CBS Renew/Cancel: ‘Living Biblically’ Faces Certain Death

Jay R. Ferguson | CBS

Welcome to the CBS Renew/Cancel Watch. All in-season, scripted primetime shows airing on CBS in the 2017-18 season are included in the prediction table below. My predictions are current as of March 12, 2018.

The key to the right indicates the colors associated with each prediction. The data in the table includes current season lows, highs, and averages (Adults 18-49 demo), as well as the year-to-year changes for returning shows. The shows are ordered by their season averages against other scripted CBS shows.

Rank	Show	Season Low / High /Average	Y2Y Change
1	The Big Bang Theory	2.5 / 4.1 / 2.87	+3%
2	Young Sheldon	1.8 / 3.8 / 2.33	--
3	Mom	1.4 / 1.8 / 1.50	+5%
4	NCIS	1.2 / 1.6 / 1.44	-16%
5	Kevin Can Wait	1.1 / 2.3 / 1.27	-21%
6	Bull	1.0 / 1.3 / 1.19	-17%
7	Life In Pieces	1.1 / 1.3 / 1.17	-7%
8	SEAL Team	0.9 / 1.5 / 1.06	--
9	Man with a Plan	0.9 / 1.1 / 1.05	-15%
10	Hawaii Five-0	0.9 / 1.1 / 1.00	-12%
-	S.W.A.T.	0.9 / 1.1 / 1.00	--
-	Criminal Minds	0.9 / 1.3 / 1.00	-28%
-	Me, Myself & I	0.7 / 1.6 / 1.00	--
14	NCIS: New Orleans	0.9 / 1.1 / 0.99	-16%
15	9JKL	0.7 / 1.5 / 0.97	--
16	NCIS: LA	0.8 / 1.3 / 0.96	-27%
17	Superior Donuts	0.8 / 1.0 / 0.94	-19%
-	Blue Bloods	0.8 / 1.1 / 0.94	-24%
19	Wisdom of the Crowd	0.7 / 1.3 / 0.91	--
20	MacGyver	0.8 / 0.9 / 0.86	-20%
21	Scorpion	0.7 / 1.0 / 0.83	-30%
22	Living Biblically	0.7 / 0.8 / 0.75	--
23	Madam Secretary	0.6 / 0.8 / 0.67	-23%

LIVING BIBLICALLY It's not a surprise that the midseason series tanked in its debut. It was never expected to be in a position to succeed, as CBS's Mondays are lacking in strength under Kevin Can Wait and Man with a Plan's leadership, as well as the fact that midseason runs tend to be rough. With a 0.8 and 0.7 across two airings, the religious sitcom is already certain to be cancelled. There's no upside to its dismal performance, especially for an unowned show that is merely continuing a terrible 9:30 trend. It always seemed like its order was mostly a favor to The Big Bang Theory's Johnny Galecki, who EPs the Warner Bros. production, so the loss doesn't seem significant. Moreover, Superior Donuts is the favorite fractional sitcom that stands a chance to make it out of this season alive, and even that is very far from a sure thing.
With the expectation of early CBS renewals coming soon, new predictions will be made for Superior Donuts and Criminal Minds in the next edition of the CBS R/C.