Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 5/6/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• Fox's embattled live-action comedy department is officially closed for the season with the upticking finales of New Girl (1.2) and The Mindy Project (1.3). The latter ended up with its first-ever growth from an original of the former, and it was easily Mindy's biggest rating since its return from hiatus in April. New Girl reportedly has the larger order of the two for next season (22 vs. 15), but the momentum seems to be moving in the other direction in these last few weeks. (Just look at the finales' year-to-year trends; New Girl was -43%, Mindy even.)

• Perhaps owing in part to Fox's uptick, there was major comedy carnage on the other two networks; The Goldbergs (1.3), Trophy Wife (0.7), About a Boy (1.5) and Growing Up Fisher (1.2) all hit new lows. It was not a good final impression for the NBC shows heading into the upfront, to say the least, though they got no help from an also particularly weak The Voice (2.5) at 8/7c.

• In drama land, NCIS (2.3) gave back some of last week's rebound, and Agents of SHIELD (1.9) adjusted off the tie-series low but was still down week-to-week. Glee (0.8) was not so lucky, notching yet another new low. And at 10/9c, an unusually impressive Chicago Fire (1.9) thumped Person of Interest (1.7).

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/8/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• Marvel Studios had a great weekend at the box office with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but that did not translate to the small screen. Even though Agents of SHIELD picked up a second straight two-tenths uptick in the final ratings, it was disappointingly still down week-to-week. The ABC comedies also suffered, as The Goldbergs (1.4) and Trophy Wife (0.8) each tied series lows.

• NBC also caught the Tuesday blues; the Tuesday edition of The Voice (2.9) continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate, and now it's taking comedies About a Boy (1.7) and Growing Up Fisher (1.5) down with it. Chicago Fire (1.8) ended up looking good despite being down a tick at 10/9c, albeit against repeats on both competing networks.

• Only CBS had a remotely good evening as NCIS (2.6) bounced back a bit, but NCIS: Los Angeles (2.3) inched down the week after it fully retained the mothership.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/1/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• April got off to a foolish start for Fox, where Glee (0.9) reverted to a tie with its series low from three weeks ago and the one-hour return of The Mindy Project (1.0) was at a new series low. Something to note about these shows is that while both are big W18-34 draws, they have very different 18-49 skews; Glee had about 700,000 more total viewers. This probably means Glee leans much more toward the teen end of that 18-34 demo and Mindy much more toward the 35-49 end. Given this incompatibility, I don't think Fox could've expected a lot more out of Mindy. We already know that it gets bad 18-49 ratings, and they'll always be worse without New Girl leading in. But they'll have to put up with another full hour of Mindy next week before New Girl comes back.

• On ABC, Agents of SHIELD (2.0) was back with a two-tenths upward adjustment in finals that makes this feel like a much better result than the 1.8 in prelims. It was still a tenth behind its last original episode, but now two tenths ahead of the 1.8 when it last returned from hiatus (and when it last faced NCIS). And The Goldbergs (1.5) was back down even with the lead-in increase, continuing to appear more tied to the presence of comedy competition than to the lead-in.

• CBS' NCIS (2.4) adjusted up off of its new low, so it's now only tied for a season low (and NCIS: Los Angeles (2.4) only tied it rather than beat it).

• Like many of the other ugly results in the 8/7c, The Voice (3.1) adjusted up in finals, but it was still down another three tenths. but they can take some solace in lead-out comedies About a Boy (2.0) and Growing Up Fisher (1.6) continuing to hold.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 3/4/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• With everyone finally back in regularly-scheduled business, there was really only one winner: NBC, where The Voice (4.0) was actually up from last week's Tuesday premiere and lead-out comedies About a Boy (2.5) and Growing Up Fisher (1.9) continue to look respectable. I'm not really sure whether we should judge these numbers by series premiere standards, by second episode standards, or somewhere in the middle, but let's see what happens next week. Chicago Fire (1.9) rounded out a night of growth for the peacock.

