The Ultimate SpotVault, How I Met Your Mother

The Ultimate SpotVault is a fully sortable record of every single episode in the history of a veteran series. This allows you to compare both raw numbers (total viewership and adults 18-49 rating) as well as the historical-adjusted stat A18-49+ for episodes across different seasons. This table also has the lead-in's A18-49+ for each episode, so you can see which episodes had the most and least support.

The True Top 25, Week Ending 4/6/14 (2013-14 Week 28)

The Big Bang Theory took a very rare turn with a demo rating behind another demo program: the series finale of fellow CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother. But Big Bang is still #1 in True, and in fact by a fairly wide margin, because it was confined to only the lowest-viewed half hour on a much lower-viewed night. It seems kinda like the viewership estimate went up a little more on Monday than it "should" have, but maybe most of HIMYM's finale spike came from viewers not usually watching other TV.

With almost all big four series in originals, there were four new shows on the list this week. That's a pretty healthy number, but the raw numbers top 25 would actually include a whooping seven newbies. Friends with Better Lives, About a Boy and to a lesser extent Resurrection (just a single hundredth out of the True Top 25) were all nicked enough by the formula to drop out of this list.

War of 18-49 Update, How I Met Your Mother (2013-14)

Let's take a look at the 2013-14 season (the ninth and final overall) of How I Met Your Mother on CBS.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 3/31/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• The one-hour finale of How I Met Your Mother (5.4) posted a massive 54% week-to-week increase, setting a new series high in the demo, in total viewers (12.94 million) and in adults 18-34 (5.8). It's the biggest regularly-scheduled entertainment episode this season for a series not named The Big Bang Theory or The Walking Dead, and after the finals uptick it inched ahead of Breaking Bad's finale from late September. But it's likely to be CBS' last Monday moment of glory this season, as newbie Friends with Better Lives (2.6) adjusted down to lose over half of that lead-in demo rating in its 9/8c preview. This probably does not bode well for its 8:30 launch after 2 Broke Girls in two weeks. But Mom (2.2) at 9:30 and the last episode of Intelligence (1.2) did benefit a bit from this halo.

• CBS' big bounce had surprisingly little impact on the competition; The Voice (3.4) was the only show that seemed to suffer at all, and even it was down less than 10%. The CW's Star-Crossed (0.4) and The Tomorrow People (0.5!) were even on the upswing.

The Question, Monday 3/31/14: Will How I Met Your Mother's Finale Meet A Ratings High?

It's not even April, but the biggest series finale of the 2013-14 season is upon us. The How I Met Your Mother finale will feature an event baked right into the title of the show, and it also puts a bow on one of the most interesting TV ratings stories of the last decade. A bubble show in its early years, it picked up major steam amid the comedy renaissance of the late aughts. Though many believe its best creative days are past, it will leave the airwaves still very much in its ratings prime. It's a lock to be the second-biggest final season in the A18-49+ era, and a big finale likely makes this HIMYM's best historical-adjusted season. Will How I Met Your Mother's finale meet a ratings high? That's The Question for Monday, March 31, 2014.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 3/24/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• The penultimate episode of How I Met Your Mother (3.5) spiked by over a half point week-to-week and is now up by 0.8 from its low against The Bachelor's finale two weeks ago. It may grade out as one of the show's most impressive performances of the season given all the competition and that we're post-Daylight Saving. This helped the rest of the CBS comedy lineup, but only by a little bit; 2 Broke Girls (2.3) and Mom (1.9) were up a tick, and Mike and Molly (2.0) was up two.

• ABC's Dancing with the Stars (2.3) was down by 12% in week two, but since it's now being compared against more apples-to-apples episodes, the year-to-year gap closed to just -4% vs. the second spring 2013 episode. And this may be a show that can benefit depending on what happens with CBS after HIMYM is gone.

• NBC had a down The Voice (3.7) and an up The Blacklist (2.8), though those changes were lessened a bit after finals adjustments.

• And if it wasn't already over, the final death blow may have been dealt to CDub's The Tomorrow People (0.3). After a decent hold in its Monday premiere, it was down a notch in its second Monday episode. 

• Cable: the finales of Teen Wolf, Switched at Birth and The Fosters were all up about 10%. Teen Wolf was also on the upside vs. last winter's finale, though Switched and Fosters were way down. And Bates Motel finally stopped the bleeding with a week four bounce-back.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 3/10/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC wrapped up another strong season of The Bachelor with the usual huge spike for the finale (3.2 from 8-10pm, 3.8 for the After the Final Rose special). The finale was still down 6% from last season, but that's close to in line with the drop for the season as the whole, and After the Final Rose was even. This will leave the season as a whole at roughly -7% year-to-year. Considering the previous season was itself a big success and this one had a lot of added competition from The Voice and the Olympics, this was another major win for ABC.

