SpotVault - True Detective (HBO) - Winter 2019 Ratings

Cablemetrics: Pretty Little Liars, True Detective, Fear the Walking Dead, Kevin from Work

These numbers are current through Thursday, August 13.

WHAT MATTERS:

• The week's biggest mover was the summer finale of Pretty Little Liars, which exploded from its normal 0.8ish level all the way to a whooping 1.39, the biggest rating for a scripted original since the True Detective premiere. It was the show's biggest same-day rating in almost two years, and in its six summer runs it's only had one rating bigger (a 1.40 on 8/27/13).
  

Cablemetrics: Rick and Morty, Playing House, Halt and Catch Fire, UnREAL

These numbers are current through Thursday, August 6.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Adult Swim's Rick and Morty (1.12) extended its lead over the rest of scripted original cable, growing 9% to another new series high in week two. We'll see next week if it could hold that crown against last night's finale of True Detective.

Cablemetrics: Rick and Morty, Ballers, Ray Donovan

These numbers are current through Thursday, July 30.

WHAT MATTERS:

• New this week: Adult Swim's animated comedy Rick and Morty, back for season two with a new series high 1.03. The show had palpable heat through season one, starting at 0.47 and gradually growing as high as 0.87 by season's end.

• I haven't said much about the HBO Sunday lineup since it premiered the week before I started doing this, but it's definitely worth noting that Ballers has solidified itself as one of the most successful recent comedy newbies on cable. Its average is only about a tenth behind that of fellow HBO comedy Silicon Valley, even though its lead-in is well over two points weaker. This week was perhaps its most impressive showing yet, as it surged to its second-best number (0.92) and had almost full retention of the gradually dropping True Detective (1.02).

Spotted Ratings, Weekend Roundup 6/26-6/28/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Added 6/19-6/21 and 6/26-6/28 tables on this post. Big Brother (1.8) adjusted up to match last year's Sunday premiere, but Celebrity Family Feud (1.9) stayed narrowly in the nightly lead with an uptick of its own. HBO saw True Detective (1.33) hold up swimmingly in week two, while The Ballers (0.89) and The Brink (0.55) each dropped close to 20%. Humans (0.53) had a pretty good start on AMC, tying last year's Turn series premiere and well ahead of anything Halt and Catch Fire has ever done.

• Celebrity Family Feud is a great lesson in how quickly the raw numbers landscape shifts. The last time this concept was tried, by NBC in summer 2008, it premiered at a 2.3 demo rating, settled at around 2.0, and was a modest performer not renewed for season two. In 2015, premiering just a tenth higher on ABC at 2.4, it's the breakout smash of the summer. It's not a huge shock that this would do better than the 2008 edition; the 2015 one has got Steve Harvey, the host who has been a godsend for the syndicated version's ratings. But it's pretty striking that the show was actually the #1 entertainment series last week. However, it took a big 25% dip to a still very good 1.8 last night. It's possible the BET Awards were rough competition for this show.

• Great as the Feud did, it shouldn't get lost that ABC had a second significant success last Sunday in another resurrected reality concept. BattleBots (1.9) retained about 80% of its lead-in in 18-49, but it was not simply riding the Feud's coattails; in fact, it skewed younger and considerably more male than its lead-in (actually building from Feud's 1.9 up to a 2.1 in M18-49). So this was a success in its own right. It also took a considerable week two drop to 1.4. But at least so far, the only bad news for ABC in this block is that they've only got it for six weeks.

• And CBS premiered its third night of Big Brother (1.7). Like the first two nights (2.1/2.1), this was down less than average from the year-ago premieres (2.3/2.3/1.8).

• The other notable from last weekend (6/19-6/21) was Fox bringing major championship golf to broadcast primetime with their newly acquired US Open. The event didn't really do much on Thursday (0.7), Friday (0.6) or Saturday (0.7), only hanging a relatively strong average for Sunday (1.3). I'm assuming these are all full-day averages, as the event was mostly much higher (upper-1's) during Sunday primetime and peaked with a 2.6 at 10:00. This weekend, Fox had the USA's quarterfinal in the Women's World Cup; its preliminary 2.0 on Friday improved on the 1.6/1.8 for group stage games in Fox primetime.

• On June 21 cable, a fresh cast on True Detective (1.42) had a strong return, just behind the huge season one finale (1.57) and miles ahead of everything else from season one (including the 0.97 series premiere). TNT's The Last Ship averaged a 0.69 for its two-hour return, considerably below the low-1's throughout season one.

SpotVault - True Detective (HBO) - Summer 2015 Ratings

True Detective

Sundays, 9/8c, HBO

Spotted Ratings, Weekend Roundup 6/19-6/21/15

Out of town this week, but here's an open thread for last night's ratings. My thoughts and full table to come later.

Premiered last night: Celebrity Family Feud (ABC) | BattleBots (ABC) | plus cable notables True Detective (HBO) & The Last Ship (TNT)

Spotted Ratings, Olympics Roundup 2/12-2/17/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• Through 2/17, the 2014 Winter Olympics average is running 13% behind the 2010 average over the same span. Most individual days have been relatively close to that trend, with a couple major exceptions to the positive (Tuesday 2/11 and Monday 2/17 were both up vs. the corresponding 2010 days) and a couple major exceptions to the negative (Wednesday 2/12 and Saturday 2/15 were each down about 40%, failing to grow on days when the 2010 Games had huge spikes). 2014 is running closer to the corresponding 2006 average (-4%), which may be a fairer comparison due to time zone differences.

• There was little excitement in the entertainment programming world from Wednesday to Sunday, but here are a few quick notes:

SpotVault - True Detective (HBO) - 2013-14 Ratings

True Detective

Sundays, 9/8c, HBO