Spotted Ratings, Monday 5/18/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: DWTS (2.3), Mike and Molly (1.9) and Stalker (1.3) adjusted up.

• It was a promising two-hour start for the latest season of The Bachelorette (2.1), which beat the show's last two premiere ratings. Last summer's Bachelorette only got as high as 2.1 for the After the Final Rose following the finale. It led out of the performance finale of Dancing with the Stars (2.2), which was even with last week's two-hour episode.

• CBS aired its last scripted original episodes of the regular season to surprisingly good results, as 2 Broke Girls (2.0) shot well ahead of its other deliveries since the Scorpion finale. Mike and Molly (1.8) and NCIS: Los Angeles (1.4) also went out on an up note, though the Stalker series finale (1.2) inched down.

• The final performance edition of The Voice (2.6) was up two tenths week-to-week (if still down almost 20% year-to-year), but The Night Shift (1.2) didn't benefit. Fox's The Following went out with another two-hour edition (1.0/0.9).

Spotted Ratings, Monday 5/11/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Dancing with the Stars adjusted up to 2.2, down just a tenth year-to-year. The second half of The Following was also up to put both hours at 1.0. 

• The penultimate performance Monday brought minor rebounds for both The Voice (2.4) and Dancing with the Stars (2.1). DWTS remained at very close to a league average decline year-to-year (it had a 2.3 on this night last year), while The Voice's y2y was -20%, a bit better than last week but still well behind the season trend as a whole. Better lead-ins didn't help the finale of Castle (1.4), down a massive 33% from the year-ago finale, and The Night Shift (1.2).

• CBS had another low-end post-Scorpion Monday, as 2 Broke Girls (1.6) and Mike and Molly (1.7) were close to even, Stalker was back from a week off with another 1.3, and it dragged NCIS: Los Angeles (1.3) to a preliminary new low.

• Fox dipped to 1.0 for two hours of recently axed The Following, while The Originals and Jane the Virgin each stayed at 0.5 for their season finales.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 5/4/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UDPATE: 2 Broke Girls (1.7) and Mike and Molly (1.6) went up a tenth.

• The season finale of Fox's Gotham had a nice increase to 1.7, its best number since returning from hiatus in mid-April and perhaps a good sign for the future. But lead-out The Following inched down to 1.1.

• It wasn't a good late-season evening for the singing competitions, as The Voice took a sizable hit to a new performance low 2.3. The Monday show held tight at 3.0 in the closing weeks last year, so this is its worst year-to-year point of the season by a pretty wide margin. Dancing with the Stars (1.9) also hit a new season low. The shows' lead-outs The Night Shift (1.3) and Castle (1.4) held on at 10/9c, perhaps benefiting from no CBS drama competition.

• CBS' comedies continued to struggle in a post-Scorpion world, with 2 Broke Girls (1.6) unable to come back from last week's plunge and Mike and Molly (1.5) taking another sizable hit. CBS slightly improved on last week's final 90 minutes with a David Letterman tribute special (1.5).

• The CW's Jane the Virgin preliminarily inched up to its first 0.5 in awhile, but a 0.4/0.5 breakdown means it is not there by a wide margin.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 4/27/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: 2 Broke Girls (1.6), Mike and Molly (1.7) and Stalker (1.3) all went down for CBS, suggesting some preemption oddity. For 2BG, it resembles the show's previous 1.6 stinker in late November (also a night with some preemptions due to riot coverage). The Night Shift (1.2) also lost a tenth.

• CBS traded out smashing new success Scorpion for the low-end drama Stalker (1.4) and dropped more than a third week-to-week in the 9/8c hour (as well as 25%+ from what Scorpion was getting on a normal basis). While not as bad as it could've been for Stalker given its over two months off the airwaves, it's still not making any kind of serious case for renewal. Its presence was also not good to the surrounding CBS hours; 2 Broke Girls (1.7) and Mike and Molly (1.8) were below average at 8/7c, and NCIS: Los Angeles (1.4) stayed at last week's weak number.

