Cancellation Watch: Tracking the weekly ratings and the cancellation prospects of the science fiction and fantasy shows currently airing on broadcast and cable networks.
By John J. Joex
Last Sunday, ABC’s fairy tale-tinged series Once Upon A Time debuted, against expectations, to very strong ratings (and you can read more about that at this link), and then this past Friday, NBC’s dark turn on fairy tales Grimm also delivered surprising ratings in its debut. Despite being a low viewership night and having strong competition for Game 7 of the World Series, Grimm pulled a 2.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic and six and a half million viewers. Now those numbers may not seem to impressive at first glance, but this is Friday night and the World Series is some pretty series competition. Sure, some will argue that Fringe wasn’t airing because FOX had the World Series and the crowd that generally watched that show decided to check out Grimm. That may be true, but the fact is that, according to the TV by the Numbers guys, that was the best non-sports rating for any show on a Friday night since New Year’s Eve last year. Pretty impressive numbers and perhaps both of these fairy tale shows will make me eat my words. Keep an eye on the numbers for the next few weeks, but both of these shows are definitely getting off to a strong start.
The news was not so good for Chuck which returned for its fifth season with a series low, pulling only a 1.0 rating in the 18-49 demo and about three and a half million viewers. Not that it really matters though as we already know this is Chuck‘s last season. All of the other genre shows either remained steady this past week or notched up a bit (Terra Nova, as with Fringe, was preempted because of the World Series).
Following are the ratings results for all of the genre shows from this past week. In some cases, the numbers below are based on the preliminary returns and could change slightly when the final results are tallied.
Once Upon A Time (ABC Sun 8 pm) Rating: 4.0 | Trend: n/a | Cancellation Alert: Low
The Walking Dead (AMC Sun 10 PM) Rating: 3.6 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Low
Terra Nova (FOX Mon 8 PM) Preempted | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Low
The American Horror Story (FX Wed 10 PM) Rating: 1.7 | Trend: Up | Cancellation Alert: Low
Vampire Diaries (CW Thur 8 PM) Rating: 1.5 | Trend: Up | Cancellation Alert: Low
Person of Interest (CBS Thur 9 PM) Rating: 2.7 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Moderate
Secret Circle (CW Thur 9 PM) Rating: 0.9 | Trend: Up | Cancellation Alert: Low
A Gifted Man (R) (CBS Fri 8 PM) Rating: 0.9 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Medium
Nikita (CW Fri 8 PM) Rating: 0.6 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Medium
Chuck (NBC Fri 8 PM) Rating: 1.0 | Trend: n/a | Cancellation Alert: Final Season
Supernatural (CW Fri 9 PM) Rating: 0.7 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Low
Grimm (NBC Fri 9 PM) Rating: 2.1 | Trend: n/a | Cancellation Alert: Low
Fringe (FOX Fri 9 PM) Preempted | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Moderate
Sanctuary (Syfy Fri 9 PM) Rating: Pending | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Moderate
Source: TV by the Numbers
