The War of 18-49, Revenge

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 5/10/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Once Upon a Time (1.8) adjusted up, though still trailed the year-ago finale by over 20%. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.3) also inched up to become the outright biggest Fox program; I think this was the first time it beat its original Simpsons lead-in.
  

• There wasn't much finale heat for ABC Sunday; the two-hour season finale of Once Upon a Time was at the 1.7 that has become the show's late-season norm, while the series finale of Revenge (1.3) inched up again (returning it to its typical level from the fall).

• Fox was consistent but low with The Simpsons (1.2), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.2), a repeat of Family Guy (1.2) and a special 9:30 Bob's Burgers (1.2). CBS' The Good Wife finale also hit a 1.2; low as that might sound, it was the show's outright highest rating since it returned from hiatus in March. And NBC's A.D. The Bible Continues (0.9) was not able to make it out of the regular season without dipping below 1.0.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 5/3/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Secrets and Lies (1.8) indeed eked out another new series high with a finals uptick. Family Guy (1.7) also went up a tenth.

• Finale night for ABC's Secrets and Lies (1.7) had another good showing but was preliminarily not able to build any further on its big uptick for the penultimate episode. (Though with a 1.7/1.8 breakdown it should be pretty close to an upward adjustment.) With Once Upon a Time (1.7) also even, amusingly the show that benefited most was the penultimate episode of cancelled Revenge (1.2).

• After faring well last week, Fox's 8/7c hour of The Simpsons (1.3) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.2) had a particularly soft night. Family Guy (1.6) and The Last Man on Earth (1.4) were even.

• NBC and CBS stayed very low, though A.D. The Bible Continues (1.1) at least had the series' first non-drop. CBS could not completely stop the bleeding as nothing was up and The Good Wife (0.9) inched into fractional territory for the first time.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 4/26/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Family Guy (1.6) adjusted up to top all the other Fox programs.

• ABC saw the prospects further brighten for new drama Secrets and Lies (1.7). After seven weeks at very close to its series premiere number, it finally shot above that premiere rating for the first time, and it's remained a significant promotional priority for the network. Surrounding dramas Once Upon a Time (1.7) and Revenge (1.0) were even.

• NBC didn't have such good news as week four of A.D. The Bible Continues (1.1) was unable to bounce back from last week's stinker, and neither did the somehow-still-airing American Odyssey (0.5). This is a disheartening point for NBC because 1) it had much less competition than last week with The Academy of Country Music Awards; and 2) it also had a much better lead-in as NBC moved its two-hour Dateline Mystery franchise to Sunday. It averaged a 1.4 in the 8:30 half-hour, up from last week's 0.6 A.D. repeat.

• Fox had all five of its Sunday comedies in originals for the first time in a whooping six weeks. The last two hours were extremely consistent, which meant a below-average Family Guy (1.5) but a solid number from the return of Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.5). The Simpsons (1.5) and The Last Man On Earth (1.4) were closer to recent results.

• After some recent increases on sports overrun nights, CBS' Madam Secretary (1.0) got obliterated to a new low on this night, while The Good Wife (1.0) inched down as well.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 4/19/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The ACM Awards adjusted down to 3.6, still up 9% year-to-year. Once Upon a Time (1.7), Secrets and Lies (1.5) and A.D. The Bible Continues (1.2) got welcome upticks, while American Odyssey (0.5) dropped to what seems like a very clear pull-me-now level. On cable, Game of Thrones (3.6) took a larger than usual post-premiere drop, but it remained on the narrow year-to-year upside and tied the ACM Awards.

• After two weeks very much on the map, it only took three for A.D. The Bible Continues (1.1) to become yet another facepalm situation for NBC. It dropped a whooping six more tenths following the six-tenth week two drop, putting it already at less than half of the premiere rating. Last week, it was still Sunday's #1 broadcast series in 18-49. This week, it was a pretty distant fourth place just in its timeslot. The show's best hope now is that the similarly middle America-skewing Academy of Country Music Awards on CBS were very unfavorable competition for this show, but it would take a huge rebound to change the narrative here. And the surrounding 8/7c A.D. repeat (0.6) and American Odyssey (0.6) also took sizable week-to-week hits.

