The "Every Episode, Every Rating" series takes a look at the highs and lows a program posted during its full run. Praise or criticism is in reference to the show's performance in the Nielsen ratings.
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| Nicholas Pinnock (left). Photo Credit: ABC |
Arriving just a month before the COVID-19 lockdowns, ABC's For Life found itself with a mixed bag of circumstances. While the legal drama received ample promotion during the 2020 Academy Awards and had rapper 50 Cent onboard as an executive producer, it would be forced to air in the 10pm timeslot behind struggling sitcom Black-ish. Airing on Tuesday evenings, the series was vaguely based on the real-life story of Issac Wright Jr., a man who became a lawyer after being imprisoned for a crime he did not carry out. Aaron Wallace (played by Nicholas Pinnock) is the fictional character who endures the same situation as Wright Jr. For Life may not have had a desirable timeslot but having advertisements play during the Oscars would mean more viewers than usual would be aware of its debut.
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Winter/Spring 2020:
For Life had quite a successful launch on February 11th, garnering a 0.74 Adults 18-49 rating and nearly 3.2 million viewers. This went about 35% above its Black-ish lead-in in the demo (0.55) and 33% in total viewers (2.37 million). Growth like that is almost unheard of from a series airing at 10, so For Life had definitely been sampled rather nicely. The drama slid down to a 0.61 rating the week after and then fell to a 0.56 in week three but continued to beat out Black-ish nonetheless. The fourth installment had the privilege of airing after the monstrous 'Bachelor' finale (2.4) but the series only managed to gain a few hundredths (0.63, +0.07), retaining a mere 27% of the audience that watched 'The Bachelor'. This essentially revealed that the show could not benefit from a better situation, likely due to its serialized nature.
This became more apparent the following week when For Life was the only show in its lineup that did not experience a boost due to the COVID shutdowns. For nearly an entire month, the legal drama stayed deathly stable in the 0.56-0.57 range until it finally fell below a rounded 0.6 on April 14th (0.54 to be exact). The series was no longer regularly growing from Black-ish and found itself tying it more often than not. For Life's future became even more uncertain when it crashed to a 0.43 rating on a night when all other ABC programs were in repeat-mode. It was able to rebound a bit but fell down to a 0.4 yet again on May 5th, this time despite having an original lead-in. Even with that discouraging trend, season one ended on a high note as the Pinnock vehicle surged to a 0.54 rating for its finale. Aided by a two-hour Gary Marshall special (0.6), this was Life's strongest rating in nearly a month and may have helped it secure a second season over fellow freshman dramas like Emergence and Stumptown.
Fall 2020:
For Life had clearly lost much of its steam by the end of season one and that downward trajectory only accelerated in season two. The series had been shipped to Wednesday nights, yet again the lead-out program to Black-ish. This season began in late November with a new series low out the gate. The sophomore drama posted a meager 0.39 rating and less than 2 million total viewers on arrival. There was a small glimmer of hope in week two when the series inched up to a 0.5, but it ultimately fell even further for its third outing (0.34). Although episodes four and five did perk up to a 0.4 rating, that likely had more to do with having a stronger lead-in (0.7 rating from The Great Christmas Light Fight) than any renewed interest in the legal drama.
Winter 2021:
Only five episodes of For Life were shown in the year 2021, all garnering that same, miserable 0.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic. The February 10th installment even went as low as a preliminary 0.2, before rising to a still anemic 0.26 rating. Life bowed out on February 24th with a 0.31 rating, barely a few hundredths above its series low. The show that had shown serious promise just one year prior had become nothing more than a two-season flameout.
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| Photo Credit: ABC |
Post-Mortem:
It could be argued that ABC didn't do enough to help For Life succeed but that didn't stop it from debuting to a legitimately solid rating. Serialized dramas need to be sampled extremely well since they are much more prone to having sizable drops in the weeks and months that follow. Life just did not have enough viewers watching on day one to survive the harsh declines that came after. Whisperings about the series scoring a pick-up on the IMDB TV streaming service came to an end in early August when star Nicholas Pinnock tweeted that there would be no season three. For Life may have lasted just twenty-three episodes but the short-lived program remains readily-available for streaming consumption on Hulu, ensuring that it has the chance to develop a devoted fanbase in the coming years.
What did you think of this article? Were you a fan of For Life? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
