Cancellation Watch Scorecard: Cloak and Dagger Continues to Slip in the Rankings

Even though Freeform’s Cloak and Dagger saw a slight improvement to its ratings last week, that was not enough to help its season to date average, and the show slipped two slots in the rankings from Number 31 to Number 33. Its ratings are down notably in its second season, and the fact that Freeform renewed Siren but said nothing about Cloak and Dagger at Disney’s Upfronts yesterday is somewhat concerning. Fans definitely need to make a Call to Action on the social nets to support that show and also vote for it in our season end poll. Most of the rest of the movement for the week was just incidental and you can find the full ratings coverage from this past week in our latest Weekly Roundup post.

The scorecard ranks all of the sci fi and fantasy shows’ ratings performance vs. their network’s ratings benchmark (see metric definitions 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 May 12th:

Rank (PW) Series Net Std Avg Net Bench % Var Status
1 (1) Game of Thrones (O) HBO 5.05 0.50 909.2% Final Season
2 (2) The Walking Dead (O) AMC 1.88 0.50 276.1% Renewed
3 (3) American Horror Story (O) FX 0.96 0.30 219.7% Renewed
4 (4) The Flash (O) CW 0.62 0.31 101.7% Renewed
5 (5) The Purge (O) USA 0.41 0.30 36.0% Renewed
6 (6) Supernatural (O) CW 0.40 0.31 30.1% Renewed
7 (7) Manifest (O) NBC 1.25 1.05 19.1% Renewed
8 (8) Supergirl (O) CW 0.36 0.31 16.2% Renewed
9 (10) Riverdale (O) CW 0.35 0.31 14.6% Renewed
10 (9) Arrow (O) CW 0.35 0.31 13.1% Renewed
11 (11) The Magicians (O) Syfy 0.19 0.17 10.9% Renewed
12 (12) Black Lightning (O) CW 0.30 0.31 -2.4% Renewed
12 (13) The 100 (O) CW 0.30 0.31 -2.4% Renewed
14 (14) Legacies (O) CW 0.30 0.31 -2.4% Renewed
15 (15) The Passage (O) FOX 0.92 0.96 -4.0% Cancelled
16 (16) Legends of Tomorrow (O) CW 0.29 0.31 -4.7% Renewed
17 (17) God Friended Me (O) CBS 0.89 0.93 -5.2% Renewed
18 (19) Roswell New Mexico (O) CW 0.27 0.31 -12.4% Renewed
19 (18) Deadly Class (O) Syfy 0.15 0.17 -12.9% Renewal Possible
20 (20) Siren (O) Freeform 0.17 0.20 -13.1% Renewal Possible
21 (21) Project Blue Book (O) History 0.31 0.36 -13.6% Renewed
22 (22) Charmed (O) CW 0.26 0.31 -14.8% Renewed
23 (23) Outlander (O) Starz 0.17 0.20 -15.0% Renewed
24 (25) The Good Place (O) NBC 0.83 1.05 -21.4% Renewed
25 (24) Star Wars Resistance (O) Disney 0.08 0.10 -22.0% Renewed
26 (27) The Orville (O) FOX 0.74 0.96 -23.0% Renewed
27 (26) Z Nation (F) Syfy 0.13 0.17 -23.5% Cancelled
28 (28) MacGyver (O) (F) CBS 0.70 0.93 -25.5% Renewed
29 (29) Gotham (O) FOX 0.63 0.96 -34.6% Final Season
30 (30) iZombie (O) CW 0.20 0.31 -34.9% Final Season
31 (33) The Gifted (O) FOX 0.61 0.96 -36.5% Cancelled
32 (32) Nightflyers Syfy 0.11 0.17 -36.9% Cancelled
33 (31) Cloak and Dagger (O) Freeform 0.13 0.20 -37.5% On the Bubble
34 (35) What We Do in the Shadows (O) FX 0.18 0.30 -40.0% Renewed
35 (34) Happy (O) Syfy 0.10 0.17 -42.9% On the Bubble
36 (36) Van Helsing (F) Syfy 0.09 0.17 -45.7% Renewed
37 (37) Stan Against Evil IFC 0.04 0.08 -46.9% Cancelled
38 (38) American Gods (O) Starz 0.10 0.20 -50.6% Renewed
39 (39) Channel Zero (O) Syfy 0.07 0.17 -57.8% Cancelled
40 (41) Midnight Texas (O) (F) NBC 0.41 1.05 -60.8% Cancelled
41 (40) Into the Badlands (O) AMC 0.19 0.50 -61.8% Cancelled
42 (42) Mars NGC 0.06 0.16 -65.6% Renewal Possible
43 (43) Counterpart Starz 0.05 0.20 -75.5% 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 show’s 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.

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

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