• There was carnage on pretty much every other network:
• CBS followed last week's trio of new season lows with another trio of new lows, as NCIS (2.5), NCIS: Los Angeles (2.1) and Person of Interest (1.7) each inched down again.
• ABC's Agents of SHIELD (1.8) got walloped across its month-long hiatus (but adjusted up in finals), Trophy Wife (0.8) was more invisible than ever, and Mind Games (0.6) was down by nearly half in its second and maybe final episode as it lost its Bachelor lead-in. And the most promising point in the prelims, The Goldbergs (1.5), dropped in finals, so it was also down.
• And Fox's Glee (1.0) took a dive in its second week on Tuesday.

• Cable numbers now in the table: BET brought back The Game (1.6) with a whooping 32% growth on last March's premiere. It's not a total stunner since the show had a huge spike (1.9) to end last season, but it's still very good news. Its long-time BET lead-out Let's Stay Together (0.9) was bumped to 11:00 and matched last year's premiere.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 1/21/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• With the regular 2.0+ draws on CBS and ABC all taking the week off, pretty much everything was able to benefit or at least stay steady. The only truly striking growth came from Fox's comedy lineup, especially newbie Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.9). Though it faced repeats from both its major competitors, it was still the show's best rating since the pilot (and it hasn't even done better than 1.6 since week two).  Dads (1.5), New Girl (1.9) and the last pre-hiatus episode of The Mindy Project (1.5) also grew by double digits.

• The only shows on the week-to-week downside were ABC's comedies The Goldbergs (1.5) and Trophy Wife (0.9), largely because of the Agents of SHIELD repeat (0.9) at 8/7c. Goldbergs still did a tenth better than its last episode after repeat SHIELD (1.4 on 12/3/13), but Trophy Wife's 0.9 was a new series low that got even uglier after finals.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 12/10/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• The Agents of SHIELD roller coaster took another sharp dip, closing out the fall on a new low after a couple recent increases. The show was probably somewhat inflated last week by an easier situation, but dropping this much is simply not the way the show wanted to head into a four-week break. However, ABC got better news in the 9:00 hour from The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife with holiday themes, a better lead-in and no comedy competition.

• SHIELD was not alone in dropping against the return of original CBS competition; all the regulars on NBC were down a bit as well. Even the NCIS duo had lower-end performances.

• Fox pre-empted its comedies for the latest edition of its blatant attempt to get into the country music specials business, The American Country Awards, even year-to-year. And CBS' Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was down just a bit from last year but still the top show of the evening.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 12/3/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• Tuesday presented an opportunity to see Fox's comedies under new situations. Dads and Brooklyn Nine-Nine benefited a bit from a very easy timeslot opposite repeats of both NCIS and Agents of SHIELD, while The Mindy Project suffered a bit after a repeat of New Girl.

• ABC's comedies also saw a situation change with lead-in SHIELD in repeats. Their first airing in this situation was arguably what got these shows their back nines, but the second one didn't go quite as well for The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife, though Goldbergs still built big from the SHIELD repeat. And the alphabet's latest stab at 10/9c, the premiere of Primetime: What Would You Do?, was notably weaker than when it aired on Friday last year.

• NBC was on the upswing vs. the smattering of repeats with The Biggest Loser, The Voice and Chicago Fire all hitting their best numbers in several weeks.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 11/12/13

WHAT MATTERS:

•  Episode seven finally saw the bleeding stop for newbie Sleepy Hollow, but not so much for Agents of SHIELD, down again and taking its largest week-to-week decline since episode three. But ABC's comedy block continues to operate on a seemingly different plane, as The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife went back up.

• Chicago Fire had a decent return from a couple weeks off, edging its last original even though lead-in The Voice was nearly a point weaker than it was back then.

• Fox was down a couple ticks on average with the comedy block. And the CW was up a couple ticks on average with The Originals and Supernatural.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 11/5/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• For the ABC comedies, maybe timing really was everything. After posting their most promising results during back-nine decision week, comedy The Goldbergs took a two-tenth drop despite the return of lead-in Agents of SHIELD from a week off, and a finals downtick meant Trophy Wife was down three ticks. For SHIELD, it took the same two-tenths drop after its first repeat as fellow new drama Sleepy Hollow, but this marks a fifth straight post-premiere decline.

• ABC might have gotten nicked a bit from the return of the Fox comedy block, and New Girl and The Mindy Project each came back on the upswing vs. their last couple episodes.

