Cancellation Watch: Almost Human has Jekyll & Hyde 2 Part Debut, and Consider Once Upon A Time in Wonderland and Dracula De Facto Cancelled

FOX’s Almost Human had its debut in two parts on Sunday and Monday, and it started out the first night looking like a winner, but then things got a bit ugly with its second episode.  The Sunday premiere scored a 3.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 9.2 million total viewers which at first looks like a pretty impressive bow.  But then it had a boost from its football lead-in (which was the whole point of kicking off on that night in the first place) and its regular Monday night timeslot debut delivered the more telling performance.  With that episode, Almost Human dropped 29% to a 2.2 rating with 6.6 million total viewers which represents a more modest audience than its Sunday night crowd.  Still, that’s about the same numbers that Bones was pulling in that timeslot, so it’s not completely bad news.  But it also means that the show does not have much leeway, and if it starts to trend down (which almost all shows do after their debut), it will quickly find itself in dangerous territory.  Maybe FOX should consider switching the higher rated Sleepy Hollow to the 8 PM EST hour to give Almost Human a better lead-in.  At this point, I’m not going to raise any red flags on the newbie, but if it drops next week there will be reason for concern.

It was bad news once again for ABC’s Once Upon A Time in Wonderland and NBC’s Dracula this past week.  Both pulled yet another 0.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic with the former drawing 2.7 million total viewers and the latter scoring 3.0 million.  Both ranked last place in their timeslots among the broadcast nets with Wonderland getting outpaced by fifth place network The CW’s Vampire Diaries.  Both of these shows entered the season as limited run “event” series (each with a continuation plan if they did score well in the ratings), and it looks like that is how they will end it as well.  Consider them both de facto cancelled at this point and I expect that Wonderland will get cast to Saturdays at some point to burn off the rest of its episodes or maybe just keep running through low viewership December to hurry it off the schedule. 

Also on the way out is ABC’s The Neighbors which sunk to a series low of a 0.8 score in the 18-49 demo (based on the final numbers) with four million total viewers this last Friday.  I really can’t see a scenario where this one sticks around past its current thirteen episode order which is a bit of a shame because it actually has improved considerably quality-wise during its second season.  And The CW’s Beauty and the Beast can’t be far behind as that show scraped up another 0.3 rating on Monday with only about 700k total viewers.  It has yet to score higher than the 0.3 level since debuting last month and it’s network has several shows waiting in the wings, so expect this one to be gone (or cast to Fridays or Saturdays) after the Winter hiatus.

In other ratings news, Sleepy Hollow dropped slightly on Monday as it pulled a 2.5 rating in the 18-49 demo with 7.1 million total viewers (based on the preliminary numbers).  That’s still a decent performance and marks it currently as the top rated genre show on the broadcast networks (not counting Almost Human‘s debut numbers) with Agents of SHIELD continuing its ratings slide.  On Sunday a Governor-centric episode of The Walking Dead slipped to a 6.0 rating with twelve million total viewers.  That still won the night among the cable and broadcast networks for non-sports programming and will also likely be the highest rated scripted show from the last week once all the numbers are tallied.  Over on Lifetime, The Witches of East End slipped to its lowest numbers yet for its first season as it pulled a 0.5 rating with 1.62 million total viewers.  That’s probably still okay for that network, especially when you factor in its overall performance so far in its freshman season. 

Also on Sunday, Once Upon A Time sunk to an all-time low for the series as it pulled only a 1.9 rating in the 18-49 demo with 6.6 million total viewers.  That’s become a pretty sad night for the broadcast networks in general, though, and the fact is that despite its tepid numbers Once Upon A Time ranked right up there with the higher rated shows on the Big Four (when you factor out Almost Human’s football fueled debut).  So taking that into consideration and the fact that it is in its third season and on the downhill run to an episode count attractive to the syndication market, it is still okay.

On Friday, Grimm rebounded as expected from the drop it saw the prior week and pulled a 1.6 rating in the 18-49 demo (based on the final numbers) with 5.8 million total viewers.  That one looks to continue pulling its solid Friday night numbers as it coasts into a fourth season renewal.  On Syfy, Haven slipped back a tick to a 0.4 score with 2.9 million total viewers and still looks at a dubious future based on its low numbers.  On Thursday, Vampire Diaries pulled its best numbers of the season and actually its best rating since March as it edged up to a 1.3 score with 3.7 million total viewers.  It also ranked third in its timeslot beating out Parks and Recreation on NBC and Once Upon A Time in Wonderland on ABC (and actually tying FOX’s The X Factor with its rating in the demo). 

Here are the season to date numbers and standings through November 18th for all the shows that have bowed so far (sorted by most likely to get cancelled):

Keep an eye on the Cancellation Watch Twitter Site for the latest ratings results and other ratings-related news and check back here on Friday for my analysis of the Tuesday and Wednesday shows.  You can see the current status for all this season’s genre show at this link.  And for more information on the ratings numbers and how I determine the Cancellation Alert status of a show, see the Cancellation Watch FAQ.

Ratings Source: TV by the Numbers

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2013 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.

25 Must-Watch Science Fiction and Fantasy Movies

So many science fiction and fantasy movies and so little time. Metropolis, King Kong, War of the Worlds, Fantastic Voyage, Star Wars, The Terminator, The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Inception . . . Plan 9 From Outer Space . . . and so many, many more. Where to start and which ones to watch? Well that’s what this book is here to help you with. It may not cover all science fiction movies, and not even all of those mentioned above, but it gives you a heck of a good start starting point. This book begins with 1927’s Metropolis and then treks through 24 more genre films ending with 2009’s Moon to give you an extensive look at some of the best of the best of science fiction and fantasy cinema. Each entry includes a synopsis, review/commentary, cast and crew information, as well as a few nuggets of tidbits and trivia relating to the films. Whether you are new to the genre and trying to figure out where to get started or a grizzled veteran who has logged many hours in the cinema watching sci fi, 25 Must Watch Science Fiction and Fantasy Movies is sure to entertain. And even if you have already seen the movies covered in the book, there’s a good chance you could walk away knowing a little bit (or maybe even a lot) more about these films than you did previously.

A great primer for science fiction and fantasy cinema and a fun read as well!

Available now on Kindle from Amazon.com. 

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