The Best of Plus: Broadcast Drama Seasons

This is The Best Of Plus, a look at the top performers since 2001-02 using numbers that are adjusted for historical decline. The table simply looks at the top n examples, where n is the number of years since 2001-02... so with each yearly update, each list will get one entry longer. There are some pithy notes about many of the seasons below the table (plus what the list would look like with cable dramas). The chart you can activate at the bottom chronicles the top single performer within each year.

War of 18-49 Update, CSI (2014-15)

Let's take a look at the 2014-15 season (the fifteenth overall) of CSI on CBS.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 2/15/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: SNL (7.8) did not adjust in finals, and it handily defeated week two of The Walking Dead (6.2). This TWD ep marked a second straight year-to-year decline for the series, down 9% vs. week two of last spring. (That episode faced the Olympics, but that was actually significantly weaker than SNL.)

• On what's usually one of the less eventful weeks of Sunday event season, this time NBC made its own enormous event. The 40th anniversary celebration of Saturday Night Live averaged an absurd 23.14 million viewers and 7.8 demo rating, which could very well make it the top 18-49 program of the night on an evening when The Walking Dead was airing. We're talking average Sunday Night Football levels here, and it was within 10% of this year's Grammy ratings! (Worth noting it'll probably adjust down a touch since the 11:00 half-hour isn't included; the show was already dropping in the 10:00 hour.)

• The other three networks were all original and didn't have much luck.
• Three hours of The Bachelor on ABC averaged a 1.5 at 8:00, a 1.6 at 9:00 and a 1.5 at 10:00; on this night, those look like good numbers, but only a little over half what the show has been getting on its main night.
• CBS and Fox were even worse, only around a 1.0 average starting at 8/7c. CBS had Undercover Boss (0.9) and what could be a pretty sad final two hours ratings-wise for CSI (1.1).
• And Fox's comedies The Simpsons (1.1), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.9), Family Guy (1.2) and Bob's Burgers (0.9) were all down from the already absolutely anemic numbers last week.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 1/27/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: MasterChef Junior (1.7) and Marry Me (0.8) were up. It was a bad set of finals for the CW, as The Flash (1.3) held at the new low and Supernatural (0.7) was down to a new season low of its own.

• Week three of ABC's Agent Carter (1.3) came back after a week off and dropped another two tenths, rating slightly below its repeat Shark Tank lead-in (1.4). This put it well below the low point of the show for which it's filling in, Agents of SHIELD.

• CBS continued to race through its order of CSI originals (1.6), and the show zoomed to a season high on a special night leading out of strong repeats from NCIS (1.6) and NCIS: New Orleans (1.6). It's still not exactly a huge accomplishment since the show had very minimal competition from repeats of Chicago Fire (0.8) and Forever (0.7), but it does help illustrate the difficulty of its usual Sunday slot.

• Elsewhere, The Flash (1.3) is eyeing another new low but will hope for the same upward adjustment it got last week, while Supernatural (0.8) was also below average. NBC and Fox saw small declines for their respective standouts Parks and Recreation (1.4/1.3) and MasterChef Junior (1.6).

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 1/25/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• The last Sunday in January isn't defined by one big event but rather by a series of small ones. The only one on broadcast was NBC's Miss Universe (2.0), which more than doubled its ratings from last year when it aired on Saturday. (It was slightly above its last weeknight airing, a 1.8 in late December two years ago.) But ESPN will likely win the night with the NFL's Pro Bowl, and the Turner networks had the Screen Actors Guild awards.

• Though none of these events should be all that big of a deal, it was still a very quiet night for the entertainment programming on the other three networks:
• CBS had a special Undercover Boss (1.5) which was pretty close to its normal Friday numbers, and two episodes of CSI (1.2/1.3) did no better than the show's usual delivery in the 10/9c hour.
• ABC saw small, probably-not-enough rallies for the finales of Galavant (1.1) and Resurrection (1.0), and no rally for Revenge (0.9). They came after a season high 1.7 from America's Funniest Home Videos, which might have benefited from the debut of afternoon NBA games on ABC.
• And with NFL help gone, Fox's comedy lineup bombed, as The Simpsons (1.4), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.2) and Family Guy (1.6) all crashed to season lows.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 12/7/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Each of Fox's animated anchors adjusted up a tenth.

