The Last Hour Of Prime Is Still A Big Deal

Viewership of the last hour of broadcast primetime — 10 p.m. on the Big Three and 9 p.m. on Fox — still matters. It serves as the lead-in for the affiliates’ late local news and for network’s latenight and affiliates’ programming the following morning.

CBS is still the best at generating big audiences during the lead-out hour, but it, along with ABC, has slipped this season, while NBC and Fox have made significant gains.

Through Feb. 1, CBS averaged 42.3 million viewers each week at 10, compared to 46.1 million over the same period last season. That’s down 8.2%.

ABC was down 15.5%, from 26.3 million viewers to 22.2 million.

On the plus side of the ledger, NBC attracted 31.1 million average viewers, up 9.1% from last season, thanks to two strong freshmen dramas. And Fox shot up 9.9% from 17.1 million last season to 18.8% this season, partly on the strength of the mid-season replacement The Masked Singer.

(The figures in this story exclude all sports and reflect live-plus-same-day ratings from Nielsen.)

Brad Adgate, longtime research executive for Horizon Media and now an independent consultant, said the hour “was becoming like Saturday night, moving toward being a vast wasteland.”

But, he says, it might be making a bit of a comeback this season, particularly at NBC with its two new shows.

NBC

NBC scheduled two new freshman shows on Monday and Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. to start the season in September and both have produced viewership higher than last season.

Manifest

Drama Manifest on Monday night through Feb. 1 has averaged 6.7 million viewers at 10 p.m., up from 4.8 million last season.

Manifest is also averaging a 1.3 18-49 demo rating, up from last year’s 0.97. And in the news audience-friendly 25-54 demo, the show is averaging a 1.85 rating, up from 1.33.

Another first-year drama, New Amsterdam, has averaged 6.4 million viewers on Tuesday at 10 p.m., up from 4.7 million last season. And the medical drama is averaging a 1.25 among 18-49s, up from last season’s 0.95, and a 1.68 among 25-54s, up from a 1.27.

NBC also boosted 10 p.m. viewership on Wednesday by moving all three of its “Chicago” dramas to that night.

Last season, NBC scheduled Chicago Med on Tuesday at 10, Chicago PD on Wednesday at 10 and Chicago Fire on Thursday at 10. Each produced solid viewership of more than 6 million.

This season, Chicago PD is airing at 10 o’clock on Wednesday leading out of the other two Chicago shows, and is averaging almost 7 million viewers, a 1.1 18-49 demo rating, and a 1.5 among viewers 25-54.

NBC has taken a bit of a viewership hit on Thursday night at 10, with Law & Order: SVU averaging 4.2 million viewers. It’s second to CBS’s SWAT (5.3 million) in the slot, but ahead of ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder (2.9 million).

NBC’s 10 p.m. shows on Friday (Dateline) and Saturday (Saturday Night Live Primetime) are basically flat with last season’s ratings.

Sunday Night Football on NBC is not included in the entertainment program ratings for 10 p.m., but obviously was a huge lead-in for late local news for the NBC affiliates in the fourth quarter.

An NBC executive says when putting together the primetime schedule, how those 10 p.m. shows will impact the affiliates is a major consideration.

While 18-49 ratings are important to advertisers overall, the NBC exec says, when scheduling 10 p.m. shows, the network tries to place shows there that also skew high among 25-54 viewers, who are apt to watch late news.

With the affiliates in mind, NBC also keeps tabs on how the 10 p.m. shows do in the second half hour.

“Our 10:30 viewership in fourth quarter was way up on Monday through Wednesday,” the NBC exec says, “with Manifest up over 40% in the time period, New Amsterdam up 28% and Chicago PD up 10%. In a challenging landscape, we are performing very well.”

One media agency executive says NBC “has been very smart in leading its two freshman shows out of The Voice on Monday and Tuesday nights and both have become very good lead-ins to local news.”

CBS

Blue Bloods

Blue Bloods is not only the most-watched broadcast primetime show at 10 p.m. season-to-date, averaging 8.6 million viewers on Friday and a news-friendly 1.29 25-54 rating. However, those numbers are down from 9.4 million viewers and 1.5 in the demo last season.

CBS 10 p.m. dramas NCIS: New Orleans on Tuesday (7.65 million), Criminal Minds on Wednesday (4.6 million), SWAT on Thursday (5.3 million) and Madam Secretary on Sunday (5.5 million) are all down from last season

A bright spot is the drama Bull on Monday night. It has averaged 6.8 million viewers this season, up from the 5.2 million that Scorpion averaged in the time period last season.

Noriko Kelley, EVP of program planning and scheduling at CBS, says moving Bull to 10 p.m. this season was part of the network’s strategy of nurturing shows in earlier time periods to pick up audience, and then moving them to the later hour.

Kelley says while 10 p.m. viewership has declined overall, “many of our shows are still doing well in their time periods. Blue Bloods is still going strong and, while NCIS: New Orleans and Criminal Minds have lost some audience this season, they “are still competitive in their time periods.”

While delayed viewing doesn’t help grow the local stations’ latenight news audience, Kelley says both shows have a sizable DVR lift.

Kelley also says CBS is “always mindful” of how its 10 p.m. programming will impact its affiliates’ late local news. “If our 10 p.m. shows do well, it helps their late local news and that, in turn, helps our latenight shows.”

ABC

The Rookie

ABC has been struggling the most at 10. Its second-year drama The Good Doctor, which airs on Monday and was nominated for an Emmy Award last season, is averaging 6.7 million viewers, but that’s down from 9.6 million last season.

The only night the network is up at 10 is Tuesday, where freshman drama The Rookie is averaging just under 4 million viewers, up from the 2.75 million the network averaged in the time period last season.

“ABC is in trouble,” says one media buyer. “Not just at 10 p.m. but in other time periods. They tell the media agencies they have the most upscale audience, but they don’t have enough total viewers. And some of their once-veteran hit shows are just shells of what they once were. ABC is the only network not helping its affiliates with 10 p.m. lead-in shows right now.”

ABC chose not to make any executives available to discuss their programming.

Fox

The Masked Singer

The big surprise from Fox has been The Masked Singer, which is averaging 7.7 million viewers, a 2.5 rating among 18-49s and a 3.1 with 25-54s on Wednesdays. That’s up almost 4 million from what Star was doing in that period earlier in the season.

It’s suddenly become Fox’s top entertainment show. “We have only 13 hours of primetime entertainment slots to fill so every hour is really important to us,” says one Fox official.

Fox is averaging 5.9 million viewers on Monday night at 9 p.m. with drama 911, compared to 3 million that The Gifted averaged last season in the same time period. 911 is also doing a news-friendly 1.86 25-54 demo, compared to The Gifted’s 1.16.

Fox started off this season on Tuesday night at 9 with returning drama Lethal Weapon, which averaged 2.9 million viewers, similar to what LA to Vegas averaged in the time period last season.

Fox added Thursday Night Football to its primetime schedule in the fourth quarter so significant comparisons cannot be made for that night at 9 p.m. compared to last season so far. However, The Orville has averaged about 2.8 million viewers since the NFL regular season telecasts ended, down from an average of 3.3 million viewers for a longer period last season.

The exec says that unlike other networks that lead off their nights with highest rated shows, Fox tends to put its stronger shows on at 9, not only because of higher HUT levels but also to help the late local news.

According to the exec, Fox is helping its affiliates with their late news. In the fourth quarter, TNF boosted its affiliates’ late local news ratings by 143% on those nights compared to the previous year. The Masked Singer on Wednesday nights at 9 has boosted its affiliates’ late local news viewership 28% in first quarter, he says.