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
As the season draws to a close, several struggling shows are doing nothing to help their cause for renewal. NBC’s Grimm had already received a renewal notice for a second season, but its numbers the last few weeks made me wonder if the network might reconsider that decision. The show rebounded, though, to better numbers this past Friday pulling a 1.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic and right at five million total viewers. In the same timeslot, though, Fringe fell yet again is it matched its series low with a 0.9 rating and under three million total viewers. A lot of people seem to be pulling for this show to come back for one more season, even the FOX network itself, but with numbers like these it will be difficult to justify a renewal for the show. With that in mind, the series is preparing two finales for the current season, one that will act as a resolution of sorts if the show gets cancelled.
On Thursday night, the two mid-season genre entries continue to struggle. FOX’s Touch finally leveled off its decline, staying at a 2.3 rating in the 18-49 demo with 8.2 million total viewers. But it did not have to contend with a new episode of Person of Interest (though it did compete against a new ep of Grey’s Anatomy). Despite staying put, I have now raised the Cancelletion Alert on this one to Medium and I will bump that up higher if the show resumes its downward slide which is likely once it has more competition. NBC’s Awake also seems to have leveled off, but not at a good place. That showed pulled another 0.9 rating with 2.7 million total viewers and seems certain to disappear altogether once it wraps up its initial run.
The CW shows were all in repeats again this last week and I covered the early week shows as well as the third season renewal for Game of Thrones in my midweek update last week.
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. And you can see the status of all of the current season’s shows at out Cancellation Watch page.
Ratings Results for the Week of April 8th:
Once Upon A Time (Repeat) (ABC Sun 8 pm) Rating: 1.0 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Low
Game of Thrones (HBO Sun 10 PM) Rating: 1.9 | Trend: Up | Cancellation Alert: Low
Being Human (Syfy Mon 9 PM) Rating: 0.6 | Trend: Up | Renewed
Vampire Diaries (Repeat) (CW Thur 8 PM) Rating: 0.4 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Low
Person of Interest (CBS Thur 9 PM) Preempted | Trend: Steady | Renewed
Secret Circle (Repeat) (CW Thur 9 PM) Rating: 0.3 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Moderate
Touch (FOX Thur 9 PM) Rating: 2.3 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Medium
Awake (NBC Thur 10 PM) Rating: 0.9 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: High
Nikita (Repeat) (CW Fri 8 PM) Rating: 0.3 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Elevated
Supernatural (Repeat) (CW Fri 9 PM) Rating: 0.4 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Moderate
Grimm (Repeat) (NBC Fri 9 PM) Rating: 1.6 | Trend: Up | Renewed
Fringe (FOX Fri 9 PM) Rating: 0.9 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Elevated
Ratings Source: TV by the Numbers
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