The NBC Renew/Cancel is back after a week off with some further dissection of NBC's disastrous Friday comedy lineup, in light of some recent unfortunate ratings. Keep reading for a prediction update and my reasoning for why one of these shows remains a good bet for renewal.
Certain Cancellation: Grand Crew (0.16, 0.14-0.17)
Likely Cancellation:
Young Rock (0.25, 0.22-0.31)
Leans Cancellation: N/A
Leans Renewal: American Auto (0.30, 0.24-0.38)
Likely Renewal: Law & Order (0.49, 0.43-0.60) Lopez vs Lopez (0.28, 0.21-0.33) Magnum PI (0.29, 0.25-0.36)
Certain Renewal: Chicago Fire (0.65, 0.53-0.77) Chicago Med(0.61, 0.48-0.70) Chicago PD(0.58, 0.45-0.68) Law & Order: Organized Crime(0.48, 0.41-0.62) Law & Order: SVU (0.59, 0.50-0.69) Saturday Night Live (0.77, 0.66-0.98)
Already Canceled/Final Season: The Blacklist New Amsterdam
Already Renewed: La Brea Night Court Quantum Leap
Grand Crew: Last week, after two weeks of teasing it, Grand Crew finally dropped to the dreaded 0.1 rating, with a 0.14 in the key demo. That means Grand Crew now officially holds the title of the lowest-rated scripted episode of the season on the Big Four, a dubious honor it previously shared with Welcome to Flatch. In order to have any shot at a renewal, it needed to improve from that 0.16 premiere. It barely did that in its second episode, with a rose of a single hundredth, but now it's lower than ever. I gave the show the benefit of the doubt in my initial prediction, suggesting that the show could rise a bit in the coming weeks if its lead-in's weak ratings were just a fluke. That doesn't seem to be happening, and NBC now seems to have a reliable 0.1 half-hour on their schedule. Even if its lead-in is very weak (and it sure is), Grand Crew has no excuse for these ratings: it held just 60% of Lopez for last week's episode. NBC tried here, but there's no salvaging this. Nobody is watching, and with that destined to remain the case, it's a CERTAIN CANCELLATION.
Lopez vs Lopez: NBC's other Friday comedy is not exactly making much of a case for a renewal, either. Though it adjusted up, Lopez vs Lopez was below a 0.20 in the preliminary ratings, which is frankly a pathetic showing that made me wonder if it should be downgraded. Its 0.23 in the finals, while still poor, was enough for me to decide not to downgrade it. While I don't think it deserves a renewal (nor do any other NBC comedies, save for Night Court), it seems very likely that it will get one anyway. For one, NBC hasn't canceled a freshman comedy in some time. Lopez's 0.28 average is also, somehow, enough for it to be NBC's #3 comedy, and a 0.28 average on Friday is definitely more "impressive" than a 0.30 average open Tuesdays behind one of TV's top comedies. While its recent ratings have been dreadful, it's not getting canceled unless NBC decides to go into next season with just one returning comedy. As I see that as extremely unlikely (even if it would probably be the smart move), it remains a LIKELY RENEWAL.
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!
