Ratings Results Of Interest: ‘Game Of Thrones’ Slays The Nielsens Again
Coming as no surprise, the Season 7 finale for Game of Thrones set yet another record as it pulled in a 5.7 rating based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic with 12.1 million total viewers. That is the most-watched episode of the show so far and also the most-watched for an HBO original. That show will wrap up with its eighth season next year, but HBO has several spin-offs, sequels, prequels in the works, so the franchise will continue for several more years.
Over on TNT on Sunday, The Last Ship lost some more steam and only managed a 0.31 rating with 1.6 million total viewers. That show’s numbers may improve next week without the competition from Game of Thrones. On Friday, Syfy’s Killjoys and Dark Matter both improved in the ratings slightly with the former pulling a 0.16 rating and 628K total viewer and the latter seeing a 0.15 rating with 686K total viewers. Wynonna Earp slipped to a 0.08 rating with 439K total viewers for its season finale, but it has already been renewed for a third season.
I covered the early week ratings in Saturday’s This Week In Sci-Fi TV post, and you can keep up with the latest ratings results at the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site.
Scorecard: ‘Midnight Texas’, ‘Salvation’, and ‘Zoo’ Drop
With the ratings slip that NBC’s Midnight Texas saw last week (more on that in the Sci Fi TV Status Report section of last week’s This Week in Sci Fi TV post), that show dropped six slots on the Cancellation Watch Scorecard (from Number 31 to Number 37). Both CBS genre shows Salvation and Zoo performed poorly with the Nielsens last week and dropped four slots in the rankings (the former from Number 30 to 34, the latter from Number 38 to 42). Syfy’s Blood Drive also dropped in the ratings and it slipped three slots in the rankings (from Number 46 to Number 49). Most of the rest of the movement was just incidental and you can see the full rankings here.
Cancelled Too Soon: ‘Human Target’ (2010)
Before comic book adaptations had become the rage, FOX took a chance on this show based on the DC character Christopher Chance, a bodyguard and security expert who integrates himself into the lives of his clients who are in danger, thus becoming the “human target”. Unfortunately the show was doomed largely by network shenanigans. It debuted to decent numbers with its mid-season bow in January 2010, but then FOX shuffled it all around the schedule for several weeks before it settled in to its regular timeslot. Surprisingly, its numbers did not suffer too much, and the network saw fit to give it a second season. But they decided to tinker with it in its sophomore year, adding new characters and changing the tone of the episodes. In addition, they resumed their scheduling hijinks by delaying its debut, airing back to back episodes, and preempting it. This proved too much of a challenge for the show to handle and its numbers dropped to the point that FOX decided to give it the ax (even though it improved notably with its last three episodes that had an American Idol lead-in).
Human Target was more action-adventure than sci fi, but it was a ton of fun with an excellent cast in its first season (the second year casting additions threw off the chemistry a bit, though). It would be great to see Christopher Chance folded into the Arrow-verse shows (and you have to bring Guerrero and Winston along), but the show likely fell too far off the radar for that to be considered a possibility. If you never caught this one, its worth seeking out for some good, over-the-top fun.
Be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci-Fi TV Twitter Site for daily ratings results as well as breaking news and updates.