• A weaker CBS brought little added audience to the competition. Fox's lead-in Gotham (1.5) preliminarily gave back last week's rebound but may adjust up, while The Following (1.2) was even. NBC's lineup (The Voice (2.6) and The Night Shift (1.3)) was steady, while ABC was actually down another notch with Dancing with the Stars (2.0) and the increasingly shaky Castle (1.3). 

Spotted Ratings, Monday 4/20/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: If you had a 1.5 or higher in the prelims, you adjusted up, meaning a tenth for Dancing with the Stars, Mike and Molly, Scorpion, The Voice and Gotham, and a very rare two-tenth upgrade for 2 Broke Girls (2.1). The first three CBS shows all hit their highest ratings in over a month (and in over two months for Scorpion).

• Finale night for CBS' very successful drama newbie Scorpion (2.1) produced a nice bounce over the last few episodes, and CBS' comedies 2 Broke Girls (1.9) and Mike and Molly (1.9) were also narrowly up. But the momentum quickly ended at 10/9c as NCIS: Los Angeles (1.4) dropped to an abnormally low number with all of its drama competitors in play. 

• On NBC, The Voice (2.5) took a sizable hit. This was the same week that a similar decline (3.4 -> 3.0) occurred last year, so it remained at the same mid-teens year-to-year decline that has been the norm in recent weeks.

• ABC's Dancing with the Stars (2.0) and Castle (1.4) were both slightly down, while Fox's Gotham (1.5) remained at last week's low return number and The Following (1.2) inched up. The CW's The Originals (0.5) rebounded but Jane the Virgin remained mired at 0.4.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 4/13/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: With baseball pre-emptions removed, both The Originals and Jane the Virgin went down two tenths to 0.4, the first ever for The Originals. Dancing with the Stars (2.2) and The Voice (2.9) each went up a tenth and The Night Shift (1.3) went down a tenth.

• It was a rough return after a month off for Fox's Gotham (1.5), which shed 25% of its last pre-hiatus episode (also a pre-DST episode) and was three tenths below its low point from early February. This was always gonna be a tough spot, but this seems like a somewhat steeper decline than Fox would've wanted. And it only got lead-out The Following (1.1) to what it usually got after a Gotham repeat (but two tenths above last week's ep against the NCAA championship).

• There was mostly week-to-week steadiness for originals on the rest of the big four. The most promising results were Dancing with the Stars (2.1), up at least a tenth, and NCIS: Los Angeles (1.6) perhaps benefiting a bit from Castle being in repeats. Scorpion (1.9) was barely down to preliminarily tie its series low from late November.

• It seems certain that the CW's The Originals (0.6) and Jane the Virgin (0.6) will come down in finals due to pre-emptions (in New York and possibly elsewhere). Consider "wait for finals" a pretty good rule of thumb for any CW rating that looks high the rest of the way.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 4/6/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The big game adjusted all the way up a whooping 9.1, 26% above last year's game. The total viewership (28.26 million) was the biggest in 18 years and the 18-49 rating was the biggest in 13 years (since a 9.3 in 2002).

• The NCAA basketball championship game's 9:00-11:00 preliminary (7.2) was 20% above the 6.0 for the preliminary last year, and the household overnights were the highest for the game in 18 years. Last year's game ultimately adjusted up to a 7.2 in finals.

• With seemingly a much stronger game than last year, the broadcast competitors got nicked a little more than usual. On NBC, The Voice (2.9) lost at least a couple tenths on a night when it actually rose last year, but The Night Shift (1.4) seems to have rallied from last week's low. The Following (0.9) and Jane the Virgin (0.4) both had bad results, but Dancing with the Stars (2.0) continued a very steady season, losing just a tenth.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 3/23/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Voice (3.4), Mike and Molly (1.9), Scorpion (2.1) and the 8pm The Following (1.3) were up a tenth. The Night Shift (1.5) lost a tenth.

• Week two of Dancing with the Stars (2.0) had a nice post-premiere hold, matching the 2.0 for week two of the fall season but still about 10% behind last spring's pace. But the struggle continued for Castle (1.4), which shed another tenth.

• CBS had its first fully original lineup vs. the new DWTS season and saw a bit of an off night for comedies 2 Broke Girls (1.9) and Mike and Molly (1.8), while Scorpion (2.0) was even and NCIS: Los Angeles (1.6) was back to fairly normal after a high-end result a couple weeks ago.

