While most of you are spending the morning processing last night’s Breaking Bad finale (and I assure you, we’ll have plenty of posts today to help you in that endeavor), it’s easy to forget that there are other television shows. No, really! Granted, they’re not as good, and many of them are on something called “broadcast networks,” a fairly useless vestige from the 20th Century (ask your parents).
Those broadcast networks are still around, alas, and two out of three of last year’s network shows are still killing it in the ratings (Big Bang Theory with a 5.5 in the demo, and Modern Family with a 4.2 in the demo) while a third scripted program (NCIS, 3.6) has taken quite a ratings tumble, thanks to its new time-slot competition, the top-rated new program of last week.
Just so you know where you stand, and which of the fall’s new shows have the best chance of surviving until Christmas, I took the liberty of ranking 13 of the new network series (not including last night’s premiere of Betrayal because those numbers aren’t available yet). I am also not including CW shows, because I am over the age of 17.
Here’s how the new fall shows shook out last week, compared to each other:
1. Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD — 4.7
2. The Crazy Ones — 4.0
3. The Blacklist — 3.8
4. The Goldbergs — 3.2
5. Sleepy Hollow — 3.1 (2nd episode)
6. Mom — 2.5
7. Trophy Wife — 2.3
8. Back in the Game — 2.2
9. The Michael J. Fox Show — 2.1
10. Brooklyn Nine-Nine — 1.8 (2nd episode)
11. Hostages — 1.8
12. Dads — 1.4 (2nd episode)
13. Lucky 7 — 1.3
Early numbers look good for most of the series at least completing their first seasons, based on premiere week numbers. I’d be a little worried for Brooklyn Nine-Nine and really worried for Dads, since Fox still has Raising Hope (currently scheduled for Fridays later this fall) in its back pocket, and they could easily install it back into its old time slot and kick Dads to the curb. Lucky 7 is cooked, and may not even get a third episode, since it was both the lowest rated new show of last week and came during ABC’s new Agents of SHIELD led night, so they’re going to want to fix the last hour of that primetime block as quickly as possible. My suggestion? Figure out how to bring back Happy Endings and Don’t Trust the B— in Apt. 23. And no, I am not ready to let it go.
