Ratings Bump For #DarkMatter And #WynonnaEarp
Both of Syfy’s Friday shows received some good news from the Nielsens after posting rather tepid debuts the week before. Dark Matter improved to a 0.17 rating based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic (with 662K total viewers), up from its 0.15 debut.Wynonna Earp improved notably to a 0.14 rating (with 567K total viewers), up from its near disastrous 0.09 bow. It’s possible that the season premieres of both shows were impacted by the NBA championship game that aired on the same night. And it’s also possible that people did not know the shows were returning because Syfy is notorious for poorly promoting its own shows (but if you keep up my column This Week In Sci-Fi TV and the Sci-Fi TV Listings over at SciFiTVSite.com, you would have had plenty of advance notice).
If Dark Matter can hold around the 0.17 ratings level, I believe it should be okay. That matches its Season 2 average and it is also helped by its partnership with the Space Channel up in Canada. Plus, it has reached the third season threshold, and typically cable shows last four to six total once they have made it past that mark. If Wynonna Earp can hold around that 0.14 level, that should be good for the show because that is above its first season average. Plus, the Space Channel has jumped onboard as a partner in that show’s second year and this one is also relatively inexpensive to produce. Both of these could also use a show of support from fans on the social networks to help bring attention to them.
#TheWalkingDexit Continues For ‘Fear The Walking Dead’
TWD spin-off series Fear the Walking Dead slipped yet again this past Sunday, posting only a 0.94 rating based on the overnights for the 18-49 demo with 2.4 million total viewers. That is the first time that show has dropped below the 1.0 level and suggests that viewer exodus continues to plague the franchise. The parent series slipped to its lowest levels since its third season this past year, and FtWD is now down by 43% from its second season ratings average.
But it was still the top-rated cable show for the evening and it also beat everything on the broadcast networks for the night except two of ABC’s game shows, indicating that its ratings attrition is impacted as much by the Peak TV crunch as viewer apathy. The show has also already been renewed for a fourth season, and a fifth is likely to follow that. But don’t be surprised if AMC decides to wrap that one up around that point.
Ratings Results Of Interest: ‘American Gods’ And ‘Twin Peaks Improve
On Sunday, Starz’s American Gods improved to a 0.29 rating based on the demo with 774K total viewers for its season finale. That show has already been renewed for a second season. Over on Showtime, Twin Peaks continued its upward trend, pulling a 0.11 rating with 294K total viewers. That show has been seeing notable gains with digital viewing, but likely not enough for the network to extend this one’s “limited run” status. On Saturday, Doctor Who‘s numbers continue to sink on BBC America as it only managed a 0.16 rating with 516K total viewers. But that one is more dependent on its viewership in Britain and work on its eleventh season is already under way. Orphan Blackslipped to a 0.06 rating with 225K total viewers as that one airs out its final season.
I already covered the debut numbers for Syfy’s Blood Drive and the results for Stitchersand Shadowhunters on Friday in my This Week in Sci-Fi TV column.
Scorecard: ‘Blood Drive’ Races Into The Upper Third Of The Rankings
Syfy’s new Grindhouse series Blood Drive had a decent debut last Wednesday (more on that here) and that has it entering the Cancellation Watch Scorecard at the Number 15 slot. If that show’s numbers do not slip too much in the coming weeks, expect it to cruise into a second season. Dark Matter and Wynonna Earp both improved their rankings with the ratings bump mentioned above. The former improved six slots to Number 30 and the latter improved seven slots to Number 50. You can see the full Scorecard results here.
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