The networks mostly took a break last week, but there were enough finales and regular episodes to pull a short list together. I can't say the same for next week as it looks like almost all the networks are taking a break until New Year's Day.

I can't promise that this is the last post of the year, but I can promise that I won't be posting anything the next 2 Tuesdays. Have a safe and hopefully drama-free holiday season.

Ok. I have everything straightened out now. A lot of shows are beginning their holiday breaks and that means the list will get shorter over the next few weeks.

The list is longer than last week, but I'm still very short on time as evidenced by the lateness of this post.

Doing the super minimalist thing this week because it's a very short list, none of the premieres and finales had noteworthy numbers and I'm very short on time. Expect more of the same for the rest of the year.

I'm obviously not rushing to end my week early. Next week's post will probably be delayed until Wednesday because of the holiday. I don't know if I'll have enough to do a full list then, but I know I will have to abbreviate these posts again soon.

I still haven't seen the final viewer numbers for last night's broadcast shows. I do have the final demos for them (1.7 for The Voice, 0.9 for Dancing with the Stars, 0.4 for Arrow and 0.3 for Legends of Tomorrow).

Last week was not kind to the numbers of several shows. A lot of factors are at play, but I'm ready to go watch election returns, so I'll hold off on doing a full post until next week.

There aren't a whole lot of interesting storylines this week. Legacies premiered on The CW last Thursday. The numbers are in line with how The Originals performed last summer, but those numbers also put it at the lower edge of average numbers on the network so far this fall.

With only two premieres last night, doing a list for the entire week would have been redundant. For Legends of Tomorrow and the reincarnated Family Hustle, the tale of the premiere numbers are similar in that their respective networks are probably not too pleased with the slow starts of both shows.

The CW finally kicks off their 2018-2019 season. Unlike last year, there were absolutely no surprises among the premieres.

I think my intention coming into this week's post was try try to be positive, but there aren't a whole lot of positive numbers this week.

Premiere week means back to the new posts. It will continue for a couple more weeks because The CW has not yet begun their fall campaign.

I didn't have time to get to a full post today, but they will return next week. My early thoughts are that I'm a little intrigued by how low some of these veteran shows return, because history says that September is almost always the high water mark for the season.

American Horror Story premiered well, but I'm always skeptical because the show's numbers tend to drop heavily from opening week. Things will get more interesting as the broadcast networks prepare to unveil their fall lineup.

From my perspective, it appears that the Martha & Snoop finale got hammered by the Bobby Brown movie on BET. Black Ink Crew took a bit of a hit too, but that drop wasn't as dramatic. Basketball Wives and Power rose slightly for their finales while the WE shows (Braxton Family Values and Marriage Boot Camp) continue to see less than stellar numbers.

This got somewhat of a late start this year. It's a little unusual that the first show premiered 3 weeks into the year, but that is what a lot of December premieres will get you. As always, I will continue to bump last year's post until all of the Monday shows end their seasons (Update: 9/11/18).

Note 1: To sort out any confusion, VH1 has dropped the LA from Basketball Wives (despite the show being filmed in Los Angeles). Technically, they consider the show to be season 6 of the original Miami version. However, since this season would be season 6 of either version, Miami was never added to the original name and the casts of both versions have now merged, it's probably much less confusing to refer to the show under its original name.

I'm honestly not convinced that Hit the Floor is in a good position to get renewed. While it's true that BET has struggled to gain meaningful traction from their scripted shows over the last couple of years, this is a little different. This is a veteran show that had its own checkered history on VH1, but its audience there made the case that it should at least get another chance. What happened was some botched decisions by VH1, a brutally long hiatus and a bit of a quiet rollout that contributed to an absolute collapse that can't be justified and may perhaps give the people at BET some worry that the same thing could happen with The Breaks when that show makes the migration from VH1 to BET. I just don't see a path for survival when their last two shows averaged something in the neighborhood of 500,000 viewers and one has been canceled while the other still has an undecided fate.

