ABC continues to roll out their fall lineup, with several unscripted series taking the spotlight this week, as The Golden Bachelor ended a two-year hiatus and Shark Tank moved to a new night. Keep reading to see how the two fared, as they make their ABC Renew/Cancel debuts.
Certain Cancellation: N/A
Likely Cancellation: N/A
Leans Cancellation: N/A
Leans Renewal: The Golden Bachelor (0.28)
Likely Renewal:
Shark Tank (0.20)
Certain Renewal:
Dancing with the Stars (1.06)
High Potential (0.34)
Coming Soon:
20/20
9-1-1
9-1-1: Nashville Abbott Elementary
American Idol
America's Funniest Home Videos
The Bachelorette
Celebrity Jeopardy!
Celebrity Wheel of Fortune
The Great Christmas Light Fight
Grey's Anatomy
RJ Decker
The Rookie
Scrubs
Shifting Gears Will Trent
The Golden Bachelor: I've gone back and forth about which side of the bubble to start this show on, but I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt to start off the season. Its 0.28 debut is incredibly underwhelming, considering that the first Golden Bachelor season (two years ago) was a major success for ABC, to a surprising degree. It debuted to a 0.62 in the key demo and ended on a 0.80, with a 0.63 for the wedding special just a few months later. Its season low was a 0.45, still much higher than how this show returned. You can't say there weren't warning signs, though: The Golden Bachelorette was itself a hell of The Golden Bachelor's ratings, and this particular Golden Bachelor was a controversial choice from the start, with widespread press coverage of his comments that were perceived as ageist. Still, ABC had to be hoping for better than premiering down over 50% from season one. So why am I giving it the benefit of the doubt? Well, premiere week was pretty underwhelming in general for the shows that did premiere. Ratings seem to be down across the board, and The Golden Bachelor is looking like it'll be a fairly middle-of-the-road performer - not an utter catastrophe, but not a highlight, either. The Golden Bachelorette premiered just a hundredth higher than The Golden Bachelor, and that show managed to stay pretty steady the entire season (averaging 0.31 after a 0.29 premiere). If The Golden Bachelor can match that stability, then it can possibly get renewed, and I think it would be a mild favorite to be granted that renewal. I do have some doubts that it'll be as successful, though. For one, The Golden Bachelorette had a better time slot, airing at 8 PM and getting the local lead-in. The Golden Bachelor will have to air at 9 PM, behind and incompatible comedy hour. It's going to have to find an audience of its own, and can't rely on the local lead-in that has been so helpful for countless shows in recent years. I could easily see it cratering and looking like a fairly easy cancellation, and I'm very open to changing my prediction with some more data. It's early now, though, and my gut says that ABC isn't ready to give up on the Golden offshoots just yet, even if much of the audience is. Bachelor franchise fatigue has set in among audiences, and every season since the 2024 season of The Bachelor has underwhelmed in the ratings. ABC is clearly trying their best to still try and make it work, using stunt castings for the leads and putting shows on pause when they feel they need to, but the franchise continues to underwhelm. That's partially due to ratings in general are heavily declining, but much of the decline is on the franchise itself. If ABC decides that overexposure is part of the reason for the decline (and I think that's at least part of the reason), then they may part with the Golden series. At this point, though, I'm betting that these ratings aren't quite low enough for ABC to want to part with them. There's truly no guarantee that anything else would do better, and they do seem to like having a Bachelor series on their lineup for the entire year. The show has also done fairly well on Hulu despite these tepid premiere ratings, much like The Golden Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise. If it continues to perform well on streaming, that'll be a major incentive for ABC to bring it back, though it's also too early to say whether it'll be stable on there, either. The Golden Bachelor starts as a very hesitant LEANS RENEWAL prediction, with more data needed for me to be too certain about its future.
Shark Tank: This longtime Friday staple shifted back off of Friday nights this season, for the first time since early 2020. Its first trip away from Fridays was a bit of a disaster, with Sunday night not proving to be a good fit for the show. Still, the show has looked a bit tired in recent seasons, and it's understandable that ABC wanted a bit of a change in the Friday night lead-off slot. The show had previously aired a few times on Wednesdays back in 2020, and while it rated well below its season average, it had pretty decent retention. So Wednesdays at 10 wasn't an immediate death sentence for the show, as it was able to perform well enough the last time it aired there. And on premiere night, it managed to do respectably enough. Its 0.20 debut after The Golden Bachelor's 0.28 is a perfectly fine number for a 10 PM series, especially one airing behind a show that isn't compatible in the slightest. Bachelor series are often terrible lead-ins, so Shark Tank had minimal help here. Last season was a fairly poor season for Shark Tank, ratings-wise, poor enough that this is actually not even a series low for the show. This is only a few hundredths below its premiere last season, which aired at 8 PM, and it's the same rating it got for the second episode of last season. If it stays in this slot, the show will certainly not see the big winter bounce that it saw every season on Fridays at 8, so it'll wind up being down a decent amount from last season's average (which ended at 0.27, thanks to its improved performance in the second half of the season). However, this move could've gone much worse, especially given the underperformance and incompatibility of its lead-in. I don't know how long this show will go on, as it is getting very old, but it's doing well enough at this point to justify keeping it around. It starts as a LIKELY RENEWAL.
Interactive Schedule:
The TV Ratings Guide
8:00
8:30
9:00
9:30
10:00
Mon
Monday Night Football
Tues
Dancing with the Stars
High Potential
Wed
Shifting Gears
Abbott Elementary
The Golden Bachelor
Shark Tank
Thurs
9-1-1
9-1-1: Nashville
Grey's Anatomy
Fri
Celebrity Wheel of Fortune
20/20
Sat
Saturday Night Football
Sun
The Wonderful World of Disey
Renewed
Certain Renew
Likely Renew
Leans Renew
Leans Cancel
Likely Cancel
Certain Cancel
Canceled
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!
