WHAT MATTERS:
- The CW rounded out a magical week with the revival of former PAX and MyNetworkTV series Masters of Illusion (0.3), which did OK business at 8/7c. The network then got great mileage out of a Penn and Teller: Fool Us encore (0.4) at 9/8c. It seems a bit unfortunate that this lineup got relegated to Friday while repeats of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals have regularly hung 0.1's on Thursday.
- On Saturday, the two-hour Crossbones burn-off (0.2/0.2) was the only broadcast original (while news-themed programming vastly improved the slot it left behind on Friday), but cable had better luck as AMC's Hell on Wheels (0.47) came back nearly even year-to-year and Starz had a rather solid start out of Power (0.52).
WHAT MATTERS:
- NBC's Crossbones (0.5) had its first growth, but not enough to change its fate (and it can be explained by NBC re-installing the strong Dateline in the first two hours).
- Disney's Girl Meets World (0.6) lost much of its young adult luster in week two, shedding 50% of its premiere audience in A18-49 and skewing closer to typical Disney Channel fare (25% A18-49 vs. 31% for the premiere two weeks ago).
WHAT MATTERS:
- It has been an absolutely brutal ride for NBC's Crossbones since it was pre-empted for hockey a few weeks ago, shedding a third of its demo rating in each of the last two episodes (0.6 on 6/20, 0.4 on 6/27). It may bounce back a bit since its lead-in Meredith Vieira special on 6/27 did much worse than the usual Dateline numbers, but it has another pre-emption upcoming on the 4th of July. The moral of the story is that this isn't looking like a renewable option anymore.
- While ABC's unscripted lineup has made it the dominant Friday network, the Saturday lineup has taken a hit since the Sing Your Face Off days thanks to the burn-off of The Assets (0.2 on 6/21, 0.3 on 6/28).
- Disney had a pretty good start from the Boy Meets World continuation Girl Meets World (1.3) on 6/27. Disney stuff isn't really in my wheelhouse, but it seems that (at 5.16 million total viewers) this skewed much more toward the 18-49 demo than the usual Disney fare, building from its movie lead-in (5.67m, 1.0) in 18-49 but declining in total viewership. It will be interesting to see if this very Disney Channel-flavored show can keep the older Boy Meets World nostalgics plugged in.
WHAT MATTERS:
- On Friday, week two of Crossbones (0.9) was down a tenth. It's still doing decent business, on the high end of the usual Hannibal and Dracula levels, but it will have to withstand an NHL pre-emption next week.
- On Saturday, NBC aired Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals (2.1), which had a great lead-in from over 20 million Belmont Stakes viewers in the late afternoon. The comparisons with 2013 don't really work because NBC aired Game 2 on NBCSN last year, but this game was massively ahead of the 2011 (1.3) and 2012 (1.1) Game 2s.
- Meanwhile, ABC's second week of Sing Your Face Off (0.7) was up a tenth week-to-week (and very nearly adjusted up to 0.8). This seems to be another example of a burn-off not doing as badly as the network anticipated. If they renewed Bet On Your Baby last year, maybe this gets another chance.
- Sunday was a three-way showdown of irregular programming. All were very close to even year-to-year: Game 2 of the NBA Finals (6.0) was barely above last year's 5.8, Miss USA was up a tick, and the Tony Awards were even.
WHAT MATTERS:
- NBC's summer run of Crossbones (1.0) got off to a modest start, premiering just below the season two premiere of Hannibal (1.1) and miles below Dracula's 1.8. It's not that much of a triumph since it had a very good lead-in by Friday standards from Dateline (1.3 overall, 1.5 at 9:30). And it skewed considerably older than Hannibal (with 4.9 million viewers), more in line with the skew of its Dateline lead-in. For a shot at another season, it probably has to at least match Hannibal's 0.8 to 0.9 norm when it settles.
- ABC began a brief foray into an all-original Saturday with returning Bet on Your Baby (0.5) (which matched last year's April premiere) and Sing Your Face Off (0.6). Hard to really know what ABC's standards are (they renewed BoYB at a 0.5 average), but they're burning through the six hours of Sing Your Face Off in just three Saturdays.
- On Sunday, ABC aired a low-rated original episode of The Bachelorette (1.4), NBC's dramas (0.9/0.8) bounced back a bit from their Memorial Weekend ratings, and Fox resumed the burn-off of Enlisted (0.4) in the 7:00 half-hour. Not yet included: HBO's Game of Thrones (3.9) tied its series high from two weeks ago, while AMC had one of its weakest drama debuts yet in Halt and Catch Fire (0.34).
Crossbones
Fridays, 10/9c, NBC
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