Basketball Wives is seeing a modest rise this week. Still nowhere nears the highs of earlier this season, but definitely up from the last several weeks.

Awards shows have really seen their ratings suffer over the last several years. The VMA's were no exception. Once considered to be MTV's premier event of the year, it has seen its numbers slide so dramatically that MTV seems fine with allowing the ceremony to air on Mondays despite the anemic numbers (Last year's ceremony aired on Monday, but it aired on Sundays in previous years). I included the highest two airings across the Viacom networks (MTV and VH1). The other networks all saw numbers in the 100k-400k range.

This wasn't an incredibly active week, but the theme seems to be that the heat of the summer is catching up to quite a few shows.

I actually had enough shows to do a full list this week, but a couple things came up that had to be addressed and I had no opportunity get this post up on time. Instead, I'll offer some short thoughts on almost 10 shows.

Nashville is a show that just barely survived the first two seasons, got dragged to the syndication line the next two seasons and aired the final two seasons in relative obscurity on cable. It's not a traditional path for a show, but the TV powers that be smiled upon the show and it got to take its story to conclusion.

I'm still not going to say that this is the year where some show breaks Love & Hip Hop Atlanta's streak of being VH1's top rated show, but if there's a year to do it, it's this one and if there's a show to do it, it's probably going to be Love & Hip Hop Hollywood.

Basketball Wives and Power rebound from last week's miserable numbers. Catfish and The Challenge got off to pretty decent starts while Real Housewives of Orange County started a little low. Love & Hip Hop Atlanta goes out quietly, but I have thoughts about another former VH1 show.

The strangest thing about this week's list is not that there was a holiday to make the list shorter, it's that there are 3 shows with exactly the same number of total viewers on it.

It's a day before the holiday and it's been more than a month since I've done a full post. Since there were more than a handful of shows with premieres and finales, I figured this was a good time to put something together.

Second week in a row that saw the Viacom networks devote their Sunday night to an awards program. Like last week, I included the top 2 telecasts (BET and VH1). All other networks saw numbers of less than 300k viewers each. Overall, the numbers were quite disappointing. That appears to be the general trend with awards shows this year.

Supergirl came to a decent close this week. I expect it to return in early October because it is expected to headline The CW's brand new Sunday night expansion (It will be paired with the reboot of Charmed). Other news of note includes the renewal of RuPaul's Drag Race and Untucked. Also, I included the VH1 and MTV numbers from last night's MTV Movie and TV Awards (It aired across all Viacom networks BET came in at just over 500k and all other airings were less than 300k each).

Thought I would include a new show to the list this week. I don't watch Claws, but I found it's ratings last season to be a bit intriguing. Several years ago, TNT was known for their broad appeal crime/detective/legal shows. Those shows would attract fairly substantial viewer levels, but the demos were modest. Those shows have since ended and TNT is in a phase where their interest seems to be focused on shows with morally questionable, at best, characters. It's a niche and a risk. Those shows don't attract a lot of viewers, and Claws is no different, but the thing that stands out to me is how young the show skews. You typically see demo numbers like these (compared to the viewership levels) associated with reality shows. That would be the thing to pay attention to and that is the reason why it got this second season. Its viewer numbers alone are not impressive and its demo numbers alone are okay for a cable scripted show, but if it makes moves like last season (where the numbers slowly creep up), the show could put itself in a position that will make TNT a very happy network.

I'm going to take another week off from posting ratings for this first week of 2016. Everything will resume next week. In the meantime, I guess it's time to start the new list for this year even though The Breaks movie is the only thing I can put on it at the moment. This list will start filling up quickly since there are four shows premiering this month. As always, I will update the list at least once per week and I will continue to bump last year's list until Love & Hip Hop concludes for the season. (Updated: 6/12/18)

Note 1 (8/23/16): I can't find anymore listings for Shaunie's Home Court. I'm not entirely convinced that there were only 4 episodes in the season, so it may be reasonable to believe the show may be canceled.

