Man with a Plan Ratings--Season 1 (2016-17)

The Ratings Junkie Sunday, October 25, 1970
Man with a Plan Ratings--Season 1 (2016-17)


Man with a Plan did what it was supposed to do, which was to hold on to Kevin Can Wait's audience decently. While it may not have had that high premiere Kevin had, its spring ratings were decent given the lead-in and it will probably be around for syndication at this rate.

Grade: B

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Ratings--Season 2 (2016-17)

The Ratings Junkie Sunday, October 25, 1970
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Ratings--Season 2 (2016-17)


The first season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend had historically low ratings, but also awards love and apparently is a solid streaming player. This season, albeit low rated, was incredibly steady in A18-49. While its fan base is small, it's at least loyal. You can look at it as losing 35% of its A18-49 audience from last season, or about one tenth of a ratings point.

Grade: C+

The Vampire Diaries Ratings--Season 8 (2016-17)

The Ratings Junkie Sunday, October 25, 1970
The Vampire Diaries Ratings--Season 8 (2016-17)


The Vampire Diaries was a staple show for The CW for years. While it didn't finish quite as well as it started, for a Friday night on The CW, the final season of The Vampire Diaries didn't do all that bad. Those 0.3s in A18-49 were a little disappointing, and it's too bad the finale didn't rise more. Plus, it was down 25% in raw A18-49 ratings from last season. Regardless, it stayed a great W18-34 player, especially towards the end.

Grade: C+

Caught on Camera Ratings--Season 3 (2016-17)

The Ratings Junkie Sunday, October 25, 1970
Caught on Camera Ratings--Season 3 (2016-17)


Caught on Camera's ratings were abysmally low, but then again it didn't seem like it was meant to last permanently either. At the very least, it seemed that Dateline was doing better airing after it than after something else, and it was a cheap Friday option.

Grade: D

2 Broke Girls Ratings--Season 6 (2016-17)

The Ratings Junkie Wednesday, October 14, 1970
2 Broke Girls Ratings--Season 6 (2016-17)


2 Broke Girls did a decent job at holding down the 9:30pm time slot in the spring compared to The Odd Couple, but there really was no compelling reason for CBS to renew it over the shows on earlier in the night, which would have more syndication value. It started off on the right note but by the end of the season it was clear that it still hadn't stabilized, even if it had OKish ratings.

Grade: C-

Supergirl Ratings--Season 2 (2016-17)

The Ratings Junkie Wednesday, October 14, 1970
Supergirl Ratings--Season 2 (2016-17)


Supergirl fell a ton from last season, though that's to be expected given it moved to The CW. I do wish it held up better from its first few episodes though; it showed that it is capable of pulling in top-tier ratings for The CW, and not just what Supernatural is doing. Its performance towards the end of the season was fine, but not great. Great performance in the first half of the season though, for the most part.

Grade: B-

Frequency Ratings--Season 1 (2016)

The Ratings Junkie Wednesday, October 14, 1970
Frequency Ratings--Season 1 (2016)


Frequency was a flop, so much so that The CW basically admitted it verbally. Contrary to what The CW typically does, this one didn't even make it through the season. Given it was based on a movie and aired after Arrow, it really should have done much better. Props to it for having a very evenly distributed audience though, both in gender and age.

Grade: D

Arrow Ratings--Season 5 (2016-17)

The Ratings Junkie Wednesday, October 14, 1970
Arrow Ratings--Season 5 (2016-17)


Superhero fatigue may be setting in for Arrow, as the show that started it all shed a third of its Live + Same Day audience in A18-49 this season. It's still doing impressive in M18-34, almost tying the A18-49 demographic, but as a result of its fall it's now The CW's #4 show. That means, even if only by a hundredth, it is The CW's lowest-rated DC show. Next season, it will no longer be trusted to lead into a show. The CW has more problems to deal with before Arrow, but its days definitely look more numbered this season than they did last.

Grade: C-

Supernatural Ratings--Season 12 (2016-17)

The Ratings Junkie Wednesday, October 14, 1970
Supernatural Ratings--Season 12 (2016-17)


Supernatural is a show that was around before The CW was, and it still holds up better than most other shows on the network over a decade after it premiered. Given it moved to Thursday at 8pm, the 0.5s towards the end of the season are somewhat forgivable. It finished the season around its average numbers, which is very impressive given it was deep into Daylight Savings Time.

