Cancellation Watch: Ratings Wrap Up Plus Final Look at the Season to Date Averages for All of 2013-14 Sci Fi / Fantasy Shows

Ratings Results: Running down the ratings numbers for the few shows still airing new episodes as the 2013-14 season comes to a close, Game of Thrones of course continues to dominate as it pulled a 3.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic on Sunday with 7.2 million total viewers.  That put the show higher than any other program on television in the demo during the Monday through Sunday period last week except for the season finale of The Big Bang Theory.  GoT also beat out the NBA playoffs which is a notable accomplishment.  Airing on the same night was the second episode of Showtime’s horror series Penny Dreadful which could only muster a 0.2 rating with 400k total viewers.  That’s quite a difference from GoT though it’s not really a fair comparison because the HBO entry has become an unparalleled breakout hit.  Penny Dreadful is also a premium cable entry and remember that the ratings aren’t as crucial to those nets because they are not selling advertising.  Instead, they count every single airing of the show throughout the week (it runs in multiple different hours) as well as the DVR viewings and the success of a show is gauged more on whether they believe is drawing enough new subscribers to the the channel.  All that said, though, those numbers do seem a bit low and I don’t hear a ton of buzz coming off the show, so I would say its status is somewhat iffy at this point.  Still, I would currently lean more towards renewal than cancellation for Penny Dreadful if pressed to make a call.

Last Thursday, Vampire Diaries had a somewhat tepid season finale pulling only a 0.8 rating in the 18-49 demo with 1.6 million total viewers.  Still, it did manage to climb into the Nielsen Twitter Rankings Top 10 for last week and it has been renewed for a sixth season.  On Friday, NBC’s Grimm wrapped up its season down some at a 1.3 rating with 5.3 million total viewers.  That one has been renewed for a fourth season and should still do well enough for a Friday next year even if it continues to hover around this level ratings-wise.  Also on Friday, Hannibal pulled a 0.9 rating with 2.3 million total viewers for its penultimate Season 2 episode.  That show will be coming back for a third round next season despite its low numbers.  On Monday, Syfy’s Warehouse 13 limped out with only a 0.3 rating and 1.1 million total viewers for its series finale.  On Tuesday, Supernatural improved to a 1.1 rating with 2.3 million total viewers for its season finale.  That one returns next year for its tenth season and looks to remain a strong spot on The CW’s schedule.  On Wednesday, Revolution managed only a 1.1 rating with 4.3 million total viewers for its season finale.  That one has received its walking papers but fans are still fighting for it.  And on that same night, The 100 had a 0.5 rating with 1.5 million total viewers.  It will finish out its first season through the early part of June and has been renewed for a second year.  For those still following NBC’s cancelled Believe, that one returns to the schedule this Sunday to burn off its remaining episodes.

Final 2013-14 Numbers: Below is the full rundown of the season to date average ratings for each sci fi /fantasy show for the 2013-14 based on the final overnight numbers (the ones that most closely drive renewal and cancellation decisions).  They are sorted by highest to lowest rated where you will notice that The CW’s Renewed Beauty and the Beast is at the near the bottom of the list (don’t get me started).  I will update these numbers on the Cancellation Watch page once the final episodes of Game of Thrones, The 100, and Hannibal have aired.

For the Summer season, the Cancellation Watch column will be running weekly, but I will continue to post the ratings results as they are available on the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site.  And I will be running special posts analyzing this past season over the next few weeks as well as looks ahead at some of the changes that we see coming on the horizon.

Ratings Results for the 2013-14 Season as of May 22nd:

Ratings Source: TV by the Numbers and The Futon Critic

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