• ABC fared much better against the added CBS competition. Though Once Upon a Time (1.6) failed to rebound from last week's low, Secrets and Lies (1.4) and Revenge (1.0) both inched up, and America's Funniest Home Videos (1.4) may have benefited from the NBA playoffs airing late in the afternoon on ABC.

• Fox had animated anchors The Simpsons (1.4) and Family Guy (1.7) both in originals for once, with the former ticking down and the latter benefiting from a return to its usual 9/8c slot. The Last Man on Earth (1.4) was also up a bit.

• And CBS more than tripled its usual Sunday 8-11 delivery with an above-average The Academy of Country Music Awards (3.7), whose three-hour prelim was up from last year's 3.3.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 4/12/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: CBS ended up with a 3.3 in the last 16 minutes of Masters coverage leading into an above-average 1.8 for 60 Minutes and 1.4 for Madam Secretary. The Good Wife (1.1) was also up a tenth week-to-week.

• CABLE UPDATE: The Game of Thrones premiere averaged 8 million viewers and a 4.19 A18-49, up 16% from last year's premiere and a new series high (beating the 3.95 from late last season). The season two premiere for Silicon Valley (1.26) was up an almost identical 17% year-to-year. MTV's Movie Awards (0.78) garnered a lot less interest than usual.

• Opposite a lot of cable competition, it was not a positive week two for NBC's Sunday lineup, as A.D The Bible Continues (1.7) and American Odyssey (0.8) each tumbled by over 25%. Odyssey is certainly dunzo now, and the question becomes whether A.D. can hold on from here. (The Bible actually dropped nearly the same amount in week two, but it went up from there and the week two number ended up being the series low.)

• The other networks were also in at least mostly original mode. Fox saw a below-average Family Guy (1.5) in an odd 8:30 airing that led into yet another full hour of The Last Man on Earth (1.3/1.3). ABC saw both Once Upon a Time (1.6) and Revenge (0.9) inch down again, though Secrets and Lies held at 1.3. And CBS probably got at least a small boost with the end of the Masters leading in, but we'll have to wait for finals since it overran about 15 minutes into primetime.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 3/15/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: 60 Minutes (1.5) and the three brand new shows The Last Man on Earth (1.7), Secrets and Lies (1.4) and Battle Creek (0.9) all inched up. We can now say Secrets is having a pretty impressive post-premiere hold, and the Last Man drop looks a bit more excusable now when considering what happened to Family Guy.

• A few of the shows that withstood the opening post-DST Sunday had trouble on the second one. On ABC, the biggest example was Once Upon a Time (1.8), which followed last week's solid one-tenth decline with another three tenths this time. It's still not at its December low yet, but it's pretty close, and that 1.7 in December had a mere 0.5 lead-in. The other two scripted hours on ABC were relatively stable as Secrets and Lies (1.3) shed just a tenth for the second straight week and Revenge was flat at 1.1. 

• Fox's worst news was a second straight 20%ish drop for The Last Man on Earth (1.5), still a passable number but now miles away from that extremely promising premiere a couple weeks ago. It's worth noting it had little help from its Family Guy lead-in (1.7), which was down almost as much. The other Fox shows Bob's Burgers (1.0), The Simpsons (1.5) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.4) also inched down.

• CBS still looks pretty dire, but it got some minor consolation as Madam Secretary (1.2) inched back up. The Good Wife (1.0) and Battle Creek (0.8) were both even.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 3/8/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Fox had a big night of adjustments, as all the originals except for The Simpsons went up a notch, reducing The Last Man on Earth's week-to-week drop to -21%. Revenge (1.1) also adjusted up.

• Last Sunday's big breakthrough The Last Man on Earth (1.8) was down 25% in week two, falling slightly behind its new lead-in from Family Guy (2.0). It's a steep drop, but it gave itself room to withstand this. Like The Simpsons last week, Family Guy did a good job bouncing back from bad event season ratings,but Fox saw the arrival of DST take a toll earlier in the night as Bob's Burgers (1.1), The Simpsons (1.6) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.4) were all down multiple tenths from last week.

