Station 19 has not been a tremendous hit for ABC, but has done well enough to most likely be renewed for a second season. It most likely will build a shared world with Grey’s Anatomy, much like the Chicago shows on NBC. This will most likely help Station 19 with ratings. Station 19 is also the best solution for ABC to continue its TGIT branding on Thursday nights through next season, since Shondra Rhimes will be making new shows for Netflix. However, ABC will try to hold onto Rhimes shows for as long as possible. In this weeks episode, “Shock to the System”, the team responds to a dangerous car accident that could have shocking results. Dr. Miranda Bailey, from Grey’s Anatomy, makes an appearance to check out husband Ben Warren’s, star of Station 19, new work community and meet the fellow firefighters. This is the first of many crossovers that are bound to happen between the two shows. As for Station 19’s ratings, it got a 1.0/4 with 5.59 million viewers. It came in second, below Mom on CBS but was above Showtime at the Apollo (FOX), Will & Grace (NBC) and Arrow (CW).
Monthly Archives: April 2018
Good Girls #10
Good Girls had a really good week. They got a rating of 1 this week which is an upgrade from 0.9 last week. Most impressively they got an audience of 5.44 million people which is the second highest audience they have gotten, only behind their premiere night. This seemed to solidify that they have a steady audience. In fact, their cancelation bears moved up. They now have 4 cancelations bears which means that they are likely to get renewed in May. TV by the numbers also mentioned that although the rating of 1 is not great, it is a good rating for a 10PM show. In addition the show is produced by a sister production company so it is even more likely to get renewed.
Mae Whitman also made an appearance on the show Harry, which is on CBS. She makes mentions of the show in her interview, in addition to that they posted an article on MSNBC which had the title of the show on it highlighting the interview.
AP Bio #10
Even with 9 weeks of ratings under its belt AP Bio has yet to lean one way or another towards renewal and still is sitting squarely on the edge. While some may view this as bad news that the show has yet to be renewed, I don’t think it is necessarily bad when you look at what else hasn’t been rented in the NBC lineup. NBC has yet to renew Law & Order SVU, or any of its Chicago shows. It has renewed though Superstore already though. So while one could argue that AP Bio is in the awaiting renewal company of shows with a strong likelihood of renewal which is a good sign, it can also be a bad sign that Superstore, another NBC half hour comedy, has already been renewed.
It is also is interesting here to look at the recent ratings for the show which are beginning to level off around a .7 or .6. Considering the show had very unstable ratings its first few weeks with all of the changes to its air times that could explain why NBC has been holding off on a renewal decision. They likely would have wanted to see what ratings for the show were like once it settled into a routine schedule and could attract a regular audience.
The Resident #10
Fox has partnered with Universal Channel UK to distribute The Resident. The show appears on Sky/HD 113, Virgin Media 137, BT TV 320/858, and TalkTalk. Viewers can also watch on Facebook Live. The UK debut premiered on Tuesday April 10th at 9pm.
Cast members Emily Van Camp and Matt Czuchry flew to England to do a press tour to promote the show. Universal UK did a live pre show at 8:30pm and a 10PM Q & A after the show.
Universal UK has been promoting the show a lot on social media. They have been promoting the premiere on twitter since March 17th. Universal UK has picked up a lot of new shows this season, others being NBC’s Gone and the Canadian drama series The Disappearance. Fans are already responding very well to the show. It seems like this is the beginning of a hit for Universal UK.
Black Lightning #10 – Past Promotional Success
Before the premiere of Black Lightning, the cast and writers of the show interviewed on several news shows and magazine platforms. This is an expected marketing strategy for series before their 1st season on a network. However, Black Lighting heavily focused their promotions in 2 primary demographics: African Americans and comic book fans. Prior to the show’s premiere, the cast and writers all conducted serval interviews at the 2017 Comic Con and several interviewed with Black-owned news outlets.
Essence Magazine held interviews with each cast member regarding the show and their thoughts about being a Black superhero. Throughout the article, the author stresses the importance of having a Black-centered show on television. As I have mentioned before, the show received attention for breaking records such as being the first show to show a Black female, lesbian superhero.
In July of 2017, the cast and writers of Black Lighting interviewed with a variety of companies at the Comic-Con International Festival in San Diego. Hollywood Reporter, Variety, CNet, and Deadline are just a few of the news compies that reported on Black Lighting and shared interviews with the main character and Samil and Mara Akil (the shows writers).
