The War of 18-49, Raising Hope

RAISING HOPE (FOX)

Scheduling history: Raising Hope launched on Tuesday at 9/8c, leading out of the peak season of Glee. In season two, Fox wisely shifted it to 9:30 to launch the far more substantial newbie New Girl. Late in season two and through season three, it led off Fox's attempt at a two-hour comedy lineup on Tuesday. And season four was essentially burnt off in the Friday 9:00 hour.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 4/4/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• The return of Unforgettable (1.0) on CBS to play out the rest of season two was not really anything special in either direction, matching its last couple episodes from the summer. It'll be a worse option than Undercover Boss, but that was not unexpected.

• Fox said goodbye to Raising Hope (0.6) with a one-hour finale. This pathetic number was sadly still the show's best rating since February. It got an assist from Kitchen Nightmares (0.7), which even in repeat mode (a week before its original return) was a big upgrade on the usual Rake numbers.

• Almost everything else was down a tick or two week-to-week. If this was a big deal for anyone, it'd be NBC, where Grimm (1.4) was down a tick and Hannibal (0.8) was down two. Blue Bloods (1.5) and 20/20 (1.5) were the only week-to-week growers, with the latter benefiting from the original return of Shark Tank (1.9). A downward adjustment made things look really ugly for Hart of Dixie (0.2).

Spotted Ratings, Friday 3/28/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• The California earthquake coverage didn't make a massive impact on Friday finals.
• A pair of very good games for CBS' Sweet 16 basketball (2.3/3.6) grew to a massive degree from the prelim on the same night last year (1.7/2.3);
• NBC had a good night with a special two-hour Dateline tying a season high. Hannibal adjusted down in finals but was still up a tenth week-to-week.
• Week two of Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.5) was down a tick, but the 8:30 repeat (0.5) matched it;
• Rake (0.4) and the final scheduled Enlisted (0.4) were each down another tick, though the penultimate Raising Hope (0.5) grew at 9:30. Apparently this took Rake beyond what Fox could accept even in this slot, as it was pulled from Friday and will burn off a couple eps this Saturday.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 1/17/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• The strong returns of Undercover Boss and Dateline at 8/7c may have nicked ABC's comedies Last Man Standing (1.4) and The Neighbors (0.9) a bit.

• In the last two hours, the better lead-in helped Grimm (1.5) and Dracula (0.9) swing back up, while Shark Tank (2.1) and 20/20 (1.7) stayed even at last week's season highs. Fox's comedies Raising Hope (0.7) and Enlisted (0.6) each dropped a tick.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 1/10/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• The surest flop of the season... flopped. Enlisted began with a 0.7 demo, down a tick from the 9:00 episode of Raising Hope. Basically, it did what a second Hope probably would've done in that spot. All there really is to say here is that this result isn't going to change the trajectory that Fox's scheduling put it on.

• Friday's big winner was ABC, where Last Man Standing (1.5), The Neighbors (1.1), Shark Tank (2.1) and 20/20 (1.7) were all at or near season highs. CBS' Hawaii Five-0 (1.5) and Blue Bloods (1.5) also bounced back quite well from their last 2013 episodes, which were oddly scheduled into late December.

• With all the competition back, the Grimm (1.3) roller coaster swung back down and also took Dracula (0.7) to a new low, which got even lower after finals. Some of the blame may go to another weak NBC News special Going for Gold (0.8) at 8/7c.

Spotted Ratings, Weekend Roundup 11/29-11/30/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• Typically Black Friday and the following Saturday are somewhat overrated as a part of the "holiday weekend," as they tend to post overall viewing levels in line with those nights' normal (low) levels. That was fairly close to the case again, though it seemed a bit low in the Friday 9/8c hour where Grimm and Raising Hope each had drops.

• Saturday Night Football had its third nationally unappealing matchup in four weeks; over the last month, the franchise has gone from +14% year-to-year all the way to -16%! (Last year's penultimate week scored a 5.1 demo for a Notre Dame national championship play-in game; this year, the last four games haven't even hit a 5.1 combined!)

