Ratings Roundup for the Week of September 25, 2022

:) 

It wouldn't hurt to dump the wokeness either.

Networks are getting desperate. By all rights, Welcome To Flatch should have been yanked after its first three episodes completely tanked last season. Fox, however, had nothing to plug the hole, so it stayed. The same is true now as then. FOX is slim on scripted programming, and they don't air a full schedule anyway. They are relying on various reality shows, sport, and the Sunday animation shows to remain relevant. The Resident and The Cleaning Lady are likely safe, they are still pulling more than 2 million viewers. Monarch is likely done. Welcome To Flatch, again should be done. And Call Me Kat might survive if the network has another live-action, half-hour show to pair it with. 

I would not count on any of the CW shows (current or freshman) getting renewed. Pedowitz is gone, and he was a huge advocate for the programming on the network. NexStar has a plan, and like lions in the wild, new management tends to kill all the children when they take over. They have already said they want to attract a different audience, so anything geared to the 20-somethings is likely gone unless it blows the doors off in the ratings. 

The idea that streaming with also "save a show" may need tempering. Streamers aren't as interested in picking up network scraps these days. They are creating enough of their own shows that they don't need to. Also, the reason shows like Lucifer and The Expanse were snatched up was because they were still pulling in decent numbers at their respective networks, and the streamers wanted to scoop up those fans. That's no longer the case either. 

In other cases, the shows weren't saved as much as shifted. SEAL Team and The Orville were planned moves. CBS wanted to boost subscriptions to Paramount+ and SEAL Team fit a demographic they were trying to attract. (It was a coin toss as to whether or not SEAL Team or SWAT made the leap) This is the same reason ABC moved Dancing with the Stars to Disney+. Moving The Orville to Hulu (and then D+) was an arrangement with Seth McFarlane to give him the space to finish the third season (and was then delayed another two years anyway).

What will be interesting to watch is how the streaming landscape sorts itself. Streamers are already shifting to ad-supported models. They claim it's to entice folks who can't afford the services, otherwise, but the reality is, they are getting nervous. Ad-supported tiers set up two things: 1 a secondary revenue source, and 2 it allows for a tiered system where the streamers can charge even more for their service if you don't want to deal with the ads. Time will tell if people buy into the higher-priced models to avoid the adverts. 

There's also the fact the churn is real, and it's costing the streamers too much money. Streaming platforms are not going to be able to keep going the way they are now for much longer. Consolidation is coming (it's already started) and I wouldn't be surprised if minimum required contracts aren't far behind. Say goodbye to buying a sub for a month, binging all the new content, cancelling, and moving on to the next streamer. Three to six-month minimum contracts could be a reality within the next 2-3 years. 

Contrary to popular belief, network television is not going to disappear. US networks have a mandate from the US government that they must be available to anyone as they are still a main source for emergency broadcast info and the like. What that does mean is network television could become a food desert of sorts in that the only things they air are programs that are cheap (ie "reality", games shows, etc) or various sports. The NFL still draws big numbers for the networks that air games. Anything that is expensive to produce will move to where the money is, meaning subscription services. 

At the moment, things don't look very bright for any of the new shows (ABC's The Rookie: Feds, CBS's So Help Me Todd, NBC's Quantum Leap) and several old ones (ABC's Big Sky, ABC's Home Economics, ABC's The Goldbergs, CBS's CSI: Vegas, CBS's NCIS: Hawai'i, Fox's Call Me Kat, Fox's Monarch, Fox's The Cleaning Lady, Fox's The Resident, Fox's Welcome to Flatch). I'm only commenting on the live-action scripted shows; animated and unscripted shows are mostly outside my field of interests. It's way too early of course to predict anything, but if the numbers of the aforementioned shows take a further dive, we may have a very different TV landscape next season. Of course there are some strong newcomer candidates that haven't premiered yet: ABC's Alaska Daily, CBS's Fire Country, The CW's The Winchesters, and The CW's Walker: Independence. We'll see how these will fare.

On another note, Nexstar Media Group's acquisition of The CW has been finalized. The new owner now holds 75% of The CW interests while the old co-owners (Warner Bros. Discover and Paramount Global) each retain 12.5 of the ownership interests. Changes have been swift. Mark Pedowitz has already exited as Chairman & CEO of The CW after an 11-year tenure. Dennis Miller has been named new President of The CW, effective immediately. It remains to be seen what changes (if any) this restructuring will bring to the network and its shows.

Most fall network shows have premiered, and it's clear the ratings plunge from 2020 has continued as viewership continues to fracture across over-the-air, cable, and streaming services. Some attrition is expected every season. That's normal. But the pandemic and the explosion of streaming options have accelerated the drop. It will be interesting to see how networks try to counter the effect streaming has on their stable of over-the-air programs. Will more and more scripted programs move to streaming platforms?

I completely agree with this assessment. There are numerous examples of shows that have moved from a network to a streaming service or that have been rescued by a streaming service after they have been cancelled by a network. Off the top of my head, A.P. Bio, Blood & Treasure, Evil, Lucifer, Manifest, SEAL Team, The Expanse, The Orville are such examples. I'm sure there are several others. If memory serves, the opposite has only happened once, in the case of Stargirl. Stargirl may prove to be the unique case of a show that has moved from a streamer to a network only to be moved again to a streaming service! We'll see! :D

Thanks for this week's ratings roundup, @LadyShelley! :)