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 Friday through Monday sci fi / fantasy shows:
Ratings News of Note: With the third airing of ABC’s mid-season series Resurrection, that show has seen yet another drop in its numbers. This last Sunday’s episode slipped to a 2.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 9.5 million total viewers and has fallen quite a ways from that 3.8 rating that it debuted with. That fact is, though, that Resurrection‘s number are still relatively good and it was the highest rated scripted show on the broadcast networks for Sunday evening (plus it is also still in the Top 10). But will it finally level out with next week’s episode or does this decline turn into a death spiral? If the show drops much further than where it is right now, I believe that the ABC execs will have to think long and hard about whether to bring it back for another season. Sure, it is currently outperforming Once Upon A Time and Agents of SHIELD, but the former series is a season away from achieving the episode count attractive to the syndication market and the latter is part of a major multi-media franchise. For now, Resurrection is still safe based on its current numbers, but if it drops much lower then the fans of this show will have reason to be concerned.
As for the other struggling Friday through Monday genre shows, The CW’s Tomorrow People slipped to yet another series low as that one could only muster a 0.3 rating with about 800 thousand total viewers on Monday. My assumption that this one’s shift to Mondays acts as its burn-off run seems to be accurate at this point, and it seems sure to get the ax by season end. Also on its way out is lead-in series Star-Crossed which only pulled a 0.3 rating with about 900 thousand total viewers Monday. CBS Series Intelligence saw no improvement either as it pulled another 1.1 rating with five million total viewers. That show seems certain to fade away after its short, one-season run. On Friday, ABC’s The Neighbors continues to languish as it pulled another 0.9 rating with 3.7 million total viewers. Its chances of renewal remain very slim at this point. And NBC’s Hannibal did no better in the 10 PM EST hour with a 0.9 rating and 2.7 million total viewers, though it could still hang on because its international production makes it cheaper for NBC. Syfy’s Helix slipped to a 0.4 rating with 1.2 million total viewers for its penultimate Season 1 episode and its renewal prospects continue to look murky.
Other Ratings News: The Walking Dead improved its numbers for a second week in a row as it rose to a 6.7 rating in the 18-49 demo with 13.5 million total viewers and outpaced everything on the cable and broadcast nets for the week. Its Season 4 finale is this coming Sunday, and its numbers should boost up even further with that episode. On Friday, Grimm slipped a tick to a 1.5 rating with 5.7 million total viewers, but not worries for that one as it received its expected renewal notice last week. On Sunday, Once Upon A Time slipped to a 2.1 rating with 6.9 million total viewers as it is now falling back in line with the numbers we saw at the end of Fall. It’s still doing well enough that a fourth season renewal is expected, though. On Monday, the Season 3 finale of Teen Wolf improved that show’s ratings slightly to a 0.9 rating with 2.3 million total viewers. That one’s fourth season is already set to kick off in just a few months in June. On Syfy, Being Human slipped a tick to a 0.4 rating with right at one million total viewers. There are two episodes left to air for that show. And for those interested, FOX’s Cosmos revival pulled a 1.7 rating with 4.3 million total viewers on Sunday.
One show that I realized I have failed to make mention of in this column is From Dusk to Dawn: The Series which premiered on the new El Rey network on March 11th. But part of the reason I have not reported anything is because I’ve found no numbers to report yet. The show has not made it into the cable Top 100 with its first two episodes and I can’t find any numbers out there for it so far. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as El Rey is a very new network (launched by Grindhouse‘s Robert Rodriguez) and is still trying to establish itself. The reviews I have seen for the From Dusk to Dawn series have been generally favorable so far and the show has been picked up by Netflix for international streaming. Whether it has a chance of returning for a second season is difficult to estimate at this point, but I don’t think the lack of ratings noise will count too much against it as that was surely expected from this fledgling network.
On a final note, an interesting study was just released relating to Twitter activity around TV shows that suggests people who see tweets about a series are likely to check it out. The study also says that if they see tweet’s from a show’s “brand partner” they are “more likely to view that brand as appealing and pay more attention to that brand’s on-air ads”. This could start to give more weight to the Twitter activity surrounding television shows and that could potentially influence the cancellation and renewal decisions by network executives. This could be yet another sign of the changing times (and the diminishing importance of the Nielsens), but whether the study results will provide immediate help to struggling shows like Revolution that have low ratings but notable social network activity remains to be seen.
We’ve heard quite a number of renewal announcements over the last few weeks, but no cancellations other than Being Human. More could come at any time, though so keep an eye on this site and the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking announcements as well as the latest ratings numbers. You can see the current status for all this season’s genre shows at this link, and for more information on the ratings numbers and how I determine the Cancellation Alert status of a show, see the Cancelled Sci Fi FAQ.
Ratings Source: TV by the Numbers and The Futon Critic
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2014 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
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