Below is the table of predictions for Week 16 of CBS Renew/Cancel, followed by an analysis. Let us know what you think by voting in the poll and leaving a comment!
There are two prediction changes this week:
-The Price Is Right At Night is upgraded from Leans Renew to Likely Renew-Raid The Cage is upgraded from Leans Cancel to Tilts Cancel
The Price Is Right At Night
The Price Is Right At Night moved to the Wednesday at 8 pm time slot it thrived in last winter and notched a season high 0.46 rating in the key A18-49 demo. Of course, that’s nowhere near the ratings of previous time slot occupant Survivor, but it proves that The Price is Right At Night can still see strong ratings when aired in the right environment. At this point, it’s unfair to keep it in the same category as Let’s Make A Deal Primetime, a series which was originally supposed to air Wednesdays at 9 pm before being delayed a few weeks. As CBS’s highest-rated unscripted filler series, The Price Is Right At Night is upgraded back to a Likely Renew this week.
Raid The Cage
Airing after The Price Is Right At Night at 9 pm was Raid The Cage, its first of three Wednesday airings. The new game show had previously premiered on Fridays and aired once on Tuesdays. According to TV listings provided by FutonCritic, Raid The Cage was initially slotted for Fridays and Tuesdays before CBS eventually settled on Wednesdays for its January time slot. CBS clearly wants Raid The Cage to work, especially in the wake of LoterÃa Loca flopping. What’s not clear is if its ratings really warrant a renewal. It did rise to a series high on Wednesday, notching a 0.30 rating in the key A18-49 demo, but that’s a fair bit below its Price Is Right At Night lead-in’s 0.46. If Raid The Cage can continue its momentum for its final two episodes of the season, it could secure a last-minute upgrade to a Renew category. For now, it inches closer by moving from Leans Cancel to Tilts Cancel.
One extraneous factor arguably benefitting Raid The Cage is that it’s co-hosted and co-executive produced by Damon Wayans, Jr. The Wayans-led sitcom Poppa’s House premieres on CBS in the 2024-25 TV season. If it gets a spot on the fall schedule and CBS doesn’t hang it out to dry, perhaps Raid The Cage can be used over the summer to promote its premiere. In that scenario, CBS would just have to hope Poppa’s House can also find an audience beyond viewers introduced to in via Raid The Cage.
New Series Orders: Watson and NCIS: Origins
CBS issued two new series orders this week. The first was a straight-to-series order for the Sherlock Holmes IP drama Watson, which was previously given a potential script-to-series order in 2022 and had a writers room opened in January 2023. The timing of the pickup was more surprising than the pickup itself, as it comes before scripted series even return to CBS for the 2023-24 TV season. The second new series order was a show not even known to be in development: an NCIS prequel titled NCIS: Origins. Both Watson and NCIS: Origins have been announced for the 2024-25 TV season alongside new drama Matlock and new comedy Poppa’s House. That’s three and a half new hours of new programming compared to two hours of programming — Young Sheldon, Bob Hearts Abishola, and S.W.A.T. — that will be off the schedule by the end of the 2023-24 TV season (a third hour, Blue Bloods, will have eight final episodes for fall 2024).
CBS also has in development drama The Pact, which like Watson had a potential script-to-series order and a writers room open before the WGA strike; two Fire Country spinoffs, with a sheriff-based spinoff reportedly further along in development than the other one; and are in the early development stages of a potential new racing-based workplace comedy from Haas Formula 1.
All these shows ordered to series and in development can mean one of two things. The first is that CBS is going to start saving more shows for midseason again. In the 2022-23 TV season, they only saved the ill-fated True Lies for midseason, with little backup plan for if a show like The Real Love Boat failed upon its debut. The other is that there are more cancelations coming. On a network full of solidly-rated shows, shows born from successful IPs, and So Help Me Todd, it could be a competitive spring.