It's been a month since our last Cable Renew/Cancel, and there have been several new entries, including two shows from Hallmark, the return of a sophomore AMC series, and unscripted options on TBS. Keep reading for my initial predictions for all of the new entries, plus my expanded thoughts on several of them!
The Way Home: The Way Home wasn't even supposed to air on Hallmark at all, and was set to become a streaming original before outcry from fans caused Hallmark to change their minds. As such, the show ended up being moved from its regular Sunday night time slot - where When Calls the Heart was already scheduled to air - to Friday nights. Hallmark does air original content on Fridays, particularly around Christmastime, but it's usually films, and not original series. Most Hallmark dramas tend to air on Sunday nights, so the decision to air The Way Home on Fridays is an atypical one from Hallmark. This is the first Hallmark original series to air on a Friday, and while that's not a sign they're discarding it, it's not exactly priority scheduling. Between the abandoned move to streaming and the unorthodox Friday scheduling, Hallmark doesn't really seem to know what to do with this show, and it doesn't seem like they care much. Ratings have also been all over the place, with a 0.11-0.06-0.09-0.06 trajectory thus far. That puts it just slightly behind When Calls the Heart (with its own 0.07-0.11-0.09 trajectory) in the demo, but far behind it in total viewers. The Way Home was always a weaker performer in viewership compared to much of Hallmark (though still quite high for a cable series), with about 1.1 million viewers last season, compared to 1.9 million for WCTH, but this season it's much more worrisome, averaging 0.77 million viewers, and declining 30% year-to-year. On an older-skewing network like Hallmark, the number of total viewers tuning in is a more important factor for renewal, and The Way Home is struggling in that measure, declining each week. It's also on Peacock, where it showed promise at first, ranking within the top ten for the first days after its premiere, but has seemingly declined, never reappearing again on their chart after premiere week. Hallmark has been cutting back on original series in recent years, with just two drama series left on the network. Despite decent linear demo ratings, and a viewership total that still puts it ahead of most other scripted series on cable, it would be a surprise for The Way Home to receive a pickup for a fourth season. It LEANS CANCELLATION, with Hallmark's scheduling of the series being too damning to ignore.
When Calls the Heart: On the other hand, you have When Calls the Heart. Hallmark's other remaining drama series is down 30% in the demo and 20% in viewers this season, having come off a season of small growth in 2024, with a 0.09 demo average and an average of 1.5 million viewers tuning in. This is still higher than the average Hallmark Saturday film, and in-line with their 2024 Countdown to Christmas film series. This show is now in its twelfth season, and all shows must end eventually, but this one isn't showing any signs of slowing down. Hallmark continues to treat this show as its crown jewel, and it continues to perform well for them in return. Even with a so-so performance in the demo so far, its viewership is more than enough to keep Hallmark happy. This show has also been on the air for so long, and been so important to the network's identity, that I imagine it will get a grand, pre-announced sendoff when it finally is time. There's no reason to expect that will be now, and it starts as a LIKELY RENEWAL.
Mayfair Witches: AMC is a network that is currently struggling with something of an identity crisis in an era without The Walking Dead and Better Call Saul, which for years served as their tentpole shows, programs people would reliably tune in for even as other shows on the network struggled to attract an audience. They've tried to fill the Walking Dead void by airing several limited-order Walking Dead spinoffs, but at six episodes apiece, they need something more. Their current strategy appears to be becoming the network for adaptations of books by the late author Anne Rice. It's a good idea in theory - AMC is known for genre shows, and Rice was an extremely popular and successful author in the gothic horror sphere, with a supernatural element in many of her biggest books. Interview with the Vampire was the first adaptation, and it had fairly decent ratings in season one, but dropped over 50% in its second season, to a 0.05 average. The second Rice adaptation, of at least three planned to air on AMC, is Mayfair Witches. Mayfair Witches performed a bit worse than Interview with the Vampire in its first season, with a 0.09 average (vs. a 0.10 average for Vampire), so it was hard to expect it to rate much better than Vampire upon its return. Still, its 0.02 return looked fairly disastrous, a startling failure to launch that had to raise some eyebrows at AMC. It's looked better in the weeks since, rising to a 0.05 in its next week and getting a 0.04 the week after, ratings similar to Vampire, which did score a renewal even after its ratings drop. I am very cautiously expecting a renewal for this series at this point. AMC spent a pretty penny acquiring the rights to the Rice library, and they've gone all-out on developing the "Immortal Universe," so I don't think they're going to want to let go of one of the key building blocks of this developing franchise after two seasons. Ratings aren't great at all, but AMC ratings in general are pretty low, so I expect them to be a bit more forgiving. Streaming will also play a heavy part in the decision-making process. AMC doesn't release any of their AMC+ streaming data, but Mayfair Witches is prominently featured on the service, and seems to be a top priority. I wouldn't be shocked to see the low ratings doom this show, especially considering that a similar performance got recent entries like Parish and Lucky Hank canceled, but I think AMC's desire to keep this franchise alive will be enough to rescue it. It LEANS RENEWAL.
What do you think of my predictions? What are your predictions? Let me know in the comments and vote in the poll of the week!