An up and down year for broadcast

ABC’s ‘How to Get Away with Murder’ is the No. 1 new show this year in 18-49s.

Over the past year broadcast rose to great heights, with the Super Bowl setting another viewership record and the Winter Olympics helping NBC to its first season victory in a decade.

But it also suffered great declines.

Viewership fell yet again, most sharply among the younger demographics most likely to be adopting new ways of watching TV, such as DVRing and viewing online video.

And the networks continued their long struggle to find new shows anyone was interested in for longer than a few weeks.

Here’s a network-by-network breakdown of how the broadcasters fared over the past year and what their future outlook is as we head into 2015.

ABC

ABC pulled off a surprise win in the May sweeps and has the most consistent non-sports schedule. The network suffered from a Nielsen ratings glitch that artificially inflated ratings and was forced to recalculate its averages from the start of the season, though the fault lay entirely with the ratings service.

With fall’s biggest new drama and comedy hits in “How to Get Away with Murder” and “black-ish,” ABC has a lot to build on even though it lags in third place this fall in 18-49s.

Grade: B

CBS

CBS continues to be the most consistent of the Big Four networks and is in first place in total viewers this fall. Its veteran shows do moderately well and dramas such as “Madam Secretary” and “The Good Wife” give the network some critical cachet.

Long term, however, there are doubts about how CBS’s schedule can hold up. Yet another “CSI” spinoff slated for next year and the series finale of “Two and a Half Men” do not bode well for a network that has had trouble finding new hits.

Grade: B-

Fox

With the exception of that record-setting Super Bowl, Fox had little to celebrate this year. “American Idol” sank to series lows, veteran shows like “New Girl” and “Glee” struggled, and new reality show “Utopia” was a money-losing disaster.

New drama “Gotham” is one bright spot, and at the least Fox has lots of new programs coming to the schedule in 2015.

Grade: C-

NBC

Yes, NBC’s ratings success over the past year is largely due to the Winter Olympics and NFL, which provided huge ratings boosts. But that doesn’t make those achievements any less impressive at a time when most of broadcast is struggling.

NBC is on pace for another winning fall, but the lack of new hits are a concern for next year. And it has the Super Bowl to look forward to in February.

Grade: A-

The CW

The CW is unlike any other broadcast network, in that most of its target audience does not watch TV in the traditional way. DVR usage and online viewing are much more central to its business model, and that makes it a bit more difficult to judge the network’s performance.

Still, the CW had a pretty decent year, with viewership up this fall. It has a new hit in “The Flash” and is getting lots of buzz for “Jane the Virgin.” That helped wash away memories of a terrible summer. The network still has problem spots, but it has fewer than at this time last year.

Grade: B

Univision

The longtime dominant Spanish-language network has seen ratings for its telenovelas fall this year among 18-49s. Though it’s still easily the top-rated network, the competition has gotten closer.

And while the World Cup set ratings records over the summer, that was Univision’s last year carrying the tournament. Now it moves to rival Telemundo.

Grade: B-

Telemundo

The network’s sequel to “El Senor de los Cielos” set ratings records earlier this year, and it even beat Univision at times in its timeslot.

While Univision still draws much higher ratings, Telemundo has become more competitive over the past two years, partly due to the popularity of “Cielos.” The addition of World Cup soccer should help it become more competitive.

Grade: B

***

In broadcast ratings for the week ended Dec. 14:

Among adults 18-49, NBC averaged a 2.2 rating and a 7 share, followed by CBS at 1.8/6, Fox at 1.4/4, ABC at 1.3/4, Univision at 0.9/3, CW at 0.7/2, Telemundo 0.4/1, ION and UniMás at 0.3/1, and Me-TV, Bounce TV, Estrella, MundoFox and Azteca at 0.1/0.

Top five English-language Big Five shows (18-49s): 1. NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” 8.6; 2. “Fox’s “The OT” 4.4; 3 NBC’s “Football Night in America” 4.1; 4. CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory” 3.9; 5. CBS’s “Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show” 3.4.

Top five English-language Big Five shows (total viewers): 1. NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” 24.25 million; 2. CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory” 15.49 million; 3. Fox’s “The OT” 12.75 million; 4. NBC’s “Football Night in America” 12.39 million; 5. CBS’s “60 Minutes” 11.38 million.

Show on the rise: NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” Sunday, 8:20 p.m. The game between NFC East rivals Dallas and Philadelphia averaged 24.3 million total viewers, making the most-watched “SNF” game of the season.

Show on the decline: ABC’s “Shark Tank” Friday, 9 p.m. The reality show was the top show on Friday night with a 1.5 among 18-49s, but that was off 17 percent from a 1.8 the previous week.

Tags: abc, broadcast, broadcast ratings, broadcast recap, cbs, fox, nbc