The Breakdown: Fox Thursday in 2018-19 (Gotham, The Orville)

It's time for a journey through the Fox Thursday schedule in 2018-19...

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 4/25/19

FINALS UPDATE: The Big Bang Theory (1.8) adjusted up while NFL Draft (1.1) and Mom (1.0) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• The broadcast home for the NFL Draft (1.2) changed to ABC, where it was preliminarily up a tenth year-to-year from last year's Fox rating for round one.

• As usual, the Draft was mostly damaging to the broadcast entertainment options; The Big Bang Theory (1.7) was down from last week, as was Young Sheldon (1.4) in its return from a couple weeks off. But the bigger lead-in helped Mom (1.1) at 9/8c, while Life in Pieces (0.8) matched last week's 9:30 episode. S.W.A.T. was down a notch at 10/9c.

• NBC also saw real carnage, with Superstore (0.7) down two tenths and A.P. Bio (0.4) and Abby's (0.3) both somehow finding even lower lows (sandwiching an even Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.5)). Law and Order: SVU (0.7) somehow managed to be even at 10/9c.

• It was finale night on Fox, with Gotham (0.5) actually dropping for its series finale. But The Orville (0.7) headed into decision time on a hopeful note, posting its highest rating in the last five episodes. The CW (0.3/0.2) was even.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 4/18/19

FINALS UPDATE: Grey's Anatomy (1.3) and The Big Bang Theory (1.9) adjusted up while Station 19 (0.8) and Supernatural (0.3) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers to come. CBS veteran Life in Pieces returned with new episodes at 8:30 and 9:30.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 3/21/19

FINALS UPDATE: NCAA Basketball (1.2, +0.2) adjusted up while NCAA Basketball (0.9) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.5) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers to come.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 3/7/19

FINALS UPDATE: Station 19 (0.9) and For the People (0.5) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers to come. Superstore and Station 19 returned from months-long hiatuses, while For the People and A.P. Bio had their second season premieres.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 2/28/19

FINALS UPDATE: No adjustments.

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC's last two hours, A Million Little Things (1.1) and How to Get Away with Murder (0.6), both wrapped for the season. HTGAWM managed to bounce back from its first ever 0.5 last week, while AMLT tied a series high it's hit five other times this season.

• NBC had a finale of its own with The Titan Games (1.0), but it was actually down week-to-week, as were comedies Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.7) and Will and Grace (0.6). Fox's Gotham (0.6) and The Orville (0.8) were even, while CBS' Fam (0.8) and CW's Legacies (0.3) were the only originals on their respective networks.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 2/21/19

FINALS UPDATE: S.W.A.T. (0.9) and The Orville (0.8) adjusted up while Young Sheldon (1.7) and Charmed (R) (0.1) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers to come.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 2/14/19

FINALS UPDATE: No adjustments.

WHAT MATTERS:

• CBS comedies Mom (1.1) and Fam (0.8) returned after giving up their hour to Celebrity Big Brother a week ago. With their lead-in Sheldon comedies in repeats (1.2/1.1), they were on the low end. But S.W.A.T. (0.9) was up at 10/9c, managing a head-to-head win against NBC's Law and Order: SVU (0.8).

• ABC was down to a new low with Grey's Anatomy (1.4) but even with A Million Little Things (1.0) and How to Get Away with Murder (0.6). NBC got a rebound from The Titan Games (1.1), but comedies Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.8) and Will and Grace (0.7) dropped. Fox's Gotham (0.6) was down vs. two weeks ago, while The Orville had its fifth consecutive 0.7.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 1/31/19

FINALS UPDATE: Young Sheldon (1.8) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Will and Grace (0.8) returned to NBC, now in the 9:30 timeslot and matching lead-in Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.8). It skewed older than its lead-in, actually growing in total viewers, and was also up in the demo vs. its last few fall airings. However, Nine-Nine and its own lead-in The Titan Games (1.1) continued trickling downward, while Law and Order: SVU (0.9) was even at 10/9c after a week off.
  

• It was an up night for CBS comedies The Big Bang Theory (2.4), Young Sheldon (1.9), Mom (1.3) and Fam (1.0), while S.W.A.T. (0.9) remained on the high end.

• ABC also got an uptick with Grey's Anatomy (1.7), while A Million Little Things made it three weeks in a row at 1.1 and How to Get Away with Murder was stuck at 0.6.

