Ratings News: ‘Modern Family’ Finds Acceptable Timeslot Partner, Plus ‘Big Bang Theory’ Schedule Tweaks

After Cougar Town, Happy Endings, Suburgatory, and Rebel Wilson’s Super Fun Night all failed to hang on to the audience of ABC’s highest rated sitcom, Modern Family, it appears that the network has finally found a sitcom that can co-exist. Is it Trophy Wife, the show that SHOULD have been put in the lead-out slot last season because it was a perfect complement to the series?

No. But it was another sitcom about a large, suburban family. Black-ish grabbed 10.7 million viewers and a nice 3.3 in the demo, compared to the 11 million viewers and the 4.1 in the demo for Modern Family. Compare that to the 2.7 million viewers who watched the final episode of Super Fun Night last year, and it does seem as though ABC finally has found a stable block of comedies in the 9 p.m. hour.

The same could probably be said for the 8 p.m. hour, too, as The Middle returned slightly down from its premiere last season, but its lead-out, The Goldbergs scored a 1.5 in the demo, which is much better than the Maggie Lawson sitcom, Back in the Game, fared last season.

Weirdly, however, over on NBC, The Mysteries of Laura — despite terrible ratings and timeslot without a dominant lead-in — managed 9.7 million viewers and a 1.5 in the demo. Sure, that’s down 25 percent from its premiere, but that’s a surprisingly good hold for a show that’s being excoriated by critics.

With Laura, Law & Order:SVU and Chicago Fire, NBC managed to win the night in overall viewers. Meanwhile, Fox continues to struggle, as its already weak Red Band Society fell to a 1.0 in the demo in its second week out.

Elsewhere, CBS is loving the huge numbers that Big Bang Theory put up on Monday so much that it’s decided to delay the return of Mom to Mondays for three weeks and instead air Big Bang Theory reruns, according to Vulture’s Joe Adalian. Then, instead of Mom going to Mondays, The Millers will inhabit that slot, while Mom will bounce to Thursdays starting on October 27th. Then, in January 2015, the two shows will flip nights again: The Millers to Thursday and Mom to Mondays.

Basically, CBS is just trying to maximize Big Bang Theory (and its reruns) to boost its other sitcoms and its overall ratings (since Big Bang Theory reruns probably do as well as firstruns of The Millers and Mom).

Source: TVByTheNumbers

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