Summer Renew/Cancel Week 13: Tough As Nails Is In For A Tough Fight

This week on the ABC Renew/Cancel, I take a closer look at CBS's new show Tough As Nails. Keep reading to see if it's on the move.

Thursday TV Ratings 7/23/20: Blindspot Rises for Series Finale, Celebrity Watch Party Ends Stable, Young Sheldon and Holey Moley Repeats Lead

Thursday TV Ratings 7/16/20: 30 Rock Special Low, ABC Game Shows Drop (UPDATED)

Note: Titles highlighted in BLUE are original broadcasts. In the table, (R) = repeat.

Preliminary Analysis: Derailed by the fact that many stations refused to air it, the much-anticipated '30 Rock' special (0.4) completely tanked on NBC. This went an entire ratings point (or 71%) below what the socially-distant 'Parks & Recreation' special (1.4) managed in April. Although it had an unfair disadvantage, the feeble result does highlight that viewers may be growing tired of the low-budget/Zoom-style production that felt fresh and unique during the early days of the pandemic. The 1-hour special was followed by repeats of 'Superstore' (0.2), 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' (0.2), and 'Law & Order: SVU' (0.2). All three are expected to return in the fall with brand-new episodes but Covid-19 restrictions may complicate that.

ABC's normally steady game-show lineup sprung a leak as 'Holey Moley' (0.5) lost a tenth while 'Don't' (0.5) and 'To Tell the Truth' (0.4) slipped two-tenths. All three plummeted to new season lows by a wide margin. But the meager 0.5 rating that 'Holey' pulled was still enough to top all other programs the night had to offer. Amidst the alphabet network decline, Fox's 'Celebrity Watch Party' (0.3) and 'Labor of Love' (0.2) both matched last week. CBS's mixture of comedy and drama repeats (0.4/0.3/0.3/0.3/0.2) was not too far off from the numbers that many of the evening's originals pulled. And the CW's broadcast of British reality series 'Killer Camp' (0.1) was met with absolutely no interest. It led into repeats of 'Masters of Illusion' (0.1/0.1).

Finals Update: 30 Rock: A One-Time Special (-0.2) adjusted down.

Thursday TV Ratings 7/9/20: Burden of Truth and In the Dark Steady for Finales, Holey Moley Down After Week Off, Blindspot Ties Low

Thursday TV Ratings 6/18/20: Don’t and To Tell The Truth Shed Multiple Tenths, Blindspot Rises (UPDATED)

Thursday night was still topped by ABC, but it was less dominant victory this time around. New game show Don't dropped two tenths in week two, and was three tenths behind its week one preliminary number. To Tell The Truth also dropped two tenths with the weaker lead-in. Holey Moley was steady at 0.7 at 8 PM.

On NBC, Council of Dads held steady at a pathetic 0.3. Blindspot was able to rise to match that number at 9, and the Law & Order SVU repeat matched last week's 0.3.

Fox saw a small rise, with Labor of Love gaining a tenth to match last week's preliminary 0.3 rating (it later adjusted down to 0.2). With 0.3/0.3 halves, it doesn't look to be in much danger of adjusting at first glance, but it had those same halves last week as well. Celebrity Watch Party was stable at 0.4 at 8.

CBS lost one half of its two original programs as Man With a Plan exited the scene last week. It was replaced by a weak repeat of The Unicorn at 0.4 Elsewhere, a Young Sheldon repeat drew a 0.5 and a Mom encore got a 0.4, both down from 0.6s last week. A new episode of Broke slipped a tenth to a new low of 0.5, but this is its best retention ever which is one thing to its credit. The repeat of SWAT held steady.

The CW held steady at 0.1 for Burden of Truth and In the Dark.

Finals Update: The repeat of Young Sheldon (+0.1) adjusted up.