Cancellation Watch: Zoo Returns Down, Killjoys and Dark Matter Return Okay, Plus the Ratings Roundup

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 of Interest: On Tuesday of last week, Zoo had its second season debut on CBS and could only pull a 0.8 rating based on the overnights for the 18 to 49 demographic with 5.1 million total viewers. That’s down from its season low last year of a 0.9 score and not a great start for its sophomore season. If it could hold steady or even improve a bit, it might be okay in the current ratings-pocalypse environment, but if it slips more than a tick or two it will find itself in trouble. Also on Tuesday, MTV’s Scream improved to a 0.20 rating with 440k total viewers for its move to that night and it returned to the Weekly Nielsen Twitter Rating Top 10 (see Charts sections below).  On Friday, Syfy had two premieres and both showed some ratings life. Killjoys returned at a 0.24 rating with about 770k total viewers which was just a little above its average from last year. Dark Matter was down a bit from its Season 1 numbers at a 0.20 rating with 830k total viewers, but that is still above what that network’s Spring shows were averaging. On top of that, Killjoys was the ninth highest rated cable show for Friday night and Dark Matter was Number 20. That’s higher than I recall those being ranked during their first seasons, though perhaps competition was not too high due to the holiday weekend. But at least it is a decent start for those shows in a time when double-digit year over year losses are common and the partnership Syfy has will the Space Channel in Canada will help these shows as well. On Sunday, TNT’s The Last Ship slipped to a 0.41 rating with just under two million total viewers. Call it a holiday hangover and that one has faced rough waters through its third season so far. If it can right the ship by next week, though, perhaps it will have clear sailing into a fourth season.

Syfy Spring Shows: Last week, Syfy announced that 12 Monkeys will be coming back for a third season despite its ratings drop off in its second year. So that leaves two of that network’s Spring shows still awaiting word on their fates: Hunters and Wynonna Earp. The former show seems certainly on the way out as it has only averaged a paltry 0.08 rating based on the overnights in its first year and it was kicked to midnight on Mondays several weeks back. Wynonna Earp’s numbers are a little better at a 0.13 average and that show is inexpensive to produce and has a pretty vocal fanbase. I would say that it still has a chance seeing as Syfy has been giving most of its shows two seasons to prove themselves of late (Hunters, though, seems destined to follow Olympus as one-season-and-out). I expect that we will hear word on both of these shows at some point over the next few weeks, so be sure to stay tuned to this site and the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for any breaking news.

Ratings results for the sci fi / fantasy shows airing Monday June 27th thru Sunday July 3rd (metric definitions below):

(Links are to the show pages on this site with season to date ratings results and status updates)

Chart Activity: MTV’s Scream returned to the  Weekly Nielsen Twitter Rating Top 10 for the week at Number 9. Previous chart regulars Game of Thrones and Person of Interest have dropped off because they have wrapped up their seasons. Zoo made it into the broadcast net Top 25 based on total viewers for its Season 2 debut at Number 18.

(Updated for the broadcast network and cable Top 25 chart activity)

Be sure keep an eye out for 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:

Series: (R) indicates a repeat airing

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

% Chng: The percentage change +/- for this week’s rating vs. last week’s rating (if a new episode aired last week).

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.

Net Avg:  The season to date average rating for the network for non-sports, non-special, non-repeat programming.  This data is available for the broadcast networks only.

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.

Source: ShowBuzzDaily and TV by the Numbers