• NBC was down again with The Voice, but the drop wasn't as severe as on Monday. And NBC got a sigh of relief out of The Biggest Loser, rebounding significantly after a couple big post-premiere drops.

• The other two networks saw some low-end results out of NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles and Supernatural.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 10/29/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC's been looking for something, anything, that would help them get behind some of their disappointing new comedies. And they may have found it on this night, as The Goldbergs was steady despite a 1.5-point drop in lead-in as Agents of SHIELD went into repeats. And Trophy Wife actually picked up by two tenths. There were a couple other factors here (Fox's comedy block wasn't on, and Halloween episodes are often good for ratings), but overall the results can probably be called mildly positive, which is far better than anything these shows (or the other new comedies) have posted in the last couple weeks.

• Fox tried unsuccessfully to keep The X Factor lights on during World Series season with a special Tuesday episode, which (like last year) went significantly below the Wednesday norm. This episode was over a third below last year's Tuesday tryout on 10/23/12 (2.3) and didn't do any better than the usual Tuesday comedy block ratings.

• NBC suffered a bit more on Tuesday with The Biggest Loser and a two-hour The Voice down again; maybe the added reality competition, weak as it was, contributed a bit.

• And opposite The Voice, Person of Interest had a weak showing even as the NCIS duo were even to barely up, though the upward adjustment in finals softened the blow a bit.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 10/15/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• NBC had a passable but modest return from The Biggest Loser at 8/7c, and it skewed way older than last season; it actually had about the same number of total viewers as the 3.0 Sunday preview in January but was down a quarter in the demo. The Voice also weakened in its first one-hour episode.

• ABC's The Goldbergs continued the awesome tradition of comedies taking a huge dip the week after I say they're getting renewed. It was surrounded by the the barely-down Agents of SHIELD and Trophy Wife.

• Fox had the end of the ALCS game leading into their Tuesday comedy lineup, and after a finals uptick maybe that was a bit of a difference-maker for Dads. And New Girl had a weak night at 9:00.

• Free of The Voice competition at 8/7c, NCIS had a nice bounce-back at 8/7c, as did Person of Interest at 10/9c, but the middle hour was merely steady against the original return of The Voice.

• The CW had a second straight outstanding Tuesday as The Originals improbably perked up by a couple ticks in its second Tuesday airing. It actually did better than last week's episode of mothership The Vampire Diaries!

•  A note on the Ty2y stats: the big four simulcast a debate on this night a year ago.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 10/8/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• The Agents of SHIELD bleeding continued for ABC, though it did slow down somewhat. It brought The Goldbergs another few tenths, while Trophy Wife was even at 9:30 and a repeat of Scandal improved on Lucky 7 at 10/9c.

• On the CW, consider night #3 established. The Originals made a solid transition to its new night, down just a tenth from the post-The Vampire Diaries preview, but the real stunner was the premiere of Supernatural, which hit its best ratings in nearly three years (since a 1.2 on 10/15/10) in its return to Tuesday. It was 50% ahead of last year's Oh Sit!-depressed premiere and 0.2-0.3 ahead of its spring 2013 level.

• CBS saw NCIS take a significant post-Cote de Pablo crash; it fell back behind SHIELD and remained behind The Voice even in clip show mode. But they were relatively steady in the last two hours.

• NBC remained atop the Tuesday standings even with a two-hour clip show of The Voice; Chicago Fire was down about a half point with the depressed lead-in.

• Perhaps benefiting from a weaker Voice, Fox's fourth-place comedy lineup finally stabilized, with Brooklyn Nine-Nine and New Girl on the upswing.

First Two Weeks, Trophy Wife

WEEK ONE
A half hour after ABC's enormous Agents of SHIELD premiere came to an end, ABC premiered new comedy Trophy Wife. It averaged a 2.3 demo, down about a quarter from its The Goldbergs lead-in (3.1). It beat competing comedy The Mindy Project (1.5) rather convincingly and also faced The Voice (5.4 at 9:30) and NCIS: Los Angeles (2.9 at 9:30).