Grade: B+

DC's Legends of Tomorrow Ratings--Season 2 (2016-17)

The Ratings Junkie Wednesday, October 14, 1970
DC's Legends of Tomorrow Ratings--Season 2 (2016-17)


DC's Legends of Tomorrow started the season fine on Thursday nights, but midseason The CW decided to give it an upgrade by airing behind The Flash on Tuesdays. It didn't really seem to make the most out of it, but still showed that it's a reliable option and higher-rated than a lot of their line-up. Even if inflated by that 1.2 A18-49 demo rating for the mega-crossover episode, it's impressive that the show started and finished around what it averaged.

Grade: B

Chicago Fire--Season 5 (2016-17)

The Ratings Junkie Wednesday, October 14, 1970
Chicago Fire--Season 5 (2016-17)


Chicago Fire is still the strongest Chicago show. It didn't hurt that it got to air after This Is Us in the fall, but even though retention out of it looked weak, by now it's clear that Fire is very lead-in independent. It didn't fall all that much when it had Trial & Error and Great News as lead-ins, sometimes doubling their ratings.

Grade: A

The Real O'Neals Ratings--Season 2 (2016-17)

The Ratings Junkie Wednesday, October 14, 1970
The Real O'Neals Ratings--Season 2 (2016-17)


The Real O'Neals didn't exactly do great in its first season, but still was renewed due to ABC's intent on having a two-hour comedy block on Tuesdays. Its first data point this season--a 1.2 A18-49 demo rating out of a 1.6--showed weakness, and it didn't really get better from there. I suppose it could have got renewed again if they wanted to expand comedy again, but even then it wouldn't really be needed.

Grade: D

Fresh Off The Boat Ratings--Season 3 (2016-17)

The Ratings Junkie Wednesday, October 14, 1970
Fresh Off The Boat Ratings--Season 3 (2016-17)


Poor Fresh Off The Boat has been sticking around but not much more over the past two seasons. Its first season was a somewhat surprising success story, but it's faltered since with heavy competition. Despite the data points in the red, Fresh Off The Boat's spring actually looked better in the fall in terms of retention. We can thank no more This is Us for that. It's almost like I'm grading two different performances since almost all of the better data points were in the spring. It should thrive next season without This is Us.

Grade: B-

American Housewife Ratings--Season 1 (2016-17)

The Ratings Junkie Wednesday, October 14, 1970
American Housewife Ratings--Season 1 (2016-17)


American Housewife did what it could against heavy competition. It usually didn't drop all that much from its lead-in, if at all. Next season it will be getting a much-deserved tryout behind Modern Family. The only concern here is the fact that it seemed to rely on its lead-in a lot, and it's hard to tell if that's because of compatibility or because it's severely lead-in dependent. Its spring could have been better, but then again, so could its lead-in's.

Grade: A-

The Middle Ratings--Season 8 (2016-17)

The Ratings Junkie Wednesday, October 14, 1970
The Middle Ratings--Season 8 (2016-17)


The Middle held remarkably steady on Wednesdays and rose in relative ratings significantly in all but one season. That being said, it wasn't itself on its move to Tuesday, hitting numerous new series lows and a 3-year low in relative ratings. On the bright side, it put a little but of new life into Tuesdays, though the move still hurt it.

Grade: C+

No Tomorrow Ratings--Season 1

The Ratings Junkie Monday, October 05, 1970
No Tomorrow Ratings--Season 1


No Tomorrow got to air behind The Flash and completely blew it. Even if you argue that it's lead-in independent, it's doing numbers that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend does on a Friday. The CW doesn't often cancel shows in their first season, but this one was completely warranted.

Grade: F

The Flash Ratings--Season 3 (2016-17)

The Ratings Junkie Monday, October 05, 1970
The Flash Ratings--Season 3 (2016-17)


The Flash is the one show on The CW that is really competitive with the shows on the other networks, now at 86% of the Big 4 A18-49 league average. In fact, it even beat FOX in the time slot. Superhero fatigue does seem to be setting in a little bit though; it's down 23% in raw A18-49 ratings this season. The bump for its finale to a rating above its seasonal average is very impressive, especially given it aired at 8pm deep into Daylight Savings Time. The show definitely has life left in it.

Grade: B