Cancellation Watch: American Horror Story Goes Out Strong, The CW is Gaining Momentum

Unless otherwise noted, the ratings numbers below are based on the final overnights and may vary slightly from the preliminaries reported on the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site.

Ratings Results for the Tuesday through Thursday sci fi / fantasy shows:

Ratings Wins: FX’s The American Horror Story: Coven had its Season 3 finale on Wednesday and improved its numbers to a 2.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 4.2 million total viewers.  That’s the best score the show has had since its January return and sends it out on a strong note with its fourth season set to bow next Fall (and Deadline Hollywood calls the show a “Ratings Juggernaut”).  The series also topped all but two of the Prime Time offerings from the broadcast nets as the old school channels continue to lose ground to their cable competition.  And The CW continues to do well against the Big Four broadcast networks as four of its genre shows from Tuesday through Thursday did well with some even improving their numbers.  On Tuesday, The Originals pulled a 1.0 rating with 2.3 million total viewers.  That was down a tick from last week, but still good numbers for the fifth place network.  Supernatural improved to a 1.2 rating with 2.8 million total viewers matching its best numbers of the season so far (and it beat the State of the Union coverage on ABC and FOX).  On Wednesday, Arrow improved to a 1.1 rating with three million total viewers and its lead-out The Tomorrow People even showed some life by improving to a 0.7 rating with 1.7 million total viewers.  On Thursday, Vampire Diaries slipped to a 1.0 rating with 2.4 million total viewers (based on the preliminaries), but that was right about even the new episodes ABC and NBC aired in the same hour.  While the Big Four broadcast nets continue to experience notable ratings attrition, The CW has shown some definite life this season.  And with promising genre entries such as The 100, Flash, iZombie, and the Supernatural spin-off on the horizon, the fifth place network–once seemingly on the verge of shuttering its doors–could overtake one of the lagging Big Four nets as soon as next season.

On the Hot Seat:  Revolution slipped again on Wednesday to match its series low, pulling a 1.3 rating in the 18-49 demo with five million total viewers.  That ratings score put it only two ticks away from The CW’s Arrow which aired in the same timeslot and seems like a low point for a show on the Big Four nets.  As recently as last season, ratings this low would easily get a show cancelled.  But the fact is that the numbers for most of NBC’s non-sports/non-reality programming are in the toilet this season (with The CW nipping at its heals), so it may not be dead yet.  And Revolution appears to have a vocal fanbase, so there’s still a chance they could step up and win the show a third season.

ABC’s Agents of SHIELD was a repeat again and CBS’ Person of Interest was preempted for the State of the Union address.  Here are the season to date numbers and standings through January 30th for all the shows that have bowed so far (sorted by most likely to get cancelled):

Ratings Source: TV by the Numbers and The Futon Critic

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2014 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.