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.
News of Note: FOX announced yesterday that their supernatural dramedy Lucifer, based on the Neil Gaiman comic book, will be getting its “Back 9” episodes for its second season to give it a full twenty-two ep order. The news does not come as a huge surprise, but it was also not guaranteed because the show is currently performing below that network’s season-to-date average ratings. But it is not too far off and if you take outlier Empire out of the mix it definitely looks better. And since that network has been struggling overall for a while, they probably figured it was best to hold on to any show performing decently well at this point. In additional news, the El Rey network has announced that they have released the stars from their supernatural series From Dusk Till Dawn from their current contracts. The network’s options on the actors were set to expire after the show’s third season (which has its finale tonight), and El Rey has not made a move to extend them. The network has not claimed that the show has been cancelled, but releasing the stars is never a good sign. From Dusk Till Dawn has survived through three low-rated seasons, but that is in a large part because that cable channel is not widely carried (the first two seasons are available on Netflix, though). El Rey has indicated that they will make a final decision on the show in early 2017, and if a fourth season does happen then they will bring back the original actors. For now, though, it is wait and see for the fans of that show.
Ratings Results of Interest: On Sunday, AMC’s The Walking Dead saw a notable drop from its season premiere as it slipped to a 6.1 rating based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic with 12.5 million total viewers. That was a 27% drop which was much sharper than the 17% decline it saw with its second episode in its sixth season. Whether that is a results of backlash against the show (more on that at this link) or the stiff competition on the night from the World Series and NFL Football remains to be seen. Even at those levels, TWD is by far the highest rated scripted show on television, but if it continues to slide that could be an indication that the backlash is having some impact. Over on HBO, Westworld slipped a bit to a 0.65 rating with 1.5 million total viewers amidst stiff competition. But word is that a second season of that show looks like a good bet. On Saturday, BBC America’s Dirk Gently series slipped to a 0.10 rating with 290k total viewers. I previously indicated incorrectly that this was a BBC production also airing on BBC America. But that latter channel is actually the home network for the show which means that those ratings numbers are looking pretty bad. The show does have a partnership with Netflix for its international distribution, though, so that could help keep it afloat. On Friday, CBS’s Macgyver slipped to its lowest numbers yet as it had only a 0.9 rating with 7.3 million total viewers. It did have some pretty still competition from the World Series that night, so we will have to see if this one rebounds this coming Friday. But if its remains at sub-1.0 levels, then I am not liking its chances for a second season. I previously looked at the Monday through Thursday shows from last week at this link.
Ratings results for the sci fi / fantasy shows airing Monday October 24th thru Sunday October 30th (metric definitions below):
(Links are to the show pages on this site with season to date ratings results and status updates)
| Series | Airs | Rating | % Chng | Tot Viewers | STD Avg | Benchmark | Cancel Alert |
| Supergirl | CW, Mon 8 PM | 0.8 | -11.1% | 2.7 | 0.9 | 0.6 | Low |
| Gotham | FOX, Mon 8 PM | 1.1 | -8.3% | 3.5 | 1.2 | 1.2 | Low |
| Lucifer | FOX, Mon 9 PM | 1.0 | -9.1% | 3.6 | 1.1 | 1.2 | Low |
| Timeless | NBC, Mon 10 PM | 1.3 | -13.3% | 5.7 | 1.5 | 1.8 | Low |
| The Flash | CW, Tue 8 PM | 1.0 | 0.0% | 2.8 | 1.1 | 0.6 | Low |
| Scream Queens | FOX, Tue 9 PM | Preempted | n/a | n/a | 0.8 | 1.2 | Medium |
| Channel Zero | Syfy, Tue 9 PM | 0.2 | -8.3% | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 | Low |
| Agents of SHIELD | ABC, Tue 10 PM | 0.8 | +14.3% | 2.3 | 0.9 | 1.3 | Medium |
