The Breakdown: CBS Sunday in 2015-16 (Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, CSI: Cyber, Elementary)

It's time for a journey through the CBS Sunday schedule in 2015-16...

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 3/13/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: 60 Minutes (1.2) adjusted up while the 9:00 The Carmichael Show (1.4) and Hollywood Game Night (0.8) adjusted down.

• Little Big Shots had an even bigger wow moment in its second episode, posting a huge 2.8 rating for the Sunday premiere. It nearly matched the 2.9 it got in the post-The Voice preview on Tuesday (and may be close to matching it after finals with a 2.6 -> 3.1 breakdown). It also had about two million more total viewers (14.8 million total) than in that preview. This now looks like a major game-changer for NBC's spring fortunes.
• This helped vault The Carmichael Show to a new series high 1.5 at 9:00 (even if it was barely over 50% retention). And it then plummeted to 1.1 for the second original at 9:30. It did not much help Hollywood Game Night (0.9), which was on the low end as it moved to the Sunday 10:00 hour.

• On ABC, the network got some minor relief as Once Upon a Time (1.3), The Family (0.8) and Quantico (1.1) were all able to hold last week's spring premiere numbers, while America's Funniest Home Videos (1.1) returned to improve the 7:00 hour.

• Steadiness was also the word on Fox, with roughly steady showings from Bordertown (0.8), Bob's Burgers (1.0), The Simpsons (1.3), Cooper Barrett's Guide (0.8), Family Guy (1.4) and The Last Man on Earth (1.1). Bordertown looks to have gotten some help from a NASCAR lead-in again?

• CBS had a rather irregular lineup with the tail end of the NCAA basketball Selection Show (1.4), 60 Minutes (1.2/1.1) and a 90-minute Scorpion repeat (0.7/0.7/0.8) leading into the season/series finale of CSI: Cyber (1.0).

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 3/9/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Carmichael Show (1.0) adjusted down.

• NBC took the Wednesday crown with The Voice's "Best of the Blind Auditions" special (2.0/2.1), which came close to matching the fall version's 2.2 even though the fall one aired on a regular Voice night. That led into a mediocre return from summer comedy The Carmichael Show (1.1), airing a one-off preview at 10/9c before it moves to Sunday after Little Big Shots later in the week. And a repeat of a season one Carmichael episode fell to 0.7 at 10:30.

• CBS inched down at 8/7c with Survivor (2.1), then went off the map at 9/8c with the Victoria's Secret Swim Special (0.7). This special bombed even harder than last year's edition, when it severely disappointed with a 1.0 on a Thursday. Given this rejection, another special Wednesday CSI: Cyber did OK to get back to 1.0 at 10/9c.

• ABC's comedy lineup went into repeats (1.1/1.1/1.2/1.2), but the finale of American Crime (0.9) still inched up at 10/9c.

• Fox's Rosewood stayed at last week's weak 0.9, but the news was better at 9/8c as Hell's Kitchen (1.2) rebounded.

• And CW had repeats of Arrow (0.3) and Supernatural (0.3). 

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 3/6/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Madam Secretary (1.1) and Once Upon a Time (R) (0.6) adjusted down.

• ABC had a rough start to its return to Sunday drama programming, with The Family (0.8) completely bombing in its timeslot premiere at 9/8c. That means it's gonna be another rough (if not even rougher) run of lead-in support at 10/9c for Quantico (1.1), which was back at a new low. And Once Upon a Time (1.3) didn't fare much better at 8/7c, tying its low from the last couple fall episodes.

• Fox also shuffled the deck on Sunday, and at least in the prelims Bordertown (1.5) actually got an inflation in its move to 7/6c due to a late-afternoon NASCAR lead-in. It's possible/probable that this number includes some NASCAR coverage, so stay tuned for updates.
• The rest of the lineup looked fairly normal with Bob's Burgers (1.1), The Simpsons (1.3), sore spot Cooper Barrett's Guide (0.8) and Family Guy (1.3). And the network improved markedly at 9:30 with the return of The Last Man on Earth (1.1). 

• NBC will be back in the entertainment series game next Sunday but did rather well this week with a two-hour The Voice repeat (0.8/1.3) and a two-hour Dateline (1.4).