• This added competition plus Daylight Saving took a major chunk out of the other networks. NBC was down double digits from 8:00 to 10:00 with The Voice (3.7) but still got a pretty respectable sampling out of Believe (2.7) in the last hour. I thought coming in that this result needed to be low 2's (or lower) or low 3's (or higher) to really serve as much of an indicator in either direction for its Sunday prospects. Considering The Voice was hit a few ticks more than expected, it might be spun as a minor win, but I would say don't make much of a judgment on this point.

• On a semi-original night for CBS (with 2 Broke Girls and Mom sitting out), How I Met Your Mother (2.7) and Mike and Molly (1.8) took it in the chin from DST, as did Fox's return to a Monday pairing of Bones (1.7) and The Following (1.5). (For Bones, this was above most of its Friday episodes but well below its fall Monday numbers.)

• The cable lowlight was A&E's Bates Motel (0.9), down big in week two.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 3/3/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• Week two of The Voice (4.5) began with only a two-tenths drop from last week and remained only a hair behind the corresponding night last spring (4.7). But The Blacklist (2.7) took a noticeable drop in its second week back, dipping well behind any other post-Voice episode.

• While How I Met Your Mother (3.3) was down a bit more after overachieving last week vs. The Voice, the other CBS comedies 2 Broke Girls (2.6), Mike and Molly (2.2) and Mom (2.0) all rebounded by a tick.

• ABC tried a repeat of Mixology (1.1) after a 90-minute The Bachelor (2.3), which helped Castle (1.6) find a new low.

• And Fox's Almost Human (1.5) did not plead its case very well on finale night, limping to the end of season one at a new series low. The finals didn't help it this time, though it did narrow the gap with The Following (down to tie its 1.6 low).

• On cable, A&E's Bates Motel (1.3) was back in solid fashion, roughly even with its series premiere and the 1.3 series high it would hit four more times later in the season. But it did not help new lead-out Those Who Kill (0.5) get off to much of a start. The night's big mover was TNT's Dallas (0.4), which completely imploded the week after a 0.75 premiere.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 2/24/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• On the night after the Winter Olympics, NBC was back in business on Monday with another huge premiere for The Voice (4.7) and the return of The Blacklist (3.1). The singing competition was just a tenth below last spring's premiere (4.8). As for The Blacklist, it was a single tenth behind its last post-Voice episode on December 2. This could be spun as a bit of a disappointment considering that episode had a lead-in almost two points lower, but it's basically the same rating it had back when The Voice was this size in the early fall.

• This came against a full suite of competition on the other networks:
• ABC's The Bachelor (2.5) bounced back to normal after a couple low weeks against the Olympics.
• But Fox's Almost Human (1.6) and The Following (1.6) saw no such relief, each down a tick from Olympic eps last week.
• And while CBS' How I Met Your Mother (3.6) held up quite swimmingly against the return of The Voice, the rest of the comedy gang was down at least half a point from the inflated numbers they rang up in the weeks before the Olympics: 2 Broke Girls (2.5), Mike and Molly (2.1) and Mom (1.9). These were relatively low-end showings for all three.
• And week two of the CW's doomed Star-Crossed (0.3) was down a tenth.

• On cable, the return of TNT's Dallas (0.75) was down 7% from last season's premiere. (Progamming note: I'm going to try adding cable ratings with most of the usual full table numbers. Please check back at night or the next morning on the daily posts for these.)

Spotted Ratings, Monday 2/3/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• With so many networks waiting till after the Olympics for their big midseason launches, this was not one of the more exciting Super Mondays in recent memory. The only show on this night that got much promotion during Sunday's big game was The Following (1.9), and it only added to last week's disappointment by dropping another tenth (even with a better lead-in from Almost Human (1.9)).

• How I Met Your Mother (3.8) saw a truly bizarre adjustment in finals, up a whooping half point to tie last week's 200th episode. With that in mind, the rest of the lineup (2 Broke Girls (3.0), Mike and Molly (2.6), Mom (2.3) and Intelligence (1.5)) holding doesn't look quite so impressive, but it was still another good night for the network in general. They may have benefited to some degree from NBC flopping from 9-11 with a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit special (0.9).

