WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: America's Got Talent (2.1) was up and Hollywood Game Night (1.2) down.
- America's Got Talent (2.0) dipped on its penultimate Tuesday, though it was once again above the same night last year. The finale of Hollywood Game Night (1.3) held at last week's rating but could adjust down.
- CBS had an extra hour of Zoo at 10/9c (maybe to make the primetime lead-in a bit larger on Stephen Colbert's debut night?) and both hours stuck at 1.0.
- ABC's Extreme Weight Loss stayed at 0.6 for another one-hour 10/9c telecast, though in this case that was enough to build from an Agents of SHIELD repeat at 9/8c (0.4). And Fox's Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (0.7) bounced back a bit on the last night of a disappointing revival run.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: America's Got Talent was up to 2.3 and Hollywood Game Night down to 1.3.
- On NBC, America's Got Talent had another late-season 2.2, staying way on the upside year-to-year. It led into the ever-inconsistent Hollywood Game Night (1.4), which surged back from last week's low and will be up multiple tenths week-to-week even if it adjusts down.
- Zoo inched back down to another 1.0 for CBS, while Extreme Weight Loss (0.6) and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (0.5) were unable to rebound from last week's lows.
WHAT MATTERS:
- NBC's dominant lineup continued to give back its surge from two weeks ago, as America's Got Talent (2.1) and Hollywood Game Night (1.1) were each at or near their season low points.
- CBS had the best night as NCIS (1.0) and Zoo (1.1) were back on the upswing, and the latter could be close to adjusting up to yet another 1.2. Meanwhile ABC's Extreme Weight Loss (0.6) and Fox's Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (0.5) were even more dire than usual.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: America's Got Talent (2.3) and Zoo (1.0) adjusted up. Both Fresh Off the Boat (0.7/0.6) adjusted down.
- After some big surges last week, the usual Tuesday leaders came somewhat back to earth this week. CBS' Zoo (0.9) had the most drastic drop, needing some finals help to avoid a new low. On NBC, America's Got Talent (2.2) was down from last week's 2.5 (but still significantly up year-to-year), and Hollywood Game Night (1.3) lost at least a tenth of last week's growth.
- ABC preliminarily had above-average Fresh Off the Boat repeats (0.8/0.7) but has to sweat out a Chicago preemption. Extreme Weight Loss (0.7) and Fox's Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (0.6) were stuck at their usual very low numbers.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: Zoo adjusted up to hit its 1.2 premiere number for the fourth time, while Hollywood Game Night (1.4) went down (but was still, like Talent, up three tenths from last week). On cable, the finale of Pretty Little Liars got an enormous spike to 1.39, 35% above last summer's finale and the biggest number for a scripted series since True Detective's premiere over seven weeks ago.
- Even by its usually dominant standards, NBC had a great night as America's Got Talent (2.5) and Hollywood Game Night (1.5) each surged by multiple tenths. The utter lack of Tuesday competition surely helps, but historically Talent has almost never been this close to its early-season levels well into August. This was a second straight Tuesday point up double digits year-to-year.
- CBS also had good news with a rebound for Zoo, which (provided it doesn't adjust up) hit its first 1.1 after six weeks at either 1.2 or 1.0. Straggling originals Extreme Weight Loss (0.7) and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (0.6) stayed even, though Fox improved a touch in the second hour by adding a Brooklyn Nine-Nine repeat (0.5) at 9/8c.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: Fox's night got just a touch less disastrous as SYTYCD (0.8) and Knock Knock Live (0.6) each inched up in finals.
- Fox Tuesday has been home to many a recent reality disaster, like last year's Riot/I Wanna Marry Harry, expensive fall flop Utopia, and this year's tiny-rated resurrection of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? The latest to carry on the tradition is Knock Knock Live, as the Ryan Seacrest-hosted reality series opened with a very poor 1.7 million viewers and 0.5 demo. This was below its also weak lead-in, a So You Think You Can Dance special (0.7). This show got a pretty good amount of promotion during the MLB All-Star Game last week, so Fox is not happy.
- NBC remained the runaway winner on Tuesday but was slightly on the downswing with America's Got Talent (2.3) and Hollywood Game Night (1.3). CBS' Zoo steadied at 1.0 in week four, but ABC's Extreme Weight Loss (0.6) was back at its previous low, surrendering last week's gains.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: Hollywood Game Night (1.4) dropped to a tenth behind last week's premiere (but still way ahead of its Thursday ratings from last summer). The MLB All-Star Game got a nice boost to 3.1, just a tenth below the last three years (and tying the 2011 low).
