Ratings: ‘Once Upon a Time’ season 5, ‘Quantico’ fall; ‘Madam Secretary’ helped by NFL
There’s a common phenomenon that happens with scripted television: If you take it off for a week for whatever reason, for some reason viewers have trouble finding it again. It’s almost like they have a full fourteen days without it in their life, and then think that they don’t really need to watch it to be entertained anymore. We’ll have more on that in a minute.
The winners – For now, let’s start with giving some praise to “Madam Secretary,” which rose to a 1.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic on a night where it was up against a pair of major competitors in the “Walking Dead” midseason finale and also a key NFL game between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos. (For those wondering, that game drew a 7.8 rating in the demo.) The Tea Leoni drama was delayed thirty minutes past its 8:30 p.m. start time on the East Coast / Central time zones because of football.
The losers – “Once Upon a Time” and “Quantico” were both preempted last week for the American Music Awards, and they’re now at respective 1.3 and 1.2 ratings. For the former, this marks a major series low, and one that we think that the preemption is only partially to blame for. Our feeling is that this season so far has been a little all over the place, and since the Dark Swan is not as evil as it was speculated she would be, we’re not sure it really matched some of the buildup.
We imagine, for those wondering, that we’ll have ratings for “Walking Dead” either later today or tomorrow, depending on whether or not AMC ordered the numbers early.
You can read our review of last night’s “Once Upon a Time” episode by heading over to the link here now. Also, sign up over at this link to score some other updates on all we cover, sent right to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)
Ruth
December 1, 2015 @ 8:12 pm
Once shows have to “spin” their rating results to convince you that they aren’t in trouble, that’s a good sign that they really are. A show in healthy condition isn’t in a defensive position. Having to convince people not to believe what they can see for themselves, says a lot between the lines.
Sarah
December 1, 2015 @ 5:14 pm
Dark Sean? Got the right show? Just kidding, the point is the show is failing because people don’t like it. That can’t be blamed on the Holiday weekend. It was already slipping.
Cleveland
December 1, 2015 @ 4:53 pm
It doesn’t surprise me that Once is failing in ratings. I really think positive relationship, and character development for Captain Swan was an attractive feature to the show, however this began to disappoint, once attention was shifted in other directions in 4B. The Dark Sean story line is awful, and producers have made a habit of poor quality in response to expectations set by promotions, and interviews. Hopefully, they’ll bring things back on track, sooner than later. Hollywood and showbiz grow increasingly out of touch with their viewership, and I saw that happen during the second half of last season. I think an honest, cimprehensive review of real numbers by episode, as opposed to fan rhetoric, can illustrate my point.