• ABC's Castle (2.1) also capitalized on NBC resting The Blacklist, growing for a third straight episode.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 1/27/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• Eight days after its NFC Championship preview, over half of the audience forgot about The Following. It hit a disastrous 2.0 rating and barely cracked six million viewers in its Monday premiere, already at series low levels against what should've been fairly favorable competition. It will get a better lead-in than a premiere encore (1.1) going forward, but if it can't at least hold this as the competition gets stiffer, it's now not that hard to see two seasons and out for the top new show of the 2012-13 regular season.

• But other than that result, it was a pretty positive day for broadcast, with the star being CBS' triumphant 200th episode of How I Met Your Mother (3.8). That's a season high for that show, and it boosted the rest of the lineup to season highs or very close: 2 Broke Girls (3.0), Mike and Molly (2.6), Mom (2.4), and even Intelligence (1.5), which also probably benefited somewhat from Castle being in repeats.

• ABC and NBC shared in the good news as The Bachelor (2.5) and the last Voice-less episode of The Blacklist (2.5) each swung back up by a couple ticks.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 1/13/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• Apparently Tuesday's Intelligence rating was artificial. The show dropped by half to a disastrous 1.2 demo rating in its first airing in the new timeslot, not any better than what Hostages was doing for most of the fall. And just like that, it's done for. With incompatible comedies airing in the first two hours and two legitimate competitors, CBS may now have to move some kind of veteran show into this hour looking forward to next season.

• NBC began its January run of The Blacklist at a little over 20% behind the show's fall finale rating after The Voice. We can debate how it performed relative to expectations, but either way it's still not an insignificant accomplishment for NBC to have a 10/9c drama that can hit this rating with an average lead-in. (That average lead-in was a special American Ninja Warrior (1.9).)

• The biggest surprise to the positive was Fox's Almost Human, up by multiple tenths for the second straight week. If this show was on the brink of death coming into 2014, it shouldn't be anymore. And Sleepy Hollow was even in its first episode in over a month.

• On ABC, it was a case of "Where was this number when I picked it last week?" as The Bachelor took a large post-premiere drop against a lot more broadcast competition. A week after major year-to-year growth for the premiere, this point was down two tenths vs. 2013's second episode. However, Castle was up at 10/9c, perhaps demonstrating that last week's football game affected it a lot more than it affected The Bachelor.

• The CBS comedies How I Met Your Mother (3.0), 2 Broke Girls (2.7), Mike and Molly (2.4) and Mom (2.1) all came back at relatively normal levels, bouncing back from weak showings to end 2013.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 11/11/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• The talent showdown swung even more sharply in The Voice's direction on this Monday, as it picked up by a couple ticks (EDIT: the "Last" compares to last week's Tuesday episode because there was a bonus Thursday ep last week) while Dancing with the Stars was down double digits. It seems a bit drastic, though in The Voice's case it might have partly been an evening out a bit after it took a rather steep drop last week.

• Mike and Molly does not look like CBS' next long-term Monday 9/8c anchor; it dropped three tenths from last week's premiere to the same 2.3 that got 2 Broke Girls sent to 8:30. And How I Met Your Mother went back in pattern after last week's spike.

• Took till week seven, but Sleepy Hollow finally had its first non-drop (it was actually up a tick). Just in time for a brand new lead-in (Almost Human) to step in next week!

The True Top 25, Week Ending 11/3/13 (2013-14 Week Six)

If only there'd been a Game 7, the World Series probably could've taken the top spot in the True Top 25. As it was, the conclusive Game 6 was quite close because SNF had another lower-end matchup, but Sunday Night Football eked it out again. Meanwhile, TV's two biggest sitcoms sat out the week so The Voice got a turn as top entertainment program, How I Met Your Mother got a turn as top sitcom, and Scandal took back the top drama honors. (It went behind The Blacklist and NCIS in raw numbers but got a boost from the Halloween viewing depression; plus, NCIS' timeslot was scored as very easy this week with Agents of SHIELD sitting out.)

Two of the three successful new dramas were off this week, so only The Blacklist and The Millers repped the new shows. For most of the season, Big Bang-fueled The Millers has had a large raw numbers lead and a small True lead on the other new CBS sitcoms. This week, it came all the way back to the pack in raw numbers but managed to maintain the True lead; while the repeat Big Bang was still a good lead-in, the Halloween hour had overall viewing reminiscent of a typical Friday or Saturday.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 11/4/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• "The new" Mike and Molly is not necessarily "the improved" Mike and Molly. Its season premiere was really neither a major rejuvenation nor a disappointment, holding 100% of its lead-in from 2 Broke Girls and barely edging last week's occupant, a repeat The Big Bang Theory. The biggest story in CBS land was the nice week-to-week surge from How I Met Your Mother. It's starting to look like The Mother is worth about half a ratings point, so maybe they should consider having her on a little more often...

