We’ve already learned that just six entertainment (so, no sports or news programming) TV shows across the Big 4 broadcast channels were able to grow their audiences from Fall 2016 to this season — but which ones are actually falling the hardest? TheWrap‘s got that answer for you today, and we’ve ranked them in order from bad-to-awful.
Unfortunately for Fox, the newest of the networks (again, we’re leaving The CW alone here) owns each of the three worst year over year total-viewer drop-offs. All numbers in this story comes from Nielsen’s “most current” metric, which includes a week’s worth of delayed viewing where available.
Rank: 13
Show: “NCIS: Los Angeles”
Net: CBS
Total-Viewer Average: 10.216 million
Year-Over-Year Decline: -20%
“NCIS: LA” moved from Sundays at 8 after “60 Minutes” to Sundays at 9 after the recently scraped “Wisdom of the Crowd.” You do the math — or rather, don’t bother, as we just did for you.
Rank: 11 (tie)
Show: “The Blacklist”
Net: NBC
Total-Viewer Average: 8.322 million
Year-Over-Year Decline: -21%
“The Blacklist” moved from Thursdays at 10 to Wednesdays at 8. It’s now up against Fox’s “Empire” and in the dead spot previously occupied by “Blindspot.”
Rank: 11 (tie)
Show: “Kevin Can Wait”
Net: CBS
Total-Viewer Average: 7.946 million
Year-Over-Year Decline: -21%
Kevin misses “The Big Bang Theory,” which served as this sitcom’s lead-in for six weeks last year. Not anymore.
Rank: 10
Show: “Madam Secretary”
Net: CBS
Total-Viewer Average: 8.564 million
Year-Over-Year Decline: -22%
“Madam Secretary” was sent to Sundays at 10 this season — though with NFL football overruns, it rarely even finishes within the confines of East Coast primetime.
Rank: 9
Show: “Scorpion”
Net: CBS
Total-Viewer Average: 7.599 million
Year-Over-Year Decline: -25%
“Scorpion” is mostly getting beaten-up by ABC’s freshman drama”The Good Doctor.” Bring back the good-old days when this batch of geniuses battled “Conviction.” Plus, no one wants “Me, Myself & I” as a lead-in — or in CBS’ case, really, at all.
Rank: 8
Show: “Black-ish”
Net: ABC
Total-Viewer Average: 5.641 million
Year-Over-Year Decline: -26%
Leaving “Modern Series” and entering the “This Is Us” time slot is not exactly a recipe for TV ratings success. Unfortunately, no one told ABC that.
Rank: 7
Show: “Once Upon a Time”
Net: ABC
Total-Viewer Average: 3.550 million
Year-Over-Year Decline: -28%
Once upon a time this fairy-tale series had a cast viewers loved and a Sunday night time slot. Now, the Friday show has neither.
Rank: 6
Show: “Speechless”
Net: ABC
Total-Viewer Average: 5.422 million
Year-Over-Year Decline: -31%
“Empire” moving from 9 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays shook up a lot of the standings: “Speechless” was not immune.
Rank: 4 (tie)
Show: “Blindspot”
Net: NBC
Total-Viewer Average: 5.217 million
Year-Over-Year Decline: -33%
Worse than Wednesday at 8 o’clock on NBC? Friday at any time on any channel.
Rank: 4 (tie)
Show: “Designated Survivor”
Net: ABC
Total-Viewer Average: 8.742 million
Year-Over-Year Decline: -33%
New lead-in “American Housewife”: you are no “Black-ish.”
Rank: 3
Show: “Empire”
Net: Fox
Total-Viewer Average: 8.099 million
Year-Over-Year Decline: -36%
Sometimes 8 o’clock isn’t better than 9 o’clock. Now a self-starter, “Empire” is sure helping companion series “Star,” but who’s helping “Empire”?
Rank: 1 (tie)
Show: “The Exorcist”
Net: Fox
Total-Viewer Average: 1.944 million
Year-Over-Year Decline: -37%
We’d call it a sophomore slump, but the devil didn’t exactly earn his due in Season 1 either. Time to exorcise this show, Fox.
Rank: 1 (tie)
Show: “Lethal Weapon”
Net: Fox
Total-Viewer Average: 5.902 million
Year-Over-Year Decline: -37%
As a freshman, “Lethal Weapon” benefitted in its final 15 minutes as viewers flocked to Fox early for “Empire.” Now the action-drama is on its own for Season 2, and Murtaugh and Riggs are maybe already getting too old for this s—.
Don’t gloat too much, “Man With a Plan” and “Chicago Med” — you were only saved from this list by virtue of a lack of delayed-viewing data.
We’ll see how bad those declines truly are (or are not) in a week or so.
