WHAT MATTERS:
- On the last Wednesday before it has to start competing with Big Brother, Fox's MasterChef hung a third straight 1.5, while its lead-out Bullseye was also even at 1.0.
- ABC had a rough night all around, with all four comedy repeats (0.9/0.8/1.0/0.9) down multiple tenths from last week and original Celebrity Wife Swap going all the way from last week's season high 1.2 down to a 0.8 this time. The last 90 minutes got crushed by an American Ninja Warrior repeat on NBC.
- And CBS was also at new summer lows all around, including The Briefcase (0.8). It will get one crack with a Big Brother lead-in next week.
- Programming note: I'm out of town for the next ten days. Scheduled open threads will go up at 11:10 ET on notable premiere ratings dates: tomorrow (Astronaut Wives Club/Mistresses), Monday (Celebrity Family Feud/BattleBots) and next Friday (Under the Dome/Big Brother Thursday/Boom!/Rookie Blue). I may sporadically add my thoughts on those posts if possible. Also, there will be War of 18-49 stuff throughout next week, as well as a couple other pre-scheduled things. The next Vault/rankings updates will come the following week. Have a good week and a half!
Above based on preliminary adults 18-49 ratings unless otherwise noted. Full table forthcoming!
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: The Stanley Cup Finals adjusted up just a tenth to 1.9, matching last year's opener. MasterChef (1.5) also gained 0.1.
- A week after a promising debut, CBS' The Briefcase (0.9) dropped like a rock, down more than a third from last week. It still wouldn't be a disaster if it settled here, but this was definitely bad news for renewal prospects.
- Fox's newbie Bullseye (1.1) held up much better in week two, even with last week despite MasterChef (1.4) coming back down a bit.
- NBC dominated the night with Game 1 of the NHL's Stanley Cup Finals, whose preliminary 1.8 was up a tenth vs. last year's prelim 1.7 (which later adjusted up to 1.9).
- And ABC reinstalled the full Wednesday repeat comedy lineup with the return of The Middle (0.9) and The Goldbergs (0.9). Though the whole lineup is still down a good bit year-to-year, it did somewhat improve Modern Family (1.2) and Black-ish (1.1) compared with last week.
The Briefcase
Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: The night's two biggest winners, MasterChef (1.6) and The Briefcase (1.4), each picked up another tenth in finals.
- CBS got into the summer original game with Wednesday 8/7c reality series The Briefcase (1.3), which had one of the network's more promising starts in this role that bridges the end of the regular season with the start of Big Brother. It was even with the 2012 premiere of Dogs in the City (1.3) and well above 2013's debut of The American Baking Competition (1.0).
- Fox had a more middling debut from its own new entry, the 9/8c reality series Bullseye (1.1). But they did have a major silver lining in that for the second straight year, MasterChef (1.5) shook off a bad premiere rating to grow significantly in week two. Even this point is down more than average year-to-year (it grew to 1.8 in week two of last season), but the season may not be in as much trouble as it appeared last week.
- The penultimate 500 Questions (1.0) inched down for ABC, while NBC had modest interest for an I Can Do That encore (0.7) and the two-hour iHeartRadio Country Festival (1.0).
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