FOX Renew/Cancel Week 20: Grimsburg Is Cartoonishly Weak

Predictions for 02/25/24

Photo Credit: Fox

Below are the Week 20 renew/cancel predictions for the Fox network in the 2023-24 television season. The numbers listed in the table mark the Nielsen rating low, average, and high for each respective program in the Adults 18-49 demographic. The "Y2Y (year-to-year) Change" column denotes how much the series has risen or fallen when compared to its average from the previous season. Because of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, there is a limited amount of scripted programming this winter. As a result, reality television will continue to be included in this column. Now that more scripted programming is set to return soon, scripted and reality will be split into two separate charts.

Scripted

Reality

*Final ratings for Thursday, February 22, 2024 are not out yet. Because of this, the season lows and overall averages of Next Level Chef and Farmer Wants a Wife are subject to change.

Grimsburg: Expectations were never high for Grimsburg, especially after its relatively soft NFL preview, but few probably expected the series to return in February with a lifeless 0.09 rating in the Adults 18-49 demographic. To put things into perspective, The CW aired 23 year-old film Remember the Titans (0.11) on the same night and got a higher rating out of it than Fox got out of Grimsburg. Though The Simpsons, Krapopolis, and The Great North also performed poorly, that does not give this series a pass for doing even worse. Grimsburg was always going to be at a disadvantage since it airs at 9:30 and has had the least amount of football juice pumped into it, but almost every show on broadcast television can do better than this. Grimsburg has already been Renewed for a second season, but it would come as no surprise if season two was sent to Hulu or tossed onto the summer schedule.

The Great North: The Great North completely bombed in its 9 p.m. anchor debut, scraping together a measly 0.10 rating and falling from its Krapopolis lead-in (0.11). This one is just not able to anchor an hour and is part of the reason why Grimsburg had no real launching pad for its time slot premiere. It is really going to be interesting to see what Fox does with their cartoon roster. There was once a time when the Animation Domination lineup was perfectly fine once football went away, but it seems now more than ever that they cannot stand on their own in the spring months. The Great North was given ample time in the cushiony post-Simpsons time slot and often did pretty well, but Fox's efforts to nurture a new animation staple have failed.

Farmer Wants a Wife: After a (barely) passable premiere, Farmer Wants a Wife dropped to a 0.22 in week two, even as its Next Level Chef lead-in (0.39) improved on its week-ago rating. Farmer retained just 56% of its Chef lead-in here and just recently fell to a (preliminary) 0.17. Though this series was never a powerhouse in season one, it has gotten even less impressive now that it is no longer tethered to The Masked Singer like it was before. Because of its shortcomings in the Nielsen department, Farmer is now Likely to be Canceled. However, Farmer fans should be proud that this iteration has lasted longer than the 2008 CW version that was canceled after just eight episodes.

Special Forces: Though it has not aired since November, Special Forces: World's Toughest Test has been upgraded to a Likely Renewal. It was reported just last month that the unscripted program puts up a strong performance on streaming and grew in Live+7 Day ratings when compared to season one. The Adults 18-49 ratings may have been mediocre, but Fox is clearly happy with how the series is doing on other platforms. With Friday-night staple WWE Smackdown set to leave the network in fall 2024, Fox could definitely use passable players like Special Forces to fill in the void. This one is lower on the totem pole but certainly a healthier option than something like Farmer.