• And CBS' lineup of 60 Minutes (1.3), Madam Secretary (1.2), The Good Wife (0.9) and CSI: Cyber (0.8) inched down in the second half of the night.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 3/2/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Goldbergs (2.1) adjusted up.

•  ABC opened new comedy The Real O'Neals with a 1.8 demo at 8:30 (retaining 90% of its The Goldbergs (2.0) lead-in), and then a 1.9 for a second preview episode at 9:30 (dropping noticeably from Modern Family's 2.6). This is on par with or slightly below what the normal Wednesday comedies do, which usually wouldn't be a great sign on a series premiere night. But the key here is how much translates to its regular Tuesday timeslot, where expectations will be a lot lower.
• At 10/9c, American Crime inched back down to 0.8.

• On Fox, Rosewood (0.9) had a dreadful return to the schedule after three months off, going three tenths below even its Thanksgiving Eve low point (and a half point behind any other episode). It was always clear from its back-loaded half-hour breakdowns that it was getting a lot of help from Empire pre-tune, but it's pretty sobering to see just how much.
• With a much-reduced lead-in, Hell's Kitchen (1.0) also took a big downswing for Fox.

• CBS' Survivor (2.2) finally flexed some muscle after a couple modest opening weeks, surging by three tenths from last week. Criminal Minds (1.9) was also on the upswing, and that helped CSI: Cyber (1.2) hit a season high in a special Wednesday episode. (This would've been a fairly typical number for previous occupant Code Black, including matching its finale last week.)

• In its last case for renewal, The Mysteries of Laura (1.2) got a pretty decent season finale upswing, ending on the high end of its consistent 1.0-1.2 range. Later in the night, Law and Order: SVU (1.6) inched up while Chicago PD (1.5) gave up a tenth.

• And the CW's comic book show hiatus continued with a Greatest Animal Commercials special (0.3) and a repeat of the MADtv reunion (0.3) first aired in January.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 2/21/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Apparently Shark Tank was actually an original, which makes it look a lot worse... and it adjusted down to a new season low 1.1 in finals. The Walking Dead (6.58) was just barely down in week two, beating the year-ago week two that got slammed by SNL40.

• In a duel of two-hour specials, neither was anywhere close to an SNL40-esque breakout but both were acceptable enough filler. ABC's celebration of the Disneyland 60th Anniversary (1.8) beat out NBC's tribute to legendary Must See TV director James Burrows (1.3).

• The Disneyland special was surrounded by a season high America's Funniest Home Videos (1.3) and a solid repeat of Shark Tank (1.2), while NBC's All-Star Tribute had two hours of Dateline (1.0/1.3) leading in.

• Fox saw some minor rallies from last week's disheartening comedy results, as most of Bob's Burgers (1.1), The Simpsons (1.4), Cooper Barrett's Guide (0.8), Family Guy (1.3) and Bordertown (0.7) were by up a tenth from last week. 

• And the CBS dramas Madam Secretary (1.2), The Good Wife (1.0) and CSI: Cyber (0.9) were even across the board.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 2/14/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Bachelor (1.1), Cooper Barrett's Guide (0.8) and the 7:00 The Simpsons (0.8) adjusted up.
• The Walking Dead returned with a 6.75, down 15% from the last spring premiere.
  

• After a nearly a month off, Fox's comedies made rough if not disastrous returns to the schedule, as The Simpsons (1.3), Cooper Barrett's Guide (0.7), Family Guy (1.2) and Bordertown (0.7) were all down about a half point from their last eps in mid-January. This marked a new season low for The Simpsons and a tie for Family Guy, while Cooper and Bordertown basically fell off the competitive map. (By comparison, Bob's Burgers (1.0) held up swimmingly at 7:30, matching its January 17 ep.)

• ABC had America's Funniest Home Videos (1.2), a two-hour The Bachelor 20th season special (1.0), and a new series low for Castle (0.8) in a special Sunday original.

• NBC won the evening with Dateline (0.9) and Valentine's Day specials from Saturday Night Live (0.9) and The Tonight Show (1.3/1.6).

• On CBS, 60 Minutes (1.2) and Madam Secretary (1.2) were up a tenth, but The Good Wife (1.0) was steady and CSI: Cyber (0.9) was down a tenth.