Spotted Ratings, Friday 11/22/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• The Fox Friday nightmare is over, as Bones had a big jump to a much more reasonable number in week two of its Friday run, and it actually eked out a Friday 8/7c win over a below-average Undercover Boss. (According to CBS PR it was a clip show.) We can still debate whether Bones is being best utilized here, but at least now it's a debate; as I said last week, if it had held at 1.2, it would have been a clear misstep. Raising Hope was also up in the 9:30 half-hour (the 9:00 one adjusted down to tie).

• The CW commenced the six-episode final season of Nikita with terrible (though not exactly unprecedented) numbers.

• Elsewhere, NBC pre-empted its usual Grimm/Dracula lineup and saw a major decline in the slot with a John F. Kennedy special, while ABC's news department was the big winner with a spiking 20/20.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 11/15/13: Fall Off the Bones

WHAT MATTERS:

• Friday night: not as easy as some shows have been making it look lately. The Friday premiere of Bones went a whooping 40% below the last Monday episode, while Raising Hope was practically invisible in its own Friday debut (pulling less than half of its regular Tuesday demo from last season). That means so far, this lineup effectively looks no better than the previous one (MasterChef Junior and Sleepy Hollow repeats). I was more down on this than most of you simply because I'd seen very little promotion (they seem to be all-out for Almost Human right now), but I still thought each show would do several ticks better than this. Maybe people will become more aware of the moves in time, but if this is the level they're gonna be at, there's really no doubt that Fox screwed up here (and should rectify it).

• The night's best news came on NBC, where Grimm had a nice bounce-back after a couple rough post-premiere drops. However, it didn't bring Dracula back with it. CBS also had a second straight upswing from Hawaii Five-0, which ended up tying its season high after finals; perhaps some of these new 9/8c viewers came from a dipping Shark Tank.

SpotVault - Raising Hope (Fox) - 2013-14 Ratings

Raising Hope

Fridays, 9/8c, Fox

The Question, Friday 11/15/13: Is There Hope for a Fourth Scripted Lineup on Friday?

In week two of November sweeps, the Fox network aired just three programs that had a 2.0 or higher 18-49 rating. Tonight, one of those programs makes a move to low-viewed Friday night. Bones has quietly had another very solid season, but the success of its lead-out Sleepy Hollow means Fox is finally following through on the Friday move that they've promised many times and always audibled out of. It joins another series that led off a weeknight last year, the fourth-year comedy Raising Hope, in a lineup that will either make Fox competitive on a relatively crowded Friday, or make us all feel the shows are being wasted on the supposedly low-priority night. Is there Hope for a fourth scripted network on Friday? That's The Question for Friday, November 15, 2013.

November 2013 Best Case/Worst Case: Mike and Molly, Raising Hope, Almost Human

Here's a quick Best Case/Worst Case look at the three scripted shows premiering this November. The timeslot info on the blue bars (explained in the intro) covers the first five weeks of the regular season.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 3/28/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• Week two of March Madness was naturally much stronger than week one, with better games and only one competing game on cable. The preliminary 2.3 rating for CBS primetime was even with the second Thursday of last year on 3/22/13, and the finals for the combined games were also even year-to-year (down in the early game and up in the late one).

• It was a relatively light night for entertainment originals with NBC and CBS out of the mix aside from the last two eps of 1600 Penn. But the stuff on Fox and ABC was down a bit anyway, and Wife Swap took a noticeable dip in its second week in the dreaded ABC lead-off role. The diminishing potency of the American Idol lead-in was on display as Fox's Raising Hope tryout actually did worse than the show's normal Tuesday numbers.

The Question, Thursday 3/28/13: Will the Idol Lead-in Be Raising Ratings?

Tonight is the first of two straight Thursdays with a post-American Idol sitcom tryout. Arguably the one next week with New Girl and The Mindy Project is more interesting, but we probably won't visit that one since there are even bigger goings-on that night. This time, it's the one-hour finale of already renewed Raising Hope, a show that has historically proven it has a very loyal audience, but it's also not been able to spike much when given a big lead-in. Will the Idol lead-in be Raising ratings? That's The Question for Thursday, March 28, 2013.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 12/4/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• It was one tough Tuesday in the TV ratings world. CBS won the night with its usual special powerhouses Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, but both were down over 20% (and at least a full point) year-to-year.

