This week on the NBC Renew/Cancel, I take a further look at a reliable veteran that continues to look stronger as the season goes on, as well as another look at a freshman show that seems to be fading fast.
Certain Cancellation:
N/A
Leans Cancellation:
Brilliant Minds (0.26, 0.22-0.29)
Found (0.22, 0.18-0.26)
The Irrational (0.24, 0.19-0.31)
Lopez vs Lopez (0.21, 0.18-0.25)
Leans Renewal:
N/A
Likely Renewal:
Chicago Med (0.39, 0.33-0.46)
Happy's Place (0.30, 0.25-0.35)
Law & Order (0.29, 0.25-0.36)
Certain Renewal:
Chicago Fire (0.38, 0.35-0.46)
Chicago PD (0.35, 0.32-0.36)
Law & Order: SVU (0.35, 0.29-0.40)
Saturday Night Live (0.89, 0.71-1.24)
Yet to Premiere:
Grosse Pointe Garden Society
The Hunting Party
Night Court
St. Denis Medical
Suits: LA
Chicago Fire: I was tough on the parent show of NBC's venerable Chicago franchise at the start of the season, with concerns about its long-term future after some truly worrisome trends at the start of the season. Its premiere was down 40% from the previous premiere, and it hit a new low three out of the first four weeks this season. It was a rough start. However, as we begin to get the full picture of this season overall, other shows look even rougher. Momentum is on its side right now, and it hit new season highs two weeks in a row. It's still down a discouraging 28%, and several CBS dramas are still beating it pretty handily, but it remains a top ten scripted show in the demo when discounting those with NFL boosts (AKA, Fox's cartoons). So in the grand scheme of things, it's still looking OK. Not the powerhouse we've come to know it as in recent seasons, but still an obvious hit. Even if it's probably pretty expensive to produce, it's doing well enough for NBC that I have no doubt they'll work out any financial troubles to get this show back on the air, even if it has to have a cast shakeup of sorts to cut the budget, which has become common among the Dick Wolf shows the last few seasons regardless. With just about everything on NBC underperforming this year, this is a show they need to keep around. It's a CERTAIN RENEWAL.
Happy's Place: We're only three episodes in, and the trend for Happy's Place is far from happy. It dropped six hundredths after its premiere, and that was understandable, as it faced huge competition from the World Series, which is famous for knocking down the competition, especially casually-viewed sitcoms like Happy's Place. However, week three was much, much worse. It dropped four hundredths, to 0.25, which was obviously a smaller drop, but it did show that the week two drop couldn't be blamed just on the World Series, because those viewers - and many others - never came back. Viewers in the key demo are rejecting the show so far, and it needs to stabilize, and quick. 0.25 is still renewable enough for an NBC comedy, as I doubt the Tuesday sitcoms will look any better than that by this point in the season either, but the concern is how it's trending. Maybe it's already basically bottomed out, and we'll see it hold around here, or maybe it'll keep dropping. No one really knows for sure at this point, but it does make me reconsider my confidence in the show at this point. Still, Lopez vs Lopez is doing significantly worse, and will most likely be canceled well before it, so I still feel that a LIKELY RENEWAL prediction is most fitting at this point.
Interactive Schedule:
| The TV Ratings Guide | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 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 | |||
