Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/16/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• NBC's Ready for Love was down three ticks from its already disastrous premiere last week, and its preliminary half hours were 1.8 -> 1.2 -> 1.2 -> 1.0. That means its ratings now pretty much mirror those of duds Go On, The New Normal and Smash in their spring post-Voice berths. NBC should not waste the nearly two remaining months of The Voice on this show any longer. But there aren't any abundantly obvious alternatives, so this will be interesting to watch.

• It was a slow day elsewhere, though of note on CBS was the network flipping the repeats of NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS. These numbers should help to illustrate that the disparity in these shows' actual strengths is larger than it might normally appear when NCIS is in the tougher slot. And the mothership at 9/8c meant a lead-in not that much worse than usual for Golden Boy.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/2/13

WHAT MATTERS:

•  A week after opening up in somewhat underwhelming fashion on Tuesday (at least compared to the Monday premiere), The Voice perked up to a more as-expected level in week two on Tuesday. The post-Voice berth for The New Normal ended up a couple ticks behind last week's Go On final. Ultimately this does look like a weaker performance than Go On (especially since the lead-in grew week-to-week), but not to a huge degree. The likely series finale at 9:30 followed with a 1.4, a tick above the week-ago preliminary.

• With New Girl and the NCIS pair in repeats, there was little excitement elsewhere. ABC's Splash took another sizable drop in week three, while Fox's The Mindy Project and CBS' Golden Boy each shed some more as their lead-ins went into repeats.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 3/26/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• Night two of NBC's return to relevance didn't go quite so well, as The Voice went down by 15% from Monday's premiere (and was only a tick above the fall season's Tuesday premiere). Finals took chunks out of the NBC comedies, but Go On and The New Normal still grew nearly 100% week-to-week. If I were running NBC, though, this is not much of a game-changer; the more important points for Go On should be the two on Thursday starting next week. Even Smash bumped up a few notches.

• On ABC, the inevitable Splash crash came to the tune of 35% week-to-week. But the Dancing with the Stars results show, which didn't directly face The Voice, managed to equal the Monday performance rating. And Body of Proof, riding a DWTS results lead-in for the first time, continued its dramatic rise from the ashes.

• Fox and CBS mostly dropped just a bit against the changed landscape, though what little momentum Golden Boy might have appeared to have last week pretty much vanished.

• Of note on cable was the return of The Game (1.2), one of the few hit sitcoms on cable, and lead-out Let's Stay Together (0.9). This Game number was massively down from the 2.8 that kicked off last season but in line with most of the rest of the season. BET will have to hope this premiere wasn't nearly as inflated as the premieres of its previous two seasons on the network. (If so, it's headed for like a 0.6 pretty soon.)

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 3/19/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC Tuesday brought us yet another premiere night surprise with Splash, and this one actually went above all their other premieres on the night this season. Now we'll see if it can hold up better than the others as The Voice enters the slot next week. The good mojo from Splash continued into the rest of the ABC evening with a nice showing from a Dancing with the Stars special and a season high for Body of Proof, which is already benefiting from the always ultra-compatible DWTS pairing.

• Hell's Kitchen dropped just a bit post-premiere, but it didn't really help out New Girl or The Mindy Project in the first running of the reality/comedy lineup.

• With CBS original again in the first two hours, Golden Boy bounced back to near the premiere number. It seems this show has found a stronger level than Vegas, but (at least for now) it doesn't quite seem stronger enough. Still, I'm not inclined to totally dismiss it just yet.

• As for something that is worth totally dismissing: the last pre-Voice NBC Tuesday, where Go On, The New Normal and Smash somehow again found new lows! Next week, these shows go after The Voice, which should be interesting.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 3/12/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• Fox had an OK two-hour return from Hell's Kitchen, which was a couple tenths below its last premiere in June 2012. (It was broken up by hour in finals.) More might have been expected given the lack of competition, but historically this show has been a bit of a slow starter. And hey, 2.2 is still one of the better Tuesday nights Fox has had all season...

• Despite tons of repeats in the first two hours, all the low-rated 10:00 dramas were in originals and close to even with last week. Golden Boy held on despite an NCIS: Los Angeles repeat lead-in, for whatever that is worth.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 3/8/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• Premiere night for NBC's thrown-together Friday night lineup was just as eclectic ratings-wise as it was show-wise. The second season premiere of Fashion Star managed just half of last year's Tuesday premiere number, while Grimm came back in typically good-for-Friday fashion, though it did tie its season low point and was a tick below the fall finale.

• Shortly after I departed for vacation on Thursday afternoon, CBS surprisingly opted to leave Golden Boy on Tuesday, ruining this post that I'd scheduled for Friday morning. (Though I'm still predicting a cancel!!) But they did throw me a bone by airing the third episode on Friday anyway, so we got a little window into what the Friday run might have looked like. And, as the Tuesday ratings suggested, it wasn't good. It came in below the already very low CSI: NY finale from two weeks ago, and it was 38% behind Tuesday's result. CBS also continued to struggle with Undercover Boss, which has posted two relatively weak outings since The Job fiasco. And since CBS has just two left, it won't air another original till May sweeps.

