Certain Cancellation:
N/A
Leans Cancellation:
Brilliant Minds (0.25, 0.19-0.29)
Found (0.22, 0.18-0.26)
The Irrational (0.22, 0.17-0.31)
Leans Renewal:
N/A
Likely Renewal:
Chicago Med (0.39, 0.33-0.46)
Happy's Place (0.29, 0.25-0.35)
Law & Order (0.29, 0.25-0.36)
Certain Renewal:
Chicago Fire (0.38, 0.35-0.46)
Chicago PD (0.34, 0.30-0.36)
Law & Order: SVU (0.35, 0.29-0.40)
Saturday Night Live (0.89, 0.71-1.24)
St. Denis Medical (0.48, 0.45-0.51)
Yet to Premiere:
Grosse Pointe Garden Society
The Hunting Party
Night Court
Suits: LA
St. Denis Medical: This week, NBC launched their latest sitcom. Comedy has been a true weak spot on NBC as of late, with their highest-rated comedy last season averaging just 0.32, roughly 80% of the league average. New comedies rarely find an audience on NBC, despite repeated attempts, and most of their comedies struggle to last past two or three seasons due to these abysmal ratings. And yet, on Tuesday, something amazing happened. St. Denis Medical, an original comedy not propped up by a familiar IP and not directly connected to any legendary comedies of days gone by, became the highest-rated new show premiere this season not boosted by an NFL lead-in. It beat out the premiere of Georgie & Mandy, a spinoff of the high-rated Young Sheldon, the premiere of the already-renewed Matlock, and the premiere of multiplatform smash High Potential. With a 0.51 in the key demo, St. Denis Medical drew the highest rating for an NBC comedy since early in the run of Night Court in early 2023. As that show was a revival, St. Denis Medical is the highest premiere for an original NBC comedy since Young Rock and Kenan in early 2021, nearly four years ago. Obviously, all of these other sitcoms have something in common: despite strong starts, they all faded pretty quickly, and two of them were canceled. That being said, they were all ultimately renewed during their first seasons. St. Denis Medical will likely follow in the footsteps of those shows and drop over the course of the season, especially with an eighteen episode order that'll drag it out for a full season. However, this is the most promising new NBC sitcom we've seen in a while. Just weeks ago, Happy's Place's 0.35 debut was something to celebrate, and now this show is premiering nearly two tenths higher. Even if the future ahead is uncertain, the ratings we have in the present are very impressive. Not counting SNL, its 0.51 is the highest rating any NBC show has seen this season (tying it with The Voice), and even its 0.46 in the second half-hour episode is enough to be the highest rating for an NBC scripted show this season (tied with Chicago Med). It's also showing a pulse on Peacock so far, currently ranking as the #2 show on the service, a far stronger debut on there than Happy's Place. This is a fantastic start for the show, and it shows that the NBC comedy brand is not yet entirely dead. There will certainly be comedy on NBC's schedule next season, and St. Denis Medical will definitely be one of those comedies. I may come to regret this early confidence, but it starts as a CERTAIN RENEWAL.
Lopez vs Lopez: Great news for St. Denis Medical is terrible news for Lopez vs Lopez, which was already on the wrong side of the bubble back when I was expecting St. Denis Medical to rate about the same as - or worse than - Happy's Place. This sitcom has proven to be a survivor, even when the ratings didn't seem to give it much of a chance of survival, but this is its toughest challenge yet. It's NBC's lowest-rated show, and is losing roughly a tenth from Happy's Place on average. With NBC losing an entire night of programing next season, a show that's barely scraped by, such as Lopez, is going to need to put up more of a fight for renewal than this. It remains a complete non-entity on streaming as well, and it's nowhere near syndication. With St. Denis off to a miraculous start, and Happy's Place looking solid enough, I can't see a place for Lopez on the schedule. Night Court will also likely return stronger than Lopez, and with a comedy cut seeming most likely for NBC next year, those comedy slots will be hard to come by. I don't see much of a path for Lopez to get one of them. It's a LIKELY CANCELLATION, but I thought the same last year and it was renewed, so you can't ever be too sure.
Interactive Schedule:
Starting this week, you can now predict the fate of the Tuesday comedy lineup, including the yet-to-return Night Court, in our interactive schedule!
| The TV Ratings Guide | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | The Voice | Brilliant Minds | ||||
| Tues | St. Denis Medical | Night Court | 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 | |||
