While most of The CW’s shows are down year-over-year in the ratings (as is true across almost all of the linear channels), that network’s supernatural drama Legacies is holding mostly steady with its first season. The spin-off from The Originals is averaging a 0.27 rating so far this season, only slightly behind last year’s 0.30. Overall, the network is down 18% from last season and its top-rated show The Flash is down by 19%. So Legacies is doing quite well compared to the other shows on that network, and it improved two slots in the rankings this week after besting its lead-in Supernatural for the first time with its most recent episode. 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 November 24th:
| Rank (PW) | Series | Net | Std Avg | Net Bench | % Var | Status |
| 1 (1) | The Walking Dead (O) | AMC | 1.18 | 0.40 | 194.3% | Renewed |
| 2 (2) | American Horror Story (O) | FX | 0.61 | 0.30 | 103.7% | Renewed |
| 3 (3) | The Flash (O) | CW | 0.50 | 0.25 | 98.5% | Renewal Likely |
| 4 (4) | Batwoman (O) | CW | 0.33 | 0.25 | 30.4% | Renewal Possible |
| 5 (6) | Primal | ADSW | 0.30 | 0.25 | 20.8% | Renewal Possible |
| 6 (5) | Supernatural (O) | CW | 0.30 | 0.25 | 19.1% | Final Season |
| 7 (9) | Legacies (O) | CW | 0.27 | 0.25 | 5.8% | Renewal Possible |
| 8 (7) | Arrow (O) | CW | 0.26 | 0.25 | 3.2% | Final Season |
| 9 (8) | Riverdale (O) | CW | 0.26 | 0.25 | 2.1% | Renewal Likely |
| 10 (10) | Supergirl (O) | CW | 0.24 | 0.25 | -3.6% | Renewal Possible |
| 11 (11) | Black Lightning (O) | CW | 0.22 | 0.25 | -12.7% | Renewal Possible |
| 12 (12) | Emergence (O) | ABC | 0.59 | 0.73 | -19.3% | Renewal Possible |
| 13 (13) | Watchmen (O) | HBO | 0.23 | 0.30 | -22.0% | Renewal Possible |
| 14 (14) | Evil (O) | CBS | 0.56 | 0.74 | -23.6% | Renewed |
| 15 (15) | Charmed (O) (F) | CW | 0.19 | 0.25 | -26.3% | Renewal Possible |
| 16 (16) | Nancy Drew (O) | CW | 0.19 | 0.25 | -26.3% | Renewal Possible |
| 17 (17) | The Good Place (O) | NBC | 0.61 | 0.92 | -33.9% | Final Season |
| 18 (18) | Van Helsing (F) | Syfy | 0.09 | 0.15 | -40.0% | Renewal Possible |
| 19 (19) | Mr Robot (O) | USA | 0.11 | 0.25 | -57.1% | Final Season |
| 20 (20) | His Dark Materials | HBO | 0.10 | 0.30 | -67.8% | Renewed |
| 21 (21) | Star Wars Resistance (O) | Disney | 0.03 | 0.10 | -72.9% | Final Season |
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
