TV Long View: Midseason DVR Performers Not Named 'The Masked Singer'
The Passage aired for two months on Fox starting in mid-January, and it did … fine. Its same-day ratings were below those of the show it was temporarily replacing, 911, but it showed solid retention of its lead-in, The Resident. It finished its 10-episode run with ratings on par with the network's average for scripted series this season.
The show, a very streamlined take on Justin Cronin's vampire-virus novels, didn't exactly break out. It did, however, quietly accumulate a decent audience via delayed viewing, making it one of the better performers among broadcast series that have debuted in 2019.
In fact, no scripted series that has premiered this year has a better three-day rating among adults 18-49 than The Passage's 1.5. It also ties another Fox show, The Orville, for the biggest three-day DVR bump (0.6 points) among midseason scripted shows. That's good for second overall behind The Masked Singer's 0.9-point gain over three days.
(The vast majority of DVR playback happens in the first three days after a show airs, hence the use of live-plus-3 ratings here. All figures cited in this story are through March 24.)
Similarly, NBC's The Blacklist has moved to Fridays and suffered the expected ratings declines on a night where TV usage is about 30 percent lower than other weeknights. But the spy thriller has always overperformed in delayed-viewing stats, and it's still doing so in its sixth season (and will presumably do so again in its seventh).
The Blacklist grows half a point in adults 18-49 (0.6 to 1.1) over three days and adds about 2.77 million viewers, more than any other midseason series. No other Friday show this season, regardless of when it premiered, gets a larger boost in the 18-49 demo (CBS' Blue Bloods and Fox's Last Man Standing also grow by 0.5), and only Blue Bloods adds more viewers (3.72 million).
Also of note:
— Through three episodes, ABC's Whiskey Cavalier is posting three-day gains in adults 18-49 (0.5) and total viewers (2.72 million), pretty similar to those of A Million Little Things' fall run (0.7, 2.57 million) in the same Wednesday time slot.
— Roswell, New Mexico grows from 0.3 to 0.5 in adults 18-49, on par with the three-day numbers for fellow CW rookies Charmed and Legacies. Its 1.73 million viewers after three days are the most for any first-year show on the network this season.
— CBS' midseason shows have been modest DVR performers: Fam, Man With a Plan and The World's Best add 0.2 points each to their initial 18-49 ratings after three days, and none of them add more than a million total viewers.
— The premieres of The Fix on ABC and The Village on NBC each rose by 0.4 in adults 18-49. The Fix added more viewers — 2.4 million to 1.87 million for The Village.
Below are the top 10 midseason shows (including ties) in three-day gains.
Adults 18-49
Total viewers
*Premiere episode only.
Follow THR.com/Ratings for more Long View columns and ratings news.