• In addition to Valentine's Day, which usually depresses viewing a bit, the broadcast offerings were further overshadowed by the return of The Walking Dead on AMC, plus the NBA All-Star Game on TNT. More after finals!

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 1/31/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• After three years of live musical productions on NBC, Fox provided its own spin on the format and got spectacular results out of Grease Live!, which averaged a 4.3 demo rating and over 12 million viewers. This came pretty darn close to NBC's breakthrough 4.6 with The Sound of Music Live! back in 2013 and easily beat NBC's The Wiz Live! (3.4) from earlier this season. It's all the more impressive since it started in the low-viewed 7:00/6:00c hour, growing from a 3.7 in the opening half-hour as high as 4.6 by 9:30.

• NBC was a very distant second with a three-hour American Ninja Warrior special (1.4/1.4/1.5). CBS brought back its original drama lineup of Madam Secretary (1.1), The Good Wife (1.0) and CSI: Cyber (1.0) for the first time in three weeks (only to go away again next week for the Super Bowl). And ABC wrapped up a very poor-rated season of Galavant (0.6) with a tiny uptick.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 1/10/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Fox's comedies adjusted as follows: The Simpsons (3.6), Cooper Barrett's Guide (2.1), Family Guy (1.8), Bordertown (1.5). Thanks to the NFL, Cooper Barrett was up 75% from last week's premiere and Bordertown up 36%, but the comedies as a whole were down almost 30% from the night Fox had a playoff NFL lead-in last year (4.7/3.0/2.8/2.0 on 1/4/15). The Good Wife (1.1) also adjusted up.

• Week two for Fox's new Sunday comedies almost certainly brought an upswing due to a huge lead-in from the NFL playoffs. But we'll have to wait for finals since these shows all started at roughly 20 minutes after their regular timeslots on the East Coast.
• The prelims are 6.7 at 8:00 (20 minutes of NFL and 10 of The Simpsons), 2.8 at 8:30 (20 Simpsons/10 Cooper Barrett's Guide), 2.0 at 9:00 (20 Cooper Barrett/10 Family Guy), 1.6 at 9:30 (20 Family Guy/10 Bordertown) and 1.4 at 10:00 (20 Bordertown/10 local programming). More after finals!

• NBC dominated primetime with the Golden Globe Awards, which averaged 15.5 million viewers and roughly a 4.6 18-49 rating from 8:00 to 11:00. This rating typically adjusts up significantly since the live West Coast viewing isn't counted in these prelims; it had a 5.0 prelim/5.8 final last year, so it will probably end up declining a bit year-to-year.
• UPDATE: The time zone-adjusted numbers are 18.5 million viewers and a 5.5 A18-49 rating, each down just a bit from last year. Still, it outrated Gervais' previous hosting stints from 2010-12.

• CBS was back in the scripted original game with the returns of Madam Secretary (1.0), The Good Wife (1.0) and CSI: Cyber (1.0). That marks a new season low for Madam Secretary (which should get some help from the NFL next week), but was actually another above-average result for Cyber.

• And ABC's already rough winter Sunday lineup got further obliterated by the Globes, as America's Funniest Home Videos (0.8) and Galavant (0.6) each shed three tenths. That meant Galavant roughly matched its brutal percent drop from week two a year ago (and thus remained down over 50% year-to-year). Quantico repeats got 0.3.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 12/20/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Undercover Boss (1.6) got a surprising two-tenth upward adjustment, putting it just a tenth behind last year's premiere. Miss Universe adjusted down to 1.6. And Sunday Night Football ended up with a season low 6.1.

• For the second straight year, CBS is giving Undercover Boss (1.4) a short Sunday run in December before it settles in as The Amazing Race filler on Friday. This premiere was down three tenths from the 1.7 opener from last December. It led into CSI: Cyber (1.1), which was above average as CBS bumped it up to near its normal start time and nixed a scheduled Madam Secretary repeat due to the length of the NFL overrun. Both shows started a couple minutes after the hour.

• After a successful return to broadcast on NBC last year, the Miss Universe Pageant (1.6/1.7/1.9) moved over to Fox this season and had another respectable showing. Though its controversial ending has generated a lot of buzz, with a 7:00 ET start time it was still down somewhat vs. last year's 2.0, when it aired from 8:00 to 11:00 in late January.

