Spotted Ratings, Sunday 9/5/21

FINALS UPDATE: Saturday Night Football (1.8, +0.3) adjusted up while The Conners (R) (0.4) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

A18-49+ Season Comparsion Chart (thru 2020-21)

This is an interactive chart allowing you to compare seasonal A18-49+ ratings (through 2020-21) for up to three different shows. It includes the 161 broadcast scripted shows with at least a 250 Career A18-49+, the same shows included on the Career A18-49+ Sortable Table.

Career A18-49+ Sortable Table (thru 2020-21)

This is the Career A18-49+ sortable table, with A18-49+ numbers that can be used to evaluate the full run of a series. This includes Career A18-49+, the sum of each individual season's historical-adjusted A18-49 rating, as well as how many times each show went over some of the A18-49+ label thresholds.

A few quick notes about what's in here:

• This includes all 161 broadcast scripted series with a career A18-49+ total of 250 or higher. Unlike in previous years, that means a handful of netlet shows are in the mix (though of course they can be filtered out easily). The 45 "hit for CW" and 35 "solid for CW" labels are applied to the "hit" and "solid" counts for those shows.
• This number will be incomplete for shows that aired before 2001, but to help account for this, the number of missing seasons is included in parentheses under the "Seasons" column. You can also filter in or out the shows that have missing seasons, as well as the shows still "active" (and thus still adding to their counts).

Spotted Ratings, Friday 9/3/21

FINALS UPDATE: Shark Tank (R) (0.4) and 20/20 (R) (0.4) adjusted up while Burden of Truth (0.0) and Dynasty (0.0) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 9/2/21

FINALS UPDATE: CMA Jam (0.5) and CFB on Fox (1.7, +0.3) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

The War of 18-49, S.W.A.T.

Improving the Thursday 10/9c Hour

In the same season that CBS launched its current comedy anchor Young Sheldon, they also launched a new drama in the 10/9c hour on the same night. And while it wasn't as flashy as Sheldon in the ratings, S.W.A.T. opened with a 1.1 (down just a tenth from its Life in Pieces lead-in) and stayed in the ones for much of the fall/early winter. That made for a marked improvement on the failed newbies from the year before (Pure Genius and Training Day), and it was also stronger than the last couple years of Elementary in the hour.

In season two, the show looked kind of alarming in the fall (premiering at a mere 0.7) but it perked up significantly with a series of 0.9's in the winter, and ended up down just a few points from season one in Plus. Considering it had significantly worse lead-ins for most of the season (including one-and-done comedy newbies Murphy Brown and Fam), it was valuable enough to keep around.

Struggles against One Chicago on Wednesday

But it was sent off to Wednesday, where it would be paired with middling SEAL Team and asked to compete with NBC's fast-growing Chicago trio. It was at a borderline 0.5-0.6 for most of the season, which didn't look that bad compared with its weak fall 2018, but the y2y numbers got a lot worse beyond that point. In the end, it took a 15% Plus decline to a very borderline level, but the DVR numbers were strong and CBS once again punted on throwing anything of consequence at the Chicago series. So they stuck with the SEAL Team and S.W.A.T. pairing for another year. The results in 2020-21 were down a little bit more in Plus, with S.W.A.T. hitting 0.4's for most of the season.

The Friday/Sunday Surge

In season five, it appeared CBS was finally done with this show as priority weeknight programming, as S.W.A.T. headed for the Friday 8/7c hour in the fall before a planned exile to the dreaded Sunday 10/9c hour. But S.W.A.T. defied expectations, growing in raw numbers and outrating most of the MacGyver seasons in the Friday 8/7c hour. Despite that huge fall, CBS went forward with the Sunday 10/9c plan, and S.W.A.T. pulled off another miracle there by outrating last season's NCIS: New Orleans. So it will be that rare show to actually escape the Sunday 10/9c exile, getting another crack at Friday in 2021-22.