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 10/1/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• As it turned out, broadcast TV's resurgence on Tuesday night was very short-lived. The headliner has got to be ABC, where last week's historically huge premiere of Agents of SHIELD came down a disheartening 30% and took everything else with it. The Goldbergs actually had ABC's smallest percentage drop at "just" 29% (though it may go down in finals), but the bleeding accelerated in the second half of the evening with Trophy Wife (1.4, -39%) and Lucky 7 (adjusting down to a 0.7, down 46%!). Could L7 go off the sked this week? After the finals downtick, it looks even likelier.

• Though everyone will be talking about ABC, there were lots of big drops on the other networks too. Fox's 8:00 hour officially became a problem with Dads and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, while CBS was down a tick with the NCIS mothership on Cote De Pablo's departure night, then a little more in the subsequent hours.

• Even after a two-tenth downward adjustment in finals, NBC's Chicago Fire still impressed, down just a tick in its second week on Tuesday.

• Despite all the carnage, the big four were still up a whooping 15% year-to-year vs. Tuesday #2 in 2012, though the main reason behind this (the extra hour of The Voice, which boosts NBC to +78%) will go away starting next week.

SpotVault - Trophy Wife (ABC) - 2013-14 Ratings

Trophy Wife

Tuesdays, 9:30/8:30c, ABC

Spotted Ratings, Premiere Tuesday 9/24/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• Welcome to television, Marvel. Agents of SHIELD began at a number that puts it in the pantheon of recent series premieres, especially once you adjust for the ratings environment. You can count on one hand the number of scripted shows in the last decade that have premiered at even double the big four's entertainment original average, and SHIELD looks like it could be at... 2.4x? 2.5x the league average? It could even out-Plus the 2008 premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which scored a 7.7 in 2008 (2.35x the league average). And that was with a playoff football lead-in!

• Personally I say the SHIELD launch far outweighs any of ABC's bad news, but there was bad news to be sure. The erosion was steep throughout ABC's all-new Tuesday, from The Goldbergs to Trophy Wife to Lucky 7. It's abundantly obvious that Lucky 7 is not at all long for this world, but the comedies are not quite as clear just yet.

• NBC won its second straight night behind The Voice. It built huge in the much weaker 9:00 hour (averaging a prelim 5.0/5.3), which gave a significant boost to the season two premiere of Chicago Fire, four tenths above its previous series high.

• CBS remained respectable with the NCIS pair, with the mothership adjusting up in finals to erode the exact same amount year-to-year (-12%) against SHIELD as NCIS: Los Angeles (-12%) at 9:00. But the network had a thud at 10/9c for the second straight night with Person of Interest (2.3). It actually dropped more year-to-year in its move to Tuesday (-21%) than either of the NCIS twins, though it was down a little less in the timeslot (-8% vs. Vegas). It's disappointing for PoI, but it could look like an all-star once the network's other 10:00 results come in.

• I said last week that the key for the new Fox comedies was that they had to be able to withstand a one-third drop. And that's pretty much exactly what happened for Dads (-32%) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (-31%). Against a combined 12.0 rating from the Big Three, I don't consider those all that terrible, but they won't want to drop much/any more. Returnees New Girl (-28%) and The Mindy Project (-21%) also came back to reality, basically reverting to their typical spring numbers.

• For the second straight night, the Big Four were up year-to-year, this time by 9%, but this time it was a little more mixed by network. NBC (riding an additional Voice hour) was up 46%, SHIELD-fueled ABC was up 41%, CBS down 11%, Fox down 32% vs. a double-New Girl premiere night last year.

Fall 2013 Best Case/Worst Case, Tuesday 9/8c

The Basics:

	bc	Rank	y2y	Rank	TPUT	Rank	bc/TPUT	Rank
Tuesday 9:00	8.8	12	-18%	20	35.6	5	25%	14

A huge part of what plagues Tuesday programming these days is the 9:00 hour, which in 2012-13 was rather easily the least-broadcast viewed 9:00 hour on a weeknight. And that viewing was down the most year-to-year of any weeknight timeslot. The failures were many: ABC limped through much of the season with an ill-advised Happy Endings/Apartment 23 block, NBC had comedies Go On and The New Normal which collapsed during The Voice's hiatus, Fox's New Girl and The Mindy Project severely disappointed, and the CW aired its two biggest newbie bombs of the season Emily Owens M.D. and Cult.