• On ABC, week two of Secrets and Lies (1.4) had a good post-premiere hold, down just a tenth from last week's premiere. I hesitate to call it "promising" since it's holding from a premiere that did not do that well, but this at least keeps it from dropping out of the conversation. Its lead-in Once Upon a Time (2.1) absorbed DST well, also down just a tenth from last week's return, while Revenge (1.0) bounced back a bit from the January event season numbers, though this was still on the low end of its fall ratings.

• For CBS, last week's nightmare only intensified. Battle Creek was down two tenths to a horrific 0.8, but the more meaningful story is probably how ugly it's getting in the previous two hours. Madam Secretary (1.1) and The Good Wife (1.0) were down again from already miserable return ratings last week.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 1/18/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The AFC Championship Game ended up at a 13.9 demo rating, down a stark 27% from the 19.0 Fox got for the NFC game in primetime last year. But a comparison of the closing portions of the games is even more drastic. Last year's game got as high as a 20.7 at 9:00. This year peaked at 15.3 in the 8:00 half-hour and dropped from there: to 14.3 at 8:30, 14.0 at 9:00 and 11.8 at 9:30.
• Also, Mulaney (1.2) adjusted down but still had a series high, joined in progress on the East Coast at 7:06. The final rating for its lead-in, the NFC Championship post-game, was a 5.5. Adding that to the True formula takes Mulaney to its lowest True ever. So in reality, the actual lead-in for the formula should probably be something lower (like a 4.0ish). But I'm sticking with the 5.5 since it's the only thing I have.

• CBS' AFC Championship Game ruled Sunday primetime, but a big blowout figures to put the game's rating well behind last year's NFC game on Fox, and it also hurt the special sampling for Scorpion (3.0). The preliminary 3.0 covers only the 10:30 half-hour; it does not include the first few minutes in the 10:00 half-hour (5.6) or the last 20ish minutes after primetime. More once time zone-adjusted numbers are available, but it should go way behind last year's The Following premiere (4.4).
• UPDATE: Scorpion got 12.29 million viewers and a 3.2 demo rating in time zone-adjusted numbers, only managing to tie the series premiere in the demo. (And pending further adjustments, it had fewer total viewers than its previous original episode!) This was over 25% behind last year's NFC lead-out The Following (4.4), but we'll have to see after finals how the last 30 minutes of the game compared from year-to-year.

• ABC's Galavant (0.9) took another massive blow in week three, losing any meaningful separation with the ABC Sunday dramas (though admittedly it faced a stronger portion of the game). Tack on Resurrection (0.7) and Revenge (0.9, slightly up week-to-week) and ABC's three original scripted hours actually lost head-to-head against Fox repeats and NBC's movie Bridesmaids (0.9).

• Fox's Mulaney (1.5) is currently on track for a series high due to a lead-in from the late-afternoon NFC Championship. But it could adjust down heavily depending on when the post-game ended.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 1/11/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• The last hurrah for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as hosts of the Golden Globe Awards averaged a preliminary 16.1 million viewers and 5.0 adults 18-49 rating. These numbers tend to adjust up significantly in finals, but they should be at least a bit below the 6.4 and 6.5 posted in the duo's first two stints.
• UPDATE: Time-zone numbers for the Globes were 19.3 million viewers and a 5.8 A18-49. In 18-49, that's about 10% behind the first two Fey/Poehler shows, but still ahead of the three Ricky Gervais years (5.5 -> 5.2 -> 5.0).

• On ABC, week two of Galavant (1.3) was down a hefty 35 percent vs. last week's premiere, while the dramas Resurrection (0.8) and Revenge (0.8) also hit new lows. A 35 percent drop can hardly be called a positive, even against this big increase in competition, but it's still stacking up quite favorably compared to those other ABC dramas...

• CBS had the playoff NFL overrun, significantly boosting 60 Minutes (3.6), somewhat boosting Madam Secretary (1.7) and not boosting The Good Wife (1.3). And Fox's The Simpsons (2.0), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.5), Family Guy (2.0) and Bob's Burgers (1.6) were at relatively normal non-overrun levels.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 12/7/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Each of Fox's animated anchors adjusted up a tenth.

• There was no big post-Walking Dead really for ABC's dramas. In fact, Once Upon a Time (2.0) was preliminarily down another tenth, putting it on the year-to-year negative side for the first time all season. But Resurrection (1.0) did get back one tenth and Revenge (1.2) was up two.

