Cancellation Watch: Syfy’s Olympus Does Not Reign with Its Debut, Outlander and Salem Return Down

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10 years ago

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 sci fi / fantasy shows airing Thursday Apr 2nd thru Monday Apr 6th (analysis and metric definitions below):

Note: The Thursday broadcast network shows were covered in the previous Cancellation Watch post.

Not a good bow for this show as viewers are probably asking what the heck it is doing on Syfy in the first place. (More on this one below)

It’s numbers were already low and it took a significant drop this last week. Not a good sign.

It’s holding, but at a low level. If it remains here next season, that could be its last.

It was still at a 0.2 rating and it only pulled in 580k total viewers. Can it improve with its season finale this week?

No improvement for this show as it looks to be on its way out.

It was down from where it ended last year, but still pulling decent numbers for Starz. (More on this one below)

Preempted. Resumes new episodes next week.

Season Ended. Renewed for a sixth season which will air Fall 2015.

Repeat. Resumes new episodes next week.

Not a great bow for its second season, but these numbers may be good enough for WGN especially if they have international financing backing the show. (More on this one below)

Another low outing following weeks of on again / off again airings. No surprise there.

Repeat. Resumes new episodes next week.

Series Premiere: Syfy’s new fantasy series Olympus bowed last Thursday but it had less than god-like ratings results as it could only muster up a 0.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic based on the overnights with 894K total viewers. Those are definitely not good numbers to start with and this is yet another blow to Syfy which has been trying to revitalize itself over the past year but has continued to stumble in the ratings. Of course Olympus was a rather odd addition to their schedule as this mythological drama does not fit well with the network’s plan to return to science fiction. And it does not appear to be an import show along the lines of Lost Girl (coming from Canada) or The Almighty Johnsons (coming from ~~Australia~~ New Zealand), though I did hear it referred to as an “acquisition”, so it does not appear to be one that Syfy developed exclusively. But with the debut numbers that it pulled and the generally negative critical response to the show thus far, I have a hard time seeing this one sticking around for a second season. I am starting it at only a Medium Cancellation Alert status, though, because shows like this (and also USA’s Dig and A&E’s The Returned) could have international financing and syndication which could help keep them going. Though I would doubt at this point if Syfy would elect to bring Olympus back to their schedule for a second season.

Series Returns: On Saturday, Starz’s fantasy series Outlander returned for the second half of its first season and saw its numbers drop slightly to a 0.3 rating in the 18-49 demo with 1.2 million total viewers. That’s down form the 0.4 score / 1.4 million total viewers it had with its last new episode last September, but those are still good numbers for the pay channel Starz. And this show has continued to draw some good buzz and still looks like a winner for that network which continues to try and compete with the big boys HBO and Showtime. It has already been renewed for a second season and I expect its numbers to hold steady for the second half of its first if not trend up like we saw last Summer. So at this point I see no reason to be concerned with the slight dip in its numbers. On Sunday, WGN’s Salem had its second season bow, pulling a 0.2 rating with about five hundred thousand total viewers. That’s down from the 0.5 score the show had for its first season bow, but may still be good enough for that cable network which is making its initial forays into original programming. Salem has enjoyed some decent buzz thus far, which may be good enough at this point to offset its less than stellar ratings. Plus, there could be international financing and syndication helping this one, so I don’t think it is in trouble at the moment.

I will post the results for The Returned when they are available later today or early tomorrow. Be sure keep an eye out for that and all the latest numbers and any breaking news throughout the week at the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site. You can see the status of all the currently airing sci fi / fantasy shows at the Cancellation Watch page and also the latest Sci Fi TV Power Rankings post. And for more information on where I get these numbers and how I make my Cancellation Alert assessments, check out the Cancelled Sci Fi FAQ.

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Metric Definitions:

Rating: Overnight rating in the 18-49 demographic for same day viewing based on the final numbers unless otherwise noted

% Chng PW: The percentage change +/- for this week’s rating vs. last week’s rating.

Tot Viewers: Estimated total viewers (age 2+) 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.

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Ratings Source: TV by the Numbers and ShowBuzzDaily