Cancellation Watch: Counterpart and Falling Water Remain Low, Channel Zero Drops in the Scorecard Rankings

Ratings Results of Interest: With the Olympics now airing on NBC, the broadcast nets are resorting to mostly repeats and/or preemptions of regularly scheduled programming rather than taking the ratings hit. Unless other news of interest comes up, I will be combining the ratings round up with the Scorecard post on Tuesdays until the networks get back on their regular schedule.

On Saturday, USA’s Falling Water slipped to a 0.08 rating based on same day viewing for the 18-49 demographic with 255K total viewers. That one was likely impacted by the Olympics, but its numbers have been low so far all season. On Sunday, Starz’s Counterpart improved slightly to a 0.10 rating with 360K total viewers, but that can hardly be counted as a good rating. That one has already been renewed through a second season, though.

The Friday broadcast network shows were preempted and I covered the Monday through Thursday ratings at this link, and you can see the full ratings for the week at this link.  Be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for the latest ratings results as well as breaking news.  Ratings source: ShowBuzzDaily.




Scorecard: Syfy’s season-long horror anthology Channel Zero returned for its third season last week but posted pretty low ratings with its debut. The second season of that show aired in Fall, so it was already on the 2017-2018 Scorecard. The low ratings for its return caused it to drop from the Number 19 slot it had in Fall to Number 28. Also slipping this week was Black Lightning which dropped from Number 4 to Number 6 as its ratings have dipped a bit. And Kevin (Probably) Saves the World continues slide in the Scorecard, this week to Number 29. Apart from that most of the movement for the week was just incidental.

The scorecard ranks all of the sci fi and fantasy shows’ ratings performance vs. their network’s ratings benchmark (see definition below).  Shows at or above their benchmark should be okay, whereas those slipping notably below are getting into iffy territory.

Scorecard rankings based on the ratings through February 4th (metric definitions below):

Rank (PW) Series Net Std Avg Net Bench % Var Live+7 Avg Rtg Status
1 (1) The Walking Dead (O) AMC 3.79 0.50 657.8% 5.92 Renewed
2 (2) American Horror Story (O) FX 1.10 0.50 120.7% 2.47 Renewed
3 (3) The Flash (O) CW 0.80 0.45 77.3% 1.64 Renewal Likely
4 (6) Outlander Starz 0.32 0.20 59.6% 0.60 Renewed
5 (5) The Magicians (O) Syfy 0.27 0.17 58.8% 0.60 Renewal Likely
6 (4) Black Lightning (O) CW 0.70 0.45 55.1% n/a Renewal Possible
7 (7) Ghosted (O) FOX 1.60 1.15 38.6% n/a Renewal Possible
8 (8) Supernatural (O) CW 0.60 0.45 33.0% 0.98 Renewal Likely
9 (9) Supergirl (O) CW 0.58 0.45 27.4% 1.01 Renewal Likely
10 (11) Happy (O) Syfy 0.21 0.17 24.3% 0.55 Renewed
11 (10) Legends of Tomorrow (O) CW 0.56 0.45 23.1% 1.03 Renewal Likely
12 (12) Riverdale (O) CW 0.50 0.45 10.8% 1.13 Renewal Likely
13 (13) Z Nation Syfy 0.17 0.17 0.5% 0.37 Renewed
14 (14) The Last Man on Earth (O) FOX 1.15 1.15 -0.4% n/a Renewal Possible
15 (15) Arrow (O) CW 0.43 0.45 -5.8% 1.01 Renewal Likely
16 (17) The X-Files (O) FOX 1.03 1.15 -10.5% n/a Final Season
17 (16) The Good Place (O) NBC 1.04 1.17 -11.2% 1.95 Renewed
18 (18) The Orville (O) FOX 1.00 1.15 -13.4% 2.15 Renewed
19 (20) MacGyver (O) (F) CBS 0.95 1.18 -19.3% n/a Renewal Possible
20 (21) Stan Against Evil IFC 0.06 0.08 -21.9% n/a Renewed
21 (22) Gotham FOX 0.89 1.15 -22.8% 1.54 Renewal Possible
22 (23) Van Helsing Syfy 0.13 0.17 -25.8% 0.30 Renewed
23 (27) Lucifer FOX 0.85 1.15 -26.4% 1.45 Renewal Possible
24 (24) The Gifted (O) FOX 0.85 1.15 -26.4% 2.08 Renewed
25 (25) The Librarians TNT 0.29 0.40 -27.5% 0.60 Renewal Possible
26 (26) Mr Robot (O) USA 0.22 0.30 -28.0% 0.44 Renewed
27 (29) Agents of SHIELD (O) (F) ABC 0.62 1.16 -46.4% 1.27 Renewal Possible
28 (19) Channel Zero (O) Syfy 0.09 0.17 -47.1% n/a Renewed
29 (28) Kevin Probably Saves the World (O) ABC 0.60 1.16 -48.2% 1.00 Cancellation Likely
30 (30) Superstition Syfy 0.09 0.17 -48.5% n/a Cancellation Likely
31 (31) The Inhumans (O) (F) ABC 0.59 1.16 -49.4% 1.13 Cancellation Likely
32 (32) Ghost Wars Syfy 0.09 0.17 -49.8% n/a Cancellation Likely
33 (34) Counterpart Starz 0.10 0.20 -52.5% n/a Renewed
34 (33) Once Upon A Time (O) (F) ABC 0.54 1.16 -53.0% 1.09 Cancelled
35 (35) The Shannara Chronicles (O) Spike 0.09 0.20 -54.3% 0.30 Cancelled
36 (36) Beyond Freeform 0.08 0.20 -60.0% n/a On the Bubble
37 (37) The Exorcist (O) (F) FOX 0.42 1.15 -63.6% 0.60 On the Bubble
38 (38) Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency BBCA 0.07 0.30 -76.7% n/a Cancelled

Metric Definitions:

Rank (PW): Current rank based on the variance of a show’s season to date ratings average vs. its network’s benchmark (see definition below).  The number in parenthesis is the prior week’s rank.  Note that shows on the streaming services are not included because of insufficient viewership data and foreign imports like Doctor Who will not be included because they rely more heavily on their viewership in their home countries.

Series: (O) indicates the show is owned or co-owned by the network and/or a sister studio. (F) indicates the show airs on Friday when ratings expectations are lower on the broadcast networks.

StD Avg:  The show’s season to date ratings average based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic.

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.  But note that with cable entries intangibles such as international and/or streaming partnerships can play an important factor in a shows survival and that is not measured here.

% Var:  The percent variance between a show’s season to date average and the network benchmark as defined above.  The higher the variance, the better a show is performing vs. the benchmark.

Live+7 Avg Rtg:  The show’s season to date ratings average based on delayed viewing up to three days past the live broadcast.  This data is not available for all shows.

Status: My assessment of the likelihood that a show will get renewed or cancelled. The statuses are Renewal Likely, Renewal Possible, On the Bubble, Cancellation Likely (plus Renewed and Cancelled/Ended)

Ratings Source: ShowBuzzDaily and TV by the Numbers

Author: johnnyjay

1 thought on “Cancellation Watch: Counterpart and Falling Water Remain Low, Channel Zero Drops in the Scorecard Rankings

  1. WELL what can i say about ” Beyond” there are no new episodes beyond season 2 ep 4….says ep 6 on the sight but..no one can watch em…

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