• On the other two networks, the NFL overrun made a big impact. Fox's The Simpsons (2.8), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2.1), Family Guy (2.2) and Bob's Burgers (1.6) all shot up to at or barely below the last time they had the overrun two weeks ago, while overrun-less CBS saw The Mentalist (1.1) take a huge week two drop and CSI (1.2) a two-tenth drop leading out of an I Love Lucy Christmas special (1.4) at 8/7c.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 11/30/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: It got a little less ugly on ABC after finals after Once Upon a Time (2.1) and Resurrection (0.9) adjusted up, but all three dramas still hit outright season lows.

• CBS had a massive NFL overrun from Patriots/Packers that happened to end right at 7:30 ET, making these preliminary numbers a bit less subject to huge adjustments than usual. At the moment, CBS is tracking toward a season high for 60 Minutes (3.7), a best-since-premiere number from Madam Secretary (1.9) and a pretty good start for the final season of The Mentalist (1.6) (even with last year's premiere and above all The Good Wife results in the slot this season).

• With CBS strong, NBC airing an above-average football game and AMC with a The Walking Dead finale, there was very little audience left for the other two entertainment networks. ABC had a particularly disheartening meltdown as Once Upon a Time (2.0) dropped by 17% while Resurrection (0.8) and Revenge (1.0) were down a full third. Fox punted again with repeats of both The Simpsons (1.0) and Family Guy (1.1). Given those results, Bob's Burgers (1.0) and especially Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.4) held up OK at the bottom of the hours.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 11/16/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Simpsons (3.0) rose to tie last week's rating.

• On a second straight Sunday with the NFL overrun, things went much better for Fox. Though The Simpsons (2.9) was only about even, Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2.2) and Family Guy (2.2) each took sizable upticks, and the installation of Bob's Burgers (1.7) at 9:30 nearly doubled last week's Mulaney rating.

• ABC pre-empted Resurrection to air a two-hour edition of Once Upon a Time (2.4/2.3). Though Once's ratings were on the low end for this season, the better lead-in really seemed to help Revenge (1.5), which easily hit a season high.

• On another without-overrun CBS night, Madam Secretary (1.5) pulled ahead of The Good Wife (1.3), while CSI (1.3) inched up from last week's low.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 11/9/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Simpsons (3.0) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.9) each picked up a tenth. Sunday Night Football (6.5) indeed hit a season low, but it was only a couple tenths behind last week.

• The NFL overrun swung back to Fox, but it ended relatively early. So The Simpsons (2.9), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.8) and Family Guy (1.8) benefited a good bit less than normal; Nine-Nine was only a tenth above last week's no-overrun result and Family Guy hit a new low. Since Fox insists on continuing to air Mulaney (0.9), it went back up with the return of an original lead-in.

• CBS dramas Madam Secretary (1.4) and The Good Wife (1.4) were back at normal non-overrun levels, while CSI (1.2) crashed to a new low.

• On ABC, it's been getting closer for awhile, and it finally happened: Revenge (1.3) beat its much-better supported lead-in Resurrection (1.2) (at least in prelims). Once Upon a Time (2.5) was down a tenth.

• NBC's huge blowout on Sunday Night Football could be headed for a season low. More after finals.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 11/2/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• It was a bounce-back Sunday for ABC's drama trio of Once Upon a Time (2.5), Resurrection (1.4) and Revenge (1.2). That may in part be thanks to the 7:00 hour, which surged with the re-installation of America's Funniest Home Videos (1.2) after last week's much weaker special.

• CBS had what looks like one of its bigger NFL overruns from a Tom Brady/Peyton Manning showdown. The lineup started very close to 8:00 Eastern and appears to have significantly boosted 60 Minutes (3.3) even over recent overrun results. And Madam Secretary (1.8) likely posted its biggest number since the premiere.

