CBS’s Partners was cancelled and removed from the schedule on Friday. Slightly softer exits for ABC’s 666 Park Avenue and Last Resort. Neither show got a back nine pickup, but both will get to air all of their episodes according to ABC. All three are marked “canceled” in the table below. None of them will be back next year.
Nobody who reads our site regularly should be surprised at any of those cancellations. They’d all been certain cancellations both here and in the Renew/Cancel Index for a while. In the case of the two ABC shows, they were. by wide margins the lowest-rated dramas that hadn’t already been cancelled (joining Private Practice). Similarly Partners was CBS’s lowest-rated comedy by a wide margin. Predicting those cancellations was akin to predicting that “water is wet” and “fire is hot.”
Another easy prediction: the Nielsen rage and fan campaigns that ensured in comments, e-mails, Twitter, Facebook, etc. While I’m not a believer in the fan campaigns, I’ll give them a very slight edge over Nielsen rage in terms of being worthwhile because they at least can give a person the illusion of doing something productive. Still, I was amused by the EW story that quoted a “suit” as saying it amounts to “pissing in the wind.” But I'll take that over the "antiquated system" complaints, particularly the protests that Nielsen doesn't measure DVR viewing (it does!). But advertisers only pay for commercial viewing 3 days after shows air, and advertisers don't pay when the commercials get skipped/fast-forwarded during DVR playback.
No state-of-the-art measurement system is going to convince advertisers to pay for things they're not interested in paying for. But fans and TV networks can dream!
Don't Trust The B----, Happy Endings & The Neighbors
You can debate whether I did it on purpose or merely forgot to downgrade Don't Trust The B----to certain cancellation and Happy Endings to likely cancellation thiis week. The B---- pulled some horrible, terrible, awful numbers on Tuesday, and Happy Endings wasn't much better. Though Happy Endings is in its third season, because it's first season was only 13 episodes, it's going to need more than one more season to get to the 88 episodes necessary for Mon-Fri syndication. But with Sony involved in its production, its relative ratings will have to get worse to get moved off the bubble.
As for The Neighbors, yep, I did merely forget to downgrade it to the bubble. I updated the text in the table, but the sorting and color is off. Next week...
Update: Bonus Forgetfulness
Yep, I forgot to add Whitney to the table even though it premiered on Wednesday. Because there's only one data point I'd have had it "on the bubble/too soon" this week anyway. It'll probably be there next week too since it's airing on Thanksgiving Eve...
When it comes to bubble status, like the Renew/Cancel Index we're focusing on the likelihood that a show will be renewed **for next season** (2013-14). Certain shows are toss-ups where based on the ratings, the renewal decisions could go either way and not be surprising.
Here, “canceled” is used interchangeably with “won’t be renewed for next season” and is not meant to imply a show will be yanked off the schedule in the current season though obviously the two outcomes are not mutually exclusive. The semantics police and lawyers should feel free to break out the handcuffs and plead their cases in the comments.
This Isn't The Renew/Cancel Index
Though the basic methodology is the same (intra-network relative ranking of shows by adults 18-49 ),unlike the Renew/Cancel Index which predicts what would happen if the season ended now, Bubble Watch prognosticates about what will happen by May. The two are still usually closely aligned, and almost certainly very closely aligned towards the end of the season.
Note: only scripted shows that have aired at least one episode this season are in the table below.
