AMC’s season-long horror anthology The Terror returned for its second season last week and saw a notable drop in its ratings year-over-year. That has the show starting low in the rankings at the Number 56 slot, four from the bottom. Syfy’s Killjoys saw a notable ratings decline last week causing that show to slip three slots from Number 50 to Number 53. 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 and the status of all the currently airing shows 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 August 18th:
| Rank (PW) | Series | Net | Std Avg | Net Bench | % Var | Status |
| 1 (1) | Game of Thrones (O) | HBO | 5.17 | 0.50 | 933.7% | Final Season |
| 2 (2) | The Walking Dead (O) | AMC | 1.88 | 0.50 | 276.1% | Renewed |
| 3 (3) | American Horror Story (O) | FX | 0.96 | 0.30 | 219.7% | Renewed |
| 4 (4) | The Flash (O) | CW | 0.62 | 0.31 | 102.6% | Renewed |
| 5 (5) | The Purge (O) | USA | 0.41 | 0.30 | 36.0% | Renewed |
| 6 (6) | Supernatural (O) | CW | 0.40 | 0.31 | 30.9% | Renewed |
| 7 (7) | Manifest (O) | NBC | 1.25 | 1.04 | 20.3% | Renewed |
| 8 (8) | Supergirl (O) | CW | 0.35 | 0.31 | 16.0% | Renewed |
| 9 (9) | Riverdale (O) | CW | 0.35 | 0.31 | 14.5% | Renewed |
| 10 (10) | Arrow (O) | CW | 0.34 | 0.31 | 11.6% | Renewed |
| 11 (11) | The Magicians (O) | Syfy | 0.19 | 0.17 | 10.9% | Renewed |
| 12 (12) | Final Space (O) | ADSW | 0.31 | 0.28 | 8.9% | Renewal Possible |
| 13 (13) | Fear the Walking Dead (O) | AMC | 0.51 | 0.50 | 1.3% | Renewed |
| 14 (14) | Black Lightning (O) | CW | 0.30 | 0.31 | -1.8% | Renewed |
| 15 (15) | Legacies (O) | CW | 0.30 | 0.31 | -1.8% | Renewed |
| 16 (16) | The Passage (O) | FOX | 0.92 | 0.94 | -2.6% | Cancelled |
| 17 (17) | Legends of Tomorrow (O) | CW | 0.29 | 0.31 | -3.9% | Renewed |
| 18 (18) | God Friended Me (O) | CBS | 0.89 | 0.93 | -5.3% | Renewed |
| 19 (19) | Roswell New Mexico (O) | CW | 0.27 | 0.31 | -11.9% | Renewed |
| 20 (20) | Deadly Class (O) | Syfy | 0.15 | 0.17 | -12.9% | Cancelled |
| 21 (21) | Project Blue Book (O) | History | 0.31 | 0.36 | -13.6% | Renewed |
| 22 (22) | Outlander (O) | Starz | 0.17 | 0.20 | -15.0% | Renewed |
| 23 (23) | Charmed (O) | CW | 0.26 | 0.31 | -15.2% | Renewed |
| 24 (24) | The InBetween (O) | NBC | 0.41 | 0.50 | -18.0% | On the Bubble |
| 25 (25) | Agents of SHIELD (O) (F) | ABC | 0.41 | 0.50 | -18.3% | Renewed |
| 26 (26) | Blood and Treasure (O) | CBS | 0.40 | 0.50 | -20.0% | Renewed |
| 27 (27) | The Good Place (O) | NBC | 0.83 | 1.04 | -20.6% | Renewed |
| 28 (28) | The Orville (O) | FOX | 0.74 | 0.94 | -21.8% | Renewed |
| 29 (29) | Siren (O) | Freeform | 0.16 | 0.20 | -22.0% | Renewed |
| 29 (30) | Star Wars Resistance (O) | Disney | 0.08 | 0.10 | -22.0% | Renewed |
| 31 (31) | Z Nation (F) | Syfy | 0.13 | 0.17 | -23.5% | Cancelled |
| 32 (32) | Scream | MTV | 0.23 | 0.30 | -24.4% | On the Bubble |
| 33 (33) | MacGyver (O) (F) | CBS | 0.70 | 0.93 | -25.6% | Renewed |
| 34 (34) | The 100 (O) | CW | 0.22 | 0.31 | -27.0% | Renewed |
| 35 (35) | Gotham (O) | FOX | 0.63 | 0.94 | -33.6% | Final Season |
| 36 (36) | iZombie (O) | CW | 0.20 | 0.31 | -34.5% | Final Season |
| 37 (37) | The Gifted (O) | FOX | 0.61 | 0.94 | -35.6% | Cancelled |
| 38 (38) | Nightflyers | Syfy | 0.11 | 0.17 | -36.9% | Cancelled |
| 39 (39) | Krypton | Syfy | 0.11 | 0.17 | -38.2% | On the Bubble |
| 40 (40) | Cloak and Dagger (O) | Freeform | 0.12 | 0.20 | -40.0% | On the Bubble |
| 41 (41) | What We Do in the Shadows (O) | FX | 0.18 | 0.30 | -40.0% | Renewed |
| 42 (42) | The Outpost | CW | 0.12 | 0.20 | -41.7% | Renewal Possible |
| 43 (43) | NOS4A2 (O) | AMC | 0.20 | 0.35 | -42.5% | Renewed |
| 44 (44) | Van Helsing (F) | Syfy | 0.09 | 0.17 | -45.7% | Renewed |
| 45 (45) | Happy (O) | Syfy | 0.09 | 0.17 | -45.9% | Cancelled |
| 46 (46) | Stan Against Evil | IFC | 0.04 | 0.08 | -46.9% | Cancelled |
| 47 (47) | Pandora | CW | 0.10 | 0.20 | -50.0% | Renewal Possible |
| 47 (48) | Two Sentence Horror Stories | NBC | 0.10 | 0.20 | -50.0% | Renewal Possible |
| 49 (49) | American Gods (O) | Starz | 0.10 | 0.20 | -50.6% | Renewed |
| 50 (51) | Channel Zero (O) | Syfy | 0.07 | 0.17 | -57.8% | Cancelled |
| 51 (53) | Legion (O) | FX | 0.12 | 0.30 | -60.4% | Final Season |
| 52 (52) | Midnight Texas (O) (F) | NBC | 0.41 | 1.04 | -60.4% | Cancelled |
| 53 (50) | Killjoys (O) | Syfy | 0.07 | 0.17 | -61.2% | Final Season |
| 54 (54) | Into the Badlands (O) | AMC | 0.19 | 0.50 | -61.8% | Cancelled |
| 55 (55) | Mars | NGC | 0.06 | 0.16 | -65.6% | On the Bubble |
| 56 (n/a) | The Terror (O) | AMC | 0.15 | 0.50 | -70.0% | Renewal Possible |
| 57 (56) | Preacher (O) | AMC | 0.14 | 0.50 | -71.3% | Final Season |
| 58 (57) | Counterpart | Starz | 0.05 | 0.20 | -75.5% | Cancelled |
| 59 (58) | The Rook (O) | Starz | 0.04 | 0.20 | -79.4% | On the Bubble |
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
