Certain Cancellation:
N/A
Likely Cancellation:
The Golden Bachelor (0.20, 0.16-0.28)
Leans Cancellation:
N/A
Leans Renewal:
Shifting Gears (0.34, 0.31-0.38)
Likely Renewal:
9-1-1 (0.33, 0.30-0.35)
9-1-1: Nashville (0.26, 0.23-0.29)
Abbott Elementary (0.32, 0.27-0.38)
Celebrity Wheel of Fortune (0.28, 0.27-0.31)
Grey's Anatomy (0.23, 0.18-0.27)
Shark Tank (0.18, 0.13-0.20)
Certain Renewal:
20/20 (0.18, 0.15-0.20)
America's Funniest Home Videos (0.29, 0.25-0.29)
Dancing with the Stars (1.22, 1.02-1.38)
High Potential (0.35, 0.32-0.42)
Coming Soon:
American Idol
The Bachelorette
Celebrity Jeopardy!
The Great Christmas Light Fight
RJ Decker
The Rookie
Scrubs
Will Trent
Celebrity Wheel of Fortune: Perhaps the least "flashy" move that ABC made in their fall schedule was putting Celebrity Wheel of Fortune on Fridays at 8. It's not a show that brings much "hype" along with it, nor are its ratings the most exciting, but slotting it on Fridays was an attempt at shaking up a stagnant night. So far, it's doing well. It's up slightly from Shark Tank's first four episodes, and pretty much completely steady with its performance from last season, when it aired in late spring and early summer, but in a more favorable Wednesday (and, for a few weeks, Tuesday) slot. Wheel has been a solid entry for ABC, and has helped make them among the strongest networks on Friday nights. It's the perfect sort of programming for Fridays: casually-viewed, family-friendly fare that doesn't cost much to make, so it can easily survive on merely-decent linear ratings. Wheel is a show that really only works at 8 PM, and it hasn't done well enough in recent years to justify an 8 PM slot on any other night. Moving Shark Tank off of Fridays (and to 10 PM, no less) was a risk for ABC, but it has paid off, and ABC can now cycle through Celebrity Wheel and Celebrity Jeopardy in this hour while using Shark Tank to plug a tough hour, with fairly decent results for 10 PM. ABC's fall reality gambit didn't draw much attention, but it did pay off well enough, and I expect them to continue with Celebrity Wheel occupying Friday nights. It's a LIKELY RENWAL.
The Golden Bachelor: One reality move that ABC made this season that did not work out was putting The Golden Bachelor back on the schedule. A breakout hit in season one, the Golden Bachelor sat out last season so ABC could air The Golden Bachelorette. And that was our first warning sign that season one of The Golden Bachelor may have been lightning in a bottle, unable to ever be replicated. The Golden Bachelorette started poorly and never reached the levels of The Golden Bachelor season one, though it did manage to at least average 97% of the league average in the end, so it wasn't an utter disaster. Likely inspired by both strong ratings for their comedies and underwhelming ratings for The Bachelorette, The Golden Bachelor was pushed back to a 9 PM slot this year, as ABC attempted a reformed Wednesday night lineup. The results have been disastrous. It premiered to a 0.28, down 55% from its series premiere and 38% below its previous series low. It collapsed in week two, with just a 0.16. I've covered all that before - so why am I addressing it again now? After the week two collapse, the show had managed to at least remain pretty stable the next two weeks, with modest growth the next week and a small decline after that. It then rose to a 0.23 the next week, and therefore, it didn't look so bad. That's a rating we've seen 9-1-1: Nashville hit this season, and not much lower than Celebrity Wheel. For a moment, it looked like there could be some life left in it. Then it sunk back down to a 0.17. With its Hulu performance coming in far worse than even last year's Golden Bachelorette, linear ratings are very important, and that drop is suggesting that that week five gain may just have been a fluke. This show is still struggling, and it's really the only obvious dead weight on ABC's fall schedule. There's nothing to hide behind here, because the rest of the network is doing fairly well in one metric or another. ABC may be of the belief that scandal-plagued lead Mel Owens is to blame - after all, it's hard to sell a "wholesome" series about seniors finding love again in their golden years when you've got a lead who was under fire for making ageist comments about the show's own prospective cast members. But the struggling ratings of last year's Golden Bachelorette - and, to an extent, this year's Golden-heavy season of Bachelor in Paradise - suggests that viewers may just be uninterested in these "Golden" offshoots of the Bachelor franchise. ABC needs to focus on restoring the glory of the original Bachelor and Bachelorette series, which have struggled in recent seasons, and not bother with the Golden seasons, which have now tanked two fall Wednesday lineups in a row. These shows are easily replaceable, and they're contributing to further Bachelor franchise fatigue. It's best to let them go. The Golden Bachelor remains a LIKELY CANCELLATION, as little from the last month has changed my mind on this show's weaknesses.
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 Disney | |||||
Renewed
Certain Renew
Likely Renew
Leans Renew
Leans Cancel
Likely Cancel
Certain Cancel
Canceled
