Positive Sampling for ‘Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders’ on CBS

WEDNESDAY MARCH 16, 2016

Household Rating/Share
CBS: 5.8 rating/10 share, ABC: 4.3/ 7, NBC: 2.9/ 5, Fox: 2.7/ 4, CW: 0.6/ 1

Percent Change from the Year-Ago Evening:
CBS:+ 9, ABC: + 8, NBC: – 3, CW: -60, Fox: -75

Ratings Breakdown:
CBS, which featured the series debut of “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders,” scored an easy Wednesday household overnight victory with a 35 percent advantage over second-place ABC. “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders” opened with a dominant 5.8 rating/10 share at 10 p.m., which held 95 percent of its “Criminal Minds” lead-in (#1: 6.1/10). And this was an improvement over “CSI: Cyber” in the week-ago (4.0/ 7 on March 9) and year-ago (5.1/ 9 on 3/17/15) time period of 45 percent and 14 percent, respectively. It was also stronger than recently renewed time period occupant “Code Black.”

While the skew for “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders” will certainly be older (expect about a 1.5 rating in adults 18-49 for the opener, based on the Live + Same Day data), more than 10-million viewers will probably have sampled the series once all the data (DVR included) is factored it. This is a positive start.

[socialpoll id=”2343058″]

Earlier in the evening on the Eye net was the always reliable “Survivor” at a time period winning 5.6/ 9 in the household overnights from 8-9 p.m. Once again, this is another addictive season. Note to Mark Burnett: Please make sure invite Caleb back for another season.

On ABC, on-the-fence drama “Nashville” returned from hiatus with a typically bland 3.2/ 6 at 10 p.m. Comparably, that was second in the hour (instead of the usual third), with a 19 percent advantage over a repeat of competing “Chicago PD” on NBC (#3: 2.7/ 5). And “Nashville” dipped from lead-in “black-ish” (#3: 4.4/ 7 at 9:30 p.m.) by 27 percent.

Earlier in the evening on ABC were typical overnight results for the renewed combination of “The Middle” (#2: 4.8/ 8), “The Goldbergs” (#2: 4.5/ 7) and “Modern Family” (#2: 5.8/ 9) from 8-9:30 p.m. As much as I personally enjoy “The Middle,” how many more excuses can the writers come up with for Axl (Charlie McDermott) and Sue (Eden Sher) to be home from school?

Elsewhere, Fox had no positive news care of the pairing of “Rosewood” (#4: 2.7/ 4), which is not worthy of a second season, and “Hell’s Kitchen” (#4: 2.6/ 4), which at this point should be a summer option only. NBC featured two repeat episodes of “Law & Order: SVU” (8 p.m.: #3, 3.1/ 5; 9 p.m.: #3: 2.9/ 5) into the aforementioned “Chicago PD” encore. And The CW was also in repeats care of “Arrow” (#5: 0.7/ 1) and “Supernatural” (#5: 0.6/ 1).

Source: Nielsen Media Research