SpotVault - Grandfathered (Fox) - 2015-16 Ratings

SpotVault - Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC) - 2015-16 Ratings

Best Case/Worst Case: Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, CSI: Cyber

Best Case/Worst Case lays out possible scenarios for broadcast primetime TV seasons yet to premiere. Here's what's premiering tonight!

Spotted Ratings, Friday 10/2/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Dr. Ken (1.5) and Hawaii Five-0 (1.1) adjusted up.

• Dr. Ken had a promising start for ABC, opening with a 1.4 demo rating that was two tenths above its Last Man Standing lead-in (1.2, up a tenth from last week). This was a tenth above last year's Cristela premiere. Cristela held up decently post-premiere, but Ken has given itself room to drop a little more steeply and still be a legit timeslot improvement. Shark Tank (1.7) looked good as well, matching last week's premiere, though 20/20 (1.1) rounded out the night weakly.

• It was status quo in week two on CBS, which was great news for Blue Bloods (1.3, still on the year-to-year upside), good news for The Amazing Race (1.2) and continued bad news for Hawaii Five-0 (1.0).

• The CW moved America's Next Top Model to Friday with its usual 0.4, matching its Friday opener from last year. Reign joins the mix next week, replacing Masters of Illusion which wrapped with a one-hour finale (0.3/0.3).

• A week before NBC gets in the scripted original game with Undateable, repeats of Grandfathered (0.8), The Grinder (0.6), The Player (0.6) and Scream Queens (0.4) populated the other two networks.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 10/1/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Bones (1.4) went up, now at its outright best number since last December. The Player (1.0) also got a surprising bump, but nothing in TGIT adjusted despite a couple shows being close in the prelims. Thursday Night Football had a 6.9 final, up nearly a point from last week. This is CBS' biggest TNF rating other than the 2014 and 2015 premiere games.

• NBC brought back The Blacklist (1.8) for season three with a considerably better lead-in than it enjoyed for most of its Thursday run in the winter/spring, and got a solid result. This is more like where Blacklist settled in the winter, and a healthy rally from its ugly spring run (which got as low as 1.2).
• Meanwhile, lead-in Heroes Reborn (1.6) was down a typical-ish 20% in week two, still showing real potential to be a big timeslot improvement in its own right. But Blacklist's lead-out newbie The Player (0.9) proved no better a match with its new lead-in, shedding 25% to drop to the clear bottom of the early NBC totem pole.

• Fox's opening Thursday was less promising overall, though one probably couldn't ask too much more of Bones (1.3), which rose above most of its spring deliveries to its highest rating since the spring premiere (albeit still three tenths behind last year's fall premiere). But the season three ugliness began from day one for Monday transplant Sleepy Hollow (1.0), already deep in new series low territory and a full half behind last year's premiere.

• On ABC, Grey's Anatomy (2.3), Scandal (2.8) and How to Get Away with Murder (2.3) were all down double digits in week two, pretty similar drops to what went down in week two last year. Grey's and Scandal still aren't too far off of league average year-to-year declines (and Grey's might even get there if it adjusts up). Murder remains weakest on a year-to-year basis by a wide margin, well below last year's 3.2 in week two.

• More on football after finals!

First Two Weeks, Minority Report

WEEK ONE 
Rating: 1.1
Lead-in: Gotham (1.6)
Competition: Dancing with the Stars (1.8), Scorpion (2.2), The Voice (3.5), Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R)/Significant Mother (0.3/0.1)

Best Case/Worst Case: Dr. Ken

Best Case/Worst Case lays out possible scenarios for broadcast primetime TV seasons yet to premiere. Here's what's premiering tonight!

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 9/30/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Goldbergs (2.4), Modern Family (3.0), Survivor (2.4), Rosewood (2.0) and Empire (5.5) all added a tenth, while Nashville (1.1) and Code Black (1.5) lost a tenth. This put Code Black's retention almost exactly on par with the year-ago Stalker premiere (and the raw number now down 25%).

• The second Wednesday of the season was marked by something never seen before: a significant week-to-week drop from Empire (5.4), which shed over a point from last week's premiere. It seems likely now that we're finally past this beast's raw numbers peak, and it's now just a question of how it does at managing these declines.
• At 8/7c, Rosewood (1.9) took a similar 20%ish drop, keeping it well ahead of pretty much everything else on the Fox schedule (except for maybe NFL-boosted comedies on Sunday). With a 1.7 -> 2.2 breakdown, the pre-tune effect is still clear.

• CBS had a mixed night with a very healthy week two from Survivor (2.3), a very slow start from Criminal Minds (2.0), and the premiere of Code Black (1.6) at 10/9c. Code was 20% behind last year's Stalker premiere, but because Minds was down so sharply (26% behind last year's premiere), Code actually had better retention than Stalker. Not an awful start, but it needs to hold up well.

• It looks like NBC may be encroaching on CBS' Wednesday crime drama territory for another year, as Chicago PD (1.7) had a good return at 10/9c (already #1 in the hour on Code Black's premiere night) and kept Law and Order: SVU (1.7) very close to last week. (Since SVU did so well at 10/9c last week, it's actually ahead of its 1.6/1.5 rating in the 9/8c hour a week ago.) The Mysteries of Laura (1.2) also held up in week two, putting NBC just 4% behind its year-ago evening.

• ABC was a mixed bag as the 8/7c hour held up extremely well; The Middle (2.2) was actually up from the premiere and The Goldbergs (2.3) within a tenth. Modern Family (2.9) was down a reasonable three tenths at 9/8c, but Black-ish (1.8) completely collapsed from its strong return number last week. Nashville (1.2) preliminarily matched last week's premiere at 10/9c.

First Two Weeks, Blindspot

WEEK ONE 
Rating: 3.1
Lead-in: The Voice (3.5)
Competition: Castle (1.2), NCIS: Los Angeles (1.2)

Best Case/Worst Case: The Blacklist, Bones, Sleepy Hollow

Best Case/Worst Case lays out possible scenarios for broadcast primetime TV seasons yet to premiere. Here's what's premiering tonight!