Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/28/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Agents of SHIELD, NCIS, NCIS: New Orleans, The Voice and Chicago Fire all adjusted up. One Big Happy went down to 0.8, a new low by three tenths that feels like a true final nail in the coffin.

• ABC began a run of special Dancing with the Stars Tuesday telecasts with a special celebrating the show's 10th anniversary (1.7). Though it significantly improved on ABC's usual ratings in the hour, it was probably even less compatible than previous occupants with Agents of SHIELD (1.4), which could only produce a low-end result. An ABC News special (1.4) did well at 10/9c.

• Perhaps ABC's biggest benefit from DWTS was how badly it hurt the competitors. CBS' NCIS (1.9) will hit its third consecutive new low unless it adjusts up, while NCIS: New Orleans' (1.8) retention looked better by comparison in a considerably less competitive hour. It also took a major chunk out of NBC's The Voice (2.1), leading to more new lows for the lead-out comedies Undateable (1.2) and the likely series finale of One Big Happy (0.9). NBC jumped back up at 10/9c for Chicago Fire (1.5), which kicked off yet another Dick Wolf crossover event.

• On Fox, Hell's Kitchen (1.1) is eyeing another new low in the prelims, while New Girl (1.0) remained mired at the very low level it's been seeing since Weird Loners (0.6) showed up.

• Barring preemptions, the CW would be the night's winner with a very high-end rating from The Flash (1.5) and a slight rebound from iZombie (0.7).

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/21/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Voice, Agents of SHIELD, Undateable, Hell's Kitchen and The Flash gained a tenth. iZombie (0.6) lost a tenth to hit a new low.

• Fresh Off the Boat ended season one with its second straight 1.5, a promising finish after getting as low as 1.3 a few weeks ago. The Repeat After Me (1.1) finale and Forever (1.0) ticked up, while Agents of SHIELD (1.5) inched down in prelims (but with a 1.6 -> 1.5 breakdown, should be pretty close to adjusting up).

• Undateable (1.3) had its worst showing yet despite The Voice (2.5) staying at least even. One Big Happy (1.1) was even, while Chicago Fire (1.6) looked good at 10/9c, growing huge on its comedy lead-in for the first time since About a Boy was still around.

• CBS gave an original CSI: Cyber (1.2) a Tuesday whirl. With a repeat NCIS: New Orleans lead-in (1.1), it was two tenths below its post-Criminal Minds low on Wednesday, which is not really surprising. Though it may get some comparisons to a similar CSI tryout in January, the situation was not nearly as favorable; New Orleans was a half-point bigger then, and there were no original drama competitors.

• After big nights last week, a little air came out of CW's The Flash (1.2) and iZombie (0.7), but they still avoided new lows.

• And another post-New Girl repeat (0.6) episode of Weird Loners joined American Odyssey at 0.5, while Hell's Kitchen (1.1) also hit a season low.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/14/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Fresh Off the Boat, NCIS, Person of Interest, The Voice, Hell's Kitchen and The Flash were all up by 0.1.

• It was a good night to be a comic book show. ABC's Agents of SHIELD (1.6) inched up for the second straight week and now looks quite healthy after sputtering to 1.4 a couple weeks ago. And the CW had a very good number for an Arrow crossover on The Flash (1.3), while iZombie (0.8) validated last week's seemingly crazy 0.7 after a repeat by rising to match the premiere rating. It seems like this is now a legitimate Supernatural-esque performer, which is very good news.

• NBC's 9/8c comedy block returned after a week off, and there seems to be some separation developing between Undateable (1.5) and One Big Happy (1.1). The former's result was particularly decent given the continued erosion of its The Voice lead-in (2.4).

• CBS had a pretty rough night with NCIS (1.9) bound for another new low. NCIS: New Orleans (1.8) and a Person of Interest (1.4) guest-starring Taraji P. Henson only barely recovered even against over a point less of NBC competition.

• And with New Girl (0.5) in repeats, Weird Loners (0.6) shed a tenth in week three.

First Two Weeks, One Big Happy

WEEK ONE 
Rating: 1.6
Lead-in: Undateable (1.9)
Competition: Agents of SHIELD (1.6 overall, 1.5 at 9:30), NCIS: New Orleans (R) (1.1 overall, 1.1 at 9:30), The Mindy Project (0.9), iZombie (0.8 overall, 0.8 at 9:30)

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 3/24/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The finale of The Mindy Project (0.9) dodged a new low and ended up on par with the last couple airings after repeats. The Voice (2.8) and The Flash (1.2) were also up. NCIS: New Orleans (1.8) lost a tick, making this the show's outright second-lowest episode.
  