Note 2 (9/13/16): I can barely keep up with all the schedule changes going on with VH1 Live!, so I will also attach the dates they aired next to the episode number.

Note 3 (5/30/2018):  VH1 finally decided to air the remaining Shaunie's Home Court episodes. Despite the very long hiatus, I will leave all season 1 episodes together in this post and I made a note of where the 2018 episodes began.

The Americans received a modest bump in viewers for the series finale. There was a strong start as usual for America's Got Talent and I'm of the belief that Teen Mom: Young & Pregnant is starting to make a solid case for renewal. The ratings have risen over the last several weeks and the numbers are actually a little better than a lot of shows that continue to air on MTV.

I'll be going to lists for most of the summer because there aren't going to be a whole lot of shows to talk about. Also, I find that I will have to go back and bump the VH1 2016 post for a few more weeks because VH1 is counting the new Shaunie's Home Court episodes as the rest of season 1.

The summer season hasn't begun just yet, but the broadcast networks are ready to call it quits after a long season.

A lot of decisions were made in the past few days. There were some I couldn't squeeze in (like the renewal of How to Get Away with Murder), some I creatively squeezed in, and others that are very consequential, but I choose to hold off talking about until next week.

It was an unusually quiet week (so no full post this week). There weren't all that many premieres and the only outside news of note was that American Idol and Empire were renewed. As it pertains to this list, I'm only waiting on word about a handful of shows (The Chicago Trio, Star, Gotham and Agents of SHIELD). We should know the fates of those shows by the end of the week (I also expect all the broadcast reality shows that have yet to be renewed to return too, but those announcements are typically buried in the mega press releases that will be rolled out next week)

It's the beginning of May. The fates of most broadcast shows should be announced within the next 7-10 days. Meanwhile, cable will begin their shift to their summer schedules.

A broadcast show ends its season for the final time. Another begins its own final season run.

A lot of things stopped me from getting this post up sooner. I suppose the important thing is that I still managed to finish it today.

I had every intention of doing a full list this week, but that was made difficult by the fact that more than a handful of shows will be airing their final episodes of the season over the next 3 weeks (of course, all the broadcast shows will wrap their seasons within the next 6 weeks). I do have something to share about the Project Runway franchise that is too important to leave unsaid.

A random mix of TV news this week. A few showed returned from breaks, a show aired it's season finale, yet another show began its final season and The CW renewed 70% of their shows.

The winter shows are coming to a close and the spring shows are beginning. That also means it's the unofficial start of shows beginning to post sagging ratings across the board. In the past, we've had a few shows that had large numbers to cover up things elsewhere. It doesn't look like there's going to be a show like that to come along this year.

I'm running behind today and my focus isn't all the way there. I just realized how short a full list would be about an hour ago. I'll leave some thoughts on a few shows and I'll go with a list this week.

American Idol isn't the only revival of a former ratings juggernaut returning. There's another one coming in a couple of days that will probably headline next week's post.

The list is back in its full glory. There will be lots of things to say as networks begin to transition to their spring schedules.

Networks might be getting back to normal, but I'm not there just yet. Still a little under the weather and my thoughts are hazy. I'll get back to the full post next week.

List is a day late because of the holiday and I'm very sick today. I'm posting another list and I'm not sure I'll be back to normal next week.

I had every intention of doing a full list this week, but once I weeded out the specials, multiple episodes and shows that I wrote about within the last two weeks, there wasn't a whole lot there. I may try my hand at a full list next week, but it's not promising. A lot of networks are doing the best they can to come up with creative ways to avoid putting their full roster of shows up against the Winter Olympics.

I anticipate the next few weeks being stuffed with filler specials and breaks as networks try their hardest to avoid as many large events as they can.

February is always a tricky month for television. Networks are going to take their risks wherever they see fit. Unfortunately for the average viewer (particularly fans of broadcast shows or shows that air on Sunday nights), that means a whole lot of breaks, hiatuses and just overall weird scheduling are on the horizon.

I'm surprised I got this up basically on time. If this post seems rushed this week, it probably is.