• Fox's Gotham (0.7) grew as well, while The Orville (0.7) along with the CW dramas (0.4/0.3) matched last week.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 1/24/19

FINALS UPDATE: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.9) and The Good Place (0.7) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers to come.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 1/17/19

FINALS UPDATE: Mom (1.2) and Fam (0.9) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• A new timeslot provided some solid initial results for A Million Little Things (1.1), as the ABC drama went to Thursday 9/8c and tied its series premiere rating. That's a major boost over its usual 0.7's on Wednesday, and it hadn't done better than a 0.8 since week two. It's also better than what ABC usually got from fall occupant Station 19 (though Station did better on crossover nights). It was surrounded by Grey's Anatomy (1.9, up a notch from its fall finale) and How to Get Away with Murder (0.7, down a tick).

• NBC Thursday took a noticeable hit with The Titan Games (1.3) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.9) both down by three tenths from last week. The Good Place (0.8) was down one tenth, and Law and Order: SVU (0.9) actually managed an uptick at 10/9c.

• On CBS, week two of Fam (1.0) was down a typical two tenths, and the other three comedies (2.3/1.7/1.3) were all down at least a tenth as well.

• Fox's dramas (0.7/0.7) were even, while the CW's Supernatural (0.4) kicked off 2019 by tying its fall finale.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 1/10/19

FINALS UPDATE: Mom (1.4) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• After five years on Fox, Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.2) made the move to NBC, airing at 9/8c after week two of The Titan Games (1.6). It was a nice week two hold for Titan, and Brooklyn had its highest raw ratings in over two calendar years (since New Year's Day 2017). It's a Plus level the show almost never saw on Fox without big NFL help (though it's actually rather close to the series premiere, which had a 138 in September 2013).

• The Good Place (0.9) went to 9:30, where it was head-to-head with new CBS comedy Fam (1.2). The CBS newbie actually managed to outrate the Murphy Brown premiere (1.1) from the fall, though it also had more help from a season high edition of Mom (1.4). Earlier in the evening, the winter bounces came a week late for the Sheldon-verse, as The Big Bang Theory (2.4) and Young Sheldon (1.9) each piled another couple tenths on top of their winter premiere ratings from last week.

• On Fox, The Orville (0.7) showed some much-needed life in its second Thursday airing of the season, growing by just over a full tenth from last week in the un-rounded prelims. ABC's Truth and Lies special on Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton (0.7) matched last week's JFK, Jr. special.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 1/3/19

FINALS UPDATE: No adjustments.

WHAT MATTERS:

• On the opening Thursday of 2019, it was NBC's turn for a high-profile reality launch. While The Titan Games (1.7/1.8) paled somewhat in comparison to what Fox pulled off on Wednesday, it was still a very good start in its own right, only a little less impressive than what Ellen's Game of Games (2.2/2.4) did in the same week a year ago.
• At 10/9c, NBC brought The Blacklist (0.9) back for a one-time stop in a timeslot it used to regularly occupy, before it heads for its regular timeslot on Friday.

• Meanwhile, Fox reunited its fall 2017 Thursday duo of Gotham (0.7) and The Orville (0.6). We already know it's the final season for Gotham, and this surprisingly DOA result makes a similar fate look likely for Orville; a show that regularly built on Gotham two falls ago went a staggering three tenths behind its previous series low.

• CBS held off on originals in the 9/8c hour for a week, but The Big Bang Theory (2.2) and Young Sheldon (1.7) were back at just a tenth above their last originals in December. The good news was S.W.A.T. (0.9) had a pretty great night at 10/9c, with a lead-in from a Young Sheldon repeat (0.9) and no SVU competition to deal with.

• And ABC managed a virtual tie with Fox for third with The Conners repeats (0.7/0.6) and an old-skewing John F. Kennedy Jr. special (0.7).

SpotVault - Gotham (Fox) - 2019 Ratings

The Breakdown: Fox Thursday in 2017-18 (Gotham, The Orville, The Four and more!)

It's time for a journey through the Fox Thursday schedule in 2017-18...

The War of 18-49, Gotham

A Strong But Unspectacular Start

A year after Marvel brought its superhero cinematic universe to the small screen with Agents of SHIELD, it was DC's turn to try a similar gambit on the big four with Batman prequel Gotham. Out of the gate, Gotham was big, but certainly no Agents of SHIELD; its 8.31 million viewers and 3.3 demo rating paled in comparison to SHIELD's 4.7 start a year ago. The 3.3 was not even meaningfully different from the 3.5 where Sleepy Hollow had started the previous fall for Fox.