- Fox will win Tuesday with the MLB All-Star Game, which averaged a preliminary 2.8 from 8:00 to 11:00. Last year it had a prelim 3.0 which adjusted up to 3.2. It's actually hit exactly a 3.2 each of the last three years, but will need a bigger adjustment to pull it off this time.
- NBC's usually dominant Tuesday lineup held up extremely well against the game, as America's Got Talent (2.4) was actually up a tenth week-to-week and Hollywood Game Night (1.5) preliminarily matched last week's premiere.
- ABC also saw a minor rebound from its comedy repeats (0.7/0.7) and Extreme Weight Loss (0.8), but CBS was not so lucky as Zoo (1.0) shed a couple tenths in week three.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS: Zoo (1.2) adjusted up to match last week's premiere. America's Got Talent (2.3) also got a tenth back.
- After a middling premiere last week, the CBS drama Zoo had a solid hold in week two, dropping just a tenth in the demo to a 1.1 (and still skewing old with 7.5 million viewers). Again, it was significantly ahead of the surrounding NCIS franchise repeats (0.8 at 8/7c and 10/9c), and it may again tie or beat Under the Dome for top CBS drama this week.
- Despite a slump from America's Got Talent (2.2), NBC had a good return from Hollywood Game Night (1.5). This tied the show's highest rating from its winter 2014 run and was well above any of the summer 2014 points (when admittedly it had a much worse timeslot leading off Thursday). This was about on par with the average of previous occupant I Can Do That.
- But it just keeps getting worse for the originals on the other two networks. Extreme Weight Loss hit yet another new low with an almost unthinkable 0.5 in the 9:00 hour and 0.6 at 10:00, while Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (0.6) also fell to a new low.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: America's Got Talent (2.5) adjusted up, while Beat the Champions adjusted down to 0.9. The soccer game (3.0) averaged 8.4 million viewers and peaked at over 12 million from 8:30-8:45, so BtC had pretty horrible retention of whatever was left in the postgame coverage.
- The latest made-for-summer CBS drama Zoo opened with just over 8 million viewers and a 1.2 demo rating. This was far from a gaudy number but still represented a major improvement on the surrounding NCIS repeats, which were even weaker than usual (0.8 at 8:00, 0.7 for New Orleans at 10:00). But it was still another 25% behind last year's already modest Extant launch, which was itself less than half of what Under the Dome did two years ago.
- Fox had huge numbers from the tail end of the USA's semifinal in the Women's World Cup (a preliminary 3.3 from 8:00-9:00), but very little interest in lead-out special Beat the Champions (1.1). Champions took a prelim 3.4 lead-in rating at 8:30 and dropped to 1.4 at 9:00, then 0.8 at 9:30.
- Since last we spoke, America's Got Talent has had an impressive late June surge, growing to 2.6 for the first episode after the NBA Finals on June 23 and then coming back to 2.4 last night (with a 2.2 against the World Cup growing to 2.6 at 9:00). Both of these points were close to even with the similar part of last season. Its lead-out I Can Do That (1.4 last week, 1.5 last night) has also picked back up a bit since hitting a new low against the Finals.
- ABC has been completely off the map since the Finals with Extreme Weight Loss (0.7 last week and this week) and some even lower comedy repeats in the 8:00 hour, while Fox had a similarly regrettable Tuesday last week with Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (0.7) and a leftover World's Funniest Fails (0.5).
WHAT MATTERS:
- Week two of America's Got Talent (2.4) was down two tenths from the premiere, with another year-to-year decline in the teens. Its new lead-out I Can Do That (1.5) took a steeper week two drop but still looks OK; it was even with the year-ago episode of The Night Shift.
- The losers on the opening summer Tuesday got no relief in their second outings; ABC's Extreme Weight Loss (0.8) and Fox's Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (0.7) each shed another tenth. Weight Loss, still down massively year-to-year (from a 1.2 on this night last year), tied its lead-in comedy hour of Fresh Off the Boat (0.8) and Black-ish (0.8).
- On the CW, iZombie held up well again, with another preliminary 0.6 leading out of a 0.4 The Flash repeat.