• Nobody else had much to report, either. ABC's special Shark Tank was a tenth weaker than the show's most recent Friday 9:00 episode and hit the show's typical number when it aired at 8:00. Fox's comedies all tied season/series lows (except for Raising Hope, which set a new one). And NBC saw The Voice revert to near its Tuesday low point from two weeks ago. The one good thing NBC can say is it seems Voice-fueled Go On is widening its lead over the comedy competitors.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 10/30/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• It might have seemed off-base when I suggested Ben and Kate and The Mindy Project were essentially the same show despite Mindy's considerable raw numbers advantage. But give them the same competition thanks to a two-hour The Voice and that's pretty much what you get. 8:00's Raising Hope and Ben and Kate were even, but New Girl and The Mindy Project each took a significant hit. Of course, it also probably didn't help Mindy that she'd been off for three weeks. And I'm not saying kill off any of the 9:00 comedies because of this atypical evening. Just saying this kinda illustrates that the normal Tuesday 8:00 situation is much tougher than the normal Tuesday 9:00 one. We'll see how it goes on the other side of yet another pre-emption for the election next week.

• Speaking of comedies getting slammed against The Voice, ABC's Happy Endings and Apartment 23 took even bigger hits in their second weeks.

• Week five of CBS Tuesday finally stopped the bleeding with NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles and Vegas all even or up a little.

• Not expecting finals adjustments as significant on Monday, but Sandy was still in play with 10/9c news specials on NBC (2.9 post-Voice) and ABC (1.3).

SpotVault - Raising Hope (Fox) - 2012-13 Ratings

Raising Hope

Tuesdays, 8/7c, Fox

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 10/2/12: Bluesday

WHAT MATTERS:

• If Fox's Tuesday comedy lineup was a disappointment last week, it was pretty close to disaster this week. New Girl held up, but Raising Hope came back only about equal to its post-DST 8:00 level last year. Newbies Ben and Kate and The Mindy Project each shed 20%+; B&K actually has a slightly higher prelim True2 score than Mindy now that it has a worse lead-in, but that's just splitting hairs; they're both not looking that promising.

• CBS saw already modest Vegas follow up last week's big drop at the half with a big 20% drop in week two, while last week's strong NCIS pair shed 10%ish apiece.

• NBC began the night with a The Voice clips show that only got about 70% of the typical blind auditions numbers. That led to 15-20% drops for recently back-nined Go On and The New Normal.

• Round out the big four ugliness with ABC, where Private Practice dropped 16% in week two.

• The CW joined the 2012-13 entertainment programming game with the second season premiere of Hart of Dixie, which was down a tick from the year-ago series premiere but better than any of its results in 2012. But that was of no help to summer leftover The Next on a special night.

The Question, Tuesday 10/2/12: How Much Hope for Fox Tuesday?

Fox's four-comedy block on Tuesday was just one of the many buzzed-about lineups that came in below expectations during premiere week, and that was with two episodes of the block's strongest show, New Girl. Tonight, Fox begins leading off the evening with the regular 8/7c occupant, the much lower-rated returnee Raising Hope. How much hope should we have for the first show of the new Fox Tuesday? That's The Question for Tuesday, October 2, 2012.

Fall 2012 Best Case/Worst Case, Tuesday 8/7c

The Basics:

	bc	Rank	y2y	Rank	TPUT	Rank	bc/TPUT	Rank
Tuesday 8:00	10.2	11	-14%	21	33.9	12	30%	10

The Tuesday 8:00 hour took the biggest year-to-year dip of all 21 hours in 2011-12 and was the least competitive weeknight 8:00 hour. Credit big drops from mainstays The Biggest Loser and Glee. Both those guys are gone, and things should get a little more interesting in fall 2012 as two big reality franchises move their second nights down to the 8:00 hour.

Schedule Five-Spot, WE 4/15/12 - New Girl, Game of Thrones, Breaking In, Hell's Kitchen, The Game

Another edition covering two weeks! Technically speaking, here's the Schedule Five-Spot for the week ending April 15, 2012:

New Girl - Fox handed out renewals to their Tuesday lineup of Glee, New Girl and Raising Hope. New Girl has dropped a ton from its early fall numbers but is still easily Fox's biggest success in the live action half-hour arena in quite some time. Critically beloved Raising Hope probably made its case when it held up pretty well in its tryout at 8/7c this spring. Glee remains way down year-to-year but certainly deserves a season four, even if it'll likely keep bleeding.