• ABC went with its usual late-December telecast of The Sound of Music (0.6/1.0/1.2/1.1), this time a sing-along version. It was down a bit from the low-1's level it's maintained the last few years.

• And Sunday Night Football (4.8/5.7/5.3) dominated but looks to have put up a relatively soft rating by its standards in the prelims. More after finals!

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 12/13/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Blood and Oil (0.8) adjusted up to avoid a new low on finale night. Sunday Night Football had a 7.0 final, a lower-end rating this season but still up 0.3 from last week.

• With Once Upon a Time wrapped for the fall last week, ABC filled its timeslot with a special on the making of the 1930s animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (0.7). It pulled only about half of a typical OUaT rating, and that was of no help to the series finale of Blood and Oil (0.7) at 9/8c. But at 10/9c, Quantico (1.3) was able to go up a touch despite the depressed ratings earlier in the evening.

• Fox had the national overrun again, this time without a presidential address buffering it, but it still had pretty similar numbers to last week's finals from The Simpsons (2.4), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.7), Family Guy (1.7) and The Last Man on Earth (1.3).

• CBS wrapped up its Sunday slate for the fall with season average-ish numbers from Madam Secretary (1.3), The Good Wife (1.1) and CSI: Cyber (0.8).

• NBC looks a little below average in the Sunday Night Football prelims for New England/Houston (6.4/6.5/5.9), but perhaps up a bit from last week. More after finals!

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 11/22/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• A national NFL lead-in boosted Fox's Sunday comedy lineup, but the ratings were still rather underwhelming as The Simpsons (2.3), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.7), Family Guy (1.6) and The Last Man on Earth (1.3) all fell behind their previous post-NFL ratings this fall.

• ABC had an irregularly big Sunday with the American Music Awards (3.5), down a few tenths from last year's 3.8 but preliminarily avoiding a new low (as it hit a 3.4 in 2012).

• On CBS, Madam Secretary (1.1) and The Good Wife (0.9) tied their season lows in the prelims, but CSI: Cyber (0.9) had another decent hold at 10/9c.

• More on football/cable to come, but it looks like NBC had a weak (if still dominant) Sunday Night Football.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 11/15/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: 60 Minutes (3.6) and Madam Secretary (1.4) adjusted up, while CSI: Cyber (1.0) actually somehow tied its season high while airing at 10:57. Sunday Night Football (7.0) barely dodged a season low.

• CABLE: It was a legitimately impressive start for new The Walking Dead lead-out Into the Badlands (3.15), retaining 48% of its lead-in from The Walking Dead (6.50). This was better retention than the Better Call Saul pilot had (3.43 with a 7.96 lead-in), and only a handful of Talking Dead episodes historically have done better.

•  ABC had an above-average Sunday as it expanded Once Upon a Time (1.6) to a second hour, getting business pretty much as usual with a 1.6 rating in each hour. The half-hour breakdowns (1.7 -> 1.6 -> 1.5 -> 1.6) suggest the first hour was higher-rated than the second. But at 10/9c, Quantico (1.3) couldn't see any benefit from its best lead-in yet. It could be close to adjusting up with a 1.4 -> 1.3 breakdown, but it still seems kinda disappointing for ABC given how much stronger Once is compared with Blood and Oil.

•  Fox once again had the comedy lineup without a national NFL lead-in, but got a little relief even with a The Simpsons repeat (1.2) at 8/7c as Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.3), Family Guy (1.4) and The Last Man on Earth (1.2) were all on the upswing vs. last week's lows.

• CBS had the national overrun and got massive numbers out of Giants/Patriots in the late afternoon. The network then averaged a prelim 3.2 at 8/7c (mostly 60 Minutes) but was down to 1.3 at 9/8c (mostly Madam Secretary) and 1.1 at 10/9c (mostly The Good Wife). All these shows started a few minutes before the hour, so there may be some adjustments. (And CSI: Cyber got another bad break overrun-wise, as it once again had to air right at the end of the possible window with a 10:57 start time...)

• NBC had one of its weaker Sunday Night Football efforts, and of interest on cable will be AMC's launch of Into the Badlands after The Walking Dead. More after finals!

