SpotVault - Vikings (HISTORY) - Winter 2019-20 Ratings

Vikings

Wednesdays, 10/9c, HISTORY

SpotVault - Vikings (HISTORY) - 2017-18 Ratings

The War of 18-49, Vikings

The Bible's Sidekick

In March 2013, Mark Burnett's event series The Bible became one of the biggest stories of the ratings season, opening with a 3.27 demo and never falling below 2.5 in its five-week run. But in the 10:00 slot after The Bible was over, a quieter but longer-lasting story was brewing in the lead-out drama Vikings. It opened with a 1.97 on Bible's premiere night, took a bit hit to 1.31 in week two, but then bounced back to 1.52 and stayed in the low ones on the last two Bible nights. But it didn't get a chance to really shine until The Bible was off the air; it dropped into 1.15 in the first week, but made an impressive rally to 1.25 -> 1.40 -> 1.31 for the final three weeks.

The next two years saw a little air come out of the Vikings balloon, with a 21% drop in season two and another 28% down in season three. However, those aren't huge drops relative to the plight of basic cable as a whole, and Vikings was able to stay pretty high on the list of cable dramas.

Season Four Resiliency

In season four, split into two chunks across 2016 and 2017, Vikings started to show signs of improvement relative to the field. It was down just 17% in the first half of season four, the lowest year-to-year drop in series history, and the second half of the season (premiering over ten months after the first half) went just 3% more below that.

This has been a rough age for basic cable, and many a channel is getting out of the scripted game entirely. History seems like the kind of network that might consider that, but Vikings is stemming the tide for now. It doesn't hurt that it launched another decent performer in its winter 2017 run, the naval drama Six. Though it isn't on a Vikings level at present, its hold in the second half of the season (without Vikings) was reminiscent of how well Vikings held up after losing The Bible.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	Spring 2013	Sunday 10:00	1.41		1.2	2.0	detail
2	Spring 2014	Thursday 10:00	1.12	-21%	0.9	1.3	detail
3	Winter Spring 2015		Thursday 10:00	0.81	-28%	0.7	1.0		detail
4	Winter Spring 2016		Thursday 10:00	0.67	-17%	0.6	0.8		detail
	4	2016-17	Wednesday 9:00	0.65	-3%	0.5	0.7			detail
5	2017-18	Wednesday 9:00		0.52	-20%	0.4	0.6	detail
	5	2018-19		Wednesday 9:00	0.40	-24%	0.4			0.5	detail

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now19	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	Spring 2013	67				55	93	93	62
2	Spring 2014	59				49	71	71	59
3	Winter Spring 2015	48				40	58	58	56
4	Winter Spring 2016	46				40	56	56	48
	4	2016-17	53				44	60	58	58
5	2017-18	48				35	52	52	48
	5	2018-19	42				37	49	49	48
AVERAGE:		AVERAGE:	52

The War of 18-49 chronicles the ratings history of veteran primetime series. For more, see the Index.

Cablemetrics: Vikings, Westworld, Shooter, Incorporated

These numbers are current through Wednesday, November 30.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Wednesday saw the return of History's resilient Vikings with a 0.71 demo rating. It's technically the second half of season four, but the year-to-year comparisons will be against the first half of season four since it was almost a full year ago (premiering on February 18). By that measure, it's down a relatively decent 13%.

Cablemetrics: The Walking Dead, Better Call Saul, Billions, Girls

These numbers are current through Thursday, February 25.

WHAT MATTERS:

• The Walking Dead held nearly all of its premiere audience in week two, dropping just 3% to a 6.58. The year-to-year trend improved a lot since it dropped big against the Oscars in week two of last season, but that effect will be cancelled out next week when last night's rating against Oscar is added.

Cablemetrics: The Walking Dead, Vinyl, Better Call Saul, Vikings

These numbers are current through Thursday, February 18.

WHAT MATTERS:

• The Walking Dead opened the back half of season six with a 6.75 demo rating, which is still unthinkably high in today's landscape... and yet down by 15% from the last spring premiere, and nearly 10% from the fall 2015 premiere. It's the lowest TWD half-season premiere in three years. (For perspective, only one non-Walking Dead regularly-scheduled scripted episode has done a higher number in that three-year span: the Empire season one finale.)

SpotVault - Vikings (History) - 2015-16 Ratings

SpotVault - Vikings (History) - 2014-15 Ratings

Vikings

Thursdays, 10/9c, History

SpotVault - Vikings (History) - 2013-14 Ratings

Vikings

Thursdays, 10/9c, History

SpotVault - Vikings (History) - 2012-13 Ratings

Vikings

Sundays, 10/9c, History

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 4/28/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• It was another lazy Sunday on broadcast TV, with most shows within a tenth of their typically weak levels. ABC's Once Upon a Time ticked down again in the prelims and once more couldn't find a finals uptick, leaving it at another new low. Red Widow at 10/9c returned from its hiatus at well below any of its previous results; this is pretty clear pull-me-now territory, but with one left in the run ABC will most likely take the hit. They should've just aired out the string while the other ABC shows were on hiatus.

• On cable, the bar was higher for Game of Thrones to beat all the broadcast shows again since Family Guy was back in originals. But GoT cleared it again, hitting another new series high 2.8 demo. And History's Vikings had a solid 1.3 finale, but that was actually down a notch from last week.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 4/7/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• CBS dominated Sunday with a year-to-year explosion from the Academy of Country Music Awards, up a whooping 39% from last year's 3.1. The CBS release said it was the show's largest audience since 1998 and largest demo delivery since 2001. Not really sure why that happened, but the near-complete lack of broadcast resistance was probably a bit of a factor; only The Cleveland Show and the last one-hour Celebrity Apprentice were new.

• Sunday cable notables:
• Mad Men was back on AMC, but for the first time it did not set new series highs on premiere night, averaging 3.37 million viewers and a 1.1 A18-49 demo. Those were both down just a bit from the season five premiere (3.535m, 1.2).
• Week two of HBO's Game of Thrones (4.27m, 2.3) also had series-second-best deliveries and was the top scripted program of the night on broadcast or cable, but it was down a tick from last week's against-The Walking Dead premiere.
• And History's Vikings (3.31m, 1.2) held up rather swimmingly in the demo in its first week without a huge The Bible lead-in. While it shed nearly a third of its viewership, it was down just a tick week-to-week in 18-49, supporting my premiere night observation that the two shows appeared to skew very differently.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 3/17/13

WHAT MATTERS:

•  It was another dull broadcast Sunday with most programs even to slightly down. There were a slew of upward finals adjustments, but Fox's Family Guy remained the biggest week-to-week dropper.

• The Walking Dead (5.5) won the week once again, topping The Big Bang Theory by an even wider margin this time. History got a nice week three bounce-back from The Bible (2.8) and Vikings (1.5).