• Unsurprisingly, the Cult move to Friday was a wash. Cult Tuesday (0.3) + Friday repeat (0.2) = Tuesday repeat (0.3) + Cult Friday (0.2).

First Two Weeks, Golden Boy

WEEK ONE
CBS' midseason drama Golden Boy began the way most recent CBS midseason dramas have begun: not well. It opened with just a 1.8 demo, dropping significantly from the 2.9 demo from the last half-hour of NCIS: Los Angeles. And this was despite facing virtually no broadcast competition from struggling 10/9c competitors Body of Proof (1.2) and Smash (0.9). This point appeared to end any hope that CBS might keep the show on Tuesday beyond its scheduled two-week preview.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 3/5/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• Well, that was fun while it lasted. Celebrity Wife Swap (1.5) took a massive 38% drop from last week's surprising premiere number. I expected it would drop a lot, and it dropped almost twice as much as I expected. The show may bounce back a bit next week once American Idol is out of the mix, but keep in mind daylight saving is coming, and it's heading for a regular Thursday 8/7c timeslot where it'll face Idol every week. ABC's The Taste also took another hit with the lead-in much smaller, but Body of Proof actually upticked after a finals adjustment. I'm just saying, if it gets the kind of boost it got from Dancing with the Stars last year...

• Golden Boy had an above-average week two hold, but that left it just a tick ahead of the last couple eps of already unacceptable Vegas. The expectations won't be high for the move to Friday later this week.

• As for American Idol, its yearly return to its old Tuesday stomping ground didn't even beat CBS' NCIS pair by all that much, and it was down nearly a third from last year's Tuesday tryout (which got a 5.1 a week earlier on the calendar: 2/28/12).

• After finals, Smash got adjusted up, holding off the second episode of Do No Harm!!! (Though it was still a new low.) I have no further comment because I just don't know what NBC will do here.

SpotVault - Golden Boy (CBS) - 2012-13 Ratings

Golden Boy

Fridays, 9/8c, CBS

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 2/26/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• Broadcast TV's case of the Tuesdays continued, as CBS rounded out a rather shockingly weak season of new shows with the premiere of Golden Boy. This was significantly behind what we think of as a strong CBS 10:00 show, and it barely held over 60% of NCIS: Los Angeles. It was noticeably ahead of recent episodes of Vegas, but probably not noticeably enough to keep the show on Tuesday beyond next week. In a world of scheduling inertia, it likely needs to build next week to get CBS to change its mind. The odds are against that, and a typical week two drop would put it right at Vegas levels.

• The best showing on Tuesday came from ABC's Celebrity Wife Swap, which returned above all of the five-episode run from last winter. But it was of no help to The Taste, which fell to a new low in its move to 9/8c. Body of Proof held on in week two despite a much weaker lead-in, so I guess that's something?

• Cult also held last week's weak premiere audience in week two (and was ever-so-slightly down in viewers).

The Question, Tuesday 2/26/13: Will CBS' Drama Premiere Strike Gold?

Tonight, CBS replaces struggling Vegas with the new drama Golden Boy, in what's currently slated as a two-week Tuesday preview before it heads to Friday. Having whiffed with most of their new shows this season (and Elementary's only barely a success), CBS is promoting this show with a certain degree of desperation. If there's even a hint of success here, that move to Friday may never come to fruition. Will CBS' drama premiere strike Gold? That's The Question for Tuesday, February 26, 2013.

Winter 2013 Best Case/Worst Case, Friday/Saturday/Sunday

Introductory stuff now at the bottom.

Other Winter 2013 BC/WC: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Fri/Sat/Sun

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The Basics:

	bc	Rank	y2y	Rank	TPUT	Rank	bc/TPUT	Rank
Friday	5.0	6	-4%	2	29.0	6	17%	6
Saturday	4.2	7	-15%	7	28.9	7	15%	7
Sunday	13.2	1	-4%	1	38.1	1	35%	1

Friday and Sunday are both down a little less than 4% from last year, making them the two healthiest nights of the week. In Sunday's case, the number is largely wrapped up in one departing program, Sunday Night Football, since it usually beats the other broadcasters combined. It finished the season at -2%, while the other networks were each down in the very general vicinity of 10%.

Friday actually had some genuinely good stories in Shark Tank and Grimm, while some other shows like Undercover Boss and ABC's new comedies have done well at least compared to the fall 2011 occupants.

Saturday took the biggest year-to-year drop of any night by a mile. ABC's Saturday Night Football actually ended up finishing pretty close to even (-4%), but Fox's dip into college football provided no real improvement on last year's Cops and reruns, and it seems like much of this -15% comes from repeats and random Saturday night events that were way down from last year (most notably CBS' LSU/Alabama game, down from 7.2 to 4.0).