The Breakdown: Fox Wednesday in 2016-17 (Lethal Weapon, Empire, Star and more!)

It's time for a journey through the Fox Wednesday schedule in 2016-17...

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 5/24/17

FINALS UPDATE: Movie: Dirty Dancing (1.4) and Empire (2.5) adjusted up while Survivor (1.3) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• The 2016-17 season came to an end with a slew of finale bumps. Empire (2.4) was on top with its best rating since late March (albeit still 40%ish behind the year-ago finale), and the finale of Shots Fired also picked up to its first 0.9 in over a month.

• It's been even longer (late February) since Law and Order: SVU (1.3/1.4) has gotten this high, and it managed to come close to even Plus-wise with the year-ago 1.6 finale.

• On CBS, Survivor (1.9/1.8) got a bit of a finale bump, and was slightly up in Plus from the spring 2016 finale (2.1). The reunion averaged a 1.4 in the 10:00 hour but that includes some finale.

• And despite not having its regular series, ABC was very much in the mix with its three-hour reimagining of Dirty Dancing, which averaged a 1.3 in each hour.

• Headed for Thursday next season, the CW's Arrow finished a five-year Wednesday run with an uptick to 0.6. Unlike most of the other marginal CW shows, The 100 actually gets to finish its year within the regular season, and it posted its usual 0.3.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 5/10/17

FINALS UPDATE: Speechless (1.1), Modern Family (1.6), Criminal Minds (1.6), Chicago PD (1.3) and Empire (2.2) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• It was one oddly mixed Wednesday night for ABC as Black-ish wrapped up its season, with Black-ish (1.3) and Designated Survivor (1.0) both up from last week. But the first half of the night was brutal, with The Goldbergs (1.3) inching down to a preliminary new low while Speechless (1.0) and recently-renewed Modern Family (1.5) were down two more tenths from already soft results last week.

• On CBS, the late-season strength from Criminal Minds (1.5) continued into its finale, but surrounding programs Survivor (1.7) and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (0.8) both shed a tenth in the prelims.

• Fox had a sigh of relief with Empire (2.1), which recovered to its two-weeks-ago rating following last week's low. Shots Fired made it four in a row at 0.8.

• NBC's Blindspot hung onto those 0.9's just long enough to get renewed, and this week was down to 0.8 for the first time since DST. Law and Order: SVU (1.1) made up for it with an uptick, while Chicago PD stayed at 1.2.

• And Arrow is preliminarily eyeing an uptick to 0.6 for the first time since early March. The 100 was at 0.3 yet again.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 5/3/17

FINALS UPDATE: Modern Family (1.7), Criminal Minds (1.5), Chicago PD (1.2) and Empire (1.9) adjusted up while The 100 (0.3) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• After nearly a month off, Modern Family (1.6) was back at a painful new low, and it was no help to the shows around it either. The Goldbergs (1.4) and Speechless (1.2) matched last week, while Black-ish (1.2) was down from last week's 9:30 episode. And Designated Survivor (0.9) returned to fractional territory after recovering in the last two weeks.

• Fox's late-season Empire struggles continued, as the show crashed again to a new low 1.8. Its lead-in Shots Fired hung at 0.8.

• Amid a mostly down night, CBS was an exception once again. Survivor (1.8), Criminal Minds (1.4) and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (0.9) were all on the upswing. Minds had its best number since January while the other two tied season highs.

• NBC's Law and Order: SVU (1.0) and Chicago PD (1.1) were both down a notch to new season lows, but Blindspot held up yet again at 0.9.

• And after hitting a strong prelim 0.3 last week, this time The 100 eked out a preliminary 0.4. It followed another 0.5 from Arrow.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 4/26/17

FINALS UPDATE: Black-ish (1.3), Survivor (1.8) and Criminal Minds (1.3) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• On the eve of May Sweeps, almost every Wednesday regular was back in original action. The one exception was Modern Family, so ABC went with a full hour of original Black-ish (1.2/1.2) at 9/8c. The series tied its lowest rating of the season, set back in early December on another night when there was no Modern Family original. 8/7c comedies The Goldbergs (1.4) and Speechless (1.2) each fell as well, hitting new season lows in the prelims. Designated Survivor (1.1) managed an uptick with a return to an original lead-in.

• NBC was back from another long hiatus, with the improvement continuing for Blindspot as it hung at its 0.9 from late March. Law and Order: SVU (1.1) and Chicago PD (1.2) tied their season lows and were down a tenth from their last episodes pre-hiatus.

• On Fox, Shots Fired stayed at the 0.8 it posted last week on an Empire repeat night, while Empire (2.1) was back at another new season low.

• CBS' Survivor was ever-resilient at 1.7, leading into a low-end 1.2 from Criminal Minds and another 0.8 as Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders reunited with its mothership lead-in.

• And the CW's Arrow and The 100 returned with their usual 0.5/0.3.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 4/19/17

FINALS UPDATE: Modern Family (R) (1.0) adjusted up while Law and Order: SVU (R) (0.7), Arrow (R) (0.1), Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R) (0.1) and Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R) (0.2) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Most of the Wednesday regulars snuck in one last repeat/pre-emption before returning to originals next week. That left a two-hour edition of Survivor (1.7) almost alone to dominate the night. It led into Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (0.8) at 10/9c.

