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.
On the Hot Seat: Syfy’s sophomore series Defiance had its finale on Thursday and it matched its series low with its average rating in the 18-49 demographic across its back-to-back episode airing as it achieved only a 0.4 score with 1.4 million total viewers. Last year, the show had a 0.7 rating with 2.2 million total viewers for its season finale, and I’m sure Syfy would have preferred something closer to that this time around. But Defiance did not even make it above the 0.6 level for an episode in its second season, two ticks below its 0.8 average from last year. I have this one at a Medium Cancellation Alert for now and I am leaving it there. It has suffered a notable drop from last year and I believe Syfy will be reluctant to greenlight another season when they have so many current development projects in the pipeline.
Following are the full ratings results* for the sci fi / fantasy shows airing Wednesday 8/27 and Thursday 8/29 with my comments. And keep an eye on the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for the latest numbers and any breaking news.
Legends TNT Wed 8/27 9 PM
Rating: 0.4 | Tot Viewers: 1.8 | StD Rating: 0.5 | Target: 1.0 | Cancellation Alert: Moderate
It dropped one tick this week, which is not a good thing. It continues to perform better than its lead-out series, the veteran non-genre entry Franklin & Bash, but is that really saying anything?
Extant CBS Wed 8/27 10 PM
Rating: 1.0 | Tot Viewers: 5.7 | StD Rating: 1.2 | Target: 1.4 | Cancellation Alert: Medium
It’s holding at that 1.0 ratings level, but that’s pretty low for the broadcast nets even in the Summer. It may just be airing out its episodes at this point.
Defiance Syfy Thu 8/28 8 PM
Rating: 0.4 | Tot Viewers: 1.4 | StD Rating: 0.5 | Target: 0.6 | Cancellation Alert: Medium
It’s a waiting game now and Syfy has the annoying habit of stretching that out when fans are eagerly awaiting news on the fate one of their favorite shows.
—
*Metric Definitions:
Rating: Overnight rating in the 18-49 demographic for same day viewing based on the final numbers unless otherwise noted
Tot Viewers: Estimated total viewers to tune in to the episode for same day viewing
StD Rating: Season to date average for the rating metric tracked above.
Target: The estimated average rating that the show needs to sustain to get renewed.
Cancellation Alert: My prediction of the likelihood that a show will get cancelled. From least to most likely the statuses are Low, Moderate, Medium, Elevated, and High.
—
Ratings Source: TV by the Numbers
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2014 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
