Spotted Ratings, Monday 6/2/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• I didn't remember Memorial Day being particularly brutal for TV ratings in past years, and it actually looks like overall viewing was even lower on June 2 than the previous Monday. But nearly everything that aired last week still had a double-digit bounce-back, so maybe last week was just a huge fluke. That included good news for MasterChef (even if a 1.7 is still fairly underwhelming for this show), 24: Live Another Day (1.8), The Bachelorette (1.7) and especially American Ninja Warrior (1.9 which held after finals, impressively topping every single point from last season).

• Some shows also joined the mix, including the return of ABC's summer drama Mistresses (1.2), matching its series premiere rating last year. The CW began its summer with Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.5) and Beauty and the Beast (0.4), which tied its high point from the regular season.

• Cable (still to come): A&E's Longmire (0.7) was back at two tenths behind last season's premiere.

Spotted Ratings, Weekend Roundup 5/30-6/1/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• NBC's summer run of Crossbones (1.0) got off to a modest start, premiering just below the season two premiere of Hannibal (1.1) and miles below Dracula's 1.8. It's not that much of a triumph since it had a very good lead-in by Friday standards from Dateline (1.3 overall, 1.5 at 9:30). And it skewed considerably older than Hannibal (with 4.9 million viewers), more in line with the skew of its Dateline lead-in. For a shot at another season, it probably has to at least match Hannibal's 0.8 to 0.9 norm when it settles.

• ABC began a brief foray into an all-original Saturday with returning Bet on Your Baby (0.5) (which matched last year's April premiere) and Sing Your Face Off (0.6). Hard to really know what ABC's standards are (they renewed BoYB at a 0.5 average), but they're burning through the six hours of Sing Your Face Off in just three Saturdays.

• On Sunday, ABC aired a low-rated original episode of The Bachelorette (1.4), NBC's dramas (0.9/0.8) bounced back a bit from their Memorial Weekend ratings, and Fox resumed the burn-off of Enlisted (0.4) in the 7:00 half-hour. Not yet included: HBO's Game of Thrones (3.9) tied its series high from two weeks ago, while AMC had one of its weakest drama debuts yet in Halt and Catch Fire (0.34).

SpotVault - Sing Your Face Off (ABC) - Summer 2014 Ratings

Sing Your Face Off

Saturdays, 9/8c, ABC

SpotVault - Bet On Your Baby (ABC) - Summer 2014 Ratings

Bet On Your Baby

Saturdays, 8/7c, ABC

SpotVault - Mistresses (ABC) - Summer 2014 Ratings

Mistresses

Mondays, 10/9c, ABC

SpotVault - Crossbones (NBC) - Summer 2014 Ratings

Crossbones

Fridays, 10/9c, NBC

SpotVault - Undateable (NBC) - Summer 2014 Ratings

Undateable

Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC

War of 18-49 Update, American Dad! (2013-14)

Let's take a look at the 2013-14 season (the tenth overall) of American Dad! on Fox.

A18-49+ Update: The Network Race in 2013-14

We last examined the network race about three months ago, when I was putting up a pre-emptive strike against what I saw as the likely media narrative come May: "NBC only won because of the Olympics!"

However, with the season in the books, NBC was able to make the claim that they were #1 even without the Olympics! I doubt they account for the fact that they'd have had two and a half very low-rated (AKA without The Voice) weeks in its place, and I don't know whether that would've made the difference. But either way, the "#1 without Olympics" title got NBC the recognition it had been due for a year or two. The problem is that it probably got it too much recognition. So I have to make a strategic shift in this post, from "NBC is underrated" guy to "NBC is overrated" guy. Here's a look at how the 2013-14 network race shaped up.

The War of 18-49, Raising Hope

RAISING HOPE (FOX)

Scheduling history: Raising Hope launched on Tuesday at 9/8c, leading out of the peak season of Glee. In season two, Fox wisely shifted it to 9:30 to launch the far more substantial newbie New Girl. Late in season two and through season three, it led off Fox's attempt at a two-hour comedy lineup on Tuesday. And season four was essentially burnt off in the Friday 9:00 hour.