War of 18-49 Update, Criminal Minds (2012-13)

Let's take a look at the 2012-13 season (the eighth overall) of Criminal Minds on CBS.

The War of 18-49, Warehouse 13

WAREHOUSE 13 (SYFY)

Scheduling history: The first two seasons of Warehouse 13 aired somewhat on an island on Syfy Tuesdays. Then the network moved the show, making it the centerpiece of their so-called "Powerful Mondays" push into scripted programming. It led into Alphas in season three and for the first half of season four, then it went to 10:00 and led out of newbie Defiance in 2013. The short final season in spring 2014 also aired at 10:00.

A18-49+: 2009-10 Season Recap

In the spring I did season-by-season recaps of the three old years added to the fold: 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06. I liked those so much that I've decided to do them for every single year of the decade across which A18-49+ era is available. The summer began with 2012-13, we've looped back to 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09, and today... it's 2009-10.

The links below in each category are to the old theme posts (most 2006-12), but I will update these links as the new theme posts come out over the course of the summer.

The War of 18-49, The OC

THE OC (FOX)

Scheduling history: Fox premiered The OC in the middle of the summer on Tuesday nights, then moved it to Wednesday for its regular season run. After season one, Fox moved it to Thursday nights, where it lasted for three more seasons.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 8/1/13

The War of 18-49, Undercover Boss

UNDERCOVER BOSS (CBS)

Scheduling history: Undercover Boss premiered after the Super Bowl in 2010 and stayed on Sunday through the rest of that season and all of the 2010-11 season. The show was then kept off of the next two fall schedules and eventually showed up in the Friday 8:00 hour. It briefly returned to the fall schedule in 2013, but has been back in midseason mode every year since.

See (who saw) how it all began: The last series to air its very first episode after the Super Bowl was Undercover Boss, and the results were sensational; its 2/7/10 premiere (not pictured in averages below) had 38.65 million viewers and a 16.2 demo rating, easily the best demo rating/retention for a lead-out in four years (and easily the second-best since Survivor in 2001). And it turned that into a really big 5.2 demo for its timeslot premiere the next Sunday. And it held that initial audience quite well; it dropped to a 4.8 in week two and rebounded to 5.1 in week three.

The best of times: Though the Boss was still quite strong early in season two, it never again got anywhere close to the 5's it achieved a few times in season one. But another thing I'll highlight in this section is the show's first few weeks on Friday. The 2.4 demo in its first Friday episode on 2/17/12 was one of the more impressive recent episodes of a Friday series in recent years, and it settled in as Friday's biggest program (in the upper 1's) for most of the rest of that spring 2012 run.

The worst of times: For whatever reason, the Boss has usually really limped to the finish within its seasons. The usually 3.0ish second season suddenly dropped to 2.0 in each of its last two weeks; season three sputtered from upper 1's all the way down to 1.1; and the similarly consistent season four posted a 1.2 and 1.0 down the stretch run. Its first time below 1.0 came for the penultimate season six episode, a special Sunday airing on 2/15/15 against NBC's enormous SNL40 special. It had another rocky return to Sunday late in the spring of 2016, and fell as low as a 0.7 for a one-off Friday episode on 5/20/16.

Then vs. now: In two years, Undercover Boss went from one of TV's most impressive post-Super Bowl performers to a Friday show. CBS is light on real estate, so it's felt like they really want this show to just be a utility player, but the ratings have gotten in the way of this downgrade trajectory. It's one of Friday's top shows and usually outrates the surely much more expensive dramas. So after using Undercover Boss to back up weak Friday newbies like A Gifted Man and Made in Jersey, CBS shifted gears and launched the show in the fall for season five. It worked quite well, but outside circumstances (The Amazing Race's move) necessitated a return to midseason for Undercover Boss. The ratings say this was a bad move, but CBS is probably OK with it since Boss usually struggles to produce a full season of episodes.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	Winter Spring 2010	Sunday 9:00	4.59		3.9	5.2	detail
2	2010-11		Sunday 9:00	3.05	-33%	2.0	4.0		detail
3	2012	Sun 8:00, Fri 8:00	2.01	-34%	1.1	3.0	detail
4	2012-13	Friday 8:00	1.61	-20%	1.0	1.9	detail
5	2013-14		Friday 8:00	1.51	-6%	1.2	1.8	detail	B
6	Winter 2014-15	Sun 8:00, Fri 8:00	1.39	-8%	0.9	1.8	detail	B-
7	2015-16	Sunday 9:00	1.15	-17%	0.7	1.6	detail	C+
8	2016-17	Wednesday 8:00	0.97	-16%	0.7	1.2	detail	B-
9	Winter 2020	Wed 8:00, Mon 9:00	0.65		0.6	0.7	detail
10	Fall 2020	Friday 9:00	0.38	-42%	0.3	0.5	detail
11	Winter 2022	Friday 8:00	0.39	+5%	0.3	0.5	detail	B+

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now22	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	Winter Spring 2010	163	big hit	0.83		139	185	185	149
2	2010-11	120	solid	0.61	-26%	79	157	149	79
3	2012	85	hit(Fri)	0.43	-29%	47	127	127	47
4	2012-13	76	hit(Fri)	0.39	-10%	47	90	71	47
5	2013-14	80	hit(Fri)	0.41	+5%	64	96	85	64
6	Winter 2014-15	83	hit(Fri)	0.42	+4%	54	107	101	77
7	2015-16	79	marginal	0.40	-4%	47	110	106	52
8	2016-17	79	marginal	0.40	0%	57	101	90	61
9	Winter 2020	80	marginal	0.41		68	87	81	68
10	Fall 2020	58	flop	0.30	-27%	48	78	78	48
11	Winter 2022	77	hit(Fri)	0.39	+32%	57	106	96	61

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

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 7/31/13

For lack of any real ratings news Wednesday, some quick programming notes: Top 10 of the Last 10 is taking this week off. It's back for the final three lists on August 9, 16 and 23. I'm also skipping daily ratings posts next week and will make up for them the following week. The other regulars (2009-10 season recap, War of 18-49, Top 10/Last 10) will be on schedule next week.

War of 18-49 Update, Celebrity Apprentice (Spring 2013)

Let's take a look at the Spring 2013 season (the sixth celebrity season) of Celebrity Apprentice on NBC.

SpotVault - Unforgettable (CBS) - 2013-14 Ratings

Unforgettable

Sundays, 9/8c and Fridays, 8/7c, CBS

SpotVault - Capture (CW) - Summer 2013 Ratings

Capture

Tuesdays, 9/8c, CW