• For the first time in a month, Fox aired its regular lineup without the NFL overrun and saw Bob's Burgers (1.5), The Simpsons (2.0) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.6) roughly match their deliveries from that night. Then came yet another Family Guy repeat (1.2) for some reason. And finally airing in a bad situation, Mulaney (0.7) plummeted well below its premiere rating from a month ago. Maybe this will be enough to get it pulled.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 10/26/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Once Upon a Time (2.4) and The Good Wife (1.5) each upticked, meaning both of TGW's best numbers this year came at a 10/9c start time. The Walking Dead (7.0) remained slightly ahead of last fall's pace.
• The World Series got a 3.3, down 20% from last year's 4.1 for Game 5 and a steeper 28% from the Sunday game (Game 4) last year. Another weak result for the Series, but it is worth noting that Fox had the late NFL game on this night last year. NBC's Sunday Night Football (7.1) had one of its lowest results of the season but was still 13% above the 6.3 on World Series Sunday last year.

• On a sports-filled Sunday, the one network without any sports took a big hit. ABC's Once Upon a Time (2.3), Resurrection (1.2) and Revenge (1.1) all took further double-digit drops. This three-hour period (and Once itself), once such a massive explosion for ABC, was only barely on the year-to-year upside on this night. But if you're looking for a reason for these shows to rebound, maybe the lead-in at 7/6c had something to do with it. A Star Wars Rebels special (0.6) was completely invisible, only doing about half of the usual America's Funniest Home Videos numbers.

• Elsewhere, this was the one game of the World Series that had to deal with primetime NFL competition, though a considerable portion of the country had regional NFL leading in on Fox. And NBC's NFL game appears to be down a fair amount week-to-week. More on all this after finals.

• The CBS lineup started after NFL overrun at right around 8/7c (pre-empting CSI). In the preliminaries, Madam Secretary (1.5) and The Good Wife (1.4) were at typical levels.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 10/19/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS/CABLE UPDATE: Madam Secretary (1.5) and The Simpsons (3.6) each gained a tenth, while Mulaney (1.0) dropped back to the premiere number. For Madam, this actually put it a tenth higher than the other two episodes without an NFL overrun. Sunday Night Football (8.2) had a strong rating for this time of year but, again, was probably limited by the blowout. (It peaked at 9.1 at 9:30, then dropped to 8.4 and 8.1 from there.) The Walking Dead (7.7) was down 12% in week two, roughly on par with its week two drops historically.

• In week four, the bleeding mostly stopped for ABC Sunday. Once Upon a Time (2.7) was steady and Revenge (1.3) was up a tenth. Resurrection (1.4) did lose another tenth in its second try against The Walking Dead, though it might adjust up (as it did last week).

• On Fox, The Simpsons (3.5) Treehouse of Horror episode was up week-to-week even as its football lead-in appears to have declined. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2.5) seemed pretty indistinguishable from what a second-tier animated series would do with that lead-in, which is a good thing. Family Guy (2.5) also benefited from the lead-in heat. Mulaney (1.1) did not, dropping well over half of its lead-in. Considering how well the animated series repeat, this is a clear situation where Fox could easily do much better, so it may not be back here after the lineup takes a week off for the World Series.

• CBS was basically even week-to-week as every drama hit 1.4. NBC's football grew week-to-week on Peyton Manning's record-setting night, but another blowout probably limited the rating somewhat. More after finals!

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 10/12/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Nielsen's ABC inflation is over, but Once Upon a Time (2.7) and Resurrection (1.5) still got some help from finals. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2.2) also picked up a tenth, while Madam Secretary (1.4) declined to the same number it got without the NFL two weeks ago.

• CABLE UPDATE: The Walking Dead had at least one more series high in it, posting a stratospheric 17.3 million viewers and 8.7 A18-49 rating. It wasn't exactly another of those massive TWD explosions; the A18-49 rating was only 6% above the 8.2 that kicked off last season. But when we're talking about comparisons with a series that had already pulled off some of the most impressive ratings in TV history, every step farther up the ladder should not be taken for granted. Amazing.

• Once Upon a Time (2.6) dropped another 16% from last week's 3.1 preliminary (seemingly the more reliable number for comparison given the Nielsen issues). The Frozen thing remains a big win, as this was still on the year-to-year upside, but the margin is shrinking. ABC then saw Resurrection (1.4) take another large drop at 9/8c, likely at least in part due to the premiere of The Walking Dead in the hour. This was 22% behind even last week's prelim and also trailed the year-ago episode of Revenge in the hour. And Revenge (1.2) inched down again to a preliminary new low (but remains a huge improvement vs. last year's Betrayal).

