Midseason Ratings Check-In: Which Broadcast Shows Are Facing Cancellation?
Looks like NBC, ABC, Fox, and even the cancellation-averse CW might have some holes to fill on their primetime schedules next season.
Those broadcast networks all have TV shows likely to be canceled this year, according to SpoilerTV’s weighted ratings formula.
We’ve rounded up those endangered series in the gallery below, starting with the ones that might get a pass for next season and ending with the ones most in peril.
The Blacklist
Only 36 percent of TV Insider viewers think the current, ninth season of the action drama should be its last, but the show might be on NBC’s blacklist anyway. It’s currently the lowest-rated returning title on the network’s slate, per TV Series Finale, with only half of the audience of any of the Chicago shows.
A Million Little Things
ABC probably wishes this family drama had another million little viewers tuning in every week. It’s at the bottom of the chart for the network’s scripted programming in terms of the coveted 18-to-49 rating, down more than 34 percent in that demo year over year.
Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew and the Case of the Missing Viewers? This teen detective drama is down more than 40 percent in its 18-to-49 demo from last year, though it does have better total viewership than Riverdale. If it gets canceled, at least fans will have the upcoming spinoff Tom Swift to fall back on.
Ordinary Joe
Ordinary Joe, ordinary numbers. The parallel-timeline drama hasn’t hooked viewers here in its debut season, unlike La Brea, another freshman NBC series, which has an audience almost twice as large.
Queens
We wish we could say this girl-group drama reigned over the ratings charts. But so far, it has the worst total-viewer tally of any ABC show this season, averaging just 1.9 million viewers.
Grand Crew
NBC treated viewers to two sneak-peek episodes of the bar-set sitcom one night last month—and it doesn’t bode well that about a quarter of the viewers tuned out between Episode 1 and Episode 2.
American Auto
Similarly, NBC aired two sneak-peek episodes of this workplace comedy the night prior, and again, a chunk of the audience opted not to watch the second episode. Perhaps these two shows will fare better out of previews.
The Big Leap
This new musical dramedy very well might make a jeté off screen, considering it’s the lowest-rated scripted Fox show, with not even a third of 9-1-1’s 18-to-49 rating and total viewership. Nevertheless, TV Insider’s Matt Roush put the renewal odds at 50/50 last month, noting it’s “almost impossible to predict how the pendulum will swing when so few new series emerge as hits anymore.”
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