WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: The Big Bang Theory (4.8), American Idol (2.2) and The Blacklist (1.8) adjusted up. So Idol's Thursday ep beat the Wednesday ep that was paired with Empire but against The Voice.
- How to Get Away with Murder is already missed. ABC premiered newbie American Crime at a lukewarm 2.0 demo rating, two thirds of its lead-in from Scandal (3.0). The show clearly brought a different skew than the TGIT norm to the table, with noticeably better retention among older viewers (88% in total viewers, 8.4 million vs. 9.6 million) and noticeably worse among younger viewers (61% in A18-34, 1.4 vs. 2.3).
- Though Scandal's 3.0 was its lowest rating in 2015, Grey's Anatomy (2.4) snuck in one last rise on the Thursday before DST.
- CBS was this Thursday's big winner, at least in the first two hours. Though it had some help from a bigger The Big Bang Theory (4.7), The Odd Couple (3.0) looks like the real deal at 8:30, and Mom (2.2) inched up in its second try at 9:30. But Elementary (1.3) was weak at 10/9c, perhaps suggesting the older-skewing American Crime cut into its audience a bit.
- NBC saw The Blacklist regress back to 1.7 after last week's growth, and it was surrounded by 0.8's from The Slap and Allegiance. Fox was close to even with American Idol (2.1) and Backstrom (1.0).
Thanks to a short first season for Thursday home run
How to Get Away with Murder, the post-
Scandal timeslot has come open over two months before the end of the season. Tonight, ABC will use that opportunity on the new drama
American Crime. The marketing campaign wants you to believe the show is Very Important, and the critical reviews have
mostly lived up to that billing. But it's still unknown whether the extremely grim tone will connect with an audience that is accustomed to much soapier ABC Thursday dramas. Will
American Crime arrest the TGIT audience? That's
The Question for Thursday, March 5, 2015.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: Empire (5.8) was up one more tenth.
- CBS launched newbie CSI: Cyber at a 1.8 rating, with nearly full retention of its lead-in from Criminal Minds (1.9) in both viewership and demo rating. It's 10% behind the Stalker premiere from the fall, though that one had a much larger 2.7 Minds lead-in. It's another of those premieres that will have to hold very well in subsequent weeks to be a contender in a very crowded CBS drama field. Despite the return of Survivor (2.3) at 8/7c, Minds (1.9) wasn't even able to grow from its last episode three weeks ago, perhaps thanks in part to...
- ... yet another new series high from Empire (5.7), up yet another three tenths in week nine. I don't really know what else to say except that this passed The Big Bang Theory's season premiere to become the biggest regularly-scheduled broadcast entertainment episode of the season.
- ABC had another sensational comedy Wednesday in its last original week before the departure of Empire. The Middle, the only show that had an off night last week, bounced back to 2.2 this time, while The Goldbergs (2.5) and Modern Family (3.4) each held onto last week's surges completely. Nashville (1.4) and Black-ish (2.3) inched up from last week's finals, but they've adjusted down before.
- Despite new heights for Empire, its lead-in American Idol (2.1) had quite a rough time as it had to deal with a strong two-hour The Voice recap special (2.1) on NBC.
Tonight, CBS launches the fourth
CSI series
CSI: Cyber after
Criminal Minds.
Cyber may end up with the interesting distinction of premiering after the entire rest of the
CSI empire has finished airing (though we don't yet know
CSI's fate). Though
CSI wasn't much of a viewership draw on Sunday this season, it's still an iconic brand on CBS, and the network also hopes that
Medium alum Patricia Arquette and her recent Academy Award win can bring in some interest. Will viewers log in to
CSI: Cyber? That's
The Question for Wednesday, March 4, 2015.
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: Chicago Fire adjusted down to 2.1.
- The spring return of Agents of SHIELD (1.6) made little noise, down about a tenth from both the fall finale and the overall fall average. This is a bit disappointing since CBS was in repeats, but it will get to face comedies rather than The Voice in a couple weeks. Earlier in the night for ABC, Fresh Off the Boat (1.7) and Repeat After Me (1.2) each lost a tenth for the second straight week.
- On NBC, The Voice (4.1) was up from last week and exactly even with the year-ago episode (though that one was just one hour). For the first time in four tries this spring, NBC finally found something to break a 2.0 with a The Voice lead-in; the upgrade was very welcome for Chicago Fire (2.2), up about 50% from recent deliveries after the fractional comedy block (and just a bit below its 2.3 after the second Voice week in the fall).
- Fox traded out MasterChef Junior for the spring premiere of slightly weaker Hell's Kitchen (1.4). It was down a tenth from the premiere of the fall season and a very noticeable 30% below the last spring premiere on 3/13/13 (2.0).
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: The Last Man On Earth (2.4) and Dateline (0.9) adjusted up.
- For the second straight year, the Sunday after the Oscars brought a significant positive surprise, but this time it wasn't on the network with the Oscar promotion. Fox's The Last Man On Earth premiered at a very strong 2.3 rating, which it fully held in the 9:30 half-hour. This was more than double Mulaney's premiere rating from the fall. Though clearly this simple concept pulled in significant interest on its own, it also had more help than expected from the rest of the night; The Simpsons (1.8) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.8) both had massive spikes from their event season ratings. And the return to 7:30 for Bob's Burgers (1.4) actually did better than most of its 9:30 ratings.
- Meanwhile, the Oscar network ABC had a pretty healthy return from Once Upon a Time (2.2), which was above the last three episodes from the fall and just two tenths below the strong spring 2014 premiere. But this year's post-Once Upon a Time launch was certainly no Resurrection, as the two-hour premiere of Secrets and Lies (1.5) had a modest start at best. Of course, comparing to the 3.8 breakthrough from Resurrection isn't that fair, and a 1.5 in 2015 is clearly somewhat better than the disastrous 1.5 premiere from Red Widow a couple years ago. And it was obviously a big improvement on recent Resurrection and Revenge numbers. But it's going to have to hold up very well to have a future.
- The big loser was CBS, which bombed pretty much across the board with new season lows for Madam Secretary (1.3) and The Good Wife (1.1) and a DOA series premiere for Battle Creek (1.0).
WHAT MATTERS:
- NBC tried to spark the dead night with regular season NHL hockey to no avail. Next week: boxing!
WHAT MATTERS:
- FINALS UPDATE: Hawaii Five-0 (1.2) adjusted up.
- The Amazing Race (1.1) made its Friday return with the same number at which it began its Friday run in the fall (and, of note, below the Undercover Boss Friday season low). With it came the unfortunate return to mediocrity for CBS later in the night, as Hawaii Five-0 (1.1) sunk to its low point from the fall when it was airing after Race. Blue Bloods (0.7) was in repeat mode.
- Shark Tank (1.2) also snuck in a post-sweeps repeat, but it didn't stop the surrounding ABC hours from having pretty good nights; Last Man Standing (1.4) inched up to snap its long 1.3 streak, while Cristela (1.0) was back to normal. At 10/9c, 20/20's 1.3 was one of its better ratings without an original lead-in.
- NBC installed a little-watched The Night Shift (0.5) repeat at 8/7c to fill the Grimm hiatus, while Fox had a third straight 0.8/0.6 combo with World's Funniest Fails and Glee. CW's Hart of Dixie was even at 0.4.
The Following
Mondays, 9/8c, Fox
Secrets and Lies
Sundays, 9/8c, ABC
© SpottedRatings.com 2009-2022. All Rights Reserved.