--
| Show | Network | Status |
| 666 Park Avenue | ABC | Canceled |
| Last Resort | ABC | Canceled |
| Made In Jersey | CBS | Canceled |
| Partners | CBS | Canceled |
| Animal Practice | NBC | Canceled |
| tvbythenumbers.com | ||
| Emily Owens, M.D. | CW | Certain Cancellation |
| The Mob Doctor | Fox | Certain Cancellation |
| tvbythenumbers.com | ||
| Don't Trust The B---- in Apartment 23 | ABC | Likely Cancellation |
| Vegas | CBS | Likely Cancellation |
| Ben And Kate | Fox | Likely Cancellation |
| Guys With Kids | NBC | Likely Cancellation |
| Up All Night | NBC | Likely Cancellation |
| tvbythenumbers.com | ||
| Happy Endings | ABC | On The Bubble |
| Last Man Standing | ABC | On The Bubble |
| Malibu Country | ABC | On The Bubble |
| Nashville | ABC | On The Bubble |
| Scandal | ABC | On The Bubble |
| CSI: NY | CBS | On The Bubble |
| The Good Wife | CBS | On The Bubble |
| The Mentalist | CBS | On The Bubble |
| 90210 | CW | On The Bubble |
| Hart Of Dixie | CW | On The Bubble |
| Nikita | CW | On The Bubble |
| Beauty And The Beast | CW | On The Bubble |
| The Mindy Project | Fox | On The Bubble |
| Chicago Fire | NBC | On The Bubble |
| tvbythenumbers.com | ||
| Castle | ABC | Likely Renewal |
| Neighbors, The | ABC | On The Bubble, Sorry About the Sort/Color |
| Suburgatory | ABC | Likely Renewal |
| The Middle | ABC | Likely Renewal |
| CSI | CBS | Likely Renewal |
| Elementary | CBS | Likely Renewal |
| Hawaii Five-0 | CBS | Likely Renewal |
| How I Met Your Mother | CBS | Likely Renewal |
| Two and a Half Men | CBS | Likely Renewal |
| Bones | Fox | Likely Renewal |
| The Cleveland Show | Fox | Likely Renewal |
| Law & Order: SVU | NBC | Likely Renewal |
| Parks & Recreation | NBC | Likely Renewal |
| The New Normal | NBC | Likely Renewal |
| tvbythenumbers.com | ||
| Grey's Anatomy | ABC | Certain Renewal |
| Modern Family | ABC | Certain Renewal |
| Once Upon A Time | ABC | Certain Renewal |
| Revenge | ABC | Certain Renewal |
| 2 Broke Girls | CBS | Certain Renewal |
| Blue Bloods | CBS | Certain Renewal |
| Criminal Minds | CBS | Certain Renewal |
| Mike & Molly | CBS | Certain Renewal |
| NCIS | CBS | Certain Renewal |
| NCIS: Los Angeles | CBS | Certain Renewal |
| Person Of Interest | CBS | Certain Renewal |
| Arrow | CW | Certain Renewal |
| Supernatural | CW | Certain Renewal |
| The Vampire Diaries | CW | Certain Renewal |
| Glee | Fox | Certain Renewal |
| New Girl | Fox | Certain Renewal |
| Raising Hope | Fox | Certain Renewal |
| Go On | NBC | Certain Renewal |
| Grimm | NBC | Certain Renewal |
| Parenthood | NBC | Certain Renewal |
| Revolution | NBC | Certain Renewal |
| tvbythenumbers.com | ||
| The Big Bang Theory | CBS | Renewed |
| American Dad | Fox | Renewed |
| Bob's Burgers | Fox | Renewed |
| Family Guy | Fox | Renewed |
| The Simpsons | Fox | Renewed |
| tvbythenumbers.com | ||
| Private Practice | ABC | Canceled/Final Season |
| Gossip Girl | CW | Final Season |
| Fringe | Fox | Final Season |
| 30 Rock | NBC | Final Season |
| The Office | NBC | Final Season |
Nick— You’re right. I haven’t seen “Last Resort.” I could always watch it off I-Tunes if everyone believes I am missing something great.
Where were these fans when the damn show was on?
Oh, well, whatever. If enough of them turn out, maybe a movie will get made.
Funniest line must be:
“Up a whole Nikita”
- THE OLD MAN
Don’t know how this thread became about Nikita, but that had to be said
I’m gonna miss Last Resort and The Good Wife, even the TGW has not been cancelled yet, the ratings seem to lean in that direction.
@Tyson
Can’t help you in regard to the last hit sitcom at 10. Not even cable has any “hits” with comedies at that hour.
South Park
Vcoolwater,yes CW might have a strong pilots which could get it cancelled, but Dixie being stable is good_look at Nikita falling,Beauty fallen a lot steady for now,90210 has only gotten 0 5_0.6 and above a million viewers twice I the last six episodes,its ratings are inconsistant and crashing too.
@Brandy
Hart of Dixie ratings are mediocre. It doesn’t really matter if the ratings are stable. The fact that the show is not growing in ratings might cause trouble later on.
*Oliver
Posted November 18, 2012 at 6:39 AM
You’re missing Whitney.
…unlike the American public, who apparently weren’t.*
^ Or perhaps they’ve already had a gut full of all the attempts to cash-in on her death.
@DarthSidVicous Whitney The NBC show Not the singer.
@ZmaX – Exactly. Those few sentences on Deadline can’t even be verified by a web search; there’s no definitive list of how many countries Nikita airs in, though even that wouldn’t prove that it’s a big money maker. How big is the channel it airs on? What kind of audience does it get?