• Fox got a big boost from an even more massive late-afternoon NFL lead-in than usual. The Simpsons (3.3) zoomed back up by over 60% week-to-week, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2.1) continued to do pretty close to what could be expected of a second-tier animated series. Even lowly Mulaney (1.1) picked up a tenth week-to-week, though its Family Guy lead-in (1.7) was in repeat mode.

• On CBS, Madam Secretary (1.5) and CSI (1.4) each improved by a tenth on when CBS last lacked the national NFL lead-in two weeks ago.

• Football and The Walking Dead updates to come!

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 10/5/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: ABC had another huge adjustment Sunday, with Once Upon a Time up two tenths to 3.3 (now 27% above week two of last season) and Resurrection (2.0) also gaining two tenths to stay ahead of last season's low point. Revenge (1.4) also picked up a tenth. Madam Secretary ended up at 1.6, up two tenths week-to-week. It's not a huge shocker given the lead-in spike, but it suggests the show has at the very least stabilized.

• After a huge opening Sunday, it was the worst of all worlds for Fox's second Sunday. First, the animated anchors showed absolutely no residual heat from their massive openers last week. In fact, it was the opposite. The Simpsons (2.0) was down nearly 50% week-to-week and Family Guy (1.9) nearly sixty percent. For Family Guy, this marked a new series low just a week after its highest result in over three years. And second, the 9:30 newbie Mulaney (1.0) had a truly ghastly showing even given its lead-in's softness, dropping nearly 50%. (Silver lining: at least Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.6) still looks semi-respectable at 8:30.) Bob's Burgers (1.4) did OK at 7:30 (though it had some local NFL help) and seems like a good bet to replace Mulaney at 9:30 very soon. Fox is actually airing a Family Guy repeat at 9:00 next week, so it was almost like they were counting on this Mulaney result.

• On ABC, the show that seemingly should've been most inflated last week may actually end up holding up the best in week two. Once Upon a Time had a still very stout 3.1 at 8/7c, still up double-digits year-to-year and just 16% behind last week's premiere even before finals adjustments. Resurrection (1.8) was the show that really got mowed down, preliminarily 28% below last week's big opener, while Revenge (1.3) dropped two tenths. But we'll have to see what happens in finals!

• More on CBS after finals, though CBS actually allowed the lineup to start on time for viewers of 49ers/Chiefs rather than shift them to the blowout in San Diego. It looks like Madam Secretary may have gone up a bit, but we'll see.

Spotted Ratings, Premiere Sunday 9/28/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: ABC's great night got much greater after finals as Once Upon a Time (3.7) and Resurrection (2.5) each picked up three tenths. For all my horrible Question lines last week, Resurrection's big bounce-back is the one that most surprises me. A big part of it was my underestimating the lead-in (which I figured would do 2.7 or 2.8), but it's still a pretty good show of strength even after accounting for that. Revenge (1.5) also inched upward.

• For a night without a series premiere, the opening Sunday sure was full of surprises. The biggest by a wide margin was Fox's enormous one-hour crossover between The Simpsons and Family Guy (4.5), which would be Family Guy's biggest rating since January... of 2011. It was 73% above last season's premiere. There was also a great deal of heat in the halo at 8:00, with The Simpsons (3.9) about a third above its last premiere and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2.6) up by double digits on last year's Bob's Burgers premiere.

• It's pretty crazy that a huge bounce for the Frozen crossover on Once Upon a Time (3.4) is somehow playing second fiddle on this night. But it was still an incredible rating, zooming way past any rating from last season (including 31% above the 2013 premiere) to OUAT's biggest number since fall 2012. That helped Resurrection (2.2) skew a little younger and thus return pretty respectably, inching past last season's finale, but the heat was gone by Revenge (1.4) time. Revenge tied the spring finale but was down a whooping 39% from last season's start. ABC was +8% vs. last year's premiere Sunday.

• CBS was left well behind as Madam Secretary (1.4) dropped 30% from its post-football premiere and CSI (1.4) had a slow start in its new Sunday slot. Madam is certainly not off the map yet, but it doesn't really look like something that would justify The Amazing Race's move to Friday. CBS was -19% vs. last year's premiere Sunday (also without an NFL overrun).

• Cowboys-fueled football (8.7) was up nearly a point week-to-week.