Ratings: NCIS: LA and S.W.A.T. Slip With Late Starts; Idol Gets No Finale Bounce
In the latest TV show ratings, CBS is reporting that NCIS: Los Angeles — which started nearly an hour late due to golf overrun — ended Season 13 with just shy of 4 million total viewers, which marks a series low; TVLine readers gave the crowd-pleasing closer an average grade of “A.”
S.W.A.T. (3.2 mil) similarly slipped with the first half hour of its own delayed finale, which marked the farewell for an original cast member.
ABC’s American Idol closed out Season 20 with 5.6 million total viewers and a 0.7 demo rating, merely holding steady week-to-week but topping Sunday in both measures; read recap. Leading into that, AFV (4.9 mil/0.5) slipped opposite CBS’ well-watched golf overrun.
The CW’s Riverdale (250K/0.0) added some eyeballs.
Over on Fox, Family Guy‘s finale put up the best numbers (1.1 mil/0.4), followed by Bob’s Burgers (930K/0.3), The Simpsons (860K/0.3), The Great North (680K/0.2) and Duncanville (590K/0.2).
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The Live+Same Day numbers reported in our ratings column do not reflect a show’s overall performance, given the increased use of delayed playback via DVR and streaming platforms, plus out-of-home viewing. These numbers (Nielsen fast nationals, unless denoted as finals) instead aim to simply illustrate trends or superlatives. Steve Harvey is not a judge or lawyer and merely offers an alternative forum of dispute resolution.
Family guy really does the best it can. It’s in the worst time slot besides maybe duncanville and still hasn’t fallen below a million viewers like all the rest have.
Idol was a good show with lots of excellent numbers and a strong cast of guest stars.
I find it amusing that so many people constantly complain about who wins and who got “robbed.” This is — and always has been — a popularity contest and not a true singing contest. Just enjoy the show and be happy to see dozens of new young, talented performers on you TV screens for several weeks each year.
And, yes, winning isn’t the key to success after American Idol. Jennifer Hudson, Adam Lambert, Gabby Barrett and several others have proven that over the years.
Fox made a huge mistake in letting idol go. It has always been a consistent for them and ABC was smart to pick them up. Going strong for five straight years now
When will CBS learn that sports overruns drive viewers away. I may stay for 60 minutes but when my 10 pm show does not start until closer to 11, not so much. Try closing the hour and then pre-empt with promise to reschedule the following week. These overruns really dented the potential success of quality dramas like The Good Wife and Madam Secretary. I think American Idol could have gotten by with two hours instead of three. I liked all the performances but we could have trimmed some and had a tighter brisker presentation. Sundays once were the primo night for television and May the month when the powerhouse finales and specials were highlighted. What did NBC even do? I am weary of decades of sameness on Fox on Sundays. Even the different series, often from same producers, seem similar.
People complain about sports delays when we have the ability to record and watch later. Or watch on demand. Or watch online the next day. Remember when networks just joined shows “already in progress”? We have it so much better now. Oh– and that golf playoff was tremendous!
This has been a CBS Sunday scheduling thing since forever. No one expects shows to start on time on Sunday, no one.
I was thinking about maybe picking up East New York next season as one of the shows I record only and never watch live, but with the PITA those floating CBS start times on Sundays are, I’m not going to bother even trying, and I refuse to add another hour of recording time just to accommodate their overruns
Yes it is upsetting when sports runs over. I know you can record it but that’s only if you have one that you can put in the exact time to start and end. I have a DVR and it is set to record NCIS LA at 9 o’clock on Sunday nights and I don’t always get it because it doesn’t adjust itself and I can’t adjust it.
Record the show after it. Most DVRs let you modify the series recording to record up to a half hour longer as well. Granted that wouldn’t have been enough for this one.
60 minutes is fine, but what everything 1 hour behind… A rerun of the wine problem. That makes me angry 😡. It wasn’t NCIS LA OR S.W.A.T.
Instead of Magnum PI, I would have loved to see the demise of NCIS Hawaii. BORING!