The only article I found regarding Nikita’s money-making abilities is from Deadline in March of 2011 (http://www.deadline.com/2011/03/survey-%E2%80%98blue-bloods%E2%80%99-most-commercial-of-this-seasons-new-series/). I think Bill or Robert may have even made a post about this when the article came out. Regardless, it ranks Nikita as middle-of-the-road in terms of how much money its first season made in domestic and international broadcasts. According to this list from TBI, it fared worse than Hellcats. So I don’t really understand where people are getting the idea that this show is huge overseas, because I’ve never seen proof of it.
Nielsen ratings as well as similar statistic system all over the world are not only flawed at their core, very small samples that whatever interpolation you do wouldn’t be able to deliver realistic approximation of most probable real percentages anyway. BUT all data is being tampered with by networks for networks. All these systems and network managers care for is bribes and dirty business deals. That is what is going on under the curtain with the whole corrupted system.
FBI should put in jail almost everyone in the business. But no one investigates although it’s crystal clear how corrupted the system is.
These network managers are just like bankers, they can only steal and statistical businesses are their allies and part of the gang.
@swrazor
Posted November 18, 2012 at 10:37 AM
“I shutter to think how many shows have been put down, that were actually popular by ALL of it’s watchers.”
It never ceases to amaze me that people that complain that the Nielsen system rates their shows mistakenly low never consider the fact that it is just a likely that Nielsen has rated their shows falsely higher than they were rated.
If Nikita was doing amazing abroad CW would have issued a press relese to say so to give the show some positive spin.
European commentators here even say Nikita does poor to average in their countries. Never has anyone said amazing only delusional Nikita fans.
@Tyson
Can’t help you in regard to the last hit sitcom at 10. Not even cable has any “hits” with comedies at that hour.
It always sunny in Philadelphia this season is low but it use to pull over 1 so are South Park hot and Cleveland airing at 10 weeds very suspenseful show for SHOWTIME also aired at 10
GCB Doesn’t look so bad now for ABC. It’s finale drew a 1.8 (according to Wikipedia). And since the ‘best’ ABC drama has been getting around that in the BEGINNING of the season(Nashville), im sure it will go down by spring. ABC didn’t realize that this is average for a 10pm show now….They should bring it back and see how it does.
@rank5869
Posted November 18, 2012 at 1:27 PM
“Nielsen ratings as well as similar statistic system all over the world are not only flawed at their core, very small samples that whatever interpolation you do wouldn’t be able to deliver realistic approximation of most probable real percentages anyway. BUT all data is being tampered with by networks for networks. All these systems and network managers care for is bribes and dirty business deals. That is what is going on under the curtain with the whole corrupted system.
FBI should put in jail almost everyone in the business. But no one investigates although it’s crystal clear how corrupted the system is.
These network managers are just like bankers, they can only steal and statistical businesses are their allies and part of the gang.”
Your insanity is showing. Did you and Glenn Beck come up with that theory.
@Bobby
While I will agree that GCB is not looking so bad now I will have to point out that there is no way it is coming back.
@Bobby
GCB Doesn’t look so bad now for ABC.
Yes, it does. Scandal has been higher rated and more consistent than GCB (I realize it does have a stronger lead-in), but they clearly renewed the right show.
It’s finale drew a 1.8 (according to Wikipedia). And since the ‘best’ ABC drama has been getting around that in the BEGINNING of the season
Nonsense. Nashville’s low is a 1.8, but most of the episodes have had a 2.0; GCB’s low in the spring was a 1.5. Also, as I said, Scandal is outperforming GCB.
im sure it will go down by spring.
And GCB wouldn’t? Also, GCB wouldn’t have higher ratings just because it is the fall – fall ratings are on par with the previous spring’s ratings.
They should bring it back and see how it does.
No, they shouldn’t, because they already know how it will do – not good enough.
lol Robert Robert…
You always have to throw in those little comments mocking the upset fans for the sake of page hits don’t you? I guess this little fishie will bite the hook though, lol.
Now I could care less about the shows that were cancelled as I never watched a single episode, but I think we both know Nielsen is an “antiquated system.” Even you guys have admitted more than once that Nielsen is far from perfect, but then simply point out that at this point it’s the best we have and the advertisers need to get their ratings research somewhere.
So yeah, while it can be just as unfair for any other show as it may have been for those ones, I can’t blame the fans of those shows for being annoyed. After all, there have been very few real changes to that system since it was started over 60 years ago. We both know viewing now compared to then is a night and day difference.