First Two Weeks, Ironside

WEEK ONE
NBC's remake of the classic series Ironside got off to a very poor start, managing a paltry 1.3 demo. While it had basically the same 6.8 million total viewer audience as its Law and Order: SVU lead-in, it shed 35% of the 2.0 18-49 rating that SVU pulled, and it went well behind competing CSI (2.1) and Nashville (1.9). It was hard to see any real hope in this premiere number.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 10/9/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• The mostly downward week three trend continued to Wednesday, when most shows were down roughly 10% week-to-week. ABC saw 9:30 newbie Super Fun Night take the large week two drop most expected, down 22% from the premiere, though after finals non-adjustments it's still at a good level. A finals downtick for Nashville left it at a disappointing -16% week-to-week, though.

• The CW's Tuesday momentum couldn't continue onto Wednesday as Arrow disappointingly only managed to get back to its finale numbers. Given that softness and a finals uptick, I'm willing to say it was a reasonably positive premiere for The Tomorrow People, which ended up matching Arrow's demo (I expected TTP to premiere at 0.9 with Arrow two ticks higher). We'll see what happens next week.

• On NBC, Revolution inched downward again, Law and Order: SVU continued its rapid evening out two weeks after that massive premiere, and Ironside was down 15%, doing nothing to change its negative premiere night narrative. 

• The broadcasters' 10/9c struggles may be partly attributable to cable, where there was an epic clash going down between A&E's Duck Dynasty (3.2) and FX's premiere of American Horror Story: Coven (3.0). For AHS, it's an absolutely remarkable turnaround given that season two debuted at 2.2 and actually declined big from there (all the way to 1.3 by the finale).

SpotVault - Ironside (NBC) - 2013-14 Ratings

Ironside

Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 10/2/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• The Rebel-lion began quite well for ABC as Super Fun Night was one of the more impressive post-Modern Family launches, as the Rebel Wilson fanbase likely helped the show pretty much match up skew-wise with its young-skewing ModFam lead-in. I totally whiffed on this one, but in my defense, part of my miss was because I didn't remotely see Modern Fam holding 100% of its week-ago premiere rating. Nashville rounded out a strong final two hours for ABC by almost completely holding up week-to-week even in the face of a one-point-plus lead-in downgrade.

• It wasn't nearly as rosy in the 8:00 hour for ABC, though The Middle and Back in the Game both adjusted up in finals to better levels. BITG was even with last year's The Neighbors.

• NBC's relatively huge premiere Wednesday was just extra credit in a week they would've dominated anyway on the strength of The Voice and football. But it doesn't look like the night will be that kind of asset going forward. Revolution mimicked its spring trajectory, with one good week and then a drop in week two (though it got some finals help), Law and Order: SVU came way back to earth (though it's still a big positive, on the year-to-year plus side) and Ironside launched rather terribly at 10/9c. As predicted pre-season, there was a major skew discrepancy here; it matched SVU in viewership but had 30% fewer 18-49ers.

• No broadcast-wide year-to-year comparisons this time since there was a debate on the second Wednesday last year.

Fall 2013 Best Case/Worst Case, Wednesday 10/9c

The Basics:

	bc	Rank	y2y	Rank	TPUT	Rank	bc/TPUT	Rank
Wednesday 10:00	8.6	13	-11%	14	33.0	12	26%	13

Wednesday 10:00, like the Wednesday 9:00 hour that preceded it, was one of those rare hours in which every network was on the map. Though Nashville was a ratings disappointment, failing to live up to the previous season's occupant Revenge, it still did well enough to score a reasonably comfortable season two renewal. And NBC had one of the biggest pleasant surprises of the season as Chicago Fire proved a great match with Law and Order: SVU and heated up in the second half of the season.