Cancellation Watch: Fear the Walking Dead Continues to Sink, Plus the Full 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 Sunday, AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead slipped yet again to a new series low of a 1.24 rating based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic with three million total viewers. It has already been renewed for a third season, but this is likely an expensive show to produce and the continued decline in the ratings suggest that the zombie rot is setting in on this TWD spin-off. FX’s The Strain dropped two ticks from its Season 3 premiere to post a 0.42 score with 990k total viewers. That has this show at marginal levels, and if it sinks much further it could be exiting by the end of the current season or the next at the latest. TNT’s The Last Ship held mostly steady at a 0.48 rating with 2.1 million total viewers. That one has already been renewed for a fourth season. On Friday, Syfy’s Killjoys wrapped up its second season with a ratings drop to a 0.18 score with 630k total viewers. And Dark Matter slipped to near a series low of a 0.14 rating (after posting a season high 0.22 score the prior week) with 610k total viewers. Both shows have already been renewed for a third season, though. Last Wednesday, Mr. Robot slipped to a 0.26 rating with 650k total viewers, but it has already been renewed for a third season.

Ratings results for the sci fi / fantasy shows airing Monday August 29th thru Sunday September 4th (metric definitions below):

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

Chart Activity: There never was an update to the Weekly Nielsen Twitter Rating Top 10, but Fear the Walking Dead had already dropped out of those rankings last week. That show remained at Number 2 in the cable Top 25 based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic for the week (behind College Football), but it slipped all the way to Number 11 in the cable Top 25 based on total viewers and was significantly behind TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles and Major Crimes for the week (the only two scripted cable shows in the Top 10). The Last Ship fell out of the that last chart for the week while Zoo actually improved to the Number 21 (up from Number 24) in the broadcast net Top 25 based on total viewers.

(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.

—

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