| Aftermath | Syfy, Tue 10 PM | 0.2 | -5.0% | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 | Low |
| Arrow | CW, Wed 8 PM | 0.7 | +16.7% | 1.9 | 0.7 | 0.6 | Low |
| Frequency | CW, Wed 9 PM | 0.3 | n/a | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.6 | Low |
| American Horror Story | FX, Wed 10 PM | 1.4 | +4.4% | 2.6 | 1.7 | 0.6 | Renewed |
| Legends of Tomorrow | CW, Thu 8 PM | 0.6 | -14.3% | 1.8 | 0.6 | 0.6 | Low |
| The Good Place | NBC, Thu 8:30 PM | 1.2 | +20.0% | 3.9 | 1.3 | 1.8 | Low |
| Supernatural | CW, Thu 9 PM | 0.6 | 0.0% | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.6 | Low |
| Falling Water | USA, Thu 10 PM | 0.2 | -6.3% | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.3 | Medium |
| MacGyver | CBS, Fri 8 PM | 0.9 | -18.2% | 7.3 | 1.2 | 1.6 | Low |
| Vampire Diaries | CW, Fri 8 PM | 0.3 | -25.0% | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.6 | Low |
| The Exorcist | FOX, Fri 9 PM | Preempted | n/a | n/a | 0.7 | 1.2 | Medium |
| Z Nation | Syfy, Fri 9 PM | 0.2 | +4.3% | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.2 | Low |
| Van Helsing | Syfy, Fri 10 PM | 0.2 | 0.0% | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 | Low |
| Star Wars Rebels | DXD, Sat 8:30 PM | Preempted | n/a | n/a | 0.2 | 0.1 | Low |
| Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency | DXD, Sat 9 PM | 0.1 | -16.7% | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | Low |
| Once Upon A Time | ABC, Sun 8 PM | 0.9 | -10.0% | 3.1 | 1.1 | 1.3 | Low |
| Ash vs Evil Dead | Starz, Sun 8 PM | 0.1 | 0.0% | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | Renewed |
| Son of Zorn | FOX, Sun 8:30 PM | Preempted | n/a | n/a | 1.5 | 1.2 | Low |
| The Walking Dead | AMC, Sun 9 PM | 6.1 | -27.2% | 12.5 | 7.2 | 0.6 | Low |
| Westworld | HBO, Sun 9 PM | 0.7 | -5.8% | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.6 | Low |
| The Last Man on Earth | FOX, Sun 9:30 PM | Preempted | n/a | n/a | 1.0 | 1.2 | Moderate |
| The Strain | FX, Sun 10 PM | 0.4 | -2.5% | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.6 | Renewed |
Chart Activity: Despite the drop in its ratings, The Walking Dead held at Number 1 in the cable Top 25 based on the overnights for the 18-49 demo as well as the chart based on total viewers. American Horror Story improved to Number 6 in the cable chart based on the demo. MacGyver fell out of the broadcast net Top 25 based on total viewers after falling to a season low last Friday. It appears that Nielsen is no longer sharing its Weekly Social Net Rating Top 10 or is just not putting anything up there for now. I will keep an eye on that, but Nielsen is known for not liking to share.
(Updated for the broadcast network and cable Top 25 chart activity)
| Series | Chart | Curr Wk Rank | Prior Wk Rank |
| American Horror Story | Cable Top 25 (18-49 Demo) | 6 | 14 |
| MacGyver | Broadcast Net Top 25 (Total Viewers) | n/a | 22 |
| The Walking Dead | Cable Top 25 (18-49 Demo) | 1 | 1 |
| The Walking Dead | Cable Top 25 (Total Viewers) | 1 | 1 |
Be sure keep an eye out for the latest numbers and any breaking news throughout the week at the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site and Facebook Page. You can see the status of all the currently airing sci fi / fantasy shows at the Cancellation Watch page and also the latest Cancellation Watch Hit List post. And for more information on where I get these numbers and how I make my Cancellation Alert assessments, check out the Cancelled Sci Fi FAQ.
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Metric Definitions:
Series: (R) indicates a repeat airing
Rating: Overnight rating in the 18-49 demographic for same day viewing based on the final numbers unless otherwise noted
% Chng: The percentage change +/- for this week’s rating vs. last week’s rating (if a new episode aired last week).
Tot Viewers: Estimated total viewers (age 2+) to tune in to the episode for same day viewing.
StD Rating: Season to date average for the rating metric tracked above.
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.
Cancellation Alert: My prediction of the likelihood that a show will get cancelled. From least to most likely the statuses are Low, Moderate, Medium, Elevated, and High.
Source: ShowBuzzDaily and TV by the Numbers
