ABC finally got on the renewal board last week. Big Sky and The Good Doctor were both renewed for another season. Rebel returned after a week off, even with its last new episode. Home Economics was steady as well. Rebel may squeak a second season, Home Economics could get renewed if Mixed-ish and/or Black-ish are cancelled. A Million Little Things will probably be renewed even with those anaemic numbers as it is in season three.
| Program | Rating | Millions of Viewers | Renew/Cancel |
| Grey's Anatomy | 0.9 | 4.9 | |
| American Idol (Sunday) | 0.8 | 6.0 | |
| Station 19 | 0.8 | 4.5 | |
| America's Funniest Home Videos | 0.5 | 4.6 | |
| The Rookie | 0.5 | 4.0 | |
| Shark Tank | 0.5 | 3.4 | |
| The Goldbergs | 0.5 | 2.8 | |
| Monday Movie: Incredibles 2 | 0.5 | 2.2 | |
| Rebel | 0.4 | 3.3 | |
| 20/20 | 0.4 | 3.0 | |
| Big Sky | 0.4 | 2.6 | Renewed |
| Pooch Perfect | 0.4 | 2.3 | |
| Home Economics | 0.4 | 2.2 | |
| A Million Little Things | 0.3 | 2.1 | |
| The Conners (rerun) | 0.3 | 1.9 | |
| The Conners (rerun) | 0.3 | 1.9 | |
| Black-ish (rerun) | 0.3 | 1.4 | |
| Mixed-ish (rerun) | 0.3 | 1.3 | |
| Home Economics (rerun) | 0.3 | 1.2 | |
| VAX Live: The Concert To Reunite The World | 0.2 | 1.7 | |
| American Idol (rerun) | 0.2 | 1.3 |
CBS premiered the second season of Kids Say The Darndest Things last week. Not sure why they thought it was a good idea to start off a night of high action shows like SEAL Team and SWAT with a kids variety show, but they did. The good news for fans of those shows, the ratings didn't drop, but they didn't improve either. NCIS gained a couple of tenths to retake the top spot on the chart, but it was still down several tenths from its average last season. NCIS: Los Angeles was renewed for another season, no real surprise there. Clarice ran its first new episode in a month, but it's likely playing out the side at this point.
| Program | Rating | Millions of Viewers | Renew/Cancel |
| NCIS | 0.8 | 9.7 | Renewed |
| FBI | 0.8 | 8.1 | Renewed |
| The Equalizer | 0.7 | 7.2 | Renewed |
| The Neighborhood | 0.7 | 5.3 | Renewed |
| 60 Minutes | 0.6 | 7.6 | |
| NCIS: Los Angeles | 0.6 | 7.2 | Renewed |
| Young Sheldon | 0.6 | 6.6 | Renewed (through 2024) |
| Mom | 0.6 | 5.3 | Cancelled |
| Bob (Hearts) Abishola | 0.6 | 4.9 | Renewed |
| Bull | 0.5 | 5.6 | Renewed |
| FBI: Most Wanted | 0.5 | 5.5 | Renewed |
| NCIS: New Orleans | 0.5 | 4.8 | Cancelled |
| B Positive | 0.5 | 4.1 | |
| Blue Bloods | 0.4 | 5.7 | Renewed |
| United States Of Al | 0.4 | 4.8 | |
| Magnum PI (finale) | 0.4 | 4.8 | Renewed |
| Kids Say The Darndest Things (premiere) | 0.4 | 3.7 | |
| SEAL Team | 0.4 | 3.7 | |
| All Rise | 0.4 | 3.6 | |
| SWAT | 0.4 | 3.1 | Renewed |
| Kids Say The Darndest Things (rerun) | 0.3 | 3.0 | |
| 48 Hours | 0.3 | 2.7 | |
| Clarice | 0.3 | 2.5 | |
| VAX Live: The Concert To Reunite The World | 0.2 | 1.3 |
NBC wrapped Young Rock's first season last week, steady with its previous numbers. Both it and Kenan were renewed for second seasons. For the second week in a row, The Peacock ran back-to-back episodes of Manifest. The show is in its third season, and ratings have been okay, it should be renewed. The behaviour is odd, however. Burning off episodes is usually a sign the network just wants to be done with the program. Debris held its numbers, but it probably won't be enough to convince the network to renew it.
| Program | Rating | Millions of Viewers | Renew/Cancel |
| Chicago Fire | 1.0 | 7.2 | Renewed (through 2023) |
| Chicago Med | 0.9 | 7.1 | Renewed (through 2023) |
| Chicago PD | 0.9 | 5.7 | Renewed (through 2023) |
| The Voice (Monday) | 0.8 | 5.9 | |
| Dateline (Saturday) | 0.5 | 3.3 | |
| Manifest | 0.5 | 3.0 | |
| Manifest | 0.5 | 2.8 | |
| Young Rock (finale) | 0.5 | 2.4 | Renewed |
| New Amsterdam | 0.4 | 3.0 | Renewed (through 2023) |
| Dateline (Friday) | 0.4 | 2.8 | |
| Debris | 0.4 | 2.5 | |
| Law & Order: SVU (rerun) | 0.4 | 2.3 | Renewed (through 2023) |
| Vintage SNL | 0.4 | 2.3 | |
| Ellen's Game of Games | 0.4 | 1.8 | |
| Young Rock (rerun) | 0.4 | 1.7 | |
| The Blacklist | 0.3 | 3.1 | Renewed |
| This Is Us (rerun) | 0.3 | 1.8 | Renewed |
| Ellen's Game of Games (rerun) | 0.3 | 1.6 | |
| Good Girls | 0.3 | 1.4 | |
| Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist | 0.3 | 1.3 |
FOX had a quiet week last week. The Resident and Prodigal Son returned after a week off, both even with their last new episodes. Let's Be Real dropped 100,000 viewers from its premiere. Chances are it will be cancelled. 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star were each up a tenth. Neither show is in any danger. The Masked Singer gained three tenths over the previous week.
