Summer moves onward with the returns of multiple shows in the past week, including ABC's Sunday game show lineup, Fox's Beat Shazam and the midseason premiere of Emergency Call. Keep reading for initial predictions for all of these shows, plus an initial prediction for Small Fortune.
Certain to be Canceled:
N/A
Likely to be Canceled:
Emergency Call (0.3*)
Mental Samurai (0.3)
Small Fortune (0.3)
Leans Cancellation:
N/A
Crime Scene Kitchen (0.5)
Likely to be Renewed:
Certain to be Renewed:
Fate Determined:
The Bachelorette (Renewed)
Celebrity Family Feud: A show that showed signs of exhaustion last year (it went as low as 0.5 during the sleepy summer of 2020) rebounded in a big way for the premiere of its seventh ABC season on Sunday. The 0.9 that it received puts it behind only America's Got Talent (1.0) as the #2 premiere of the summer season. While that isn't even close to where it will settle (ABC game shows tend to drop a lot over the course of season), starting out ahead of last season's premiere is a great sign. As always, it's a CERTAIN RENEWAL.
The Chase: This show only premiered earlier this year and is already back for season two. Its first season took the standard ABC game show ratings trajectory, starting high and sliding as the season went along. In season two, it matched the rating that it received for four of its last five season one episodes, a 0.6. That's a number that shouldn't be taken for granted in the summer. Even if 0.4s are in its future (it seems likely), that's certainly enough for the summer. Its retention from Feud leaves something to be desired, but it's not worse than its retention from Celebrity Wheel of Fortune this winter. It's a CERTAIN RENEWAL.
To Tell The Truth: The least impressive premiere of the Sunday game shows, To Tell the Truth only drew a 0.4 in its admittedly very bad 10 PM timeslot. That's not a time slot where any show truly thrives, so a rating that ties what the far more expensive The Rookie did in the slot is just fine. ABC clearly likes this show a lot, considering that it got to air in-season on Tuesdays (where it did quite respectably), so I see no signs that this game show is anywhere close to being in danger. It's a CERTAIN RENEWAL.
Small Fortune: While American Ninja Warrior is shell of its former self with only a 0.4 average, Small Fortune's performance behind it is even more embarrassing. This week it drew just a 0.2 in the 18-49 demo. While that's a number that's becoming more common on broadcast, that doesn't mean the networks have sunk quite low enough to renew a show that's hitting numbers that low just two weeks into its run. Plenty of summer shows just come and go. This will be one of them. It's a LIKELY CANCELLATION.
Emergency Call: While I'm sure ABC isn't thrilled about it, 0.3 isn't that terrible for a Friday night in summer. Yet, I still find a renewal to be very unlikely. ABC clearly didn't see this show as any sort of a priority, considering that they put it on a seven-month hiatus despite having numerous slots to air it in during the season. These summer episodes feel like little beyond a turnoff of episodes that ABC already paid to have filmed. Its fall run produced mediocre-at-best ratings, and ABC seemed to be done with it after that, Thus far, the summer run is doing little to change ABC's mind. It's a LIKELY 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!
