FINALS UPDATE: World Series (5.2) adjusted up while
MacGyver (0.9) and
The Vampire Diaries (0.3) adjusted down.
WHAT MATTERS:
- The World Series began its weekend run on Fox with a huge high-4's prelim on Friday night. This will likely be in the vicinity of +50% from the year-ago Game 3, which was a 3.1 prelim that adjusted up to a 3.2 final.
- The only big four scripted lineup that went up against the Series was CBS' trio of dramas, resulting in a relatively soft night for MacGyver (1.0), Hawaii Five-0 (1.0) and Blue Bloods (1.1).
- On ABC, the comedies sat out in favor of the network's second run of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1.0), while usual originals Shark Tank (1.1) and 20/20 (0.7) were on the soft side as well.
- NBC was a little below usual as well, with Caught on Camera (0.6) and Dateline (0.8/0.9).
- And the CW's The Vampire Diaries (0.4) and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (0.2) matched last week's premieres. CEG was down around 10% from last week's preliminary total viewers, so it may be close to a 0.1 again.
The Great Indoors
Thursdays, 8:30/7:30c, CBS
Pure Genius
Thursdays, 10/9c, CBS
Life in Pieces
Thursdays, 9:30/8:30c, CBS
RENEWOLOGY: Please note that I've rerun Renewology for this week with the CBS
comedy effect removed. Everything on the network
has been updated here.
The
comedy effect is going to be back, but hopefully we will have better
info when it returns. Any further beefs beyond this point are probably
more about the True formula, rather than the targets.
FINALS UPDATE:
- CBS' 8:30 to 10:00 comedies came down by 0.1 each, leaving The Great Indoors at 1.9, Mom at 1.5 and Life in Pieces at 1.4, while Pure Genius went down 0.2 to a near-DOA 1.0.
- Renewology is really down on all of the CBS premieres from last night, making Great Indoors (25%) and Pure Genius (18%) big long-shots and putting even returnees Mom (31%) and Life in Pieces (42%) below the bubble. A big part of this is in the category adjustment, which probably hurts these shows too much for being CBS comedies. I'll talk some more about this next week. For now, it is probably best to look at the CBS comedies on a relative basis, rather than the absolute R%. In this sense, Great Indoors started just a bit behind Man with a Plan (28%), while Mom and LiP are ahead of both of the newbies (as well as fellow returnee The Odd Couple).
- Elsewhere, NBC's The Good Place (1.2) and Chicago Med (1.5) adjusted up, marking a new season high for Med.
WHAT MATTERS:
- CBS' fall rollout finally concluded with the premiere of its new Thursday lineup: The Big Bang Theory (3.4), newbie The Great Indoors (2.0), returning comedies Mom (1.6) and Life in Pieces (1.5), and new drama Pure Genius (1.2). How they actually did is still not at all clear because the network was preempted in the local Thursday Night Football markets (as TNF begins a three-week run of airing nationally only on NFL Network). My only observation that seems probable to hold up in finals is surprisingly solid retention for Life in Pieces at 9:30...
- CBS' return didn't cause much of a stir on the other broadcasters, in part because they were so beaten down last time out. In fact, NBC was actually on the rebound from its truly rotten week-ago results, including a surprising surge for Superstore (1.3) in its first head-to-head with a TBBT original. The Good Place (1.1), Chicago Med (1.4) and The Blacklist (1.2) were also on the upswing. Med would actually tie its timeslot high with this number.
- On Fox, Pitch (0.8) couldn't get anything going despite coming off of two days of World Series promotion (including a special encore on FS1 following the Game 1 postgame show). It led out of another 0.8 from Rosewood.
- ABC's Grey's Anatomy (2.2) took a tenth away from Notorious (0.8), while How to Get Away with Murder (1.2) was even at 10/9c.
- On the CW, Legends of Tomorrow (0.6) lost the tenth it got in a finals adjustment last week, while Supernatural stayed at 0.6.
FINALS UPDATE: The Goldbergs (1.8) and
Speechless (1.7) and
Modern Family (2.3) and
Survivor (1.9) and
Law and Order: SVU (1.5) adjusted up while
Designated Survivor (1.2) and
World Series (4.8) adjusted down.
Thanks to the World Series downtick (presumably due to the earlier material in the 7:00 hour), Game 2 ended up with almost exactly the same year-to-year trend as Game 1, which is still really good.
WHAT MATTERS:
- Despite the earlier start time, Game 2 of the World Series ran all the way through primetime on the East Coast, and early numbers (4.9) have it up even more sharply than Game 1, compared to the year-ago ratings. (Game 2 in 2015 had a 3.6 prelim and 3.9 final.)
- It was another largely down night for the entertainment world, which had the double-whammy of coming back from a week off for a presidential debate last Wednesday. ABC had the softest night, and is in the particularly unenviable position of facing another preemption due to the CMA Awards next week. Designated Survivor (1.3) took a major step down at 10/9c, merely tying Chicago PD (1.3) for the hourly lead, and the comedies The Goldbergs (1.7), Speechless (1.6), Modern Family (2.2) and Black-ish (1.7) were all down as well (most of them by two tenths).
- The only big four show to avoid any kind of downtick was NBC's Law and Order: SVU (1.4), while its surrounding programs PD (1.3) and Blindspot (1.1) both inched down. CBS had minor slippage across the board with Survivor (1.8), Criminal Minds (1.6) and Code Black (1.0).
- The CW's Arrow (0.7) and Frequency (0.3) matched last week.
Best Case/Worst Case lays out possible scenarios for broadcast primetime TV seasons yet to premiere. Here's what's premiering tonight!
FINALS UPDATE: American Housewife (1.6) and
World Series (5.6) adjusted up.
WHAT MATTERS:- Fox happily took a break from its usual Tuesday lineup to air a very strong Game 1 of the World Series, which averaged a 5.4 prelim and may adjust up a bit more after finals. That was almost 20% above last year's Game 1 prelim, and it's gonna be the first time that Game 1 of a Series broke a 5 rating since 2009 (and just the third time since 2004). Due to weather concerns, tonight's Game 2 will be starting an hour earlier (and could conceivably be done by the start of the 10/9c hour on the East Coast).
- Against this competition, there was some downward momentum on the other networks, but nothing too catastrophic. On ABC, comedy newbie American Housewife (1.5) took another dip in week three, this time only matching its The Middle (1.5) lead-in in the prelims. Fresh Off the Boat (1.2) also inched down, but The Real O'Neals (1.0) and Agents of SHIELD (0.8) tried to keep their hats in the ring with upticks from last week's finals. (But note that both shows had these numbers in the prelims last week and adjusted down.)
- NBC's This Is Us (2.4) was still easily the star of the entertainment world. It had another two-tenth loss, but its The Voice (2.1) lead-in was down by even more. Chicago Fire (1.6) was even at 10/9c.
- CBS was another network that held up best at 10/9c, with NCIS: New Orleans (1.3) on the uptick. But NCIS (1.7) and Bull (1.5) each lost a tenth.
- Male-skewing The Flash (1.0) managed to hold up against the Series, but No Tomorrow could only muster up another shaky 0.3.
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