• On Fox, two hours of The Following (1.2) inched up from the last couple weeks, perhaps illustrating just how far below local programming those repeat Gotham lead-ins have been.

• And NBC won with a fairly steady The Voice (3.3) and a preliminary new season high for The Night Shift (1.6). But we'll have to see if TNS can avoid a reprise of last week's two-tenth downward adjustment in finals.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 3/16/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Dancing with the Stars (2.1) went up, bringing it just inside the -20% year-to-year threshold, while Mike and Molly (2.0) adjusted up, again dodging its first 1.x since the new year. The Voice (3.4) went up, but The Night Shift (1.3) was down an unusual two tenths to eliminate all of its week-to-week growth. Also flattening out week-to-week was the CW, where oddly The Originals (0.5) went down while Jane the Virgin (0.5) was up.

• ABC opened up its latest Dancing with the Stars season in soft fashion (2.0), down 20%+ from last spring's premiere and double digits from the fall 2014 premiere (2.4). Considering the scorching way DWTS ended its last fall season, including a 3.0 finale, this is a disappointment. (It was actually above the fall 2014 premiere in total viewers, so this show skewed a lot older than its already ancient norm.) And usual DWTS lead-out Castle (1.5) saw no benefit from the return of a more compatible-skewing lead-in.

• If there was any consolation for ABC, it was that the music-themed competition seemingly did take a chunk out of a previously overachieving The Voice (3.3). But with NCIS: Los Angeles in repeats and Castle still mediocre, weak lead-out The Night Shift (1.5) went back up a touch.

• The CW's The Originals (0.6) inched up, but it's starting to get hairy again for Jane the Virgin (0.4), down for the second straight week since its return from hiatus.

• The other two networks were in part-repeat mode. The Following hung at 1.1 in week three while Mike and Molly (1.9) lost a bit in yet another original airing amid a sea of CBS repeats. (It once again had help from a The Big Bang Theory repeat (1.7) at 8/7c.) 

Spotted Ratings, Monday 3/9/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The finals made the NBC and CBS nights look a good bit better; The Voice (3.8) went up two tenths, putting it on the year-to-year upside and very nearly even with last week. 
• The CBS comedies adjusted up to very nearly even at 2.1 apiece, while NCIS: Los Angeles hit its third-highest rating of the season.
• The finale of The Bachelor (2.8) also gained a tenth, making this the first three-hour Bachelor finale night on which the actual finale outrated "After the Final Rose." (It has happened a couple times with The Bachelorette, though.)

• Some week-to-week slippage was to be expected for week two of The Following, which had a worse lead-in from a Gotham repeat (0.7) and more competition from an original Scorpion (2.0). But this was an obliteration, down a half point to a 1.1 that has it very quickly behind Sleepy Hollow's series low.

• ABC wrapped up The Bachelor with, by this show's standards, a very modest finale spike. It averaged a 2.7 for the two-hour finale and a 2.7 for "After the Final Rose" at 10/9c. This was significantly behind last year's 3.3 finale / 3.8 ATFR, a disappointment considering recent weeks had been even or better year-to-year.

• DST slightly depressed the early originals on the other three networks:
• On CBS, 2 Broke Girls, Mike and Molly and Scorpion all tied at 2.0, but NCIS: Los Angeles (1.7) was slightly up;
• NBC saw The Voice (3.6) took a bit of a hit, but it was very close to the year-ago episode, while The Night Shift stayed at 1.4;
• And the CW's The Originals (0.5) and Jane the Virgin (0.5) each inched down.

SpotVault - The Following (Fox) - 2014-15 Ratings

The Following

Mondays, 9/8c, Fox

Spotted Ratings, Monday 3/2/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Voice (3.9) was up a tenth. Of significance to some, The Following remained at 1.6.

• The third-season premiere of The Following (1.6) was down 20% from the timeslot premiere last year. For now, this was a bit of an improvement on recent episodes of Sleepy Hollow (which last got this high about two months ago). But it had a good situation with CBS in repeats and an original lead-in from Gotham (2.0), which is now heading to hiatus for over a month. Gotham, meanwhile, gave back a big chunk of its huge rally over the last couple weeks.

