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
The season is winding down, only a few weeks left, and one certainty is that sagging ratings are the worst thing that the bubble shows can have at this part of the year. While late season ratings don’t factor in as much for many shows, downward trends or just plain poor ratings performance right now can potentially have a devastating impact when network executives are trying to decide which shows to keep on the schedule going into next season. And several of the genre shows currently airing are doing little to make a case for renewal with their most recent ratings performance. On FOX, Touch did skip up a notch last Thursday to a 2.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic, but that’s not too much to celebrate. And in the same timeslot, The CW’s Secret Circle has nearly dropped out of site, pulling another pitiful 0.5 rating this past week. At the 9 PM EST hour on Thursday, NBC’s Awake continues to sink as it dropped to a 0.7 rating in the 18-49 demo. And on Friday, Nikita continues to barely show a pulse as it delivered yet another 0.4 rating. All four of these shows are in serious trouble right now with almost no time left to demonstrate a ratings turnaround. The upfronts when the networks announce their schedule for the Fall season start a week from today, so we should know the fate of all the shows currently running by then if not sooner. And for those that missed the news, The CW announced the renewals of Vampire Diaries and Supernatural last week and FOX announced a fifth and final season for Fringe the week prior.
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 29th:
Once Upon A Time (ABC Sun 8 pm) Rating: 3.0 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Low
Game of Thrones (HBO Sun 10 PM) Rating: 1.9 | Trend: Steady | Renewed
Eureka (Syfy Mon 9 PM) Rating: 0.5 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Final Season
Vampire Diaries (CW Thur 8 PM) Rating: 1.2 | Trend: Steady | Renewed
Person of Interest (CBS Thur 9 PM) Rating: 2.5 | Trend: Down | Renewed
Secret Circle (CW Thur 9 PM) Rating: 0.5 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Elevated
Touch (FOX Thur 9 PM) Rating: 2.0 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Medium
Awake (NBC Thur 10 PM) Rating: 0.7 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: High
Nikita (CW Fri 8 PM) Rating: 0.4 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: High
Supernatural (CW Fri 9 PM) Rating: 0.7 | Trend: Steady | Renewed
Grimm (NBC Fri 9 PM) Rating: 1.3 | Trend: Down | Renewed
Fringe (FOX Fri 9 PM) Rating: 0.9 | Trend: Down | Renewed
Ratings Source: TV by the Numbers
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