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.

Cablemetrics: Hell on Wheels, Ray Donovan, Complications, The Strain

WHAT MATTERS:

• AMC's Saturday staple Hell on Wheels was back to begin its two-part final season with a 0.38 premiere, down 19% from last summer's opener. That actually put it ahead of both of AMC's Sunday dramas this week, as the swingy Humans (0.33) fell back down by 25%.

• Last week's Ray Donovan premiere was not as good as it looked because it seemed unlikely it could grow as much over the course of the season again. But... maybe it can? The show was up 16% to a 0.37 in week two. It'll have to do that several more times, but this was an encouraging step. However, its lead-out Masters of Sex went way in the other direction, down 31% to an awful 0.09.

SpotVault - Hell on Wheels (AMC) - 2015-16 Ratings

The War of 18-49, Hell on Wheels

A Rare Post-Walking Dead Launch

Whenever AMC's phenomenon The Walking Dead finally fizzles, one thing that may seem striking is how rarely AMC actually tried new scripted programming directly after it. This may change, but as of now there's been just one try: the railroad drama Hell on Wheels. It opened on 11/6/11 with a fairly reasonable 4.36 million viewers and 1.9 demo rating, compared to its lead-in's 3.4. As the Dead hung in the low 3's, Hell on Wheels dropped to 1.5 and 1.2 the next two weeks, then held at 1.2 in week four following Dead's finale.

A Modest Audience Left Behind

Premiering Hell on Wheels a month into TWD's season meant they had some time to see what was left after it lost the huge lead-in. Its first weeks without Dead plummeted to 0.8 and 0.6, but it held at 0.6 or 0.7 for the rest of the season. It was enough for a renewal, and season two of Hell on Wheels debuted in the late summer. It had a string of 0.6's to open the year, then dropped into 0.5's and even one 0.4 for the second half.

A Successful Saturday Experiment

These were pretty marginal ratings for an AMC that was still rolling with Mad Men and Breaking Bad at the time, but AMC was able to find a way to make a third season work: it would spearhead an unconventional push into programming the low-viewed Saturday. It was in this move that Hell on Wheels would finally prove its true value for the network, as it was down just 19% to a mix of 0.4's and 0.5's on Saturday. It's hard to imagine almost any other series making a move to Saturday (or even Friday) and shedding only 19% of its same-day demo, but that's what happened here.

It dropped another 17% in season four, though even a -17% on the same night is not bad by recent cable standards. But it did get AMC to announce that season five (premiering tomorrow night, July 18) will be the last one. Hell on Wheels will probably go down as a bit of an isolated incident; the network didn't really try building around it after the Saturday move and will probably bail on the night again once it's over. But score one for oddball scheduling.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	2011-12	Sunday 10:00	0.99		0.60	1.90	detail
2	Summer 2012	Sunday 9:00	0.55	-45%	0.42	0.63	detail
3	Summer 2013	Saturday 9:00	0.44	-19%	0.33	0.50	detail
4	2014		Saturday 9:00	0.37	-17%	0.28	0.47		detail
5	Summer 2015-16		Saturday 9:00	0.26	-33%	0.19	0.38	detail	C+

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now16	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	2011-12	39				24	75	75	28
2	Summer 2012	23				18	27	26	20
3	Summer 2013	21				16	24	23	24
4	2014	20				15	25	25	20
5	Summer 2015	18				15	23	23	17
	5	Summer 2016	15				13	19	16	17
AVERAGE:		AVERAGE:	23

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

SpotVault - Hell on Wheels (AMC) - Summer 2014 Ratings

Hell on Wheels

Saturdays, 9/8c, AMC

Spotted Ratings, Weekend Roundup 8/8-8/10/14

WHAT MATTERS:

•  A rain delay pushed the final round of the PGA Championship two hours into CBS primetime on the East Coast. Though the full day averaged a 1.7, it averaged a 2.5 in the last two hours, peaking at a 2.9 in the 9:00 half-hour and hitting a 2.7 at 9:30 leading into 60 Minutes. Big Brother (2.0) was even despite a 10:00 start time on the East Coast.

• It was a bit of an atypical Sunday with bigger CBS competition and the Teen Choice Awards on Fox, but it seems ABC's Rising Star (0.7) has officially entered legitimate dud territory with a two-tenth drop this week.

• The biggest notable from the weekend in cable was a big week two drop for Hell on Wheels (0.35) on Saturday. It went from a nearly even year-to-year premiere to over 25% behind last season's episode two. And for a little more fun-with-tiny-numbers, WGN's Manhattan (0.09) followed last week's 74% drop with an 80% bounce-back in week three (though this still left it at half of the premiere number).

Spotted Ratings, Weekend Roundup 8/1-8/2/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• The CW rounded out a magical week with the revival of former PAX and MyNetworkTV series Masters of Illusion (0.3), which did OK business at 8/7c. The network then got great mileage out of a Penn and Teller: Fool Us encore (0.4) at 9/8c. It seems a bit unfortunate that this lineup got relegated to Friday while repeats of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals have regularly hung 0.1's on Thursday.