• There was no big post-Walking Dead really for ABC's dramas. In fact, Once Upon a Time (2.0) was preliminarily down another tenth, putting it on the year-to-year negative side for the first time all season. But Resurrection (1.0) did get back one tenth and Revenge (1.2) was up two.

• On the other two networks, the NFL overrun made a big impact. Fox's The Simpsons (2.8), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2.1), Family Guy (2.2) and Bob's Burgers (1.6) all shot up to at or barely below the last time they had the overrun two weeks ago, while overrun-less CBS saw The Mentalist (1.1) take a huge week two drop and CSI (1.2) a two-tenth drop leading out of an I Love Lucy Christmas special (1.4) at 8/7c.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 11/16/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Simpsons (3.0) rose to tie last week's rating.

• On a second straight Sunday with the NFL overrun, things went much better for Fox. Though The Simpsons (2.9) was only about even, Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2.2) and Family Guy (2.2) each took sizable upticks, and the installation of Bob's Burgers (1.7) at 9:30 nearly doubled last week's Mulaney rating.

• ABC pre-empted Resurrection to air a two-hour edition of Once Upon a Time (2.4/2.3). Though Once's ratings were on the low end for this season, the better lead-in really seemed to help Revenge (1.5), which easily hit a season high.

• On another without-overrun CBS night, Madam Secretary (1.5) pulled ahead of The Good Wife (1.3), while CSI (1.3) inched up from last week's low.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 11/9/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Simpsons (3.0) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.9) each picked up a tenth. Sunday Night Football (6.5) indeed hit a season low, but it was only a couple tenths behind last week.

• The NFL overrun swung back to Fox, but it ended relatively early. So The Simpsons (2.9), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.8) and Family Guy (1.8) benefited a good bit less than normal; Nine-Nine was only a tenth above last week's no-overrun result and Family Guy hit a new low. Since Fox insists on continuing to air Mulaney (0.9), it went back up with the return of an original lead-in.

• CBS dramas Madam Secretary (1.4) and The Good Wife (1.4) were back at normal non-overrun levels, while CSI (1.2) crashed to a new low.

• On ABC, it's been getting closer for awhile, and it finally happened: Revenge (1.3) beat its much-better supported lead-in Resurrection (1.2) (at least in prelims). Once Upon a Time (2.5) was down a tenth.

• NBC's huge blowout on Sunday Night Football could be headed for a season low. More after finals.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 10/12/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Nielsen's ABC inflation is over, but Once Upon a Time (2.7) and Resurrection (1.5) still got some help from finals. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2.2) also picked up a tenth, while Madam Secretary (1.4) declined to the same number it got without the NFL two weeks ago.

• CABLE UPDATE: The Walking Dead had at least one more series high in it, posting a stratospheric 17.3 million viewers and 8.7 A18-49 rating. It wasn't exactly another of those massive TWD explosions; the A18-49 rating was only 6% above the 8.2 that kicked off last season. But when we're talking about comparisons with a series that had already pulled off some of the most impressive ratings in TV history, every step farther up the ladder should not be taken for granted. Amazing.

• Once Upon a Time (2.6) dropped another 16% from last week's 3.1 preliminary (seemingly the more reliable number for comparison given the Nielsen issues). The Frozen thing remains a big win, as this was still on the year-to-year upside, but the margin is shrinking. ABC then saw Resurrection (1.4) take another large drop at 9/8c, likely at least in part due to the premiere of The Walking Dead in the hour. This was 22% behind even last week's prelim and also trailed the year-ago episode of Revenge in the hour. And Revenge (1.2) inched down again to a preliminary new low (but remains a huge improvement vs. last year's Betrayal).

• Fox got a big boost from an even more massive late-afternoon NFL lead-in than usual. The Simpsons (3.3) zoomed back up by over 60% week-to-week, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2.1) continued to do pretty close to what could be expected of a second-tier animated series. Even lowly Mulaney (1.1) picked up a tenth week-to-week, though its Family Guy lead-in (1.7) was in repeat mode.