• ABC had another quartet of comedy repeats (1.0/0.9/0.9/0.8) leading into original Designated Survivor (1.0), and Designated preliminarily got a tenth back after last week's big slide.

• Fox got to take a look at Shots Fired (0.8) without pre-tune assistance, since Empire (0.8) was also a repeat. It was down a tenth.

• NBC (0.8/0.9/0.8) and CW (0.3/0.3/0.3) went total repeat mode.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 4/12/17

FINALS UPDATE: The Goldbergs (R) (0.8), Speechless (R) (0.8), Modern Family (R) (0.9), Black-ish (R) (0.8) and Designated Survivor (0.9) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Fox was the only network airing its regular original lineup in its entirety, and Empire (2.3) was able to stop the bleeding in its fourth airing of the spring. However, its lead-in Shots Fired ticked down to 0.9.

• With Criminal Minds off for the next two weeks, spin-off Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders filled in with a double-dip (0.9/0.8), and did a little better leading out of one hour of Survivor (1.7). Next week it will be Survivor that airs two hours.

• Across the other three networks, only Designated Survivor (1.1) was original, leading out of repeat comedies (0.9/0.9/1.0/1.0). NBC (0.8/0.8/0.8) and the CW (0.2/0.2/0.2) were all repeats.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 4/5/17

FINALS UPDATE: The Goldbergs (1.6), Speechless (1.4), Modern Family (1.9), Criminal Minds (1.3), Law and Order: SVU (1.2) and Shots Fired (1.0) adjusted up while Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (0.7), Arrow (R) (0.2), Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R) (0.2) and Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R) (0.2) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Week three of Fox's latest Wednesday lineup saw a pair of small drops from Shots Fired (0.9) and Empire (2.2).

• After a strong showing last Wednesday alongside the Imaginary Mary premiere, comedies The Goldbergs (1.5), Modern Family (1.8) and Black-ish (1.3) all tumbled by multiple tenths. Goldbergs tied its season low while Modern Family hit a new one, and Black-ish had its lowest point of the season with an original lead-in. Speechless returned to the 8:30 slot matching its last original three weeks ago at 1.3. Designated Survivor also hung on with a 1.1 at 10/9c.

• One of the few stories of Wednesday resilience remained Blindspot (0.9), which has looked like a stronger show since its last return from hiatus. At 10/9c, Chicago PD (1.3) was also a success story for NBC, upticking from its last two weeks, while lead-in Law and Order: SVU stayed at 1.1.

• CBS' Survivor (1.7) and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (0.8) gave back upticks from last week, while the Criminal Minds mothership stayed at last week's low-end 1.2.

• The CW was in repeat mode with Arrow (0.3) and Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.3/0.3).

First Two Weeks, Shots Fired

 Still open today: Trial and Error

WEEK ONE
Rating: 1.127
Lead-in: Local programming (plus Empire (2.8) lead-out)
Competition: The Goldbergs (R) (1.0), Speechless (R) (1.0), Survivor Spring (1.7), Blindspot (0.9), Arrow (0.5)

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 3/29/17

FINALS UPDATE: Modern Family (2.1), Survivor (1.8) and Chicago PD (1.2) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC previewed its new Tuesday sitcom Imaginary Mary (1.4) in a special Wednesday 8:30 edition. It was up a tick from what Speechless did here two weeks ago, but maybe a bit weaker than what Speechless would've done considering it was a positive night for lead-in The Goldbergs (1.7) as well as lead-out Modern Family (2.0). Later in the night, both Black-ish (1.5) and Designated Survivor (1.1) were even with their last episodes.

• On Fox, Shots Fired (1.0) lost just a tenth in its second week, even as Empire (2.4) fell pretty hard to a new series low in its second episode of the spring.

• NBC's Blindspot (0.9) continued to show a little life in the spring, holding onto last week's uptick on another low night for Law and Order: SVU (1.1) and Chicago PD (1.1).

• CBS' Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (0.9) also tried to make its case, bouncing back from last week's low even as Criminal Minds (1.2) was down. Survivor hit its fourth straight 1.7 to open the spring.

• And Arrow headed into its last hiatus of the season with another 0.5, while The 100 stuck at 0.3.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 3/22/17

FINALS UPDATE: Law and Order: SVU (1.2) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Fox's brightest bulb Empire (2.8) was finally back for the spring, and up a tick from the 8/7c fall finale. However, that left it about 40% behind the 4.8 for the year-ago spring premiere. It had little help from its new lead-in, the new drama Shots Fired (1.1), which opened below Lethal Weapon's lowest rating of the season.

• NBC's Blindspot (0.9) and Law and Order: SVU (1.1) were back for the first time in four weeks. Blindspot tried to keep itself in the NBC picture by upticking from its last couple episodes of the winter, even on a night when SVU and Chicago PD (1.2) were each tying their series lows.

• ABC had a night of repeat comedies (1.0/1.0/1.1/0.8) leading into Designated Survivor (1.1), which finally came back to earth a bit in a tougher situation than its first two eps of the spring.

• On CBS, Survivor (1.7) and Criminal Minds (1.3) were steady while Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (0.8) inched down.

• And the CW was even with Arrow (0.5) and The 100 (0.3).

SpotVault - Shots Fired (Fox) - Spring 2017 Ratings

Shots Fired

Wednesdays, 8/7c, Fox

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