• Week two for NBC saw continued strength in the first two hours with The Voice (3.8) and continued disaster at 10/9c with The Night Shift (1.4). Both shows took a small week-to-week drop but were up in total viewership, perhaps due to the lessened CBS competition.

• CBS' Mike and Molly (2.2) tied its season high despite being the network's only original. Its lead-in was not that much worse than usual as CBS plugged in a repeat The Big Bang Theory (1.8) at 8:00.

• And ABC encored the first hour of Secrets and Lies (1.0) after The Bachelor (2.4 at 9:30).

The Question, Monday 3/2/15: Will The Following's Ratings Get Scarier in Season Three?

In 2013, Fox's Kevin Bacon drama The Following became the highest-rated new show of the 2012-13 season, kicking off the year of the so-called "limited series." In 2014, the show got major exposure from an airing after the NFC Championship game but still disappointed when it returned to Monday, kicking off the year of the limited series sophomore slump. And tonight, it becomes the first example of what happens when a limited series drops huge in season two but still gets renewed anyway. Will The Following's ratings get scarier in season three? That's The Question for Monday, March 2, 2015.

Best Case/Worst Case, Early March 2015: The Last Man on Earth, CSI: Cyber, American Crime and more!

Best Case/Worst Case is back to preview one of the busiest five-day stretches of midseason. We're covering just the seven premieres from Sunday to Thursday here. There should be another post in a couple more weeks or so.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 4/28/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• Week three of CBS Monday's post-How I Met Your Mother existence saw multi-tick upswings for all three originals, 2 Broke Girls (2.3), Friends with Better Lives (1.9) and Mike and Molly (2.2). For FWBL, though the slot got a bit easier with Bones in repeats, this two-tenth growth makes it look like roughly a Mom-esque performer.  If the decision on this show is actually still up for grabs, that might make its situation more interesting. We'll see if it can sustain it next week (the last point that could conceivably affect an upfront decision).

• Fox had the season finale of The Following (1.5), with the show barely inching off of the 1.4 it's gotten for the last six weeks. This looks a tad more favorable since Bones (0.9) was in repeats, but it's obviously a very far cry from the 2.7 that wrapped up last season.

• A major two-tenth upward adjustment left Dancing with the Stars (2.6) up 18% week-to-week, tying the premiere's rating as a season high, and an astounding 24% ahead of the same night last year. Though the HUT seemed rather high on this night in general (hence so many week-to-week growths), this is a big deal for a show that was already having a really good season.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 3/10/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC wrapped up another strong season of The Bachelor with the usual huge spike for the finale (3.2 from 8-10pm, 3.8 for the After the Final Rose special). The finale was still down 6% from last season, but that's close to in line with the drop for the season as the whole, and After the Final Rose was even. This will leave the season as a whole at roughly -7% year-to-year. Considering the previous season was itself a big success and this one had a lot of added competition from The Voice and the Olympics, this was another major win for ABC.

• This added competition plus Daylight Saving took a major chunk out of the other networks. NBC was down double digits from 8:00 to 10:00 with The Voice (3.7) but still got a pretty respectable sampling out of Believe (2.7) in the last hour. I thought coming in that this result needed to be low 2's (or lower) or low 3's (or higher) to really serve as much of an indicator in either direction for its Sunday prospects. Considering The Voice was hit a few ticks more than expected, it might be spun as a minor win, but I would say don't make much of a judgment on this point.

• On a semi-original night for CBS (with 2 Broke Girls and Mom sitting out), How I Met Your Mother (2.7) and Mike and Molly (1.8) took it in the chin from DST, as did Fox's return to a Monday pairing of Bones (1.7) and The Following (1.5). (For Bones, this was above most of its Friday episodes but well below its fall Monday numbers.)

• The cable lowlight was A&E's Bates Motel (0.9), down big in week two.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 3/3/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• Week two of The Voice (4.5) began with only a two-tenths drop from last week and remained only a hair behind the corresponding night last spring (4.7). But The Blacklist (2.7) took a noticeable drop in its second week back, dipping well behind any other post-Voice episode.