• Some other quick hits: NBC had a rough start to The Voice's live shows, and The Blacklist followed it down a couple notches. Fox saw Sleepy Hollow shed another two ticks across its hiatus, while ABC ended up tying its season high with Castle even after pre-emptions were weeded out.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 9/30/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• NBC won the season's second Monday with ease, but an overrun/New Orleans pre-emption took The Blacklist down to a 3.3. That was down a still perfectly reasonable 13% from last week's premiere.

• As for CBS, apparently it does get worse than last year's Partners. They opened We Are Men to terrible numbers at 8:30, down over a third from an also-sagging How I Met Your Mother, and the negative mojo predictably continued into the last two hours. 2 Broke Girls suffered from the nearly two-point lead-in drop, week two of Mom was down 12% and the weak-starting Hostages dropped another 17%. Something's probably gonna change on this night in fairly short order, with Mom likely the only safe new show in the short term.

• Fox had a great Monday as Bones rallied nicely from last week's big drop and Sleepy Hollow steadied the ship. On ABC, week three of Dancing with the Stars took another dip, finally dropping into the negatives year-to-year, but Castle held up great again.

• The collective big four were up again year-to-year on Monday, this time by 7% vs. Monday #2 in 2012. Most of the credit goes to Fox, now up by nearly 200% in Sleepy Hollow's timeslot!

Spotted Ratings, Premiere Monday 9/23/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• In the last couple seasons, premiere Monday has done quite a solid job setting the tone for the season to come. This season, much of that 2012 tone (that is, NBC good/CBS bad) remains the same. The Voice remained the shining exception in an otherwise struggling talent show space with another sensational return, beating both of its 2013-14 premiere numbers (including 21% ahead of the pre-premiere week fall 2012 bow). And it launched NBC's next great drama hope The Blacklist pretty close to last year's Revolution numbers. Revolution launched last year in the pre-premiere week (and launched very well), so this is a great start.

• The other big story of premiere Monday 2012 was the CBS softness, and it got even worse in 2013. Though How I Met Your Mother looked good, up a tenth year-to-year, it was pretty much an isolated incident; 2 Broke Girls (2.8) took a big dive at 9:00, Mom (2.5) lost a little more at 9:30 and Hostages (1.8) was basically dead on arrival at 10:00. There's a lot of schedule yet to premiere, but right now it looks like it will probably need a better-than-usual post-premiere hold just to make it through its 15 episodes on Monday.

• The biggest change from Day One 2012? It looks like Fox's new drama is legit. Sleepy Hollow (3.1) lost just 11% week-to-week despite increased competition on NBC/CBS and remained well over double last year's occupant The Mob Doctor (1.3 on 9/24/12).

• As in the spring, Dancing with the Stars' resurgence lasted only as long as The Voice's absence. In week two, it shed a quarter of its 3.1 demo audience from last week's premiere. But that was somewhat inevitable, and once you get past the week-to-week trend it may still be a positive when the dust settles. Last year's second week had just a 2.1. The network also upticked year-to-year at 10/9c with the premiere of Castle.

• All of this adds up to the Big Four going +10% vs. premiere Monday 2012. ABC -5%, CBS -1%, NBC +15%, Fox +37%. There are some caveats that inflate this somewhat; NBC had a series premiere at 10 rather than a week two, CBS had a second How I Met Your Mother this year, etc. But overall, it's definitely a step up in tone from last year.

SpotVault - How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - 2013-14 Ratings

How I Met Your Mother

Mondays, 8/7c, CBS

Fall 2013 Best Case/Worst Case, Monday 8/7c

The Basics:

	bc	Rank	y2y	Rank	TPUT	Rank	bc/TPUT	Rank
Monday 8:00	10.0	7	-14%	19	34.6	7	29%	7

Monday became the biggest night of the week for entertainment programming in 2012-13, but the overall broadcast viewing still took a well above average year-to-year dip in the 8:00 and 9:00 hours. The continued meltdown of Dancing with the Stars plus the CBS comedies coming back to earth were the main factors. CBS' 8:30 occupants did a particularly egregious job trying to hang with last year's huge 2 Broke Girls average.

War of 18-49 Update, How I Met Your Mother (2012-13)

Let's take a look at the 2012-13 season (the eighth overall) of How I Met Your Mother on CBS.