Spotted Ratings, Thursday 8/23/18

FINALS UPDATE: NFL Preseason Football (1.8) adjusted up while S.W.A.T. (R) (0.5) adjusted down.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 8/16/18

FINALS UPDATE: 20/20 Special (0.6, -0.2), Match Game (0.5, -0.3), Take Two (0.4, -0.2), The Big Bang Theory (R) (0.9, -0.3), Young Sheldon (R) (0.8, -0.3), Big Brother (1.7), S.W.A.T. (R) (0.4, -0.3), Ellen's Game of Games (R) (0.7, -0.4), Trial and Error (0.5, -0.4), Trial and Error (0.4, -0.3), Law and Order: SVU (R) (0.5, -0.2) and NASCAR (0.3) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers to come. Preliminary ratings may be inflated by NFL preseason pre-emptions. The biggest seem to be on CBS (Boston/Pittsburgh) and NBC (Philadelphia/Green Bay/Milwaukee) but all networks have at least some small ones.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 8/9/18

FINALS UPDATE: The Gong Show (0.4, -0.4), Match Game (0.6, -0.4), Take Two (0.6, -0.2), The Big Bang Theory (R) (0.7, -0.7), Young Sheldon (R) (0.7, -0.8), Big Brother (1.4, -0.6), S.W.A.T. (R) (0.4, -0.7), America's Got Talent (R) (0.7, -0.7), Trial and Error (0.4, -0.7), Trial and Error (0.3, -0.7), Law and Order: SVU (R) (0.5, -0.3), MasterChef (R) (0.5, -0.5), MasterChef (R) (0.7, -0.4), Supernatural (R) (0.1, -0.2) and Black Lightning (R) (0.1, -0.2) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers to come. Preliminary broadcast ratings are significantly inflated due to NFL preseason pre-emptions.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 7/26/18

FINALS UPDATE: Young Sheldon (R) (0.8), Trial and Error (0.4), Burden of Truth (R) (0.2) and Black Lightning (R) (0.1) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers to come.

SpotVault - Trial and Error (NBC) - Summer 2018 Ratings

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 7/19/18

WHAT MATTERS:

• Over 15 months after its season one finale, NBC sitcom Trial and Error (0.6/0.5) returned with two episodes in the 9/8c hour. It was a weak rookie, and this doesn't really seem much weaker than the high fractionals it was getting with a The Voice lead-in late in season one. (It also got a 0.6 when tried out on Thursday in April 2017.)

• Reality staples Big Brother (1.6) and The Four (0.9) both rose to new season highs. 

• And ABC tried out Take Two (0.4) in the 8/7c hour, with The Gong Show (0.5) returning to its season one timeslot at 10/9c. There was no benefit to this swap, as both shows tied their season lows (with Take Two down from last week).

The Breakdown: NBC Tuesday in 2016-17 (The Voice, This Is Us, Chicago Fire and more!)

It's time for a journey through the NBC Tuesday schedule in 2016-17...

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/18/17

FINALS UPDATE: The Middle (1.3) adjusted up while The Flash (R) (0.2) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• NBC's The Voice (1.7/1.8) went to two hours and led into the double-episode finale of Trial and Error (0.9/0.7) at 10/9c. T&E basically matched its last couple weeks in the 9:00 hour.

• Voice was seemingly devastating to CBS' NCIS (1.3) and Bull (1.1), which both tanked to new lows by wide margins and decisively ending Bull's long streak of 1.3's. NCIS: New Orleans (1.1) fared quite well by comparison, enjoying the hiatus of Chicago Fire in the 10/9c hour.

• On ABC, The Middle will hope for finals help to avoid 1.2 again, but American Housewife (1.2) perked up. It was also a mixed bag at 9/8c opposite The Voice, as Fresh Off the Boat (1.0) was down but Imaginary Mary (0.9) took an interesting turn upward. Agents of SHIELD continued to make a surprisingly decent case in the spring with an uptick to 0.8.

• Week three of Prison Break (0.9) went fractional for Fox, with no help from a The Mick repeat lead-in (0.5). Brooklyn Nine-Nine hung at 0.7 in its second airing of the spring.

• And iZombie, the CW's only scripted original this week, stuck at 0.3 out of a repeat The Flash (0.3).

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 4/13/17

FINALS UPDATE: Grey's Anatomy (1.8), The Big Bang Theory (2.5) and Chicago Med (1.1) adjusted up while Scandal (1.3) and The Amazing Race (0.8) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• After a couple repeat-laden days, everyone was back to originals on Thursday, with ABC seeing a bounce at 9/8c for the 100th episode of Scandal (1.4). Surrounding programs Grey's Anatomy (1.7) and The Catch (0.7) were both even.

• NBC's Trial and Error tried (and failed) to make its case in a different timeslot, plummeting to a new low 0.6 in a special Thursday lead-off episode. Later in the night, NBC said goodbye to The Blacklist: Redemption, even at 0.7 leading out of another 1.0 from Chicago Med.

• On CBS, The Big Bang Theory (2.4) is headed for another new low, and fellow comedies The Great Indoors (1.2), Mom (1.3) and Life in Pieces (1.1) were also on the downtick. The Amazing Race made it three in a row at 0.9 to start the season.

• Bringing up the rear were Fox's MasterChef Junior (0.9) and a new low for Kicking and Screaming (0.5), then the CW's Supernatural (0.5) and Riverdale (0.3).

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/11/17

FINALS UPDATE: The Middle (1.3) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Fox's Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.7) returned after over three months off, dropping by two tenths from its lowest point during the fall. After The Mick hung at 0.8, Prison Break (1.1) took a steep four-tenth drop in its second week back on the air, but it still eked out a second straight nightly win in adults 18-34 (1.0).

