The Breakdown: NBC Friday in 2016-17 (Caught on Camera, Grimm, Dateline and more!)

It's time for a journey through the NBC Friday schedule in 2016-17...

Spotted Ratings, Friday 5/19/17

FINALS UPDATE: Undercover Boss (0.8) adjusted up while Movie: Maid in Manhattan (0.4), The Originals (0.2) and Reign (0.2) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• The final Friday of the regular season brought not a single scripted original on the big four. CBS tried to mix it up to no avail with an I Love Lucy special (0.5) at 9/8c, leading out of Undercover Boss (0.7) and into a repeat of Blue Bloods (0.5).

• NBC easily won the night with its usual First Dates (0.7) and Dateline (0.9/1.0), as Dates scored yet another victory over the two-hour finale of The Toy Box (0.5/0.6) on ABC. Fox had movie Maid in Manhattan (0.4/0.5).

• The CW continued on with The Originals (0.3) and Reign (hoping to hold onto 0.3 for the first time this season), and both will have more new episodes deep into June.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 5/12/17

FINALS UPDATE: Shark Tank (0.9) and 48 Hours: NCIS (0.7) adjusted up while The Originals (0.3) and Reign (0.2) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC's Shark Tank (0.8) finished out another season in weirdly dreadful fashion, falling two tenths behind its previous season low. It can blame its surroundings to some degree, as The Toy Box fell to a new low 0.5 while 20/20 (0.6) was at its lowest mark since Thanksgiving weekend.

• ABC's loss was CBS' gain, as the Hawaii Five-0 finale (1.0) was on the upswing. It had some help from a recharged (and celebrity-themed) Undercover Boss (0.9). The network then tried another episode of newsmagazine 48 Hours: NCIS (0.6) at 10/9c.

• On the CW, The Originals (0.4) and Reign (0.3) were bigger than usual in the prelims, but often that means preemptions...

• And NBC was even with First Dates (0.7) and Dateline (0.8) while Fox stayed in repeat mode (0.3/0.3).

Spotted Ratings, Friday 5/5/17

FINALS UPDATE: Blue Bloods (1.0) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC's Shark Tank (1.0) and 20/20 (0.9) returned from a week off, with Tank matching last time and the only broadcast show to break a preliminary 1.0. They led out of yet another 0.6 from The Toy Box.

• On CBS, it was finale night for Blue Bloods (0.9), and it got back a tenth after last week's brutal drop. Hawaii Five-0 (0.9) was even and Undercover Boss (0.7) was down a notch in its second Friday airing.

• The CW's The Originals (0.3) and Reign (0.2) as well as NBC's First Dates (0.7) and Dateline (0.8/0.9) were close to even. And with Rosewood wrapped, Fox went full repeat as Lucifer (0.3) joined Lethal Weapon (0.4).

Spotted Ratings, Friday 4/28/17

WHAT MATTERS:

• A classic CBS Friday trio was reunited as Undercover Boss (0.8) returned to Friday for some late-season filler duty, leading into Hawaii Five-0 (0.9) and Blue Bloods (0.8). The Boss had last been seen getting very low-1's on Wednesdays in December and January. The new lead-in did no favors to the other two dramas, which were both fractional for the first time this season.

• On ABC, The Toy Box (0.6) teamed up with low-rated ABC News documentary Let It Fall: LA 1982-1992 (0.6).

• Fox had the season or series finale of Rosewood (0.5), leading into another repeat of Lethal Weapon (0.4), and both shows lost a tenth from last week.

• NBC had First Dates (0.7) and two more back-to-earth hours of Dateline (0.8), while the CW was back to new episodes with The Originals (0.3) and Reign (0.2).

Spotted Ratings, Friday 4/21/17

FINALS UPDATE: Blue Bloods (R) (0.7) and Dateline (1.1) adjusted up while The Originals (R) (0.2) and Reign (R) (0.1) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Two years after Bruce Jenner: The Interview marked a major cultural moment with a tremendous 5.2 rating, Caitlyn Jenner was back in ABC Friday primetime on 20/20, but the ratings (0.8) were pretty standard for the series. The Toy Box (0.6) and Shark Tank (1.0) were both on the downtick as well.

• With CBS (0.7/0.6/0.6) and the CW (0.3/0.2) both in repeats on the final Friday before May sweeps, that left Rosewood (0.6) as broadcast's only scripted original of the night. After quietly pulling You the Jury earlier in the week, Fox improved its fortunes by leading out of Rosewood with a repeat of Lethal Weapon (0.5).

• On NBC, week three of First Dates (0.7) was even, pulling ahead of Toy Box in the 8/7c hour, while Dateline (1.0) was on the upswing.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 4/14/17

FINALS UPDATE: Shark Tank (1.1) adjusted up while The Originals (0.3) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Each of last week's unscripted premieres lost a tenth in week two, leaving The Toy Box and First Dates each at 0.7 while You the Jury fell to an even more egregious 0.3.

• A couple other shows took a Good Friday hit, with Shark Tank (1.0) down two tenths in the prelims and CBS newbie MacGyver (0.8) falling to a new low on its finale night. But CBS' Hawaii Five-0 (1.0) and Blue Bloods (1.0) along with Dateline (0.8), Rosewood (0.5) and the CW dramas (0.4/0.2) all matched last week.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 4/7/17

FINALS UPDATE: Shark Tank (1.2) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Friday broadcast TV got a lot more unscripted, as three new reality series took over for scripted hours that wrapped last week. In the 8:00 hour, it was a dead heat between ABC's The Toy Box (0.8) and NBC's First Dates (0.8). NBC can at least say that Dates came in about in line with a typical episode of the previous occupant Grimm, while Toy Box fell a tad behind what the ABC comedy hour usually does.
• Neither show was able to provide any life to its unscripted lead-out; ABC's Shark Tank (1.1) was sharply down after over a month without an original, and NBC's Dateline (0.8) was also on the low end.

• The loser of the bunch was Fox's You the Jury (0.4), but even it was not that much weaker than the previous scripted occupant Sleepy Hollow (which got to 0.4 three times in March). Rosewood hung at last week's 0.5 low.

• CBS stayed all scripted and pulled into the Friday lead with MacGyver (0.9), Hawaii Five-0 (1.0) and a downticking Blue Bloods (1.0). And the CW's The Originals will hope to hold onto its preliminary 0.4 this time after adjusting down last week, while Reign stuck at 0.2.

SpotVault - First Dates (NBC) - Spring 2017 Ratings

First Dates

Fridays, 8/7c, NBC