WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: Back to earth came the CW, with Penn and Teller: Fool Us (0.5) and Significant Mother (0.2) on the low end of normal and Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.5) on the high end of normal. American Ninja Warrior (1.9) was up and After Paradise (0.7) down.
- If they hold after finals, the CW had new season highs across the board with Penn and Teller: Fool Us (0.7), Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.6) and even Significant Mother (0.4). Penn preliminarily tied the 0.7 series high hit once last summer. However, a New York preemption makes downward adjustments likely.
- On NBC, American Ninja Warrior (1.6/2.1) and Running Wild (1.3) gave back last week's gains, but ABC's Bachelor in Paradise (1.5) was able to hold onto last Monday's season/series high and could set a new one after finals. However, ABC dropped fast from there with After Paradise (0.8) and The Whispers (0.5), which amazingly had its third consecutive new low.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: American Ninja Warrior (2.1) and 2 Broke Girls (1.0) adjusted up, while Running Wild (1.4) held onto its new season high. After Paradise (0.7) and Significant Mother (0.2) adjusted down.
- ABC's Bachelor in Paradise (1.5) had its strongest point yet, surging to tie last season's high point. It remains a much stronger option on Monday (even with one-hour editions) than on Sunday. However, After Paradise stayed at 0.8 in week two and The Whispers (0.6) fell to its second straight new low.
- NBC's American Ninja Warrior (2.0) and Running Wild (1.4) also grew from last week, though Wild as always has to hope to hold onto it after finals. Fox's So You Think You Can Dance and all the CBS repeats hit exactly 0.9, which meant full 8:30 retention again for The Odd Couple (0.9) and above-average showings from Scorpion (0.9) and NCIS: Los Angeles (0.9).
- And the CW joined in the fun as Penn and Teller: Fool Us (0.6) and Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.5) each preliminarily tied their season highs. Significant Mother matched last week's 0.3 premiere.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: A common theme in recent weeks: American Ninja Warrior (1.9) adjusted up and Running Wild (1.3) adjusted down. The 2 Broke Girls repeat was also down to 0.9.
- Back on the usual Bachelor night, Bachelor in Paradise (1.3) perked up by two tenths. Despite being only a one-hour episode, this was just a tenth behind last year's Monday premiere. But the network didn't get that much out of a one-hour aftershow After Paradise at 9/8c (0.8), and that helped usher The Whispers (0.7) to another new low at 10/9c.
- The CW unveiled its latest summer sitcom experiment Significant Mother (0.3) at 9:30. At a tick behind lead-in Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.4), this wasn't much of a splash, but it was still better than previous debacles like last year's Backpackers/Seed as well as this year's Dates on Thursday.
- NBC's American Ninja Warrior (1.8) was on the low end, but Running Wild (1.4) hit a season high at 10/9c. Fox's So You Think You Can Dance (0.9) inched up from the low set against last week's Bachelorette finale, and CBS' repeats fared pretty well as The Odd Couple (0.9) joined 2 Broke Girls (1.0) in the 8:00 hour.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: American Ninja Warrior (2.1) adjusted up to make it +0.3 week-to-week and tie a series high, but it took the tenth away from Running Wild (1.1). The Whispers (0.8) also adjusted down, putting it in 0.8 territory for the third time in four weeks.
- With a two-tenth increase, American Ninja Warrior (2.0) pulled narrowly back ahead of The Bachelorette (1.9) in the race for Monday supremacy. The shows' respective lead-outs Running Wild (1.2) and The Whispers (0.9) were even in the prelims.
- The CW was flat again at 8/7c with Penn and Teller: Fool Us (0.5) but had decreases in the 9:00 hour with Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.4) and Cedric's Barber Battle (0.2). CBS' repeats (0.8/0.9/0.7/0.7) were also slightly down for the most part.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: American Ninja Warrior (1.8) went up, while Running Wild (1.2) and Cedric's Barber Battle (0.5) went down. This put Wild on par with the premiere of The Island.
- NBC welcomed back sophomore Bear Grylls reality series Running Wild (1.3) at just a tenth below last year's series premiere, when it was an 8/7c lead-in to American Ninja Warrior rather than a 10/9c lead-out as it is now. Perhaps more importantly, this was ahead of all results from previous timeslot occupant The Island.
- Usual reality leaders The Bachelorette (1.9) and American Ninja Warrior (1.7) were both slightly down from last week, but Bachelorette lead-out The Whispers (0.9) inched up from its low.
- CW entries Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.5) and Cedric's Barber Battle (0.4) and most of the CBS repeats (led by 2 Broke Girls (1.0)) were up a bit from last week.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS: American Ninja Warrior (1.9) adjusted up, putting it even with last week. The Island (0.9) and Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.4) adjusted down.