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	2017-18	Thursday 10:00	0.95		0.8	1.1	detail	B
2	2018-19		Thursday 10:00	0.78	-18%	0.7	0.9	detail	B-
3	2019-20	Wednesday 10:00	0.57	-27%	0.5	0.7	detail	C+
4	2020-21		Wednesday 10:00	0.42	-26%	0.3	0.6	detail	C
5	2021-22	Fri 8:00, Sun 10:00	0.45	+8%	0.3	0.5	detail	A
6	2022-23	Friday 8:00	0.41	-9%	0.3	0.5	detail	B+
7	Spring 2024		Friday 8:00	0.36	-13%	0.3	0.5	detail	B
8	2024-25	Fri 8:00, Fri 10:00	0.27	-26%	0.1	0.3	detail	B-

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now25	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	2017-18	86	marginal	0.27		69	100	100	87
2	2018-19	82	marginal	0.26	-5%	69	99	72	91
3	2019-20	70	marginal	0.22	-15%	59	87	68	78
4	2020-21	65	flop	0.21	-6%	53	85	68	70
5	2021-22	89	marginal	0.28	+36%	63	106	82	63
6	2022-23	97	hit(Fri)	0.31	+9%	70	122	89	82
7	Spring 2024	95	hit(Fri)	0.30	-2%	76	121	121	90
8	2024-25	84	hit(Fri)	0.27	-12%	47	110	88	60
AVERAGE:		AVERAGE:	83	hit(Fri)
CAREER:		CAREER:	668	staple

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

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 9/1/21

FINALS UPDATE: No adjustments.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

The War of 18-49, The Resident

The Monday Years

Fox launched The Resident in January 2018, when there were reasons to think it would be an uphill climb. The network had already renewed both of its fall drama newbies (The Gifted and The Orville), 9-1-1 had just had an excellent start in recent weeks, and rumors were abounding that Fox would wipe out a huge portion of its scripted department in the transition to so-called 'new Fox.'

Following a 2.6 for a post-football premiere, The Resident posted a 1.0 the next night, building on its Lucifer lead-in (0.9). That wasn't anything amazing, but The Resident held up well enough in the following weeks to join that crowded roster of drama renewals. It kept pulling 0.8's and 0.9's deep into the spring, building on Lucifer almost every week.

For season two, The Resident moved to the 8/7c hour and led into the much bigger 9-1-1 at 9/8c. This kept it at basically the same raw numbers as in season one (once you take the football episode out of the season one average), a significant improvement in Plus and much better than the year-ago Lucifer ratings in the timeslot.

The Tuesday Years

After 9-1-1's big season two on Monday night, Fox made it the Monday centerpiece going forward, while The Resident was sent to rescue what had been a problematic Tuesday the year before. It was paired with the final season of Empire, and while Empire usually had slightly stronger ratings in the fall, The Resident held up better and was usually outrating it by the spring. Its return in season four was delayed till 2021, and it took only a small drop while paired with a disappointing second season of Prodigal Son. While it's not hit anything near the heights of 9-1-1, the show (somewhat like Bones a decade ago) has remained just a little too valuable to get rid of. Whether that can continue remains to be seen, as major cast shakeups await in season five. It will be back in the Tuesday 8/7c hour, paired with another Lee Daniels drama (newbie Our Kind of People).

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	2018	Monday 9:00	1.02		0.8	2.6	detail	B+
2	2018-19	Monday 8:00	0.95	-7%	0.8	1.1	detail	A-
3	2019-20	Tuesday 8:00	0.73	-22%	0.6	0.8	detail	B-
4	2021		Tuesday 8:00	0.55	-24%	0.5	0.7	detail	B-
5	2021-22		Tuesday 8:00	0.42	-23%	0.3	0.5	detail	C+
6	2022-23		Tuesday 8:00	0.34	-21%	0.3	0.4	detail	C

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now23	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	2018	93	marginal	0.40		73	239	239	84
2	2018-19	100	solid	0.42	+7%	80	118	115	89
3	2019-20	90	marginal	0.38	-10%	77	103	103	99
4	2021	86	marginal	0.37	-4%	71	101	101	71
5	2021-22	83	marginal	0.36	-3%	65	102	98	69
6	2022-23	79	marginal	0.34	-6%	66	94	82	77
AVERAGE:		AVERAGE:	88	marginal
CAREER:		CAREER:	530	staple

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

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 8/31/21

FINALS UPDATE: Bachelor in Paradise (0.7) and Fantasy Island (0.3) adjusted up.

WHAT MATTERS:

• Numbers posted.

The Breakdown: ABC Sunday in 2020-21 (The Rookie, Supermarket Sweep, American Idol and more!)

It's time for a journey through the ABC Sunday schedule in 2020-21...