The Top 10 TV Ratings Moments of 2019

It's time for my tenth annual look back at the year's top 10 moments in TV ratings! As always, the criteria are pretty subjective, but I go for a blend of 1) relatively isolated incidents that are impressive for their sheer enormity/cultural impact and 2) moments that exemplify much larger trends in TV this year. Please let me know about my most egregious rankings and omissions.

Check back soon for a few additional thoughts about the biggest moments of the entire decade. Happy New Year!

SpotVault - Game of Thrones (HBO) - Spring 2019 Ratings

War of 18-49 Updates for Cable 2017: Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Pretty Little Liars and more!

Here's a quick catch-up on War of 18-49 pages for cable shows that have already existing War pages. Click the names in each one of these tables to see the now-updated War of 18-49 page. The last version of this was 11 months ago, so we're covering seasons that have concluded since then. (I'm gonna try to start doing these more frequently so that these pages don't go many months without updates.) See also last week's summer broadcast update.

Cablemetrics: Game of Thrones, Ballers, The Sinner, Halt and Catch Fire

These numbers are current through Monday, August 28.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Game of Thrones packed on nearly a point for its season finale, ending its penultimate run with its third new series high of the season at 5.70. This was the year it officially became a worthy peer to The Walking Dead; though it still trails a bit in season average, its finale outrated the last Dead episode by 0.28 points. Since Dead will probably have aired at least another 1.5 seasons by the next time we see Thrones, you have to like Thrones' chances to outrate it when they are next compared.
  

Cablemetrics: The Last Ship, Survivor's Remorse, The Sinner, Game of Thrones

These numbers are current through Monday, August 21.

WHAT MATTERS:

• TNT veteran The Last Ship (0.34/0.30) was back on the Sunday scene, about two months later than it usually premieres due to production delays. This was only a slight Plus decline from its last premiere (a 0.41/0.39 doubleheader in June 2016). While that may seem acceptable, it is worth noting that Last Ship took a big post-premiere surge last year, to 0.57 in week two and settling around 0.5 for most of the season. So the show will have a high bar to clear if it wants to stay close to these trends going forward.

Cablemetrics: Game of Thrones, Insecure, Claws, The Sinner

These numbers are current through Monday, August 14.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Game of Thrones exploded to another new series high 4.98 on Sunday. As I said on here a few weeks ago, new series highs are nothing new for GoT, but this is the first time in three years that it has hit multiple series highs within the same season. With the finale still ahead, it seems likely that at least one more is coming.

Cablemetrics: Rick and Morty, Game of Thrones, Insecure, Teen Wolf

These numbers are current through Monday, July 31.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Two years after its last premiere, Adult Swim cartoon Rick and Morty (1.48) returned with a breakout performance on Sunday, exploding to 44% above its 2015 premiere and 32% above its series high (which was a 1.12 in the second episode of last season). 1.48 is great, but like all things Adult Swim, it is far more impressive in the even younger adult demos; it averaged a 1.94 in A18-34, which is well within megahit territory by broadcast standards.

Cablemetrics: Game of Thrones, Ballers, Shooter, People of Earth

These numbers are current through Monday, July 24.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Game of Thrones (4.33) took an 8% drop in its second week back on the air, exactly mimicking the week two drop from a year ago. So that kept its year-to-year trends as a blistering +18% in raw numbers.

Cablemetrics: Game of Thrones, The Strain, Suits, The Fosters

These numbers are current through Monday, July 17.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Game of Thrones took over the summer with a whooping 4.71 for its season seven premiere. You have to add up the next ten highest-rated shows on this table combined before passing a 4.71.
• This marks the 20th different episode of Thrones (including the series premiere) to hit a new series high in raw numbers. Out of everything in my records, nothing else has pulled that off. The current broadcast record-holder is House, which hit 17 new series highs. Thrones has hit a raw series high in each of its seven seasons to date, including at least three new highs in each of the first four seasons. Last year's series high didn't come till the finale, so maybe this can be another season with multiple highs.

SpotVault - Game of Thrones (HBO) - Summer 2017 Ratings

The Top 10 TV Ratings Moments of 2016

It's time for my seventh annual look back at the year's top 10 moments in TV ratings! As always, the criteria are pretty subjective, but I go for a blend of 1) relatively isolated incidents that are impressive for their sheer enormity/cultural impact and 2) moments that exemplify much larger trends in TV this year. Please let me know about my most egregious rankings/omissions. Happy New Year!

War of 18-49 Updates for Cable 2016: Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Pretty Little Liars and more!

Here's a quick catch-up on War of 18-49 pages for some 2016 cable shows that got left behind in the last few months. Just doing shows that have already existing War pages, though I may be adding some more War posts for cable series in the near future. Click the names in each one of these tables to see the now-updated War of 18-49 page.

This is hitting a lot of material that is over a year old, because many of these shows were only part-way through a split season as of the last time I did cable War updates. I'm including the new split-season halves on these updates, but still not doing grades yet for the material that is technically an incomplete season.

The Ultimate SpotVault, Game of Thrones

The Ultimate SpotVault is a fully sortable record of every single episode in the history of a veteran series. This allows you to compare both raw numbers (total viewership and adults 18-49 rating) as well as the historical-adjusted stat A18-49+ for episodes across different seasons.

