Cancellation Watch Scorecard: American Gods Continues to Slip in the Rankings

Starz’s American Gods slipped yet again in the rankings as it dropped from the Number 27 slot to Number 30. That show has already been renewed for a third season, but the poor viewership in its second year suggests that will be its last. AMC’s Into the Badlands entered the Scorecard at the Number 22 slot based on its TWD-boosted ratings on Sunday, but expect it to drop next week because its numbers in its regular Monday timeslot (not factored in here yet) were much lower. Most of the rest of the movement for the week was just incidental and you can find the full ratings coverage from this past week in our latest Weekly Roundup post.




The scorecard ranks all of the sci fi and fantasy shows’ ratings performance vs. their network’s ratings benchmark (see metric definitions below).  Shows at or above their benchmark should be okay, whereas those slipping notably below are getting into iffy territory.

Scorecard rankings based on the ratings through March 24th:

Rank (PW) Series Net Std Avg Net Bench % Var Status
1 (1) The Walking Dead (O) AMC 1.88 0.50 276.4% Renewed
2 (2) The Flash (O) CW 0.64 0.33 94.3% Renewed
3 (3) American Horror Story (O) FX 0.96 0.50 91.8% Renewed
4 (4) The Purge (O) USA 0.41 0.30 36.0% Renewed
5 (5) Supernatural (O) CW 0.42 0.33 26.4% Renewed
6 (6) Arrow (O) CW 0.39 0.33 17.0% Renewed
7 (7) Riverdale (O) CW 0.39 0.33 17.0% Renewed
8 (8) Supergirl (O) CW 0.38 0.33 13.2% Renewed
9 (9) The Magicians (O) Syfy 0.19 0.17 10.5% Renewed
10 (10) Manifest (O) NBC 1.25 1.14 9.7% Renewal Possible
11 (11) Legends of Tomorrow (O) CW 0.31 0.33 -5.7% Renewed
12 (12) God Friended Me (O) CBS 0.89 0.96 -7.8% Renewed
13 (13) Black Lightning (O) CW 0.30 0.33 -9.4% Renewed
14 (16) Legacies (O) CW 0.30 0.33 -9.4% Renewed
15 (14) The Passage (O) FOX 0.92 1.01 -9.6% On the Bubble
16 (15) Roswell New Mexico (O) CW 0.29 0.33 -12.8% Renewal Possible
17 (17) Deadly Class (O) Syfy 0.15 0.17 -12.9% Renewal Possible
18 (18) Siren (O) Freeform 0.17 0.20 -13.1% Renewal Possible
19 (19) Project Blue Book (O) History 0.31 0.36 -13.6% Renewed
20 (21) Outlander (O) Starz 0.17 0.20 -15.0% Renewed
21 (20) Charmed (O) CW 0.28 0.33 -15.1% Renewed
22 (n/a) Into the Badlands (O) AMC 0.42 0.50 -16.0% Cancelled
23 (22) Star Wars Resistance (O) Disney 0.08 0.10 -22.0% Renewed
24 (23) Z Nation (F) Syfy 0.13 0.17 -23.5% Cancelled
25 (24) The Orville (O) FOX 0.76 1.01 -24.7% Renewal Possible
26 (25) MacGyver (O) (F) CBS 0.72 0.96 -25.5% Renewal Possible
27 (26) The Good Place (O) NBC 0.83 1.14 -27.6% Renewed
28 (28) Nightflyers Syfy 0.11 0.17 -36.9% Cancelled
29 (29) Gotham (O) FOX 0.64 1.01 -36.9% Final Season
30 (27) American Gods (O) Starz 0.12 0.20 -38.3% Renewed
31 (30) The Gifted (O) FOX 0.61 1.01 -40.2% Cancellation Likely
32 (31) Van Helsing (F) Syfy 0.09 0.17 -45.7% Renewed
33 (32) Stan Against Evil IFC 0.04 0.08 -46.9% Cancelled
34 (33) Channel Zero (O) Syfy 0.07 0.17 -57.8% Cancelled
35 (34) Midnight Texas (O) (F) NBC 0.41 1.14 -63.9% Cancelled
36 (35) Mars NGC 0.06 0.16 -65.6% Renewal Possible
37 (36) Counterpart Starz 0.05 0.20 -75.5% Cancelled

Metric Definitions:

Rank (PW): Current rank based on the variance of a show’s season to date ratings average vs. its network’s benchmark (see definition below).  The number in parenthesis is the prior week’s rank.  Note that shows on the streaming services are not included because of insufficient viewership data and foreign imports like Doctor Who will not be included because they rely more heavily on their viewership in their home countries.

Series: (O) indicates the show is owned or co-owned by the network and/or a sister studio. (F) indicates the show airs on Friday when ratings expectations are lower on the broadcast networks.

StD Avg:  The show’s season to date ratings average based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic.

Net Bench:  (Network Benchmark) For the broadcast networks, this is the net’s season to date average rating based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic for non-sports, non-special, non-repeat broadcasts.  For the cable channels, this is the lowest level at which a show is typically renewed by that network if there are enough genre entries on that channel to provide a decent sample.  But note that with cable entries intangibles such as international and/or streaming partnerships can play an important factor in a show’s survival and that is not measured here.

% Var:  The percent variance between a show’s season to date average and the network benchmark as defined above.  The higher the variance, the better a show is performing vs. the benchmark.

Status: My assessment of the likelihood that a show will get renewed or cancelled. The statuses are Renewal Likely, Renewal Possible, On the Bubble, Cancellation Likely (plus Renewed and Cancelled/Ended)

Ratings Source: ShowBuzzDaily and TV by the Numbers

Author: johnnyjay

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