Each fall TV season, fans and network executives get to watch the ongoing battle over viewer attention, seeing which new Thursday night drama or Wednesday night comedy survives.
This year is no different, and three weeks into the fall TV season, some of the winners and losers are beginning to break out.
ABC’s Quantico, for example, got picked up for a full season on Tuesday, thanks to its early hook and heavy campaigning starring Priyanka Chopra. The full-season order brings the show’s episode count to 19. Its series premiere had more than 12 million viewers when taking into account delayed viewing, and is one of the most successful broadcast dramas among adults 18-49 this season.
NBC’s Blindspot, however, was the first new series this fall to get a pickup for nine more episodes, bringing its season episode count to a full 22. The action drama has averaged 9 million viewers per episode so far, with each of its first two episodes gaining 4 million viewers in live +3 ratings.
Adweek round up the other shows most likely to succeed this fall:
CBS: Limitless and Life in Pieces seem the safest to stick around for the network. Limitless, like Quantico, was fairly steady in week two and looks like a pretty strong 10 p.m. drama. Life in Pieces is airing in the coveted time slot after The Big Bang Theory, but it’s also one of the most successful comedies to do so in recent years. CBS will likely let the comedy at least finish out its first season before deciding its fate.
ABC: Ratings for The Muppets have gone up and down again, but getting this group to TV was no easy feat, so the broadcaster should at least give Kermit and his crew a full season to get the feel of their new mockumentary format.
Fox: Rosewood, thanks in part to its lead-in of Empire, has over-delivered this fall considering how little buzz there was about the show going into its premiere. Averaging a 2.1 rating, Rosewood is the highest-rated new series for Fox so it would be smart to keep the programming block as is for now. Meanwhile, the low-rated Minority Report has already seen its order cut to ten episodes, and with ratings dropping this week and little to no gain in the delayed viewing numbers, isn’t expected to continue past its initial order.
Read more at Adweek.
Brief Take: Networks are being more patient with shows as delayed and multi-platform viewing becomes ever more important, but for some shows it’s clear that viewers just aren’t interested.
Image courtesy of ABC
Tags: