CBS Renew/Cancel Week 26: Stalker, The McCarthys, and Battle Creek Are Certain to be Renewed for Season 10

 

Welcome to Week 26 of CBS Renew/Cancel! Below are the current predictions for each show currently airing on CBS followed by an analysis. 

Certain Renew


If you haven’t been reading CBS Renew/Cancel this year, here is a recap: CBS has 17 shows in the Certain Renew column: Supergirl, Stalker, The Great Indoors, Limitless, The McCarthys, 9JKL, Wisdom of the Crowd, Fam, Pure Genius, Happy Together, Battle Creek, Angel from Hell, Rush Hour, Broke, Me, Myself and I, Evil, and Training Day. While some of these shows are doing better than others, all are only formalities when it comes to renewals, which will happen shortly before upfronts in May. 

In case you’ve been living under a rock, here is a night-by-night breakdown discussing all the shows in the Certain Renew category:

Supergirl leads the pack, with a 1.68 average in the Sundays at 8 pm time slot that makes a Season 9 a given. Its lead-out, Limitless, has solid retention at a 1.35 and will also get a Season 9. While Pure Genius’ 0.85 A18-49 L+SD rating at 10 pm is far weaker than those of Supergirl and Limitless, it airs in a tough time slot and still ranks #9 of 25 shows.

On Mondays, The McCarthys leads off with a stellar 1.19 rating, making it the second-highest-rated comedy on all of television. CBS has another long-running sitcom hit on their hands with The McCarthys, which is predicted to return for Season 10. The night continues with Season 5 of Fam at 8:30, which averages a 0.88 A18-49 L+SD rating, and Season 6 of 9JKL at 9, averaging a 0.96. While not as high-rated as The McCarthys, both shows are two of the highest-rated series on television and far above all series on ABC, NBC, and FOX. The same goes for Season 4 of Broke, which averages a 0.61 at 9:30 but is still one of the highest-rated sitcoms on television. 

Leading off Tuesdays, Stalker is certain to return for Season 10, averaging a 1.50 A18-49 Live + Same Day rating. Its lead-out, Season 6 of Wisdom of the Crowd, pulls in a 0.91 average, making it the 4th highest-rated drama not just on CBS, but on all of broadcast television. Battle Creek is predicted to join Stalker in getting a Season 10; its 0.75 average is the second-highest for all 10 pm shows. 

Wednesdays is a mixed bag. Season 7 of The Great Indoors anchors the night with a 1.40 average, making it the highest-rated sitcom on television. While Happy Together makes a steep drop to a 0.85 average at 8:30, it is a tough ask for anything to hold that well from The Great Indoors, given how huge it is in the ratings. It and Evil are both in the Certain Renew column; Evil is still well above the non-CBS league average and CBS has expressed their intent at the TCAs to renew shows based on the overall league average, not just based on how they do compared to the network as a whole. Otherwise, Evil would probably not be a Certain Renew, as CBS would be crazy to only cancel four shows. 

Thursdays is the first night of the week for CBS where everything is fractional. Angel From Hell is by far the healthiest of the shows, and is certain to be renewed for a ninth season with its 0.73 average. Me, Myself & I is also certain to return as it is well above the non-CBS league average in Live + Same Day ratings. 

On Fridays, Season 8 of Rush Hour leads off the night with a 0.68 average, which is incredible given the lower standards for Friday shows. Season 7 of Training Day is also doing solidly out of it. Plus, CBS isn’t going to just cancel a long-running Friday series that is competitive with shows airing on other nights of the week. 

In Danger

While most shows on CBS are predicted in the Certain Renew column because of how high-rated they are, there is also a group of shows that is more vulnerable. 

Season 6 of Living Biblically airs Thursdays at 9pm, and has a 0.50 average. Contracts will have to be renegotiated to get a Season 7, something predicted to be likely but not certain to happen. CBS certainly has problems later in the night, with How We Roll and Clarice both in the Leans Cancel category. Their ratings are below the average rating on ABC, NBC, and FOX. Additionally, Clarice getting a short first season means it does not have 3 full seasons under its belt. Otherwise, it would be guaranteed to get a fourth season to hit the magic 88 episode milestone needed to reach syndication. 

Also predicted to be canceled are the two Saturday scripted series: Doubt and Good Sam. These are the two lowest-rated series on CBS and are low-rated even for the standards of the other Big 4 networks. It remains to be seen what CBS will program on Saturdays next season should they go through with canceling Doubt and Good Sam. One thing is for sure: if Doubt and Good Sam gets renewed, CBS will have renewed all of their shows. After all, there is a direct correlation between a show’s Live + Same Day Adults 18-49 rating and whether or not it will be renewed. 

Elsewhere, The Code is in the Likely Renew category because it is the lowest-rated Friday show. However, it has great retention from Training Day and as mentioned previously, CBS is not going to just cancel a Friday series that is doing perfectly fine all things considered. Tommy is in the Leans Renew category, being slightly above the average on ABC, NBC, and FOX. It is by far the lowest-rated show on Monday, but perhaps CBS could find a time slot for it on Saturdays should they renew and move it to another night. The Red Line is also in the Leans Renew category, as it only has one more season to fulfill the cast contracts. It too is a good contender to move to Saturdays. Its unprecedented $3.5 million/episode syndication deal certainly won’t hurt its chances of renewal either. 

Already Canceled


As most people expected before the season began, CBS pulled all three of their new shows from the schedule. East New York was by far the biggest flop of them all, with its 0.40 average at a time when Supergirl was approaching a 2.0. This was bad enough to get it pulled from the schedule after just two episodes. So Help Me Todd also flopped, averaging a 0.35 in the Thursday at 9 pm time slot. While How We Roll is a tad lower than this, the sitcom hour that replaced it as a whole is an improvement, and So Help Me Todd would be much lower than that 0.35 average if it aired past the end of October. Fire Country looks a little better on average, but when you take into consideration that the series premiere did a 1.9, and you’d see why Fire Country didn’t make it onto the midseason schedule. There are plans to burn off the remaining produced episodes of all three series on Saturdays in the summer, which will tank their averages even further. 

What are your thoughts? Could you imagine if the shows CBS canceled after one season since 2015 kept their seasonal averages through 2023 and became hits due to ratings declines on the other networks? Do you remember a time when it was much easier to predict a show’s fate based on its ratings? Let us know what you think in the comments, and Happy April Fools Day!

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