The good news was that Gotham held up more reasonably post-premiere; it was down a very acceptable 15% to 2.8 in week two, then hit a 2.5, and then inched down each of the next three weeks. But the low-2's were basically the norm for the rest of the fall and winter. Even with a shaky return late in the season (1.5 -> 1.6 -> 1.5 -> 1.7) it eked out a higher Plus average for season one than Agents of SHIELD (127). Considering where it started, that was a nice season for Gotham.

A Lower Level on Monday

Unfortunately for Gotham, it was that weak spring level that showed up in the fall of 2015, rather than the low-2's that had hung on for most of the rookie season. Gotham opened season two with just a 1.6 rating, more than 50% below the series premiere. But most of that crowd stuck around for the entirety of season two, with the show going no lower than 1.2 even deep into the spring. Season three also held up OK, staying north of 1.0 through the fall and winter and even breaking 1.0 for the majority of its late spring/early summer run.

The Move to Thursday

Attempting to create a more consistent overall schedule, Fox broke up its Monday Gotham / Lucifer pairing in fall 2017. While Lucifer remained on Monday, Gotham was slid over to Thursday night. Early on, it held up pretty admirably, breaking 1.0 for the season premiere and then starting a lengthy streak of 0.9's. But a couple 0.8's to end the fall were an omen of things to come; it returned to a 0.8 in early March, then hit its first 0.7 and first 0.6 in the next two weeks. The spring run was a mix of 0.6's and 0.7's, making for a much weaker show than the one that had been getting 1.0's in the late spring a year ago. In a season that saw Fox massacre its live-action comedy department and even cancel Lucifer, it looked like Gotham could be in trouble. But in an 11th-hour decision, the network decided to give Gotham a reprieve for a shortened fifth and final season, which saw a relatively modest decline by Gotham standards.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	2014-15	Monday 8:00	2.18		1.5	3.3	detail
2	2015-16		Monday 8:00	1.40	-36%	1.2	1.6	detail	C
3	2016-17		Monday 8:00	1.06	-24%	0.9	1.2	detail	B-
4	2017-18	Thursday 8:00	0.77	-27%	0.6	1.0	detail	C
5	Winter 2019		Thursday 8:00	0.62	-19%	0.5	0.7	detail	C

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now19	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	2014-15	129	hit	1.23		89	196	196	101
2	2015-16	96	marginal	0.91	-26%	79	110	109	81
3	2016-17	86	marginal	0.82	-10%	72	102	102	73
4	2017-18	70	marginal	0.67	-19%	50	91	91	59
5	Winter 2019	65	flop	0.62	-7%	56	72	70	56
AVERAGE:		AVERAGE:	89	marginal
CAREER:		CAREER:	447	utility

The War of 18-49 chronicles the ratings history of veteran primetime series. For more, see the Index.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 5/17/18

FINALS UPDATE: The Big Bang Theory (R) (1.1) adjusted up while S.W.A.T. (0.9) and Arrow (0.4) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers to come.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 5/10/18

FINALS UPDATE: Grey's Anatomy (1.9), The Big Bang Theory (2.9) and Young Sheldon (2.2) adjusted up while Quantico (0.4), Supernatural (0.4, -0.2) and Arrow (0.3) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• The wedding season finale on The Big Bang Theory (2.8) did not get the show anywhere close to its season premiere heights, but it was still ahead of last season's 2.7 finale, up at least four tenths from last week, and the show's best rating since February 1. And the momentum continued throughout the night, with Young Sheldon (2.1) up two tenths, the first half of the Mom finale (1.5) up a tenth from last week, Mom at 9:30 (1.3) handily outperforming Life in Pieces, and S.W.A.T. (0.9) also up a notch.

• It was also a momentous night on Grey's Anatomy (1.8), which was up at least two tenths at 8/7c. But that was no help to Station 19 (0.9), which dropped at 9/8c. Quantico settled in at 0.5 at 10/9c. 

•  NBC also fared better than usual with a double-length Chicago Fire season finale (0.9/1.1), and Fox was up a tenth with Gotham (0.7) and Showtime At the Apollo (0.6). The CW (0.6/0.4) is pending a baseball preemption in New York.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 5/3/18

FINALS UPDATE: The Big Bang Theory (2.4) and Gotham (0.6) adjusted up while Station 19 (1.0), Life in Pieces (1.0) and Showtime At the Apollo (0.5) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers to come. NBC aired its final comedies of the 2017-18 regular season with the finales of Superstore, A.P. Bio and Champions.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 4/19/18

FINALS UPDATE: Grey's Anatomy (1.7) adjusted up while S.W.A.T. (0.8), Supernatural (0.5) and Arrow (0.3) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Table will be posted on Sunday.