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 11/8/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Once Upon a Time (1.6) and Family Guy (1.2) adjusted up, while 60 Minutes (2.7) and Madam Secretary (1.3) went down. Bob's Burgers actually held its preliminary 1.4 in finals. Though it surely had football help, it was still a season high on a low-end night for the rest of the lineup. Sunday Night Football (8.4) had its best result in a month.

• ABC's Quantico (1.3) was on the rebound from last week's result against the World Series, but only by a tenth, keeping it well behind its performance in the first month. We'll see if any of the lineup gets finals help (some appear close to adjusting up), but for now Once Upon a Time (1.5), Blood and Oil (0.8) and America's Funniest Home Videos (1.0) were flat.

• Fox had only a few regional NFL overruns (messing up its results in the 7:00 hour), leading to another rough night. The truly alarming result came from Family Guy (1.1), which went massively behind any result from this season and even below its miserable 1.2 against SNL40 last winter. The Simpsons (1.5), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.2) and The Last Man on Earth (1.0) all tied their season lows.

• CBS had what looks like a pretty normal overrun night with a heavily inflated 60 Minutes (3.8/2.3) followed by Madam Secretary (1.5/1.2), The Good Wife (1.1/1.0) and CSI: Cyber (0.8 in the 10:30 half-hour). All these shows started about five minutes after the bottom of the hours, so they could adjust a bit.

• NBC had the always desirable Dallas Cowboys in primetime and looks to have put up an above-average Sunday Night Football. More after finals.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 10/25/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Fox looked a bit better after finals as The Simpsons (2.8) and The Last Man on Earth (1.5) adjusted up, putting the entire comedy lineup at season high levels (and everything but Last Man was a new season high) even though The OT (4.2) was down double digits from three weeks ago. Sunday Night Football finished with a 7.6, down 0.6 from last week.
• It was a good night on cable as The Walking Dead (6.69) and Homeland (0.56) each came roaring back from big drops last week. TWD was just three tenths below the year-ago evening (when it was also facing the World Series), while Homeland was actually up year-to-year and tied the premiere. Homeland's sophomore lead-out The Affair (0.23) tied a series high.

• Quantico (1.5) ticked down in week five, which was the most exciting thing to happen on another steady ABC Sunday. Once Upon a Time (1.6) and recently trimmed Blood and Oil (0.9) were even again and America's Funniest Home Videos (1.1) thankfully bounced back to normal after last week's stinker.

• Fox took back the national NFL overrun and got a big boost for The Simpsons (2.7), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2.0), Family Guy (1.8) and The Last Man on Earth (1.4), all of which were pretty close to what they did with the last overrun three weeks ago. It's not great for Simpsons, whose Treehouse of Horror episodes often overachieve more than this, but Nine-Nine and Family Guy were actually ahead of three weeks ago.

• And CBS had another OK 8/7c result from Madam Secretary (1.3), but alongside The Good Wife (1.0) and CSI: Cyber (0.8) this lineup was still down from three weeks ago when they last started on time.

• More football/cable after finals, though Sunday Night Football looks down a bit from last week in the prelims.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 10/11/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Hard to be too critical of these numbers, but it was the first The Walking Dead season premiere to not set a new series high, averaging 14.63 million viewers and a 7.43 A18-49 rating. Both of these figures were about 15% below last year's premiere. (But of course, they were about 50% ahead of Empire, which is about 100% ahead of any other drama currently on air, so it's all relative...)
• On broadcast, Madam Secretary (1.5), The Last Man on Earth (1.2) and Blood and Oil (0.9) all adjusted up, while CSI: Cyber (0.8) and Bob's Burgers (0.9) went down. TWD beat Sunday Night Football this week, as SNF ended up with a season low 6.9.

• On a night dominated by AMC's 90-minute season premiere of The Walking Dead, ABC's drama lineup took multiple-tenth hits across the board. The drama bookends Once Upon a Time (1.6) and Quantico (1.6) were each down a little over 10% in week three. But those drops seemed quite reasonable in light of the utter obliteration of the show they sandwich, Blood and Oil (0.8) at 9/8c. After a good week two hold, the show dropped a half point in week three and has suddenly become a big problem for the ABC sked, especially since it's leading into a drama that looks legit.
• Before the drama lineup was Alfonso Ribiero's debut on America's Funniest Home Videos (1.1). The host change didn't generate much heat but it was still down just a tenth from last year's premiere.

• The Fox live-action comedies Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.3) and The Last Man on Earth (1.1) each shed multiple tenths from their non-overrun premieres two weeks ago, but animated anchors The Simpsons (1.5) and Family Guy (1.4) were a bit steadier. Overall, the 9/8c hour which directly faced TWD fared a tick worse on average.

• And CBS had the overrun, which makes them more subject to finals adjustments, but it looks like the NFL was only able to keep Madam Secretary (1.6/1.3), The Good Wife (1.2/1.1) and CSI: Cyber (0.9 at 10:30) close to even with last week's premieres.

• Football/cable to come!

SpotVault - CSI: Cyber (CBS) - 2015-16 Ratings

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 10/4/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Simpsons (2.7) and Blood and Oil (1.3) adjusted up, while 60 Minutes (1.4) and Madam Secretary (1.4) inched down. Sunday Night Football ended up with an 8.7.
• On cable, the finale of Fear the Walking Dead (3.37) was actually down 0.07 points from last week (though it stayed 0.06 ahead of week four to avoid a new series low).
• Premium cable saw Showtime's Homeland (0.56) top HBO's The Leftovers (0.33). Homeland was exactly even with last year's season opener, but The Leftovers had a rough start. This was just half of last season's low point and well under half of last season's 0.77 average. (Worth noting it aired after True Blood in season one.)
• And season two of The Affair (0.18) led out of Homeland and beat last season's 0.14 premiere (but was behind the last few weeks of last season).

• The prospects brightened on ABC's second Sunday, as both Once Upon a Time (1.8) and, more significantly, Quantico (1.9) each held onto their premiere ratings. That meant Quantico had to create even more separation from its Blood and Oil (1.2) lead-in, as that other new ABC drama was down two tenths in week two. It's looking clearer now that ABC has something with Quantico; now, the question is what, if anything, they're gonna do about this really tough timeslot situation.

• Last week's CSI finale created a quirky situation in which both of the late-afternoon NFL networks didn't premiere their regular lineups with the national NFL lead-in. But CBS still had a reasonable enough return from Madam Secretary (1.5), which was above all of its spring run in the prelims (though we'll see if it goes down a notch due to regional NFL overruns). The Good Wife (1.2) matched last spring's finale, which was also good enough to beat most of the rotten spring ratings, while CSI: Cyber (1.0) moved over from Wednesday and was well into new low territory on opening night.

• Meanwhile, the NFL lead-in was back over to Fox, and the lead-in juice as usual was huge early and had less power over time. A week after they all had nearly the same rating, this time The Simpsons (2.6) was up over a point, Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.9) was up significantly, Family Guy (1.7) was up a little, and The Last Man on Earth (1.5) was up barely.

• Football and cable (Fear the Walking Dead/The Leftovers/Homeland/The Affair) updates to come!

Best Case/Worst Case: Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, CSI: Cyber

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

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 5/13/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Middle (1.8), Survivor (2.3), SVU (1.6) and American Idol (1.7) went up. Black-ish (2.0), Nashville (1.2) and Supernatural (0.7) went down.

• The penultimate season of American Idol limped to the finish with just a 1.6 two-hour average. Last year, the show was still capable of spiking in relatively typical Idol fashion for the finale (growing from 2.1 for the penultimate Wednesday to a 2.6 finale). This time, it was up only two tenths week-to-week, though it did grow quite a bit from 8:00 to 9:30 (1.4 -> 1.8). But the overall number was a very hefty 38% behind last year's finale.

• ABC wrapped up the seasons of its bookend hours with steady The Middle (1.7), The Goldbergs (2.0) and Nashville (1.3). The middle hour, which will return next week, saw slight declines from Modern Family (new season low 2.7) and Black-ish (2.1).

• NBC got some finale heat from Law and Order: SVU (1.5) and Chicago PD (1.6), while CBS had Survivor (2.2) and another couple 1.2's from CSI: Cyber.

• Pending a Chicago preemption, the CW's Supernatural (0.8) had its best number since moving back to Wednesday in March, while the finale of Arrow had another 1.0.