- The CW was in full original business on Monday for the first time with a solid return from Penn and Teller: Fool Us (0.5), tying the 0.5 it hit in almost every week of its first season run. Back on a weeknight, Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.5) was at the high end of its spring Friday ratings, though a hair behind the average from last summer. And even Cedric's Barber Battle (0.3) inched up, though it's still the big weak link here.
- ABC had a minor uptick from Monday leader The Bachelorette (2.0), but The Whispers (0.8) was unable to come back from last week's low. Fox's So You Think You Can Dance (1.0) was barely up and NBC's American Ninja Warrior (1.8) and The Island (1.0) slightly down. CBS averaged a 0.7 with softer than usual repeats.
WHAT MATTERS:
- The battle of Monday reality staples has shifted back in The Bachelorette's favor across the last two Mondays, with Bachelorette surging to a 2.0 (vs. American Ninja Warrior's 1.8) on June 22. The shows preliminary tied at 1.9 last night. But this is a duel without a loser, as both shows are still up year-to-year.
- It's not quite as rosy for the shows' lead-outs; The Island has stabilized at very low 1's (1.0 on June 22, 1.1 last night), while ABC's drama The Whispers briefly increased alongside Bachelorette on June 22 (1.0) but slipped back to a new low 0.8 last night.
- The third wheel in the Monday reality smackdown is Fox veteran So You Think You Can Dance, which has hit a pretty ugly 0.9 each of the last two Mondays, only about tying the repeat lineup on CBS.
- And the CW, which will be all original starting next week with the return of Penn and Teller: Fool Us, brought back former Friday failure Cedric's Barber Battle (0.2) a week early with no sign of improvement.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: NBC's hockey went up to 2.8.
- After a huge week two drop last time, ABC's The Whispers (0.9) shed another tenth in week three, putting it on par with lower-end Mistresses ratings in the slot last year.
- With usual reality winner American Ninja Warrior sitting out this week, ABC's The Bachelorette (1.8) was even, while So You Think You Can Dance (1.3) rebounded to tie the premiere rating for Fox.
- NBC dominated with the final game of the Stanley Cup Finals (2.6), which got a significant bounce vs. the high-1's for other NBC games. It'll also be up from last year's decisive Game 5, which had a 2.3 on a Friday.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: American Ninja Warrior (2.1) adjusted up to its highest raw rating in about three years, and a new historical-adjusted high. The Island went down to match last week's 1.1.
- On cable, the Stanley Cup Finals had a 1.36, up from a 1.2 for Game 3 on NBCSN last year, but it just barely beat the US opener in the Women's World Cup on Fox Sports 1 (1.26).
- It was a rough week two for ABC's The Whispers (1.0), which shed a third of its premiere audience following a barely down The Bachelorette (1.8). It also took a bigger half-hour drop this week (1.1 -> 0.9) than in the prelims last week (1.5 -> 1.4). This number was still about on par with the Mistresses average in the slot last summer, but it's certainly not impossible it could soon be doing even worse.
- Fox didn't fare much better as So You Think You Can Dance (1.1) dropped two tenths in week two, putting it down 25%+ from last season's second week.
- ABC's losses meant NBC emerged on top with American Ninja Warrior (2.0) flat at last week's great number and The Island (1.2) preliminarily inching back up to tie the premiere rating.
The Whispers
Mondays, 10/9c, ABC
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: So You Think You Can Dance (1.3) adjusted up, while The Island (1.1) went down to drop below last week's premiere.
- ABC's The Whispers (1.5) had the most promising start for a scripted series this summer to date, edging the highest rating Mistresses had in two years in the timeslot. It was up 25% vs. both of the Mistresses premieres. It got some nice help from The Bachelorette (1.9), which surged by three tenths from last week's Memorial Day rating.
- Earlier in the night came the start of a three-way smackdown between two-hour reality tentpoles. The winner was NBC's American Ninja Warrior (2.0), up two tenths vs. last week's premiere and above the year-ago evening as well, but The Bachelorette (1.9) was a very close second (and also up a notch year-to-year). The closest thing to a loser was Fox's veteran So You Think You Can Dance (1.2), whose first ever Monday season opened down 25% vs. last year's premiere. But it did hold off CBS repeats of 2 Broke Girls (1.1), Mike and Molly (1.2) and Scorpion (1.0) for third place.
- Also on NBC, 10/9c newbie The Island (1.2) matched last week's premiere, which aired out of a lower Ninja Warrior.
ABC opens its scripted summer with tonight's premiere of the drama
The Whispers. The promos go out of their way not to shed too much light on what the series is really about, but one thing's for certain: it doesn't seem like a good fit with its lead-in, the heavily female-skewing
The Bachelorette. The network could've given this slot to something much soapier like
Astronaut Wives' Club, but maybe
The Whispers simply gets the preferential treatment because of its bigger budget? It was originally slated for the regular season, after all.
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