Unless otherwise noted, the ratings numbers below are based on the final overnights and may vary slightly from the preliminaries reported on the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site.
NBC’s Revolution improved slightly from last week, Syfy’s programming appears to be on the slide, and two shows are already running repeats shortly after their Winter hiatus.
On the Hot Seat: Revolution improved from last week’s series low as it pulled a 1.5 rating in the 18-49 demo with 5.3 million total viewers. That’s not much of rise and I would say that it still has the show on track for cancellation, but then if you look at the other scripted dramas NBC currently has on the air, they aren’t pulling particularly great numbers either (with the exception of The Blacklist, though that one has slipped without its lead-in from The Voice). I can’t imagine that a Big Four Prime Time scripted drama averaging a 1.5 rating–and not airing on Fridays like Grimm–could get renewed, but then maybe the bar has dropped further down this season. We’ll have to wait and see and I would prefer to predict a show getting cancelled and have it renewed instead of the opposite, so I am not changing the Cancellation Alert status at this point. And I will be discussing the chances of all the struggling shows (and what the fans can do) in a post I will be putting up in the next few days.
Also hurting is The CW’s The Tomorrow People which pulled another 0.5 rating with 1.4 million total viewers. Some may point to the fact the Beauty and the Beast got renewed with those numbers last season, but then that didn’t work out too well as that show has barely registered in the Nielsens this season. I can’t see either of those shows surviving beyond May, though.
Syfy Shows Hurting? Being Human slipped to a 0.4 rating in the 18-49 demo on Monday with just barely over 1 million total viewers. And its Canadian import shows Lost Girl and Bitten pulled even lower numbers, though their ratings here in the States do not impact their fates as much as their performance up north. And while I don’t usually report on the ratings of Syfy’s reality programming, I found it rather interesting that the premiere episode of their new, highly touted competition series Opposite Worlds on Tuesday pulled less total viewers than a fifty year old repeat of Gilligan’s Island over on TV Land. Opposite Worlds pulled a slightly higher rating (0.5 vs GI‘s 0.4), but that still seems like a pretty tepid bow for a show they have promoted so heavily (at least on the internet), and it’s pretty embarrassing to get out-watched by a decades old sitcom. All that along with the mediocre debut of the much-buzzed Helix on Fridays and the lower than expected performance of Defiance in Summer seems to suggest that Syfy could be losing steam with its original programming and that sci fi fans are continuing to reject that network’s brand. Executive VP Bill McGoldrick has claimed they want to try some more ambitious programing, but it looks like they may face an uphill battle to win back the core fanbase.
Other Ratings News: MTV’s Teen Wolf pulled another 0.8 rating in the 18-49 demo with two million total viewers as that show is performing just as strong for its network during the regular season as it did last Summer (and is kicking butt on Syfy’s werewolf show Bitten in the same hour prompting them to do some schedule changing). The CW’s Arrow slipped a tick this week to a 0.9 rating with 2.5 million total viewers. It is still doing well enough for the fifth place network, though, and should ride right into a third season. That network’s Vampire Diaries returned from hiatus on Thursday with a 1.1 rating and 2.7 million total viewers (based on the preliminaries). That is right at the level the show was performing towards the end of its Fall run.
Both ABC’s Agents of SHIELD and CBS’ Person of Interest where in repeats this week and neither returns with new episodes until February 4th. That doesn’t hurt the latter show too much which is performing quite well in its third season, but Agents of SHIELD is really struggling to hold onto an audience and a two week break is quite a momentum stopper after only two mid-season episodes have aired. FOX has pulled a similar stunt with Almost Human while that one was on a ratings upswing. Seems like these networks need to plan this scheduling out a bit better to assure that the audience keeps up a sustained interest level.
Here are the season to date numbers and standings through January 23rd 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 Airings | Tracking |
| Once Upon A Time in Wonderland | ABC / Thu 8 PM | High | 1.1 | 8 | Low |
| Dracula | NBC / Fri 10 PM | High | 1.1 | 9 | Down |
| Beauty and the Beast | CW / Mon 9 PM | High | 0.3 | 10 | Low |
| The Neighbors | ABC / Fri 8:30 PM | High | 1.0 | 13 | Up |
| Intelligence | CBS / Mon 10 PM | Elevated | 1.6 | 3 | Down |
| Revolution | NBC / Wed 8 PM | Elevated | 1.5 | 12 | Up |
| Almost Human | FOX / Mon 8 PM | Medium | 1.9 | 8 | Up |
| The Tomorrow People | CW / Wed 9 PM | Medium | 0.6 | 11 | Low |
| Haven | Syfy / Fri 9 PM | Medium | 0.4 | 13 | Low |
| Helix | Syfy / Fri 9 PM | Moderate | 0.5 | 2 | Down |
| Once Upon A Time | ABC / Sun 8 PM | Low | 2.2 | 11 | Down |
| Arrow | CW / Wed 8 PM | Low | 1.0 | 11 | Down |
| Supernatural | CW / Tue 9 PM | Low | 1.1 | 11 | Up |
| The Originals | CW / Tue 8 PM | Low | 1.0 | 11 | Up |
| Vampire Diaries | CW / Thu 8 PM | Low | 1.1 | 11 | Steady |
| Grimm | NBC / Fri 9 PM | Low | 1.5 | 11 | Down |
| Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | ABC / Tue 8 PM | Low | 2.7 | 12 | Steady |
| Person of Interest | CBS / Tue 10 PM | Low | 2.1 | 13 | Steady |
| Teen Wolf | MTV / Mon 9 PM | Renewed | 0.8 | 3 | Good |
| The Walking Dead | AMC / Sun 9 PM | Renewed | 6.6 | 8 | Strong |
| Witches of East End | Life / Sun 9 PM | Renewed | 0.7 | 11 | Down |
| Sleepy Hollow | FOX / Mon 9 PM | Renewed | 2.6 | 12 | Steady |
| American Horror Story: Coven | FX / Wed 10 PM | Renewed | 2.2 | 12 | Steady |
| Nikita | CW / Fri 9 PM | Final Season | 0.2 | 5 | Low |
Ratings Source: TV by the Numbers and The Futon Critic
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2014 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
—
Useless but essential pop culture tidbits and trivia from the worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
Did you know that Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski wrote a proposal for a Star Trek reboot years before the J.J. Abrams movies came out? Did you know that Han Solo was originally supposed to be a green-skinned alien and some of the early actors considered for the role included Billy Dee Williams, Al Pacino, and Chevy Chase? How about that FOX originally wanted someone more like Pamela Anderson to play the roll of Scully on The X-Files? Or that in 1974, science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke predicted the Internet? Ever hear of Varney the Vampire?
Find out the truths about these and more in Sci Fi Trifles. Trivia, anecdotes, little known nuggets and more that present an addicting glimpse into the story behind the story of sci fi. Once you’ve started reading them you will wonder how you have managed to life so long without knowing them!