• On CBS, Madam Secretary (1.5) and CSI (1.4) each improved by a tenth on when CBS last lacked the national NFL lead-in two weeks ago.

• Football and The Walking Dead updates to come!

Spotted Ratings, Premiere Sunday 9/28/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: ABC's great night got much greater after finals as Once Upon a Time (3.7) and Resurrection (2.5) each picked up three tenths. For all my horrible Question lines last week, Resurrection's big bounce-back is the one that most surprises me. A big part of it was my underestimating the lead-in (which I figured would do 2.7 or 2.8), but it's still a pretty good show of strength even after accounting for that. Revenge (1.5) also inched upward.

• For a night without a series premiere, the opening Sunday sure was full of surprises. The biggest by a wide margin was Fox's enormous one-hour crossover between The Simpsons and Family Guy (4.5), which would be Family Guy's biggest rating since January... of 2011. It was 73% above last season's premiere. There was also a great deal of heat in the halo at 8:00, with The Simpsons (3.9) about a third above its last premiere and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2.6) up by double digits on last year's Bob's Burgers premiere.

• It's pretty crazy that a huge bounce for the Frozen crossover on Once Upon a Time (3.4) is somehow playing second fiddle on this night. But it was still an incredible rating, zooming way past any rating from last season (including 31% above the 2013 premiere) to OUAT's biggest number since fall 2012. That helped Resurrection (2.2) skew a little younger and thus return pretty respectably, inching past last season's finale, but the heat was gone by Revenge (1.4) time. Revenge tied the spring finale but was down a whooping 39% from last season's start. ABC was +8% vs. last year's premiere Sunday.

• CBS was left well behind as Madam Secretary (1.4) dropped 30% from its post-football premiere and CSI (1.4) had a slow start in its new Sunday slot. Madam is certainly not off the map yet, but it doesn't really look like something that would justify The Amazing Race's move to Friday. CBS was -19% vs. last year's premiere Sunday (also without an NFL overrun).

• Cowboys-fueled football (8.7) was up nearly a point week-to-week.

SpotVault - CSI (CBS) - 2014-15 Ratings

CSI

Sundays, 10/9c, CBS

Fall 2014 Best Case/Worst Case, Sunday 10/9c

Best Case/Worst Case moves to the Sunday 10/9c hour. CBS has chosen its latest procedural to endure the terrible overrun-riddled hour, and it's their oldest scripted series CSI.

War of 18-49 Update, CSI (2013-14)

Let's take a look at the 2013-14 season (the fourteenth overall) of CSI on CBS.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 5/7/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• A week after the last two hours of ABC's Wednesday block fell apart, there was no rally for Mixology (1.3) and Nashville (1.2) on this night, and only a tiny one for Modern Family (2.9). And this time, the 8/7c hour joined in the late spring struggle, as The Middle (1.6) and Suburgatory (1.3) were still at new lows after adjusting up in finals!

• Things were also pretty brutal on NBC; Revolution (1.1) hit a new low, while Chicago PD (1.4) was tied for a low. And on Fox, American Idol (1.8) hit a new Wednesday low even with its finals uptick.

• Only CBS had some relief, with Survivor (2.4), Criminal Minds (2.3) and CSI (1.9) all posting small week-to-week upticks.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 4/30/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• It was the first Wednesday in a good while with every network fully in originals, and several networks seemed to suffer. It was worst on ABC, where Suburgatory (1.5), Modern Family (2.8), Mixology (1.3) and Nashville (1.2) all experienced double-digit drops. Modern and Nashville were particularly weak, each down 20% to outright season lows. This puts a screeching halt to Modern's minor momentum of late, and ABC will desperately hope it's just a blip night.

• After adjustments, American Idol (1.9), Survivor (2.3) and Criminal Minds (2.2) all avoided outright season lows, but all tied for lows. CSI (1.7) adjusted down to dead even in a point bound to be scrutinized because it introduced the potential Patricia Arquette spin-off.

