Hopefully, throughout the rest of the summer we will be doing a segment which features ratings predictions for the upcoming premieres. They will be grouped into categories for the sake of efficiency. The next installment of this is the news magazine show genre, composing of CBS's 60 Minutes, CBS's 48 Hours, ABC's 20/20, and NBC's Dateline.
60 Minutes
Network: CBS
Time Slot: Sunday at 7
Competition: America's Funniest Home Videos, Football/The OT or Bob's Burgers, NFL Pre-Game
Lead-in: None
Lead-out: Madam Secretary
Assuming that 60 Minutes has a fall premiere after a football game, it will probably be huge, as in one of the top programs of the week in Adults18-49. Although ratings by themselves are only a fraction of the post-football airings (about 1/3, bringing it to the same level as all the other mews magazine shows), with football it is likely to be...
Range: 3.0-4.0
Prediction: 3.3
48 Hours
Network: CBS
Time Slot: Saturday at 10
Competition: SNL Vintage, Unknown on ABC
Lead-in: Reruns
Lead-out: None
Latest Three Airings: 0.7, 0.6, 0.7 Adults18-49
Unlike its news magazine show companion on CBS, 48 Hours does not see common football boosts. Instead, it airs Saturday at 10, possibly the worst possible time slot in television. Sometimes, it manages to pull 1.0 ratings, and considering the time slot is in no way a weak show. The ratings always go up and down, but I am going to stick close to the ratings for recent airings and say...
Range: 0.6-1.1
Prediction: 0.8
20/20
Network: ABC
Time Slot: Friday at 10
Competition: Blue Bloods, Dateline NBC
Lead-in: Shark Tank
Lead-out: None
Latest Three Airings: 1.4, 1.0, 1.1 Adults18-49
20/20 has held its Friday at 10 time slot for ages. Currently, it faces fellow news magazine show Dateline NBC, as NBC has had much trouble trying to find a drama companion with Grimm. Most ratings hit around the 1.0 mark, with the occasional boost from Shark Tank. Shark Tank typically does not premiere at a high, so I do not anticipate 20/20 getting too much of a bump. Unless 20/20 premieres with another transgender Olympic athlete related to the Kardashians...
Range: 1.0-1.4
Prediction: 1.2
Dateline NBC
Network: NBC
Time Slot: Friday at 10
Competition: Blue Bloods, 20/20
Lead-in: Grimm
Lead-out: None
Latest Three Airings: 1.1, 0.9, 1.1 Adults18-49
As mentioned above, Dateline NBC basically airs wherever NBC has a flop show and no other series to replace it with. Due to its struggles in the 2015 spring season, it ended up airing on every day from Thursday through Sunday. For the sake of looking into its regular time slot, the ratings prediction below will be based on its primary fall time slot, Friday at 10.
Range: 0.9-1.2
Prediction: 1.1