Spinoffs and chains have proven successful on CBS. They expanded their successful 2000's CSI franchise to New York and Miami. NCIS (itself a spinoff from JAG) grew during this time, and CBS opted to capitalize on creating spinoff NCIS: Los Angeles in 2009. Long durable and coming into its 12th season, NCIS: Los Angeles has managed to perform successfully on 3 evenings as CBS uses it to bolster weaker evenings. Save for losing Peter Cambor and Adam Jamal Craig, the cast from seasons 1-2 has remained consistent with few changes.Please note NCIS: Los Angeles is a returning show, so this table only holds data up through the 2019-20 television season. To see how NCIS: LA rated year to year against its competition, cruise through TVRG's Ratings History database as it has television data from 1950 through the present!
Seasons 1-6 (2009-15)
Seasons 7-11 (2015-20)
NCIS: Los Angeles arrived on CBS' Tuesday night lineup at 9:00 following NCIS. Promotion and scheduling were appropriate, and the spinoff thrived with 5 seasons parked next door to NCIS. Come fall 2014, CBS opted to relocate NCIS: Los Angeles to aid new pilot Scorpion, as well as allow third spinoff NCIS: New Orleans benefit from a stronger lead-in from NCIS. The move nicked and damaged NCIS: LA with only one more showing cracking the 2.0 mark. CBS overall was experiencing declines after Fall 2013 and NCIS: LA was hit as well. Despite this, it performed respectively considering the 10:00 timeslot.
Another move came in Fall 2016 as Scorpion was pushed back to Mondays at 10:00 to pave the way for the revived two-hour comedy block. This left NCIS: Los Angeles parked on dormant Sundays at 8:00. The series retained stably, miraculously taking its prior season's average with it and matching the prior seasonal high. The following year, CBS moved the franchise to its fourth (and current) timeslot at 9:00, and fractional ratings began to leak in paired next to a weaker Madam Secretary. Despite the massive losses in Season 9, the following seasons only experienced marginal losses compared with the onslaught hitting network shows. In the winter of 2020, NCIS: Los Angeles gained a compatible neighbor after NCIS: New Orleans was shaken off the Tuesday lineup in favor of FBI spinoff FBI: Most Wanted. A loss for both perhaps being scheduled on the difficult Sunday, but CBS relies heavily on both as in most seasons they are handed 24 episodes in each.
To read about fellow spinoff NCIS: New Orleans' ratings for every episode, click HERE. Also check out the EVERY EPISODE, EVERY RATING LIBRARY to see other shows profiled.
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