• NBC emerged largely unscathed. Revolution (1.3) was the only Portland pre-emption casualty, adjusting down to its usual number, and Chicago PD (1.9) seemingly benefited from another Dick Wolf universe cross-over (this time with Chicago Fire). And the CW's The 100 (0.6) held up in the face of all the drama competition returning.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 4/9/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• Another big episode on Law and Order: SVU (2.0) had yet another spike in it, breaking a two for the sixth time this season. (It did this just three times last year.) That helped the show pull close to a sagging Criminal Minds (2.3) in the 9/8c crime drama duel. A below-average CSI (1.7) kept CBS narrowly ahead of NBC's Chicago PD (1.6) at 10/9c.

• Week four of The 100 (0.5) brought a third straight drop, though this one was to be expected given Arrow (0.4) went into repeats. All we can say is that the show avoided the 0.4 disaster scenario in this spot, and it feels like whether it can get back to 0.6+ when Arrow returns next week will be key.

• ABC was all repeats except for Mixology (1.2), which adjusted up to tie its previous episode with no original lead-in.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 3/12/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• The first Wednesday after DST was actually pretty steady for most of the 8/7c occupants, but that may be because they picked up some pieces from American Idol's (2.4) latest double-digit drop. The show dropped behind Survivor (2.5) in the 8:00 hour as well as overall. (Also worth noting the week-to-week decline in PUT didn't appear as significant as the last couple days.)

• On ABC, the shows that appeared to overachieve last week each dropped back this week, though a big uptick in finals helped reduce Suburgatory's drop to just a tenth. But Mixology (1.5) still followed up its 100% week two hold by losing two tenths in week three. (Modern Family (3.4) retention is now at 44%.)

• And on CBS, Survivor (2.5) was up a notch even against DST (it also grew this week last year), while the crime dramas remained consistently inconsistent; Criminal Minds (2.3) was down noticeably and CSI (2.0) was back up noticeably.

• Cable: lots of drops, but it was most brutal for The Americans (0.39). I thought there was no way this show would maintain the same 40%+ year-to-year slippage from premiere night, but here we are... this was 41% behind week three of season one.

Spotted Ratings, Olympics Roundup 2/18-2/20/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• The Winter Olympics posted three straight 5.0 ratings, down 9%, 9% and 18% from the final Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of 2010. The Thursday rating is most disappointing since it featured figure skating finals, which have produced sizable (or even huge) spikes in years past. The story of Sochi seems to be a dearth of truly compelling storylines to draw the masses into primetime. Most Olympics have certain nights that spike way above the surrounding days, but this one's been pretty consistently blah. Through 14 apples-to-apples days, the 2014 Games are averaging 13% behind 2010 and 9% behind 2006.

• We're finally nearing the end of this entertainment programming vacuum! Here are some tidbits scraped together from what little aired these three days:

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 2/5/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• All the networks were at or near full strength on the last night before an 18-day Winter Olympics interruption. The biggest winner was the 200th episode of CBS' Criminal Minds (2.8), surging over 25% vs. its last original and tying its season high. It surely helped out CSI (2.0), fully recovering from a series low last week.

• Almost everything else was pretty steady, including American Idol (3.9), which scored its first week-to-week growth of the season. NBC's crime lineup of Law and Order: SVU (1.8) and Chicago PD (1.7) held up nicely opposite the surging CBS. A couple noticeable downturns: ABC's Nashville (1.3), back at a tie for a series low, and the CW's The Tomorrow People (0.5), suggesting that last week's uptick was just a blip.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 1/22/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• The second American Idol Wednesday (4.0) was down 15% from last week, a steeper drop than last season. (The year-to-year slippage vs. last year's second Wednesday: -27%.)

• Some rally on the other networks might have been predictable with Idol coming back a bit, but overall there were some big swings in both directions. ABC was up across the board, most notably with The Middle (2.3), the second week of Suburgatory (1.8), and Modern Family (3.4), as was NBC with Revolution (1.5), a spiking Law and Order: SVU (1.8) and a slightly up week three of Chicago PD (1.6).

• CBS hit series lows with Criminal Minds (2.2) and CSI (1.6), and while the CW is still having a somewhat soft start to the new year with Arrow, it did adjust up to 0.9 in finals.