At long last, The Hunting Party has made its way to its regular time slot, weeks after a post-NFL preview. It's one of three new dramas premiering on NBC this month, and the first new entry to the NBC Renew/Cancel this year, so keep reading to see my first prediction for the show this season!
Certain Cancellation:
Brilliant Minds (0.23, 0.17-0.29)
The Irrational (0.18, 0.10-0.31)
Leans Cancellation:
Found (0.22, 0.18-0.29)
Leans Renewal:
N/A
Likely Renewal:
Chicago Med (0.41, 0.33-0.48)
Happy's Place (0.27, 0.21-0.35)
Law & Order (0.30, 0.25-0.36)
Certain Renewal:
Chicago Fire (0.40, 0.35-0.48)
Chicago PD (0.36, 0.30-0.48)
Law & Order: SVU (0.37, 0.29-0.49)
Saturday Night Live (0.77, 0.55-1.24)
Yet to Premiere:
Grosse Pointe Garden Society
Suits: LA
Renewed:
St. Denis Medical
The Hunting Party: Week's after a post-NFL "preview" that received incredibly modest sampling considering the lead-in, The Hunting Party has finally premiered. NBC's strategy with this show has been pretty bizarre, announcing that post-NFL preview just days in advance. That preview aired at 7 PM - a time slot that rarely sees any scripted original these days - and directly faced off against an NFL playoff game on a different channel, which made it pretty difficult to really gauge its true strength. NBC then aired three repeats of the pilot in the week leading up to the first original in-slot airing, once on Sunday, another in its regular slot on Monday, and another on Thursday. They were clearly trying their best to make it work and make people aware of the show, but I still think the way they went about this launch was a total misfire. The ratings for the second episode - which I consider its official launch - confirmed that this show was a failure to launch. With just a 0.22 demo rating, it is now the lowest-rated premiere for an NBC show this season, tying Found. This is significantly worse than where Brilliant Minds started, and with a lead-in that's actually slightly higher. It has charted on and off on Peacock recently, but only charted a single day after its premiere. That's a better Peacock performance than The Irrational or Found have put up in recent airings, but it's worse than where they (or Brilliant Minds) started their seasons. In general, The Hunting Party looks like a misfire, one in a long line of post-Voice flops that never looks like it has a chance at renewal. Space on NBC's schedule is limited, and it's hard to envision a show with just ten episodes that bombed out of the starting gate being given one of those few slots. The one possible argument I can see for it is that, unlike Found, NBC does fully own it. If it's able to show some sort of strength on streaming (as I said above, Peacock's top 10 chart suggests a mediocre performance on streaming, but we have no concrete data) and maintain that performance, that could boost it to a second season. I don't think that's very likely at all, and I think NBC would rather take on a third season of Found, even if partially owned, than a second season of this show. The odds of a save-face pity renewal feel incredibly low as well. Not only have they already renewed St. Denis Medical, ensuring that this freshman class will not be entirely canceled, NBC has a two more dramas coming later this month. I don't expect high ratings for those, either, but Suits LA feels like a more likely candidate for a pity renewal that The Hunting Party, given its franchise ties. It starts as a LIKELY CANCELLATION, essentially DOA.
Interactive Schedule:
| The TV Ratings Guide | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | The Voice | The Hunting Party | ||||
| Tues | St. Denis Medical | Night Court | Deal or No Deal Island | 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 | |||
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!
