Ratings Results of Interest: Some Christmas Cheer for Several Shows This week
On Monday, BBC American aired the Doctor Who Christmas Special which delivered Peter Capaldi’s final appearance as the Doctor and introduced Jodie Whitakker as the new incarnation of the show’s lead. That episode pulled a 0.40 rating based on same day viewing for the 18-49 demographic with 1.1 million total viewers. Those are the best numbers that show has seen in the States since its Christmas special last year which pulled a 0.45 score. The twelfth season will be starting up in Fall 2018.
The Christmas cheer carried over to Wednesday as both TNT’s The Librarians and Syfy’s Happy! saw their ratings improve during a typically low viewership week. The former series scored a 0.34 rating with 1.7 million total viewers for its double-episode airing, its best performance so far this season. Over on Syfy, Happy! improved to a 0.22 rating with 638K total viewers. Both of those shows appear to be tracking toward renewal at this point.
On Thursday, Syfy’s Van Helsing held even at a 0.16 rating with 550K total viewers. Ghost Wars improved to a 0.11 rating with 392K total viewers and Superstition also improved to a 0.08 rating with 283K total viewers. Van Helsing has already been renewed for a third season, while the other two are likely headed to cancellation despite their too-little-too-late gains this week.
Last Friday, ABC’s Agents of SHIELD saw a slight improvement to its numbers as it pulled a 0.6 rating with 2.4 million total viewers. Interestingly, that show has been scoring quite well in delayed viewing, but ultimately its fate will be decided by Disney with the Nielsen results not as important to its fate at this point.
Be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for the latest ratings results as well as breaking news. Ratings source: ShowBuzzDaily.
A Bright Start for Netflix’s Urban Fantasy
While Netflix usually keeps its viewership stats under wraps, apparently they decided to release the initial viewing numbers for their Will Smith-starring urban fantasy Bright. According to the streaming service, that film had eleven million viewings over its first three days of availability. That’s not quite as high as what Stranger Things saw for its Season 2 debut, but that still counts it as a hit on television these days by any measure. Netflix may have decided to release those numbers because Bright was not well received by critics, currently holding only a 29% Fresh Rating over at the Rotten Tomatoes site. They may believe this could help offset some of the negative reviews and convince people that they should give the movie a chance. The streaming service has already ordered a sequel to the film which will probably be released at some point in 2019.
