The CW’s The Flash returned for its seventh season last week, and even though its numbers are down year-over-year, it remains one of the best performing shows for that network. It starts out in the upper rungs of the rankings–as I predicted it would last week–at the Number 3 slot (tied with Supernatural). That has it just below Superman & Lois which entered the rankings at Number 2 last week, making this the first time The Flash has not been the top CW show while airing for quite a while. I expect those two will battle it out through the rest of the season.
NBC’s new series Debris had its debut last week and it enters at the Number 7 slot. But that show saw a drop in viewership with its second episode this week, and I expect it to slip in the rankings once those numbers are factored in. Syfy’s Wynonna Earp returned for the second half of its fourth season last week and it starts out at Number 17 in the rankings. The rest of the movement in the Scorecard was mostly incidental and you can see the full ratings results from the week at this link.
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 March 7th:
| Rank (PW) | Series | Net | Std Avg | Net Bench | % Var | Status |
| 1 (1) | The Walking Dead (O) | AMC | 0.81 | 0.30 | 171.1% | Renewed |
| 2 (2) | Superman & Lois (O) | CW | 0.32 | 0.15 | 106.6% | Renewal Possible |
| 3 (n/a) | The Flash (O) | CW | 0.30 | 0.15 | 93.7% | Renewed |
| 3 (3) | Supernatural (O) | CW | 0.30 | 0.15 | 93.7% | Final Season |
| 5 (4) | Resident Alien (O) | Syfy | 0.20 | 0.15 | 34.4% | Renewal Possible |
| 6 (5) | Fear the Walking Dead (O) | AMC | 0.35 | 0.30 | 18.1% | Renewed |
| 7 (n/a) | Debris (O) | NBC | 0.59 | 0.56 | 4.9% | Renewal Possible |
| 8 (6) | Legacies (O) | CW | 0.15 | 0.15 | -1.9% | Renewed |
| 9 (7) | Riverdale (O) | CW | 0.14 | 0.15 | -7.4% | Renewed |
| 10 (8) | MacGyver (O) (F) | CBS | 0.53 | 0.59 | -10.4% | Renewal Possible |
| 11 (10) | Snowpiercer | TNT | 0.27 | 0.30 | -11.7% | Renewed |
| 12 (9) | Batwoman (O) | CW | 0.14 | 0.15 | -12.8% | Renewed |
| 13 (11) | The Walking Dead World Beyond (O) | AMC | 0.25 | 0.30 | -16.7% | Renewed |
| 14 (12) | Black Lightning (O) | CW | 0.13 | 0.15 | -19.3% | Final Season |
| 15 (13) | Swamp Thing (O) | CW | 0.12 | 0.15 | -22.5% | Cancelled |
| 16 (14) | Primal | ADSW | 0.19 | 0.25 | -24.0% | Renewed |
| 17 (n/a) | Wynonna Earp | Syfy | 0.09 | 0.15 | -40.0% | Cancelled |
| 18 (15) | Two Sentence Horror Stories | CW | 0.09 | 0.15 | -43.0% | Renewed |
| 19 (16) | Charmed (O) | CW | 0.09 | 0.15 | -43.2% | Renewed |
| 20 (17) | Nancy Drew (O) | CW | 0.09 | 0.15 | -45.1% | Renewed |
| 21 (18) | The Outpost | CW | 0.08 | 0.15 | -46.9% | Renewal Possible |
| 22 (19) | Trickster | CW | 0.08 | 0.15 | -51.6% | Cancelled |
| 23 (20) | Pandora | CW | 0.07 | 0.15 | -54.8% | On the Bubble |
| 24 (21) | NeXt | FOX | 0.25 | 0.66 | -62.4% | Cancelled |
| 25 (22) | Star Trek Discovery (O) | CBS | 0.21 | 0.59 | -63.9% | Renewed |
| 26 (23) | American Gods (O) | Starz | 0.04 | 0.15 | -74.3% | On the Bubble |
| 27 (24) | His Dark Materials | HBO | 0.05 | 0.30 | -82.4% | Renewed |
| 28 (25) | The Watch | BBCA | 0.03 | 0.25 | -86.3% | Renewal Possible |
| 29 (26) | Moonbase 8 | Show | 0.01 | 0.20 | -95.6% | On the Bubble |
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