Cablemetrics: Game of Thrones, Pretty Little Liars, Queen of the South, Ray Donovan

These numbers are current through Monday, June 27.

WHAT MATTERS:

• HBO bid farewell to ratings dominance with the season six finale of Game of Thrones (4.35), which went out on a new season high and was 5% ahead of last year's finale. Lead-out comedies Silicon Valley (1.05) and Veep (0.50) both took single-digit declines from last year's finales.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 6/26/16

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Celebrity Family Feud (1.6) adjusted up to dodge a new series low (instead tying its series low from 4th of July weekend last year). Big Brother (1.6) also got a tenth back to avoid a new low.
• On cable, Game of Thrones finally got its first 4.0+ of the season, and it was by a wide margin with a new series high 4.35. That was up 5% from last year's finale, and means the show has been up in raw numbers every week this season except for the premiere.
• And the BET Awards were a strong second with a 1.95 average on BET. It was simulcast on several other networks, but it looks like the highest it got elsewhere was a 0.22 on Nick at Nite and a 0.19 on Comedy Central.

• The most heavily-branded lineup in summer TV is ABC's "Sunday Fun & Games," and it opened to somewhat unexpected results. The first note is that Celebrity Family Feud could only muster up a 1.5, which is a new series low and a bit surprising considering it had actually been getting low-1's even for recent repeats. It also had the biggest entertainment programming competition with the Sunday premiere of Big Brother (1.5), which has now been down in the teens year-to-year for all three of its opening nights. (Including a 1.9 on Wednesday and a 1.7 on Thursday).

• But ABC's news brightened a lot from there, as newbie The $100,000 Pyramid (1.7) pulled off an upset in actually growing from the Feud. Then another revival, Match Game (1.5) at 10/9c, held quite well from there. So it made for a surprisingly consistent night, and at a great level by summer standards.

• NBC also helped to liven up the Sunday summer landscape with a four-hour helping of US Olympics trials, with diving (0.7) at 7/6c, swimming (1.0) at 8/7c and gymnastics in the last two hours (1.4/1.3). NBC only had one hour of these trials on the comparable 2012 night (a 1.2 at 7/6c), so the comparisons should be a bit more apples-to-apples over the rest of this week.

• Fox was stuck deep in the cellar with the finale of Cooper Barrett's Guide (0.3) leading into comedy repeats (0.4/0.6/0.5/0.6/0.4).

• Updates to come on cable, as Game of Thrones' finale seeks its first un-rounded 4.0 rating in a season that has produced two 3.96's, a 3.95 and a 3.92.

Cablemetrics: Animal Kingdom, Wrecked, Major Crimes, Guilt

These numbers are current through Tuesday, June 14.

WHAT MATTERS:

• TNT had its new drama of the summer, Animal Kingdom with a 0.45 in the first hour and a 0.35 in the second. This show's pilot had previewed after NBA playoffs telecasts and was supposed to preview again after The Last Ship on Sunday. But that premiere got delayed due to its opening scene's similarity to the Orlando shootings. Anyway, 0.45/0.35 doesn't seem great, but TNT renewed Murder in the First last year with similar to slightly worse raw numbers. So it'll probably be fine if it stays close to this.
  

Cablemetrics: Preacher, Feed the Beast, Scream, UnREAL, Angie Tribeca, Girl Meets World, Game of Thrones

These numbers are current through Monday, June 6.

WHAT MATTERS:

• AMC's Preacher (0.80) looked pretty legit in its Sunday 9/8c debut, dropping by just a tenth after taking last week off and losing its Fear the Walking Dead lead-in. Leading out of Preacher, a preview of Feed the Beast (0.31) was less promising, and its first results in its regular Tuesday slot will be coming in later today.
  

Cablemetrics: Preacher, Game of Thrones, Fear the Walking Dead, Royal Pains

These numbers are current through Monday, May 23.

WHAT MATTERS:

• On a busy final Sunday of the traditional regular season, AMC previewed its new drama Preacher (0.90) at 10/9c after the season finale of Fear the Walking Dead (1.88). Preacher can be a long-term AMC player if it holds anywhere close to that, of course, though it is worth noting that Into the Badlands had very similar retention of a much larger lead-in (3.15 out of 6.51) back in the fall. Preacher also has to wait two weeks for its next original episode, as it will sit out Memorial Day weekend next Sunday.

Cablemetrics: Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, Veep, Motive

These numbers are current through Monday, May 9.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Game of Thrones (3.70) was up a touch in week three and is now on the year-to-year upside for the first three episodes of the season! However, Silicon Valley (0.91) and Veep (0.44) each inched down again and worsened their year-to-year situations.

Cablemetrics: Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, Fear the Walking Dead, Penny Dreadful

These numbers are current through Monday, May 2.

WHAT MATTERS:

• On HBO, Game of Thrones (3.67), Silicon Valley (0.92) and Veep (0.47) were all down in the vicinity of 10% from last week... but these were smaller drops than they took last year, so all three year-to-year trends improved. (Game actually bested the 3.57 for episode two of last season.)