Ratings and Scheduling

[jhlipton]

On 5/14/2017 at 2:23 PM, TVSpectator said:

All I am saying is that if a 3.0 something can kill a show only 2-3 years ago then why did this show got renewed when it's lowest rated episode was a 2.0 and it's current episode only got a 2.14?

Because a show's ratings aren't compared with shows from the past or even from another network the same year.  Even a few years ago, a show with a 2.0 would be dead in the water, now it would be towards the top of the pack (Even Empire, which finished its first season with a phenomenal 6.9, is hovering around 3).  AoS would be compared with whatever else is on ABC this season.

[MadyGirl1987]

So, while AOS is renewed, ABC just released their fall schedule, and it isn't on it. However, Inhumans are on Fridays. I wonder if this means that AOS will be moved to Fridays after Inhumans airs the 8 episodes. 

[Iceman91]

http://tvline.com/2017/05/16/abc-fall-lineup-2017-once-upon-a-time-friday-schedule/

Good news the show received a full 22 episode order, it will take over Inhumans on friday

[MadyGirl1987]

I was wondering if that meant AOS got a smaller season, so it's good to hear they got a full one. I guess ABC is trying to make a Sci-fi/Fantasy night. I know Friday is seen as where shows go to die but I can't help thinking Once and AOS are good candidates to be successful Fridays. Both seem to heavily rely on On-Demand/Streaming for their ratings. Genre shows like these also have fan-bases which will follow the show rather then just passively tuning in whenever they can and if they miss an episode that's fine.

[Froippi]

so full 22 episode order but budget was cut to this could be the last season

Edited May 16, 2017 by Froippi

[Lady Calypso]

1 hour ago, Froippi said:

so full 22 episode order but budget was cut to this could be the last season

I'd be ok if this was the final season. Most shows get a lot worse after five seasons (not all, but a good chunk of them) because they run out of stories to tell or they start backtracking on characters' histories and I'd rather this show went out on a high note. 

[Froippi]

i still like to know more about Fitz and Simmons when they were at the Academy or even about their parents 

[Lady Calypso]

So, it looks like season 5 is not catching the eyeballs like last season.

While the premiere held steady in the demos, episode 3 slipped two-tenths. The premiere also was at 2.55 million viewers, but last night slipped to 1.93, which doesn't look great. I guess people weren't thrilled with how the Space Arc started off. And honestly, I was flipping back and forth between another show for the third episode, anyway.

It's still too early to tell, but I'm surprised the viewership dropped that much. 

[Raja]

Blue people with no personality in a dark ship can't match a real whole person with a flaming skull.

[TVSpectator]

On 12/9/2017 at 0:38 PM, Raja said:

Blue people with no personality in a dark ship can't match a real whole person with a flaming skull.

It's also airing during the Holiday season. IMO, it would've been better if this show aired after the Holiday season (like in previously planned January airing) but apparently, they wanted to premiere the show on literally the first Friday of Dec. Also, I guess ratings don't matter IF Disney is forcing ABC to not even consider to cancel this show. So, I say big deal. 

Edited December 11, 2017 by TVSpectator

[Minneapple]

The thing that really really sucks is that they shunted SHIELD off to a horrible timeslot and a horrible day all for The Inhumans, which was horrible.

[Hanahope]

Was I the only one who had some problems with recording this episode on my DVR?  I had a blackout of a few minutes for OUAT, but when I went to watch AoS, at least the entire first half of the episode was black (could be the entire episode, I stopped fast forwarding after half and deleted it).  Not sure if it was ABC, my DVR  or Verizon (though no other shows on other channels recorded over those days had problems).

I guess I'll have to watch it on the website.

Edited December 11, 2017 by Hanahope

[Loandbehold]

2 hours ago, Hanahope said:

Was I the only one who had some problems with recording this episode on my DVR?

I didn't have any problems in NYC w/ my cable. Maybe it was local to your area.

[Lady Calypso]

So, clearly there must be an issue with the Future Space arc, because last night's numbers? They raised pretty significantly, the best since the premiere. 2.45 million viewers last night, which is up from last week's 1.8 million. The demo even raised from a 0.5 to 0.6.

https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/marvels-agents-shield-season-five-ratings/

I mean, either it's because there was nothing else on last night that people tuned in, or people wanted to see Fitz and take a break from the Space arc. 

[Raja]

20 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

So, clearly there must be an issue with the Future Space arc, because last night's numbers? They raised pretty significantly, the best since the premiere. 2.45 million viewers last night, which is up from last week's 1.8 million. The demo even raised from a 0.5 to 0.6.

https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/marvels-agents-shield-season-five-ratings/

I mean, either it's because there was nothing else on last night that people tuned in, or people wanted to see Fitz and take a break from the Space arc. 

Possibly since Hawaii 5-0 is also action we got some crossover from there

[Lady Calypso]

Agents of SHIELD continues to tick up. Last night's ratings? 0.70 in the demo, and 2.47 million viewers. 

[Mellowyellow]

Oh yay! 

Isn't Friday a crappy time slot as well???

[Raja]

5 hours ago, Mellowyellow said:

Oh yay! 

Isn't Friday a crappy time slot as well???

I never agreed with that conventional wisdom. Especially for the nerd genre shows which have made Fridays their home for over a decade now. Even CBS has gotten almost a decade out of Blue Bloods and Hawaii 5-0. 

I think the MCU got lucky over the diversity wars and equal pay fighting going on in Hawaii and Taken being held back as it was rebooting 

[Lady Calypso]

5 hours ago, Raja said:

I never agreed with that conventional wisdom. Especially for the nerd genre shows which have made Fridays their home for over a decade now. Even CBS has gotten almost a decade out of Blue Bloods and Hawaii 5-0. 

I think the MCU got lucky over the diversity wars and equal pay fighting going on in Hawaii and Taken being held back as it was rebooting 

I think CBS has been the only network to get really good ratings for their Friday shows; Hawaii Five-O and Blue Bloods have certainly done very well on Fridays compared to other networks, and even their newer show, MacGyver has decent ratings. Other networks, even ABC, haven't fared as well. It is called the Friday Death Slot for a reason because, though not all shows do poorly, the majority of them do, and many shows are moved to Fridays if they're not doing well initially on a weeknight.

However, for Agents of SHIELD, the reason why the recent ratings are good is because of the subsequent drop for episodes 3 and 4. The premiere was over 2 million, but then episodes three and four dropped quite a bit. However, the ratings going back up IS a good thing. If they continued to drop, that would be very, very bad. But the fact that it's gone up is a sign that the show may not be dead in the water, after all. Now, if the ratings go back down, there may be a cause for concern, because inconsistent ratings are never good for a network to determine the show's future. It makes it a little bit more of a lengthy process to determine renewal or cancellation. 

[Loandbehold]

Series will be going on hiatus in February. Story

[Raja]

3 hours ago, Loandbehold said:

Series will be going on hiatus in February. Story

I guess saving episodes is a positive sign. After all you save it instead of burning off new episodes when you expect no viewers anyway.

On the other hand it means probably no obvious tie in to Avengers Infinity War since the release dates changed at the last minute 

[TVSpectator]

I don't know if anyone is interested in reading this article about what it means to have a "death slot" for a TV show but since some think that ABC has always been trying to kill the show here is an article describing what a death slot is and what the author categorized shows into. It does not directly mention this show but I thought that it was slightly related to this shows' predicament when it comes to its ratings:

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/tv-ratings-monday-april-2-2018/