NBC Renew/Cancel Week 9: Happy’s Place is Still in a Happy Place

This week on the NBC Renew/Cancel, NBC's sitcoms take the spotlight yet again, as I look at how their second-season sitcoms have held up after their returns.

Certain Cancellation:
N/A

Likely Cancellation:

Brilliant Minds (0.15, 0.12-0.18)

Leans Cancellation:
On Brand with Jimmy Fallon (0.17, 0.14-0.22)
Stumble (0.18, 0.17-0.18)

Leans Renewal:
Law & Order (0.21, 0.20-0.27)

Likely Renewal:
Happy's Place (0.25, 0.24-0.25)
Law & Order: SVU (0.28, 0.21-0.33)
St. Denis Medical (0.31, 0.25-0.34)
The Voice (0.34, 0.28-0.42)

Certain Renewal:
Chicago Fire (0.34, 0.29-0.39)
Chicago Med (0.35, 0.28-0.39)
Chicago PD (0.29, 0.25-0.34)
Dateline NBC (0.18, 0.15-0.20)
Saturday Night Live (0.60, 0.58-0.70)

Coming Soon:
The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins
Surviving Earth
The Wall

Happy's Place: Not much changed or Happy's Place in week two. After a 0.25 premiere, the Reba McEntire sitcom slipped just a single hundredth in week two, to a 0.24. Happy's Place has never been a hit, but it has been a solid entry for NBC on the comedy front, and that seems to be continuing this season. The only true change rom last week to this week was the show being beaten by a surging Sheriff Country, making it the #2 entertainment program for the night. I'd argue that a 0.24 against a 0.30 from Sheriff Country is no less impressive than the 0.25 it got against Sheriff's 0.22, as it indicates Happy's Place has its own audience and that it won't falter on those weeks where CBS (or ABC) is having an above-average showing. The show was fairly stable last season as well (more than St. Denis Medical), and has become a reliably Friday night player for NBC. The jury's still out on Stumble (which isn't entirely DOA, but has had an uninspiring debut thus far), but Happy's Place could easily be a part of NBC's Friday nights for the next few years with a performance like this, keeping a scripted hour alive on a night that NBC has often struggled to find strong scripted shows. Its streaming performance has also looked solid enough for a cheap multicam, doing a bit better this year than it did at the start of last year on Peacock's top ten charts. While it's not yet a lock, given that NBC doesn't have a ton of space and its ratings are just average, it's off to a good start, and it's a LIKELY RENEWAL, as average ratings should get the job done on low-rated Friday nights.

St. Denis Medical: After a strong start to the second season, this show has yet to stabilize. This week, it was down to a 0.25 in the demo. That's not a poor showing for an NBC comedy in this day and age, but it's a good deal lower than it was just two weeks ago. It's inching closer and closer to its series low, and has gone lower than it did in its brief fall run last year. I don't think it's fair to expect a show to perfectly hold up from one season to another —almost every show declines from one season to another. However, it is underwhelming to see the show's ratings drop so quickly after such a surprisingly strong return. What the show does still have going in its favor is a strong showing on Peacock. It's been one of NBC's top streaming performers since returning for season two, and it hasn't showing any signs of slowing down. It's performing better on Peacock than it did last season, when its streaming performance helped boost it to being NBC's #2 show in MP+35 ratings in the 18-49 demo. St. Denis Medical may not always look like an obvious hit, and we still don't really know its true linear ratings strength, as it has yet to settle. However, it's pretty clear that, in the grand scheme of things, it's doing well for NBC. In a time when practically everything else on NBC that's doing well is an aged Dick Wolf procedurally, NBC can't take any of their successful shows for granted. St. Denis Medical is doing well enough to warrant a renewal, and recent ratings declines aren't nearly bad enough to sway that. It remains a LIKELY RENEWAL.

Interactive Schedule:

The TV Ratings Guide	8:00	8:30	9:00	10:00
Mon	St. Denis Medical	The Paper	The Voice	Brilliant Minds
Tues	NBA on NBC
Wed	Chicago Med		Chicago Fire	Chicago PD
Thurs	Law & Order		Law & Order: SVU	Law & Order: Organized Crime
Fri	Happy's Place	Stumble	Dateline NBC
Sat	College Football on NBC
Sun	Sunday Night Football