• ABC was the only other network in full original mode, but that didn't help comedies The Middle (1.2) and American Housewife (1.1), which were both down again to new lows. Fresh Off the Boat was even at 1.1, while its lead-in Imaginary Mary ticked down to 0.8 (tying The Real O'Neals' low point in the slot). With no original competition, Agents of SHIELD managed another 0.7 in its second airing of the spring.

• NBC's The Voice (1.6) easily topped the night despite airing a clip show, and was not much weaker than last week. Trial and Error (0.9/0.8) managed to stabilize at 9/8c, while Chicago Fire (0.6) was a repeat.

• The CW's iZombie ticked down to 0.3 in week two, with a 0.2 repeat The Flash lead-in. CBS was all drama repeats (0.9/0.7/0.7).

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/4/17

FINALS UPDATE: The Middle (1.4) and NCIS (1.6) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Fox's latest revival effort had a successful start, as Prison Break came out of the box with a very young-skewing 1.5 demo to top the 9:00 hour (and it easily won the whole night with a 1.3 A18-34). That's the same demo at which 24: Legacy started in February, 20 hours after airing post-Super Bowl, so count this as a noticeably more impressive showing. It led out of comedies New Girl (steady at 0.9 in its possible series finale) and The Mick (downticking to 0.8).

• ABC featured the timeslot premiere of Imaginary Mary (0.9), which looked like a typical The Real O'Neals episode leading out of Fresh Off the Boat (1.1), and an uptick in its return from hiatus for Agents of SHIELD (0.7). The 8/7c comedies fared relatively poorly, with The Middle (1.3) and American Housewife (1.2) each hitting new lows after two weeks off.

• On the CW, iZombie was back nearly a full year after its last airing with a 0.4 rating, a number it fell to just once last season. It led out of the season finale of Legends of Tomorrow (0.6)

• CBS' NCIS twins mothership (1.5) and New Orleans (1.0) were each down a tenth, surrounding a seventh consecutive 1.3 from Bull.

• And on NBC, it got even worse for Trial and Error (0.9/0.7), down yet another tenth in each half-hour leading out of a softer The Voice (1.9). At 10/9c, Chicago Fire pulled itself all the way up to 1.3, but that was still a new season low.

First Two Weeks, Trial and Error

WEEK ZERO (Tuesday 10/9c preview)
Rating: 1.376/1.03
Lead-in: This Is Us (3.4)
Competition: People Icons (0.6), NCIS: New Orleans (1.2)

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 3/28/17

FINALS UPDATE: American Housewife (R) (0.8) and The Flash (0.9) adjusted up while Legends of Tomorrow (0.5) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• A 12-season run finally came to an end on Tuesday, as Fox's crime drama Bones (1.0) exited the stage with a new season high and its first trip into the ones since December 2015. The rare bit of positive mojo for Fox even seemed to spill into the 8/7c hour a bit, as New Girl (0.9) and The Mick (0.9) were both up.

• On NBC, it was a rough second week in the 9/8c hour for Trial and Error (1.0/0.8): down two tenths from last week at 9:00 and three tenths at 9:30. Its lead-in from The Voice (2.1) was down two tenths from last week, while Chicago Fire (1.4) was down just one.

• Despite a little added Fox competition, CBS looked pretty normal with its fully-renewed trio of NCIS (1.6), Bull (1.3) and NCIS: New Orleans (1.1). The mothership ticked up from its new series low two weeks ago.

• ABC had more comedy repeats (0.8/0.7/0.8/0.7) leading into the finale of People Icons (0.5), which couldn't make it three weeks in a row of growth and instead fell back to the series premiere number.

• And the CW's The Flash (0.8) is eyeing a new series low but may have a shot at an uptick in finals. Despite that downswing, Legends of Tomorrow preliminarily held onto last week's 0.6.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 3/21/17

FINALS UPDATE: Black-ish (R) (0.8), The Voice (2.3) and The Flash (1.0) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• On NBC's first Tuesday without This Is Us, the network took a major step down at 9/8c with new comedy Trial and Error (1.2/1.1). The good news for T&E is that this was basically in line with the 1.4/1.0 it pulled in the 10/9c hour after This Is Us last week. Both The Voice (2.2) and Chicago Fire (1.5) were on the downswing without This Is Us in the middle.

• Fox had its regular lineup of New Girl (0.8), The Mick (0.8) and Bones (0.8). It was a new low for The Mick, which was in repeats last week when New Girl fell to its first 0.8 of the season. Meanwhile, Bones was on the uptick in its penultimate episode.

• On the CW, The Flash (0.9) had a musical crossover with Supergirl, but it was actually Legends of Tomorrow (0.6) that was on the upswing week-to-week.

• And it was repeat mode for CBS (0.9/0.8/0.7) as well as ABC's comedies (0.9/0.8/0.8/0.7). The networks' only original was the third episode of People Icons (0.7), which grew for the second week in a row.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 3/14/17

FINALS UPDATE: The Middle (1.6) and This Is Us (3.4) adjusted up while Trial and Error (1.4) and Trial and Error (1.0) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• NBC megahit This Is Us went out on an absolutely triumphant note, exploding to a new series high 3.4. But the show that will be inheriting its timeslot, comedy Trial and Error, had a rough two-episode start (1.4/1.0) in the 10:00 hour.

• The arrival of DST was unkind to 8:00 anchors NCIS (1.5) and New Girl (0.8), with the CBS procedural posting its second new series low in the last three episodes. But ABC's comedies noticeably bucked the trend, with The Middle (1.6) actually scrounging out an uptick.

SpotVault - Trial and Error (NBC) - Spring 2017 Ratings

Trial and Error

Tuesdays, 9/8c, NBC