ABC Renew/Cancel Week 20: Goodbye, American Housewife

One of ABC's veteran comedies wrapped up a short season last week, and it feels like a good time to take a deeper dive into the outlook for American Housewife. Keep reading for an in-depth analysis on its chances!

Certain Cancellation:
N/A

Likely Cancellation:
Call Your Mother (0.4, 0.3-0.5)
For Life (0.3, 0.3-0.5)

Leans Cancellation:
American Housewife (0.6, 0.4-0.6)
Mixed-ish (0.4, 0.4-0.6)

Leans Renewal:
The Conners (0.6, 0.5-0.9)

Likely Renewal:

The Goldbergs (0.7, 0.6-0.8)

Grey's Anatomy (1.1, 0.9-1.3)

A Million Little Things (0.5, 0.4-0.7)

The Rookie (0.5, 0.4-0.6)

Certain Renewal:
Big Sky (0.6, 0.6-0.7)

Blackish (0.5, 0.4-0.6)

The Good Doctor (0.6, 0.5-0.7)

Station 19 (0.9, 0.8-1.2)

Coming Soon:
Home Economics
Rebel
Women of the Movement

American Housewife: One of ABC's longest-running comedies closed out its truncated fifth season last week in less-than-desirable fashion. The show known this season for its marginal ratings got even more marginal, sinking to a near-series low 0.47 (after a worrying 0.4 in preliminary ratings). That isn't any lower than Blackish or especially Mixedish, but that doesn't make it better! Blackish has so much else going for it, while Mixedish is already something I'm predicting to be canceled. American Housewife has had a good run, surpassing 100 episodes during its fifth season and scoring a syndication deal with CMT. However, it only airs early in the morning on CMT, hardly a prime slot. I don't think that is going to be enough to save it, given that it probably doesn't bring ABC nearly enough revenue to justify keeping it on the schedule. There's red flags here, signs that ABC is done with it, that I can't ignore. First, and most obvious, is its short run. ABC ordered just thirteen episodes (one of which was a holdover from season four) for this season, and is replacing it with Home Economics for the last months of the season. April is hardly a prime slot, so Home Ec could bomb, but the fast thast ABC couldn't even commit to a full season of Housewife is a bad sign for it. Also a bad sign is its behind-the-scenes issues, including three cast departures and a toxic workplace scandal. Is a show with such 'meh' ratings worth the hassle? I don't think the answer to that is "yes." It could certainly be back, ABC may want a show on the bench in case a fall show flops, but I wouldn't count on it. There's too many negtives here for me to predict a renewal. It LEANS CANCELLATION.

What do you think of my predictions? What are your predictions? Let me know in the comments and vote in the poll of the week!