Cancellation Watch: Dig and Olympus Still Flying Low in the Ratings as are Penny Dreadful and Salem

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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 May 7th thru Monday May 11th (analysis and metric definitions below):

Updated with Sunday and Monday final numbers.

It’s numbers remain low and I still believe that next season will likely be its last.

This one slipped to a 0.1 rating in the 18-49 demo which means that it is just barely registering at the moment. Is it worth it for Syfy to keep it around? (More on this one below)

It improved for its season/series finale, but it hasn’t performed well overall. Will they stretch it beyond its “limited run”? (More on this one below)

It improved slightly as it heads into its season finale this coming Friday. But will next season be the last for this one?

Its numbers remained low, but that’s to be expected. The CW basically gave up on this one.

It’s holding steady and still getting good buzz, so I’m thinking Starz is happy with this one.

It improved slightly for its two hour season finale, but only by one tick. Is it heading into its final season?

Season Ended. Returns for its second season in Fall.

It was down one tick from last week but still blew away everything else on television on Sunday night.

It held steadily low, but I was thinking that Showtime would want it to build its audience in its second season. (More on this one below)

It was at similar levels last year, but does WGN want better from the show’s sophomore season? International financing may be the key to it getting a third season. (More on this one below)

It held at its series low for its second season finale. The ratings slump has hit this one hard this Spring.

Season Ended. Returns for its second season in Fall.

On the Hot Seat: We already know the renewal/cancellation status of most the Thursday through Monday sci fi / fantasy shows, but have yet to hear word on USA’s Dig and Syfy’s Olympus. The former series saw its numbers rise slightly to a 0.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 1.1 million total viewers for its season/series finale. I didn’t watch the show, but from what I have read the final episode caps off the first season story arc without leaving it on a major cliffhanger. But we all know that these “limited run” series have additional storylines built in so that more seasons are possible. But with the ratings Dig has pulled thus far, that continues to seem unlikely unless it has significant international financing backing it. And USA gets to cancel the show without having to admit to cancelling it because they will claim it was always planned for a one-season-and-out run. As for Syfy’s Olympus, its numbers have actually not been much worse than 12 Monkeys which received a renewal nod just recently. But then I am thinking that Syfy got Olympus on the cheap whereas they have more invested in 12 Monkeys. But like Dig, I believe the future of Olympus is tied to its international financing and syndication deals. So if renewals come for either of this two, we can likely point back to that as the reason.

As for the two Sunday Spring shows Penny Dreadful and Salem, both of those continue to fly low in their second seasons. The former show is currently averaging a 0.2 rating in the 18-49 demo which is down slightly from the 0.3 it had last year. After its first season renewal, I was thinking that Showtime would want to see the show’s numbers improve in its second year. It has been getting good reviews from the critics so far in its second season, so maybe that will be enough to keep it going, but I am raising the Cancellation Alert on it one notch to Moderate for now. I’ll likely keep it there until we here final word on the show, and I consider it mostly safe, but it hasn’t succeeded in building up its audience yet. As for WGN’s Salem, that one is only averaging a 0.1 rating in its second season. That’s close to where it was in its rookie year, but again I was thinking its network would want to see improvement. That one I am raising to a Moderate Cancellation Alert as well, but I don’t consider either of these shows in too much danger 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