Cancellation Watch Scorecard: The Flash and Batwoman Hold Steady in the Scorecard

The CW’s top two rated shows held steady at the Number 3 and Number 4 slots in the Scorecard this week. While The Flash‘s numbers are down a bit year-over-year and Batwoman did not provide a huge boost to the ratings of the Arrow-verse shows, both are performing steady in same-day viewing and likely picking up notable gains in digital viewing. Both are also doubling their ratings when the Live+7 delayed viewing numbers are factored in. Slipping this week is HBO’s Watchmen which saw its ratings drop this past Sunday. That one dropped two slots to Number 14. The CW’s Riverdale and Nancy Drew both dropped a bit as well, but that was a factor of airing against Game 7 of the World Series this last week and I expect them to rebound. 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 and the status of all the currently airing shows 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 November 3rd:

Rank (PW) Series Net Std Avg Net Bench % Var Status
1 (1) The Walking Dead (O) AMC 1.21 0.40 203.5% Renewed
2 (2) American Horror Story (O) FX 0.64 0.30 114.8% Renewed
3 (3) The Flash (O) CW 0.53 0.27 94.3% Renewal Likely
4 (4) Batwoman (O) CW 0.34 0.27 25.8% Renewal Possible
5 (6) Supernatural (O) CW 0.33 0.27 23.4% Final Season
6 (5) Primal ADSW 0.30 0.25 20.8% Renewal Possible
7 (8) Arrow (O) CW 0.30 0.27 11.0% Final Season
8 (7) Riverdale (O) CW 0.28 0.27 1.8% Renewal Likely
9 (10) Legacies (O) CW 0.27 0.27 -1.3% Renewal Possible
10 (9) Supergirl (O) CW 0.26 0.27 -3.8% Renewal Possible
11 (13) Black Lightning (O) CW 0.23 0.27 -16.7% Renewal Possible
12 (11) Emergence (O) ABC 0.60 0.74 -18.7% Renewal Possible
13 (15) Evil (O) CBS 0.60 0.75 -19.8% Renewed
14 (12) Watchmen (O) HBO 0.23 0.30 -23.3% Renewal Possible
15 (16) Charmed (O) (F) CW 0.20 0.27 -26.0% Renewal Possible
16 (14) Nancy Drew (O) CW 0.20 0.27 -26.0% Renewal Possible
17 (17) The Good Place (O) NBC 0.62 0.94 -34.6% Final Season
18 (18) Van Helsing (F) Syfy 0.09 0.15 -40.0% Renewal Possible
19 (19) Mr Robot (O) USA 0.10 0.25 -58.4% Final Season
20 (20) Star Wars Resistance (O) Disney 0.03 0.10 -72.0% Final Season

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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