NBC Renew/Cancel Week 6: A Trick for The Irrational, a Treat for Found

It's a haunting edition of the NBC Renew/Cancel, as two bubble dramas move in different directions in a Halloween-themed column.

Certain to be Tricked:
N/A

Likely to be Tricked:

N/A

Leans towards being Tricked:
Brilliant Minds (0.26, 0.22-0.29)
Found (0.21, 0.18-0.26)
The Irrational (0.24, 0.19-0.31)
Lopez vs Lopez (0.23, 0.21-0.25)

Leans towards being Treated:
N/A

Likely to be Treated:
Chicago Fire (0.37, 0.36-0.39)
Chicago Med (0.37, 0.33-0.43)
Happy's Place (0.32, 0.29-0.35)
Law & Order (0.29, 0.25-0.36)

Certain to be Treated:
Chicago PD (0.34, 0.32-0.36)
Law & Order: SVU (0.36, 0.31-0.40)
Saturday Night Live (0.81, 0.71-0.94)

Yet to Premiere:
Grosse Pointe Garden Society
The Hunting Party
Night Court
St. Denis Medical
Suits: LA

The Irrational: It's been a rough few weeks for The Irrational. After a surprisingly solid return, the NBC procedural dropped down to its season one low. While The Voice hasn't been performing to its usual standards on Tuesdays the last few weeks, The Irrational is still managing to squander the lead-in it provides, with 48% retention last week and 58% retention this week. The Irrational was NBC's lowest-rated series last week, and may well be their lowest-rated series this week, too. Going into the season, I thought The Irrational would be canceled due to those 0.19s last year, and it's already down to that level only weeks into season two. While The Voice was definitely a bit stronger when The Irrational premiered, it's clear that Voice viewers inflated the premiere, and decided not to return afterwards. This is probably not its floor, either, as it will have to air without The Voice down the line, and The Voice's replacement will likely be a worse lead-in. It hit its lowest point last season once The Voice was gone, and that will likely be repeated this season. Even if that doesn't happen, 0.19 is horrible enough for it to be a long shot already. It was renewed last season before it ever went that low, and I don't think NBC will be as lenient on it this time around. Tuesday is the night where NBC will eliminate programming next season due to the NBA, and cancellation seems much easier than having to promote another time slot move for this show. With its Peacock performance seemingly being just OK, I don't see any positive indicators for The Irrational. It LEANS CANCELLATION now.

Found: Bad news for The Irrational is good news for Found. While that show is on a downward spiral, Found hit its highest rating of the season last week, with a 0.26. Its retention of SVU is still so-so, but it's slightly stronger than The Irrational's retention of The Voice, indicating it's probably a bit stronger in general. That's how it looked last season as well. Its performance on Peacock is also stronger, for the most part, though it has notably been performing worse on there than it was at the beginning of the season, usually hovering around 5th place on the service's top ten list, as opposed to topping the chart in the week after its premiere. With the Peacock performance dwindling a bit and ratings still just OK, I'm still unconvinced that this show will be renewed. It's only partially owned by NBC, being a co-production with Warner Bros, making it one of only three scripted shows on NBC not fully owned by Universal. That alone won't doom the show, but it probably won't help its case, especially with it not making much of a ratings argument for renewal either. A renewal is far from out of reach, but NBC is likely going to be less lenient than usual this season, and there's enough LEANS CANCELLATION. It is, however, more likely to be renewed than any other show in the category, all of which are on the downswing. Further growth, or even holding at 0.26, will really help its case.

Interactive Schedule:

Beginning this week, the NBC Renew/Cancel will utilize the Interactive Schedule tool, created by TVRG's own The Ratings Junkie. To make your own predictions, you can use the interactive schedule by clicking on the prediction you would like to make, then tapping on the show. For example, if you believe Happy's Place is a Likely Renewal, you can tap on the green ‘Likely’, then tap on Happy's Place to label it so. You can save your schedule and share it in the comments by selecting ‘Save Screenshot’ and ‘Download,' and then dragging and drop the image to the comments, or you can save it to your device and upload it to the comments.

The TV Ratings Guide	8:00	8:30	9:00	10:00
Mon	The Voice			Brilliant Minds
Tues	The Voice			The Irrational
Wed	Chicago Med		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD
Thurs	Law & Order		Law & Order: SVU	Found
Fri	Happy's Place	Lopez vs Lopez	Dateline NBC