• On Saturday, the two-hour Crossbones burn-off (0.2/0.2) was the only broadcast original (while news-themed programming vastly improved the slot it left behind on Friday), but cable had better luck as AMC's Hell on Wheels (0.47) came back nearly even year-to-year and Starz had a rather solid start out of Power (0.52).

SpotVault - Hell on Wheels (AMC) - Summer 2013 Ratings

Hell on Wheels

Saturdays, 9/8c, AMC

SpotVault - Hell on Wheels (AMC) - Summer 2012 Ratings

Hell on Wheels

Sundays, 9/8c, AMC

SpotVault - Hell on Wheels (AMC) - 2011-12 Ratings

Hell on Wheels

Sundays, 10/9c, AMC

Spotted Ratings, Weekend Roundup 8/23-8/25/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• Preseason NFL dominated broadcast TV on Friday and Sunday, with the 2.3 average on Friday for Seahawks/Packers on CBS particularly impressive, but it lost out to a nice showing from ABC's NASCAR on Saturday (it was up a tick from last year's late-August race).

• On Friday, America's Next Top Model decided to go from 0.5 to 0.2 in one week. Probably just one of those weird blips, but we'll see...

• AMC saw Saturday's Hell on Wheels (0.33) finally take the 18-49 dip that it seemed like it should've taken last week when it dropped a ton of viewers. But HoW is far from the network's biggest concern; week three of Low Winter Sun (0.42) dropped again and is now retaining 17% of its Breaking Bad (2.53) lead-in. It's pretty clear now that this show is a disaster, and I think AMC ought to strongly consider moving BB aftershow Talking Bad (which actually very narrowly built from LWS at a 0.43) to the immediate post-BB slot.

• The week's top program was Sunday's Video Music Awards (5.2) on MTV, which nearly doubled last year's ill-scheduled 2.8 rating on a Thursday. The 2.8 in 2012, not this rating, was the real outlier here; the show actually got a 6.2 two years ago.

Spotted Ratings, Weekend Roundup 8/16-8/17/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• If you're into repeat tea leaf reading, it was not a good start for what will be ABC's Friday fall lineup, as The Neighbors hung a pretty terrible number and brought Shark Tank down to easily its worst repeat rating of the summer.

• The move to Friday was of no help to the CDub's Perfect Score, but America's Next Top Model gained back a tenth in week three.

•  Week two of Hell on Wheels on AMC Saturday dropped a big chunk in total viewers (2.49m -> 1.88m) but was strangely steady in 18-49 (0.48 -> 0.48).

Spotted Ratings, Weekends Roundup 8/2-8/3/13 & 8/9-8/10/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• The CW brought America's Next Top Model back to the schedule even earlier than last year with a fairly encouraging two-hour premiere that was two tenths ahead of the late-August 2012 premiere. However, it fell back to earth in week two. Last year it really picked up as the regular season neared, so don't write it off just yet.

• Also of some note was AMC's foray into Saturday night originals with the return of Hell on Wheels on August 10, which actually narrowly increased its total viewer delivery year-to-year even in a Saturday move with 2.49 million. It had a 0.49 demo, down from the August 2012 premiere's 0.62. Still, I would think that's a pretty acceptable Saturday level if it can maintain it; the show averaged just a 0.55 on Sunday last season.

Ratings Five-Spot, WE 12/11/11 - Once Upon a Time, Hell on Wheels, Luck, Fear Factor, 2 Broke Girls

This week's Ratings Five-Spot at SpoilerTV takes a look at the recent struggles of Once Upon a Time and Hell on Wheels, the soft preview ratings from HBO's Luck, the big debut of Fear Factor and the 8:00 tryout for 2 Broke Girls. Check it out!

Ratings Five-Spot, WE 11/27/11 - You Deserve It, Revenge, Holiday Specials, Leverage, The Walking Dead

It's a couple days later than usual thanks to Nielsen's Thanksgiving weekend delays, but this week's Ratings Five-Spot at SpoilerTV is here, and it takes a look at ABC's new game show You Deserve It, the "Thanksgiving Eve effect" (and wondering whether serialized drama Revenge can get through it), a roundup of movies and holiday specials, the winter return of Leverage and the fall finale of The Walking Dead. Check it out!

The Five-Spots are my recaps of what aired, what got renewed/cancelled and what rated well or poorly last week in TV. For more Five-Spots, see the Index.

Ratings Five-Spot, WE 11/6/11 - New Girl, Covert Affairs, Bones, Burn Notice, Hell on Wheels

This week's Ratings Five-Spot at SpoilerTV takes a look at the shaky post-baseball returns of Fox's scripted shows (especially Glee and New Girl), the season premieres of Covert Affairs, Bones and Burn Notice and the series premiere of AMC's Hell on Wheels. Check it out!

The Five-Spots are my recaps of what aired, what got renewed/cancelled and what rated well or poorly last week in TV. For more Five-Spots, see the Index.