Cancellation Watch: House of the Dragon Reigns in the Ratings, The Sandman Builds on Premiere, and More

Linear Ratings Results of Interest:

Apparently there are people watching the cable channels these days as HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon scored a strong debut on Sunday night.  Its premiere had a 0.55 rating based on same-day viewing for the 18-49 demographic with 2.2 million total viewers.  That may be down from the numbers GoT enjoyed at its peak, but it is certainly good for a cable show these days and higher than the 0.06 rating that Westworld averaged during its recently completed fourth season.  And with encore runs and digital viewing, HBO claims that the debut episode came close to ten million total viewers which makes it the most-watched premiere ever for an original from the cable service.  Consider a second season of this show to be a good bet at this point.

As for AMC’s Tales of the Walking Dead which aired in the same timeslot on Sunday, it slipped to a 0.07 rating with 448K total viewers for its second episode.  Viewership for this franchise is currently at an all-time low, and the future of some of the planned spin-offs may be in doubt.

Syfy’s Resident Alien held steadily low on Wednesday at a 0.08 rating with 665K total viewers, but it has already been renewed for a third season.  On Thursday, Adult Swim’s Primal slipped from last week’s season high to a 0.12 rating with 271K total viewers.  That one could be returning for a third season, though.

You can see the full, season-to-date ratings for the sci fi and fantasy shows at this link, and below are the ratings for the genre shows from the past week. Ratings Source: ShowBuzzDaily

Ratings Results for the Week of 8/15/22

Netflix Top 10:

The Sandman held at the Number 1 spot in the Netflix Top 10 for English Language shows for the week of August 8th to 14th and nearly doubled its viewership hours from its first week to 127.5 million.  But apparently that is not quite good enough for the streamer to greenlight a second season of the show just yet.  According to Sandman creator Neil Gaiman, the television adaptation was very expensive and Netflix is in a wait-and-see mode:

For Netflix to release the money to let us make another season we have to perform incredibly well. So yes, we’ve been the top show in the world for the last two weeks. That still may not be enough.

Considering the acclaim the series has received so far, Netflix would certainly receive plenty of backlash if they cancelled the show, but that has done little to sway execs at that company in the past.

Locke & Key Season 3 had its debut that week and placed at Number 3 with 38 million hours viewed.  That show is in its final season.  Stranger Things Season 4 continued its run in the Top 10, holding at Number 4 with 35 million hours viewed.  The fifth and final season of that show should arrive at some point in 2023.  All three seasons of Manifest remained in the Top 10 as fans anticipate the arrival of the fourth season this Fall.  Part 1 of the first season of the Korean supernatural drama Alchemy of Souls has now logged six weeks in the Top 10 for Non-English language shows.  Part 2 is expected to arrive later this year.  Following are all the sci fi and fantasy TV shows on the Netflix charts for the week (the number in parenthesis is the prior week rank):

Netflix Top 10 for the Week of Aug-8 to Aug-14

English Language Shows
1 (1) The Sandman 127.5 Million Hours
3 (n/a) Locke & Key: Season 3 38.4 Million Hours
4 (4) Stranger Things: Season 4 35.3 Million Hours
6 (5) Manifest: Season 1 28.4 Million Hours
8 (7) Manifest: Season 2 18.7 Million Hours
10 (9) Manifest: Season 3 18.1 Million Hours

Non-English Language Shows
4 (4) Alchemy of Souls: Season 1 17.8 Million Hours

Source: Netflix

Nielsen Streaming Top 10

Stranger Things slipped from the Number 1 slot in the Nielsen Top 10 for streaming originals for the week of July 18th to 24th.  It was at Number 2, but still managed to pull in 2.3 billion minutes of viewing.  Resident Evil held steady at Number 3 with 772 million minutes viewed as it vies for a second season.  The Umbrella Academy improved to Number 4 with 553 million minutes of viewing as it appears to be on track for a fourth season.  Amazon’s The Boys slipped to Number 5 two weeks after wrapping up its third season.  That one has already been renewed for a fourth year.  The AHS spin-off American Horror Stories had its debut on Hulu that week but did not make it into the Top 10.  Blood & Treasure Season 2 had its premiere on Paramount+ that week, but the Nielsen Streaming rankings do not track that service yet.  Following are all the sci fi and fantasy TV shows on the streaming charts for the week (the number in parenthesis is the prior week rank):

Nielsen Streaming Rankings for the Week of Jul-18 to Jul-24

Streaming Originals
2 (1) Stranger Things (Netflix) 2.3 Billion Minutes
3 (3) Resident Evil (Netflix) 772 Million Minutes
4 (5) The Umbrella Academy (Netflix) 553 Million Minutes
5 (4) The Boys (Amazon) 532 Million Minutes

Acquired Shows
9 (10) Supernatural (Netflix) 402 Million Minutes

Source: Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings (Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, and Apple TV+), Nielsen National TV Panel, U.S. Viewing Through Television

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