Ratings Roundup Week of January 7, 2018

Networks held their annual meetings with the Television Critics Association last week. The only real surprise was the lack of renewal news as network execs usually take the opportunity to announce renewals at the event.

NBC had a boost from the Golden Globe Awards with numbers on par with last year. The Good Place was renewed last fall, but the news may have been missed as it was off the air for football at the time. Taken premiered in its new time slot. In the move from Monday to Friday, it lost about half its viewers; not a great start even with the leeway given Friday programs. It could be a long haul for fans hoping for a season three. The Brave is just playing out the side now, fans should enjoy the last few episodes airing in January. There was no extended episode order, so it's done. Chicago Med and Chicago PD were both steady and neither is in any danger.

ABC had a quiet week, no real surprises for the network. The Good Doctor led the way, though the show had one of its lowest ratings so far. ABC also proved that twenty-five years later America is still enthralled with the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan scandal as the latest tell-all of the incident topped most of the network's regular programs. Kevin (Probably) Saves the World slipped a tenth from the previous week, as did Agents of SHIELD, both are most likely done at the end of this season.

CBS enjoyed the ratings boon of prime time football with the Divisional playoff game. No other real surprises for The Eye last week. Fans of SWAT and SEAL Team could be in for a rough spring. While neither program has had terrible ratings, neither has really stood out, either. As of right now, both should be renewed, but if CBS only has room for one on its Fall schedule, which one does it choose? SWAT has had slightly better numbers, but David Boreanaz is known for long-running series winners. Which one do you pick?

FOX also won NFL ratings lottery last week with an overrun into prime time of the Wildcard game. The Sunday night lineup profited from the overrun while the rest of the network schedule was down a bit from last week. FOX also dealt with the fallout from the news Gillian Anderson was not interested in doing more X-Files episodes after this season. If this is the end of the line, fans are hoping Chris Carter wrote an actually ending and not another open-ended cliffhanger. 9-1-1 and LA To Vegas both dipped from their premiere numbers, but they have time to recover.

The CW ran reruns and specials for the most part last week. The only original program was an episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that wallowed at its usual low. The only other real news was that the CW did not announce any renewals at its TCA event last week. The superhero and Supernatural fans have nothing to worry about. The only real question is if Dynasty will earn a second season.

Just a quick FYI: Ratings Roundup will be on vacation next week.