| Program | Rating | Millions of Viewers | Renew/Cancel |
| The Masked Singer | 1.1 | 4.7 | |
| 9-1-1 | 1.0 | 6.1 | |
| 9-1-1: Lone Star | 0.8 | 5.2 | |
| WWE: Friday Night Smackdown | 0.6 | 2.2 | |
| The Resident | 0.5 | 3.4 | |
| Game of Talents | 0.5 | 2.2 | |
| Prodigal Son | 0.4 | 2.0 | |
| Family Guy | 0.4 | 1.1 | Renewed (through 2023) |
| Bob's Burgers | 0.4 | 0.9 | Renewed (through 2023) |
| Last Man Standing | 0.3 | 2.1 | Final Season |
| Name That Tune (rerun) | 0.3 | 1.5 | |
| The Simpsons (rerun) | 0.3 | 0.8 | Renewed (through 2023) |
| Let's Be Real | 0.2 | 1.0 | |
| The Simpsons (rerun) | 0.2 | 0.6 | |
| Bless The Harts | 0.2 | 0.6 | Cancelled |
| The Great North (rerun) | 0.2 | 0.6 | Renewed |
| Major League Soccer | 0.1 | 0.4 |
The CW surprised no one by announcing the renewal of Kung Fu last week. Walker returned with its first new episode in almost a month. It lost a tenth and 100,000 viewers. DC's Legends of Tomorrow opened low. Down a tenth or two from last season. More worrisome is it shed a couple hundred thousand viewers in the process. Maybe fans didn't know it was back? Dynasty also premiered last week, garnering a 0.0 rating and barely 300,000 viewers. That better be one sweet syndication deal it has as the network has already renewed it for another season of painful ratings numbers.
| Program | Rating | Millions of Viewers | Renew/Cancel |
| The Flash | 0.2 | 0.7 | Renewed |
| Walker | 0.1 | 1.0 | Renewed |
| Kung Fu | 0.1 | 0.9 | Renewed |
| Supergirl | 0.1 | 0.6 | Final Season |
| Legacies | 0.1 | 0.5 | Renewed |
| DC's Legends Of Tomorrow (premiere) | 0.1 | 0.4 | Renewed |
| Batwoman | 0.1 | 0.4 | Renewed |
| Nancy Drew | 0.1 | 0.4 | Renewed |
| Charmed | 0.1 | 0.4 | Renewed |
| All American (rerun) | 0.1 | 0.3 | Renewed |
| Black Lightning | 0.1 | 0.3 | Final Season |
| Dynasty (premiere) | 0.0 | 0.3 | Renewed |
It's make or break time for network shows. Upfronts start in a week, so expect a flurry of renewals over the coming days. Remember, networks rarely announce a show is cancelled this late in the game. So the tell will be those fall schedules. If your favorites are on that schedule or at least mentioned as returning next season, all is good. If nothing is said, the show is done. Fall schedules will be announced here when we have the information, so keep checking back.
Written by LadyShelley on May 10, 2021
They do, but the advertisers can't be sure the ads are actually watched in that situation, which is why they discount those numbers. The same with the 7 Day and 30 Day numbers. People may be watching, sure, but are they watching the ads? :)
Cool, thx for that info. Is good to know. I noticed that the catch-up services do still have ads in them, which is why I asked :)
No. The ratings I use are the national overnights (the adjusted overnights, not the fast nationals that can still be influenced by time zones or big events) as those are the closest parallel to the C3 (commercial 3 day) ratings that networks and advertisers use, and which we plebes can't access, to determine if a show is producing an audience that is watching the ads. That's the key. A show could have great numbers at the end of 30 days or if the streaming numbers are included, but that does nothing to make sure eyeballs are watching the ads, which is all the advertisers, and by extension, the network cares about.
@LadyShelley I'm curious, do the ratings cover catch-up services provided by the networks or cable/satellite services?
Reason I ask, I, like many people these days, hardly ever watch live tv as it broadcasts, but rather watch a show when it suits me a day or 2 later.
I watched Call me Kat's pilot and wasn't too impressed with it to watch more. For the fans of the show, I'm glad it got renewed.
Yep it was. Cat me Kat was renewed (no real surprise). ABC renewed Grey's Anatomy and Station 19 as well (no surprise with those either)
I think Fox announced after you posted that Prodigal Son got cancelled. I hope they didn't do a cliffhanger finale if they don't get shopped around to a different network/streaming service.