• NBC's Tuesday comedy block looked less promising in week two, as Undateable (1.5) dropped about 20% and One Big Happy (1.2) about 25% to put the hour pretty much on par with typical ratings for The Night Shift after The Voice. However, they had little help from The Voice itself (2.7), which shed 15%ish for the second straight week. NBC also got some info on what The Night Shift (1.0) would be like without a The Voice lead-in by airing an original in the 10/9c hour after One Big Happy. It doesn't seem like a very surprising result in either direction.

• The CW had somewhat better newbie news as iZombie (0.7) was down just a tenth in week two. Its lead-in The Flash (1.1) could very well adjust up (it had a 1.2 in the 8:00 half-hour), but even getting to 1.2 would still mark a new low.

• ABC's 8:00 block didn't fare well after a week off, with Fresh Off the Boat (1.4) down two tenths and Repeat After Me (1.0) also hitting yet another new low. FotB has looked utterly safe, but it would certainly do well to stop the bleeding from this point forward. Agents of SHIELD (1.5) and Forever (0.9) also inched down for ABC.

• CBS saw NCIS: New Orleans (1.9) get back to normal after its disastrous 1.6 against The Voice two weeks ago. Lead-in NCIS (2.2) and lead-out Person of Interest (1.5) were even.

• And Fox's The Mindy Project (0.8) ended its season on a new low, leading out of a repeat New Girl (0.7) for the third straight week.

SpotVault - One Big Happy (NBC) - 2014-15 Ratings

One Big Happy

Tuesdays, 9:30/8:30c, NBC

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 3/17/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Voice (3.2) went up a tenth and NBC's comedies avoided downward adjustments. On the CW, The Flash (1.3) picked up a tenth and iZombie (0.8) lost one, putting iZombie only on par with the most recent episode of Supernatural.

• NBC had a decent enough start to its second experiment with a summer series in the spring. Undateable (1.9) went almost 50% above its high point from last summer, and the series premiere of One Big Happy (1.6) had sound enough retention in the 9:30 slot. It probably looks better than it really is because of how thoroughly The Night Shift bombed a few weeks ago; after all, it's still at least 10% below the fall comedy openers for Marry Me (2.3) and About a Boy (1.7) and about 20% behind last spring's About a Boy/Growing Up Fisher (2.5/1.9). But it's certainly a far less painful opener than what we saw from The Night Shift, and these shows will have a chance if they can hold on reasonably.

• On the CW, iZombie also had a start that can be put in the "decent enough" column, a 0.9 rating with 2.3 million total viewers. This was not down too badly from its The Flash (1.2) lead-in, which preliminarily hit a new low in its first post-DST airing (though it's been a frequent adjust-up show in the past, so it may only tie).

• Elsewhere on NBC, The Voice (3.1) took another big week-to-week hit, in part because it contracted to one hour. And despite better comedy ratings than usual, Chicago Fire (1.6) was below most of what it did in the fall when separated by an hour from The Voice, even opposite repeats on ABC and CBS.

• The other three networks had at least something in repeats. Most promising among the originals was probably Agents of SHIELD (1.6), which ticked up in its first spring outing with no Voice competition despite airing after a repeat of Repeat After Me (0.7). Hell's Kitchen (1.3) and The Mindy Project (0.9) were even on Fox, while CBS was all repeats.

The Question, Tuesday 3/17/15: Will An Undateable-Led Comedy Block Be Unwatchable?

ALERT: For the first time in a couple years, it's a double Question day! Another one is going live momentarily, so stay tuned!

Last summer, the premiere of NBC comedy Undateable seemed like such a burn-off that I didn't even bother doing a Question for it. Nearly ten months later, here we are with the show improbably getting a run of episodes after NBC's biggest lead-in. Undateable didn't exactly light up the Nielsens en route to this treatment; its 1.3 premiere on the opening Thursday of the summer was a relatively pleasant surprise, but it quickly shed a lot of that audience when the NBA Finals showed up. Now, it joins new comedy One Big Happy and will try to benefit more from The Voice lead-in than fellow summer rookie The Night Shift has. Will an Undateable-led comedy block be unwatchable? That's The Question for Tuesday, March 17, 2015.

Best Case/Worst Case, Mid-March 2015: Undateable, iZombie and more!

Best Case/Worst Case is back for another brief edition. Since there's another large gap with no premieres, we're covering only the four premieres tonight and tomorrow night. Will come back for one more edition in a couple more weeks.

It's getting to be the time of year to note that these predictions only deal with episodes prior to the end of the regular season. We are not factoring in extended summer runs in an unknown timeslot.