Extreme Weight Loss
Tuesdays, 9/8c, ABC
WHAT MATTERS:
- NBC kicked off another season of America's Got Talent (2.6) with a slightly larger-than-average drop from last year's 3.0 premiere. It also had a decent launch from unscripted lead-out I Can Do That (1.8), which was an improvement on last season's premiere of The Night Shift (1.6).
- On Fox, there was very little interest in the return of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (0.8), which only about matched the Plus it was doing for its last regular season run on Friday in 2008-09. Hell's Kitchen (1.1) also slumped.
- ABC had another OK result from 500 Questions (1.1), which handily beat 5th Grader at 8/7c. But the two-hour return of Extreme Weight Loss (0.9) was very weak, down a massive 31% from last year's premiere.
- And the CW began a three-week summer run of straggling originals for iZombie (0.6). Like back in week four, the show was even week-to-week despite not having an original The Flash lead-in, a much more promising look than the usual post-Flash delivery.
WHAT MATTERS:
- An early end to the NBA Finals meant ABC dropped 81% week-to-week. However, this was of no help to the only network really trying on this night; NBC's America's Got Talent (2.6) was flat and The Night Shift (1.3) actually dropped two tenths after a steady first three weeks.
- ABC aired an original Extreme Weight Loss (0.8) to very low results; it probably got hurt to some degree by program guide confusion (as many listings still indicated an if-necessary NBA game). And Fox made marginal improvement by pulling its reality bombs in favor of comedy repeats, though most of that came from Family Guy in the opening half-hour.
- TNT brought back Rizzoli and Isles (1.0), down considerably from last summer's 1.4 premiere, and Perception (0.7), down less considerably from last year's 0.8.
WHAT MATTERS:
- The summer season was in need of some good news, and NBC was happy to provide it with another very strong premiere for America's Got Talent (3.0). It nearly matched last year's post-The Voice premiere (3.1) and was noticeably above it in total viewers. That helped new drama The Night Shift (1.6), even with barely 50% retention, to inch past NBC's biggest drama premiere of last summer (Camp, 1.5).
- Even opposite a strong NBC, ABC had a pretty good night with the return of Extreme Weight Loss (1.3), which was a tick above last year's premiere. And Celebrity Wife Swap (1.2) jumped to a new season high with its most compatible lead-in yet.
- Then... there was Fox, and the trainwreck we all knew was coming. It started with episode two of Riot (0.6), which was actually a tenth above the post-Glee premiere from two weeks ago. But dating show I Wanna Marry Harry (0.4) dropped huge from the measly 0.7 posted after American Idol last week. Networks usually do away with these "affront to humanity" kinds of shows pretty quickly unless the ratings are outstanding. Since this one's in the complete opposite direction, don't expect it to stick around for long.
Extreme Weight Loss
Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC
WHAT MATTERS:
- The America's Got Talent slump rolled on; it's now down 0.6 points in the last four weeks. So You Think You Can Dance was also down to a low for a third straight week.
- The night's good news: a new season high from Extreme Weight Loss.
WHAT MATTERS:
- NBC brought back the summer's biggest reality franchise America's Got Talent at a solid level but down by 16% from last year's mid-May premiere. Though they've been roundly criticized for premiering The Voice so late into the spring, one fringe benefit of that move was getting the chance to use it as a launch-pad for what had been a sagging AGT late last summer. It seems to have worked decently enough, at least for now.
- With NBC averaging a 3.0+ in every hour, competing originals on the other networks all took a multiple-tick hit, from So You Think You Can Dance to Extreme Weight Loss and Brooklyn DA.
Extreme Weight Loss
Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC
WHAT MATTERS:
- ABC brought back the always soft Extreme Weight Loss, which shed 20% of its ratings weight from last year's premiere and tied last year's finale. (The name also shrunk from the old Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition.) They led into the series finale of Body of Proof, which as usual dropped off without a Dancing with the Stars lead-in.
- CBS quietly premiered documentary series Brooklyn DA, which couldn't match the network's preceding NCIS repeats.
WHAT MATTERS:
- Lots of broadcast and cable shows had significant upswings on this Sunday. Most notable on broadcast were Secret Millionaire and Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition, each returning to their pre-NBA Finals levels from early June.
- Among the shows up multiple ticks on cable were week three of HBO's The Newsroom (0.9), A&E's The Glades (0.8) and Longmire (0.7) block and Lifetime's Drop Dead Diva (0.8) and Army Wives (1.1) pair. True Blood (2.6) dominated the evening as usual and turned in its fourth straight 2.6.
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