It’s been a bizarre summer of television. Once a time when the cable networks shined with original programming (Mad Men, Breaking Bad) eating into more unscripted fare on broadcast networks, there seemed to be a shift this summer back toward the nets. ESPN and A&E suffered huge 30 percent drops (no doubt, the absence of Longmire hurt A&E) while TNT was off 25 percent (Rizzoli and Isles is losing its audience), and even USA — despite the buzzy Mr. Robot — fell almost 20 percent (we miss Psych!). Bravo and the History Channel dropped more than 20 percent, as well.
Putting aside Fear the Walking Dead — which had the highest premiere in cable history last Sunday — there weren’t really any new breakout hits this summer on cable, and AMC continued its struggles in between zombie-related dramas. Their new series, Humans, managed to score a second season, but never managed to score particularly well in the ratings, while Halt and Catch Fire’s much improved second season saw even bigger ratings drops and will be lucky if it manages a third season.
HBO — the go-to network in the summer — also saw ratings declines for its second season of True Detective, and by the end of its run, it had dropped 22 percent below where the first True Detective season ended. Brink was renewed for a second season, though you’d be hard-pressed to find many who watched it. Ballers, at least, was a bright spot for the network, logging the best ratings for a comedy on HBO since its Entourage days (you can attribute that to The Rock; I’ll attribute it to the Denzel-like presence of Denzel’s son). However, not even David Simon could provide a boost for HBO, as the phenomenal Show Me a Hero mini-series is logging less than 400,000 same-day viewers for the network. That’s not great.
On Showtime, Ray Donovan saw a slight decline year over year, while Masters of Sex hit a series low two weeks ago, barely mustering 500,000 viewers, although both shows have been picked up for fourth seasons because half a million viewers is all it takes on Showtime.
FX didn’t fare much better. Its Comedians with Billy Crystal and Josh Gad was canceled after one season, while The Strain continues to fall (and no wonder, apparently there are gladiator vampires now). Ratings for Tyrant, which was not a first season hit for FX, have fallen even further in its second season.
Meanwhile, the audiences haven’t followed some of the most critically well-liked series this summer, either. Lifetime’s Unreal managed to grow to nearly 800,000 viewers by the finale, but most of the season it hovered around the 500,000 viewer range. Mr. Robot was the summer show that everyone told their friends they had to watch (and you should!), and while ratings were initially soft, it has seen some solid growth throughout the summer (Mr. Robot may ultimately be the latent breakout hit of the summer). Meanwhile, maybe the best show on all of television this summer, Rectify, was also the lowest rated scripted program of the summer.
That’s depressing (and no doubt the depressing tone of the show has turned away many viewers).
What did work on cable? Fox News, thanks to Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly. Unscripted programs like Naked and Afraid and Alaskan Bush People on Discovery also did well. Meanwhile, A&E’s ratings drop probably has a lot to do with Duck Dynasty, which has seen precipitous ratings falls since being one of the top-rated shows on TV in 2014. E! thought it’d have a hit in I am Cait, when it debuted with 2.7 million viewers, but even a Kardashian-related reality series couldn’t hold its own during the summer, falling closer to 1 million viewers by the fifth episode.
Meanwhile, the broadcast networks managed little success with scripted programming but succeeded this summer with unscripted stand-bys. Fox’s Wayward Pines was one of only two breakout scripted hits of the summer for the networks, although Under the Dome continued to perform modestly, even if it is way down from its first season two years ago. Did anyone know that Halle Berry’s Extant got a second season? It did! Ratings were down from last year, and was little seen within the 18-49 demo. Meanwhile, ratings for both Hannibal and Welcome to Sweden on NBC were so bad that they were both canceled before finishing out their seasons out.
But, America’s Got Talent performed incredibly well for NBC, as did Hollywood Game Night and America Ninja Warrior, while The Bachelorette had another strong ratings season for ABC, along with newcomer Battlebots. The other breakout scripted hit? The Zoo on CBS. It’s apparently the top-rated scripted show of the summer, but those ratings are falling fast, as the novelty of a horrible show is apparently waning. CBS won’t even commit to a second season yet, despite those solid ratings.
But here’s the thing: Overall television viewership was not down precipitously this summer (it’s down 3 percent since last summer, although unmeasured viewing on streaming services could account for some of that). What’s the issue? FX President John Landgraf warns that there’s simply “too much television” and scripted programs may be cannibalizing each other. “There is too much competition,” he said. “It is hard to find good shows.” I do wonder if he’s talking about the network’s ability to find good shows shows to program or the audience’s ability to locate them? Because there’s been plenty of good television this summer (and I haven’t even mentioned the low-rated but excellent Comedy Central shows Review, Inside Amy Schumer and Another Period, or Playing House on USA); you just have to look beyond True Detective to find them.
But there is one thing we can ALL celebrate. Rick & Morty continues to perform strongly in its second season — it was the second-highest rated scripted non-rerun cable program last Sunday night despite the Fear the Walking Dead premiere, and it didn’t even air until 11:30 p.m.
That’s impressive. Television take note: Whip-smart animated sitcoms rife with pop-culture references and leads who burp and vomit from their mouth are big hits!
Source: USA Today