• While How I Met Your Mother (3.3) was down a bit more after overachieving last week vs. The Voice, the other CBS comedies 2 Broke Girls (2.6), Mike and Molly (2.2) and Mom (2.0) all rebounded by a tick.

• ABC tried a repeat of Mixology (1.1) after a 90-minute The Bachelor (2.3), which helped Castle (1.6) find a new low.

• And Fox's Almost Human (1.5) did not plead its case very well on finale night, limping to the end of season one at a new series low. The finals didn't help it this time, though it did narrow the gap with The Following (down to tie its 1.6 low).

• On cable, A&E's Bates Motel (1.3) was back in solid fashion, roughly even with its series premiere and the 1.3 series high it would hit four more times later in the season. But it did not help new lead-out Those Who Kill (0.5) get off to much of a start. The night's big mover was TNT's Dallas (0.4), which completely imploded the week after a 0.75 premiere.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 2/24/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• On the night after the Winter Olympics, NBC was back in business on Monday with another huge premiere for The Voice (4.7) and the return of The Blacklist (3.1). The singing competition was just a tenth below last spring's premiere (4.8). As for The Blacklist, it was a single tenth behind its last post-Voice episode on December 2. This could be spun as a bit of a disappointment considering that episode had a lead-in almost two points lower, but it's basically the same rating it had back when The Voice was this size in the early fall.

• This came against a full suite of competition on the other networks:
• ABC's The Bachelor (2.5) bounced back to normal after a couple low weeks against the Olympics.
• But Fox's Almost Human (1.6) and The Following (1.6) saw no such relief, each down a tick from Olympic eps last week.
• And while CBS' How I Met Your Mother (3.6) held up quite swimmingly against the return of The Voice, the rest of the comedy gang was down at least half a point from the inflated numbers they rang up in the weeks before the Olympics: 2 Broke Girls (2.5), Mike and Molly (2.1) and Mom (1.9). These were relatively low-end showings for all three.
• And week two of the CW's doomed Star-Crossed (0.3) was down a tenth.

• On cable, the return of TNT's Dallas (0.75) was down 7% from last season's premiere. (Progamming note: I'm going to try adding cable ratings with most of the usual full table numbers. Please check back at night or the next morning on the daily posts for these.)

Spotted Ratings, Monday 2/17/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• Like last Monday, this Olympic Monday was heavy on originals elsewhere, and shows that also aired last week were barely up (that pesky Almost Human (1.7)) to even (The Following (1.7)) to barely down (The Bachelor (2.2) and Intelligence (1.2)). ABC opted to tack on an original Castle (1.7), which matched the season low set against another big sporting event (the college football championship game on January 6).

• And the CW curiously tried the series premiere of Star-Crossed on this night. It didn't really register, averaging 1.28 million viewers and a 0.4 demo (very nearly adjusting up to 0.5; it was a 0.45 when taken to the hundredth). This is the typical Hart of Dixie rating, though a tick better than what Hart did opposite the Games last week. Because of the atypical competition, it might have some hope of maintaining this in future weeks, but even that would probably not be enough for a long-term future.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 2/10/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• As a programming note, I'll be waiting for finals in the late afternoon to do most of the daily posts over the next couple weeks. But I'm doing the quick noon hit today since there was an uncommonly high volume of noteworthy original entertainment programming.

• Each of those original entertainment programs took a double digit week-to-week hit on the first Olympic Monday. This was of most interest for Fox, where The Following (1.7) was down another two ticks and Almost Human was down 16% (benefiting from a finals uptick). The scheduling suggests Fox is getting rid of Almost Human, and this may be its first performance in awhile that would make that decision look at least somewhat sensible... though, again, it's not as bad after the finals help.

• The Bachelor (2.3) and CBS' Intelligence (1.3) took low-teens hits. That might be considered another minor win for the latter since its comedy block lead-in also went into repeats, but it was so low to begin with that it really doesn't matter at this point.

• The first Olympic Monday (see chart) was 8% below the corresponding night in 2010, which is close to the average across the first four apples-to-apples nights.