The Nielsens are finally caught up (mostly) from the holiday delays, so here’s a look at the ratings results for genre shows from the last few days. First off, The Walking Dead mid-season finale did not set any records. That may sound like an odd statement, but over the last few seasons it’s just become an expectation that this show sets records as it enters and exits its new episode runs, thus leading the Season 4 mid-season finale to seem like somewhat of a letdown. Still, the show scored a 6.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 12.1 million total viewers which placed it higher than any non-football airing in Prime Time over the past week, so we can’t call those bad numbers. It’s just that they seem somewhat ho hum for the show. Of course, after Sunday’s bat-shit-crazy episode, I expect the numbers to rise when the show returns February 9th to finish out its fourth season. But I wouldn’t be surprised if that episode doesn’t set any records either. The fact is that TWD may have reached its peak with this season’s debut episode (which pulled an unheard of 8.2 score in the 18-49 demo) and it appears to be coming down from the stratosphere. Not that the show is in any danger, though. On AMC, it could still survive with a rating in the 1.0 to 2.0 range, so it’s performing well above what is required of it. And I’m sure this show will ultimately choose its ending date rather than face the prospects of cancellation. But its days of record setting ratings may be a thing of the past now even if it does continue to perform relatively well over the coming years.Also on Sunday, ABC’s Once Upon A Time continued to deliver somewhat low numbers for that show as it scored a 1.9 rating in the 18-49 demo with 6.6 million total viewers. Fans of the series should not fret, though, because it still performed well enough compared to the rest of the offerings on the night from the broadcast nets and ABC’s spin department touted it as the top scripted airing for the evening. And it’s a third season show, so it is safe for now. Over on Lifetime, The Witches of East End slipped to a 0.5 rating with 1.4 million total viewers. No worries for that one, though, as it has already been renewed for a second season.
On Monday, FOX’s Almost Human was the only genre show with a new episode and it sank yet again to a 1.7 rating in the 18-49 demo with 5.8 million total viewers. To make things worse, it was beat in the ratings by a nearly fifty year old repeat of A Charlie Brown Christmas (hey, that’s a classic, though). Almost Human has two more episodes to go before wrapping up for mid-season and has to hope it does not sink much lower because FOX could yank it before giving it a chance to rebuild its audience going into 2014. Sleepy Hollow was a repeat and it returns next week for its mid-season finale. The CW’s Beauty and the Beast was preempted for A Very Muppet Christmas repeat which proceeded to outscore (by one tick) the 0.3 rating that B & B usually pulls.
On Tuesday, The Originals and Supernatural were the only two genre shows with new episodes and both repeated their ratings numbers from last week pulling a 1.1 score in the 18-49 demo with the former having 2.4 million viewers and the latter slightly higher at 2.5 million (those numbers are based on the preliminaries). Agents of SHIELD and Person of Interest both aired repeats for the night and both have one more episode to air this year before going on their winter hiatuses.
Here are the season to date numbers and standings through December 3rd for all the shows that have bowed so far (sorted by most likely to get cancelled):
| Series | Network / Airs (EST) | Cancel- lation Alert | StD Rating | StD Eps | Tracking |
| Dracula | NBC / Fri 10 PM | High | 1.2 | 5 | Low |
| Once Upon A Time in Wonderland | ABC / Thu 8 PM | High | 1.2 | 6 | Low |
| Beauty and the Beast | CW / Mon 9 PM | High | 0.3 | 8 | Low |
| The Neighbors | ABC / Fri 8:30 PM | High | 1.0 | 9 | Low |
| Revolution | NBC / Wed 8 PM | Elevated | 1.5 | 9 | Low |
| Almost Human | FOX / Mon 8 PM | Moderate | 2.1 | 4 | Down |
| The Tomorrow People | CW / Wed 9 PM | Moderate | 0.7 | 7 | Low |
| Haven | Syfy / Fri 9 PM | Moderate | 0.4 | 11 | Low |
| Grimm | NBC / Fri 9 PM | Low | 1.5 | 5 | Down |
| Arrow | CW / Wed 8 PM | Low | 1.0 | 7 | Good |
| Vampire Diaries | CW / Thu 8 PM | Low | 1.2 | 8 | Up |
| Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | ABC / Tue 8 PM | Low | 2.9 | 9 | Up |
| Once Upon A Time | ABC / Sun 8 PM | Low | 2.2 | 9 | Down |
| Supernatural | CW / Tue 9 PM | Low | 1.1 | 9 | Good |
| The Originals | CW / Tue 8 PM | Low | 1.0 | 9 | Good |
| Person of Interest | CBS / Tue 10 PM | Low | 2.1 | 10 | Up |
| Nikita | CW / Fri 9 PM | Final Season | 0.2 | 2 | Low |
| American Horror Story: Coven | FX / Wed 10 PM | Renewed | 2.3 | 7 | Good |
| The Walking Dead | AMC / Sun 9 PM | Renewed | 6.6 | 8 | Down |
| Sleepy Hollow | FOX / Mon 9 PM | Renewed | 2.8 | 9 | Down |
| Witches of East End | Life / Sun 9 PM | Renewed | 0.7 | 9 | Down |
Keep an eye on the Cancellation Watch Twitter Site for the latest ratings numbers, and you can see the current status for all this season’s genre show at this link. And for more information on the ratings numbers and how I determine the Cancellation Alert status of a show, see the Cancellation Watch FAQ.
Ratings Source: TV by the Numbers
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2013 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
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