Ratings Bubble Report: Does ‘iZombie’ season 2 still have bite left in it?

It would be hard to imagine anyone saying that “iZombie” is not a heck of a lot of fun to watch. However, are enough people actually watching it? There are a number of fascinating ratings situations that we are seeing at The CW at the moment, but this one is near the top of the list. It’s a show that is below the DC Comics entries and “Supernatural,” but performs better than most everything else on the schedule.

With that said, does the show benefit heavily from airing after “The Flash”? In our latest Ratings Bubble Report entry, this is something that we are going to do our best to try to figure out.

The good news – This is a CW series still averaging a 0.6 in the 18-49 demographic on the season, at least if you round it up. The only other shows for the network doing this right now are “Arrow,” “The Flash,” “Supernatural,” and for now “The Vampire Diaries” … but that’ll probably change with the latter thanks to it being moved to Fridays. It’s also a show that has a diehard following, an up-and-coming lead in Rose McIver, and a fantastic producer in Rob Thomas who you want to have a good relationship with thanks to what he’s done in the past with “Veronica Mars.”

Also, we’ve had at least some overtures for now that the network wants to keep the show. Even if you question the ratings thanks to the lead-in, it’s worth taking a chance on another night before you abandon the idea of the series completely.

The bad news – Competition is really the key issue for the network, given that the shows that have lower ratings than “iZombie,” in particular “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and “Jane the Virgin,” have the benefit of critical acclaim. That could put other shows at risk. Also, when you look at the shows on The CW that are produced by Warner Bros., “iZombie” for now is really only above “The Originals” (“The 100” has yet to premiere). If their strategy is to axe the lowest-rated show from each studio, maybe Live and company are in more trouble.

Renewal odds – High. We have a tough time seeing the situation above happening. So long as the ratings remain around a 0.5 at least the rest of the season, it’ll get a renewal. The one thing that we do think is that come season 3 “iZombie” will be airing at a different time so they can try something else with “The Flash.”