Sources:
http://www.etonline.com/tv/222204_exclusive_black_lightning_cast_opens_up_about_being_the_first_black_superhero_family_on_the_cw
https://www.essence.com/entertainment/black-lightning-cast-exclusive
Deception #10
The fifth episode of ABC’s Deception, “Masking,” holds its lowest rating and total viewers of the first season. According to TV By The Numbers, the magician-turned-FBI-agent crime drama series scored a .7 in a 3 share, and 3.7 million viewers overall. In true hockey stick formation, the show has dropped from a 5.9 to around 4, and now down to 3.7. The series has ceased to be downward adjusted which shows some stability.
Ilfanesh Hadera (@ilfenator) took over the @DeceptionABC instagram for Sunday’s premiere. The attempt to connect audiences to the actors of the show, especially the lesser known actress, did not increase average likes. Hadera’s “takeover” posts received around 600 likes on average, while the instagram usually rakes in around 900-1,000 likes.
Hadera only made her acting debut in 2010. The Ethiopian-European actress is most well-known for her role in Baywatch. However, the actress has 181K followers, which is vastly more than the series’ 5.5K followers. Instead of the series moving followers to Hadera, it might just be the other way around.
Station 19 #10
Station 19 episode 4 – which aired on April 5 is being called the “best episode so far”, except the ratings fell since last week. However, it is beginning to find a steady audience so hopefully the ratings will begin to stay consistent week after week. As for promotional talks, Jason George and Jaina Lee Ortiz talked to ABC7 about their characters and what we can expect to see this season. Jason George got emotional when he talked about how Shonda Rhimes approached him to leave Grey’s Anatomy. However, he believes it was an opportunity he could not pass up, and is so thankful he took it. Their twitter continues to be constantly updated every Thursdays with gifs about the show. No sign yet if it is going to be renewed for next year, but hopefully we will know by the halfway point of the season.
Alex, Inc. (10)
Alex, Inc.’s second week on air did not meet expectations. In fact, the show’s ratings fell far enough to start worrying about its future. The new episode slipped 18 percent from the pilot episode, resulting in a 0.9 rating and 3.83 total viewers. In my previous weekly blog, I noted that Alex, Inc.’s premiere ratings were not a bad sign, given that ABC’s Speechless was renewed and had similar numbers. However, this decline in ratings illustrates that, in all likelihood, Alex, Inc. will not meet Speechless’ numbers, a troubling sign for Zach Braff’s new show. Another troubling sign is that ABC’s The Goldbergs saw a 1.3 rating and 5.4 million viewers, yet once Alex, Inc. started, these viewers did not stay. This shows that there is little carryover between the two shows. Overall, Alex, Inc.’s second episode ratings allow for doubt to arise. Unless the show can find its stride in the next few weeks, there is little to suggest that it can be renewed.
Roseanne #1
As Roseanne aired their second episode of the new revival season, it delivered a 3.9 rating in adults 18-49, which is down 25% from the premiere last week. However, it is still Tuesday’s number one show by a large margin and is effecting ABC’s other comedies. Roseanne is up against The Voice (NBC), NCIS (CBS), Lethal Weapon (FOX) and The Flash (The CW). It has also already been picked up for a second season next year. The huge success of the reboot has captured many peoples attention, but mainly ones in political circles due to the enormous viewership in “Red America”. With the star, Roseanne Barr, who has a heavy media presence, between exhibiting conspiracy theories and quixotic readings of the president’s intentions, she is striking up a chord within America. People are opting to not watch the reboot because of Barr’s political views. However, many that do watch Roseanne say that it does not influence their political views and are able to separate a TV show from their own personal views. It will be interesting to see how Roseanne continues to do as the “newness” of the reboot wears off.
Life Sentence #9
The face you make knowing that Life Sentence is running the risk of cancellation.
Life Sentence doesn’t seem to be doing so great as the weeks go on. After only a few weeks out, Life Sentence seems to be falling down in the ratings. For week four of the show, for the 18-49 rating, it only hit a .10 rating and .42 for overall. This is a decline from the .2 rating from the week before and .49 over all from the previous week.
CW also just went through with their renewal season, renewal the majority of their shows, including another first season show Black Lightening. Life Sentence is one of the three that still has their fate up in the air. The cancelling bears on tvbythenumbers gave Life Sentence two bears, drop from their previous three bear holding.
CW has also made the decision to move Life Sentence to a Friday time slot. This is a HUGE deal when considering the possibility of a renewal. The Friday time slot is seen as the death spot, where shows seem to go when failing. Only time will tell for the life line of Life Sentence.