The Question, Friday 2/28/14: Will Friday Night Viewers Dine With Hannibal?

In pure ratings terms, NBC's co-production Hannibal was the biggest reach renewal of 2012-13. After some promising week-to-week growth in episode two, Hannibal fell to very low-1's by week four. It got even uglier when it followed unwatched Parks and Recreation repeats in the opening weeks of summer. (The last two also went up against the NBA Finals.) But lower costs plus overwhelming critical acclaim got it a second whirl, and this season two Friday timeslot after Grimm may actually be a better situation. I think it settles at a Dracula-esque 0.9ish, but tonight's premiere does a bit better.

Over/Under: 1.05.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 2/27/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• After suffering through a couple miserable premieres over the past few days, it was finally ABC's turn for some good news as their strong Thursday duo returned from 2.5 months off in very healthy form. Scandal (3.4) was up two tenths from its fall finale and Grey's Anatomy (3.1) saw an even bigger bounce, perhaps benefiting from Rake (0.8) providing even less competition than Glee did back in the fall. 

• If ABC was overdue for some good news, NBC was also overdue for some bad. And as usual, the Thursday lineup obliged. Community (1.0), Parks and Recreation (1.0) and Parenthood (1.1) all hit/nearly hit season lows, and Hollywood Game Night (1.2) caught the Thursday disease too in dipping below all its Monday episodes from the winter. (It was only ahead of the Christmas special in December.) Still, at least Game Night was a much better option than the yanked Sean Saves the World and The Michael J. Fox Show...

• CBS' flip of Two and a Half Men (2.5) to 9/8c and The Crazy Ones (1.9) to 9:30 paid immediate dividends, as the former handily outrated TCO's recent 9:00 norm and had a major surge vs. its recent results. And The Crazy Ones didn't even really suffer at 9:30, as its lead-in from Men was only barely weaker than what it had usually gotten from The Millers.

• History's strong drama Vikings (1.3) returned for season two at a number well below last year's inflated series premiere (2.0) but pretty much in line with what it did for the rest of season one.

The Question, Thursday 2/27/14: Will Grey's Anatomy and Scandal Get the Bad Taste Out of ABC's Mouth?

At the 2013 upfront, ABC announced that several of its serialized dramas would go on an extended hiatus, allowing for long original runs without interruption. They didn't fully follow through on this (Nashville and Revenge both came back in January), but they stuck with the plan with their strong Thursday duo. And while The Taste was surely an inexpensive way to get through the hiatus, it couldn't have been that much fun seeing it get slaughtered in the ratings each Friday morning. Now, Thursday order is restored, as Grey's Anatomy and Scandal are back, promising to put ABC on the Thursday map for the first time since the new year. Will Grey's Anatomy and Scandal get the bad taste out of ABC's mouth? That's The Question for Thursday, February 27, 2014.

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 2/26/14

WHAT MATTERS:

• As we said yesterday, no series premiere has ever really disappointed with the Modern Family lead-in. But then again, no series premiere had nearly as little going for it as Mixology, and that really showed as the show debuted to a paltry 4.98 million viewers and 1.7 demo rating. It's worth noting that the rejection might be a bit exaggerated because the show got very little help from Modern Family (3.1), which plummeted to a season low on this night. But the show has given itself no real cushion with this start; a typical post-premiere drop from Mixology would put it at/below Super Fun Night levels, and it could easily get uglier than that.

• The hours that surrounded ABC's 9/8c debacle were just as bad, though they switched roles after finals; it was The Middle (1.7) and Suburgatory (1.4) at new season lows, while Nashville (1.3) went up to merely tie its low.

• With CBS adding a second hour of Survivor at 9/8c, that meant no crime dramas to compete with Law and Order: SVU (2.0). As usual, that was a positive for that show. But the real eye-opener was the second half of a cross-over between SVU and Chicago PD (2.2), as the latter grew in the 10/9c hour and hit a series high even with the crime drama competition from Criminal Minds (2.3). Expect the Dick Wolf empire cross-overs to continue at full steam after this result.

• Fox's rough week continued as American Idol (2.7) only barely bounced back from last week's Wednesday episode against the Olympics. It widened the gap with the Survivor premiere somewhat after finals, as that show adjusted down perhaps due to basketball pre-emptions. But Survivor still had a good night, even with last spring's premiere, and it could easily start winning head-to-head fairly soon.

• On cable, FX's The Americans (0.68) returned for season two with no real sign of picking up any heat during the hiatus. However, the 45% drop year-to-year is (hopefully!) a bit exaggerated because the premiere last year was miles ahead of any other result.

SpotVault - The Voice (NBC) - Spring 2014 Ratings

The Voice

Mondays and Tuesdays on NBC

SpotVault - Mind Games (ABC) - 2013-14 Ratings

Mind Games

Tuesdays, 10/9c, ABC

SpotVault - Growing Up Fisher (NBC) - 2013-14 Ratings

Growing Up Fisher

Tuesdays, 9:30/8:30c, NBC

SpotVault - About a Boy (NBC) - 2013-14 Ratings

About a Boy

Tuesdays, 9/8c, NBC

SpotVault - The Amazing Race (CBS) - Spring 2014 Ratings

The Amazing Race

Sundays, 8/7c, CBS

The Question, Wednesday 2/26/14: Does Mixology Have the Right Post-Modern Family Mix?

Tonight's premiere of Mixology after Modern Family is a classic unstoppable force vs. immovable object situation. The unstoppable force? Mixology is going to fail. I can't come up with any good reason to feel otherwise. It's incompatible with Modern, the cast is all no-names, the reviews are lukewarm to bad, the concept is a weird gimmick, and the promos are dumb. (Now I'll tell you how I really feel!) But there's also this immovable object: every single Modern Family lead-out premiere has done pretty well, even incompatible ones. One of these things will win out, resulting in this line being way off, but I have no idea which one. I'm trying to show some respect for the ratings history, but I can't help but feel this could do much worse than any of the previous shows. The incompatible ones in the past at least had good reviews (or Rebel Wilson). Over/Under: 2.05.