), which dropped a bit from its Mom (1.8) lead-in on opening night and was close to the fall 2014 premiere of failed The McCarthys (1.7). It'd be a fine showing for Angel on a normal night, but for a series premiere it's pretty blah; it will not want to separate from Mom much more than this.
• Mom (1.8) and Life in Pieces (2.2) each tied their best Thursday performances of the season, while Elementary (1.2) hit a season high even as The Big Bang Theory (3.8) didn't get any real early January upswing.

• Fox's American Idol (2.7) delivered another strong two hours to round out its premiere week, though it was not quite as sensational as the Wednesday premiere. (This ep was down just a bit more than league average from last year's 3.1 Thursday opener.)

• And ABC began its tough road through the TGIT hiatus with a not-awful showing from Beyond the Tank (1.0) at 8/7c but very little interest in the newbie My Diet is Better Than Yours (0.7).

• CW had still more repeats with The Vampire Diaries (0.2) and The Originals (0.2).

SpotVault - Beyond the Tank (ABC) - 2015-16 Ratings

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 1/5/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The NCIS twins adjusted up to 2.7/2.5, meaning New Orleans tied its raw series high.

• On a night of crime drama crossovers, CBS' NCIS (2.6) and NCIS: New Orleans (2.4) beat out NBC's Chicago Fire (1.8) and Chicago Med (1.9). For CBS, the mothership NCIS hit a new season high and was just barely below its 2.8 on this night last year. But it's always the second show that benefits even more; New Orleans easily crushed its previous season high 1.9 and actually came incredibly close to a series high (2.5 a couple times last year). However, this major boost was of very little help to Limitless (1.4) at 10/9c, even with Bradley Cooper returning.

• It's hard to complain much about Chicago Fire (1.8) and Chicago Med (1.9), as they ended up with fairly average numbers despite lacking their usual support from The Voice. Instead, their lead-in was the return of summer staple Hollywood Game Night (1.2), which did a fine job to go just a bit below its summer average after America's Got Talent.

• Fox began another tough trip down the two-hour Tuesday comedy road, but at least for tonight it wasn't too disastrous. New Girl (1.4) had a pretty good return at 8/7c, down three tenths from last year's September premiere but nearly matching what it did on this night last year (1.5). And Brooklyn Nine-Nine posted a 1.2 in its move back to Tuesday, about what it usually did on non-NFL Sundays.
• The newbies remain the bigger issues; Grandfathered (1.0) at 8:30 and The Grinder (0.8) at 9:30 each dropped four tenths from their respective veteran lead-ins and were just barely above their late fall deliveries in the 8:00 hour.

• If anybody really got lost in this shuffle, it was ABC, where a one-off original Shark Tank (1.2) went well below its usual Friday numbers leading out of another weak repeat of The Muppets (0.6). Beyond the Tank (1.1) had good retention at 10/9c, but a tough Thursday lead-off role awaits for that show. The CW stayed in repeat mode with The Flash (0.3) and iZombie (0.2).

Best Case/Worst Case: Beyond the Tank, Hollywood Game Night, New Girl

Best Case/Worst Case lays out possible scenarios for broadcast primetime TV seasons yet to premiere. Here's what's premiering tonight!

Spotted Ratings, Friday 5/15/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Amazing Race (1.1) once again dodged a new season low by upticking in the finals. Probably due to preemptions, The Messengers adjusted down to its usual 0.2.

• It was a promising third and final episode of this initial Beyond the Tank run (1.5), as it tied its Shark Tank (1.5) lead-in and inched up week-to-week.

• NBC had a decent finale from Grimm (1.1), which got this high for only the third time in its nine episodes at 8/7c. Meanwhile, CBS finished up The Amazing Race (1.0) on what would be a new season low, though it's had a prelim 1.0 and adjusted up earlier in the season. CBS then did no better than procedural repeats with a 0.6/0.7 for two hours of an Academy of Country Music special.

• After spiking in its return to 8/7c, CW's Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.3) gave it all back in its second try at the slot. The Messengers (0.3) went up a tick.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 5/8/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Shark Tank (1.6) and the second half of Hawaii Five-0 (1.1) adjusted up.

• Week two of Beyond the Tank (1.4) was down two tenths week-to-week, leading out of a Shark Tank (1.5) that was down a tenth.

• Just in case the Hawaii Five-0 finale ratings actually mean anything to CBS' decision at this very late stage, it wasn't an ideal way to go out: the two hour finale tied a season low 1.1 in the 9:00 hour and dropped to a 1.0 at 10:00. The Amazing Race, with which Five-0 may be competing for a fall spot, was also at a season low 1.0.

• The CW quietly pulled Cedric's Barber Battle, and the local programming lead-in significantly benefited an original Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.5) in its return to 8/7c. But the 8:30 Whose Line? repeat (0.3) and 9/8c drama The Messengers (0.2) didn't show improvement.

• NBC's Grimm (1.0) inched up from its first 0.9 last week, while Scream (0.4) did significantly worse than Fox's other recent Friday movies.