The top ten shows on ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX in September 2015: Late night returns with a bang

• America’s Got Talent wrapped up its 10th season on September 16, but failed to remain the most popular NBC show, dropping from 27% of traffic in August to 16% in September.
• In first place, Jimmy Fallon has taken over with a 27% share of viewers. Fallon had a wildly successful and star-studded month featuring celebs such as Justin Bieber, Jessica Alba, and Donald Trump to name a few.
• Days of our Lives has held onto the number 3 spot, despite losing 4% in traffic compared to August. The long-running soap opera continues to have a dedicated fanbase who keep the show in the top half of our rankings.
• September saw 4 new shows emerge in our top 10, but none is more exciting to viewers than season 9 of The Voice. The season premiered on September 21 and features the return of Gwen Stefani after a season hiatus. The Voice climbed into 4th place with nearly 12% of viewer traffic.
• Interestingly enough, the other shows new to the top 10 are all crime dramas, including Blindspot, The Blacklist, and Law & Order SVU at 7,8, and 9 respectively.
• Of these, Blindspot is the only brand new show to premiere, and began it’s run with nearly 6% of audience traffic. We will continue to track whether the show captures audiences with its intriguing crime-solving storyline.
• Saturday Night live had a relatively weak September and dropped to the number 6 spot on our list. However, with a viral spot-on Bernie Sander impression by Larry David, could SNL jump back into the top 5 for next month?
• Heroes Reborn vaulted into the number 5 spot in September and fans of the show must be excited for new episodes after the original Heroes had its series finale in February 2010. The new Heroes Reborn miniseries began the first of ten episodes on September 24.

Insights ABC Shows August 2015:

• Dancing with the Stars has roared out of the gate for ABC; its 21st season, which began September 14th, takes the top spot in September traffic share with 23%. With celebrity dancers Nick Carter, Andy Grammer and more, we’ll continue to track whether DWTS can hold on to the top spot.
• Close behind, at number 2, Bachelor in Paradise concluded its second season on September 7th, and captured 21% of the traffic share. American viewers have shown that the Bachelor franchise is still a major television force, even 13 years after the first installment.
• In slot numbers 3-5, there is a virtual 3-way tie between How to Get Away with Murder, Grey’s Anatomy, and Modern Family, each carving out 9% of this month’s traffic.
• The audience for How to Get Away with Murder is relatively new, the show has only been around for a year but it’s still on par with the more veteran Grey’s Anatomy and Modern Family, which are in their 12th and 7th seasons respectively.
• September 22nd marked a new era in the Muppets franchise, when it kicked off its first network TV show since 1998. The show follows the daily lives of the Muppets in LA and began its run sitting at number 6 on our list.
• The fairytale drama Once Upon a Time is new to our rankings and the premiere of its 5th season helped propel the show into the number 7 slot. Will they be able to continue beating out a trio of powerful crime dramas?
• ABC viewers are very interested in crime dramas and three such shows round out the bottom of this month’s top ten: Scandal, Quantico, and Castle.
• Of these, only Quantico is brand new to the scene and has started out at the number 9 spot on our list. The show stars Priyanka Chopra, a Bollywood legend looking to make it big on America’s small screen.

Insights CBS Shows August 2015:

• It’s official, viewers love the new Late Show hosted by Stephen Colbert who took over for David Letterman on September 8th. His show has commanding control of first place with 60% of September’s viewer traffic. The show built its initial success off many political figures including Jeb Bush, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, VP Joe Biden, and FLOTUS Michelle Obama.
• Big Brother experienced a huge drop in traffic share in September to 12%, way down from 57% in August. The show wrapped up its 17th season on September 23 but many viewers simply didn’t stay until the end of the series.
• Rounding out the top 3, Big Bang Theory finally began season 9 with 11%of our top ten traffic. In August the CBS show had 9% despite no new episodes, suggesting that viewers wanted to catch up and prepare for the newest season.
• The Young and the Restless occupies the number 4 spot followed closely by its sister show The Bold and the Beautiful in 6th place.
• The 2 soap operas aren’t the only related shows cracking CBS’s top 10, NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles sit at 5 and 10 respectively. Special Agent Gibbs remains more popular than his fictional California counterpart Agent Callen.
• Scorpion and Limitless, 2 new shows, have failed to capture new audiences and account for less than 2% of the traffic each.
• The 31st installment of Survivor: Survivor: Cambodia — Second Chance, has barely made it on our top 10 with only 1.5% of September’s traffic share down from 3% last month when no new episodes were aired.

Insights FOX Shows August 2015:

• Horror crime anthology show Scream Queens premiered on September 22 and fans seem to love the new made-for-tv horror format. It tops our Fox list with more than a quarter of the traffic share. With Halloween around the corner, the show should hold a top spot in our rankings for the next while.
• Empire kicked off season 2 in September and saw its traffic share more than triple, from 7% in August to the 22% it received in September. Fans of the show seem ecstatic that the show was renewed for 18 episodes in season 2.
• Season 2 of Gotham began on September 21 and early numbers for the DC Universe show are good. They are captivating a large audience, and sit at number 3 in our ranking with close to 14% of the traffic share.
• Masterchef, previously number 2 on our list, has fallen to number 4; it seems Gordon Ramsey and co had a tough time holding onto summer viewers once the fall TV shows began airing.
• By far the most surprising show to crack the top 10 is X-files, the Fox show which hasn’t aired a new episode since May 2002. The surge is likely a result of Fox’s upcoming X-files miniseries which will air in January, 2016. Fans of the show are re-watching episodes in anticipation of the miniseries which brings back David Duchovny in his old role as FBI Agent Fox Mulder.
• While Masterchef lost a significant amount of traffic, it pales in comparison to So you Think you can Dance, which took a major blow and experienced very poor results in September, despite airing the series finale. The dance show led our August list and commanded 40% of the traffic but shrank to 3% in September.
• Minority Report cannot be happy with its early viewer numbers and sits way down at 9 with only 2% of the share. The show, a spin-off to Spielberg’s Academy award winning 2012 film, has failed to capture a critical mass of audience.
• Cartoons continue to dominate Fox, with 3 such shows in the top 10. Family Guy was the most popular of the 3 and held about the same amount of traffic as last month but still fell to number 5.
• The other 2 cartoons, The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers both aired new episodes in September, however, both failed to make headway in our rankings, The Simpsons stood pat at number 7, while Bob’s Burgers fell from 5th to 10th.

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