-- a status it suffered in October.

STORY: TV Ratings: NBC's 'Sound of Music Live' Sings With 18.5 Million Viewers

But even if NBC can't shake the banner of industry whipping boy (after all, when Voice and Sunday Night Football disappear in January, so will many NBC viewers), a quiet but persistent narrative has been emerging among ratings-watchers: ABC actually is much worse off. CBS and Fox aren't doing so hot either this season, but ABC, the No. 4 network of the past two seasons, increasingly has grown vulnerable to the criticism typically reserved for the Peacock.

"There's no real secret to it," Disney CEO Robert Iger told analysts ahead of the May upfront. "On the network front, we'd like a stronger primetime schedule, particularly with programming that we own."

Consider theevidence: The network's fall offerings fell mostly flat, and its splashy launch, Agents of SHIELD, premiered to a huge 4.7 rating among adults 18-to-49 in September but was down almost three points from its bow in its most recent new episode. ABC's reality franchise, Dancing With the Stars, is down again this season, as are several of its trademarked female-skewing dramas, including Revenge and Nashville.

Most alarming, observers note that the Alphabet net's biggest successes, Modern Family and Scandal, have failed to serve as a launchpad for other programs the way The Voice has at NBC. Scandal, pacing 61 percent north of last season, does nobody any favors at 10 p.m. Thursdays, and Modern Family, though not for any lack of trying, apparently is incapable of building another comedy.