Ratings Bubble Report: Is ‘Madam Secretary’ season 3 even on the bubble for CBS?

Typically with this Ratings Bubble Report article series, what we like to do is take a closer look at shows that are in a certain degree of danger as to whether or not they’re coming back for more episodes. What’s so interesting about this edition, which focuses on “Madam Secretary” from CBS, is that it is such an enigma in the first place as to whether or not it’s in any danger.

When you think about the show’s ratings in proportion to how much publicity it gets, it’s rather remarkable that this is a show that even manages to get any ratings at all. That’s not meant as a criticism to anything that the show is doing, but rather to CBS, who really is not doing enough to ensure that gets a proper chance to have some sort of extended future on the air. It’s also a show that faces constantly more adversity than almost any other, given that it’s constantly changing timeslots because of NFL games in the fall and just this past Sunday, aired opposite the Golden Globe Awards.

If you look below, you can get a little bit more of our insight into what the show is bringing to the table, and also some of the additional work that still needs to be done in order to push it to the next level.

The good news – As we said, CBS doesn’t need to invest much in terms of advertising for the show in order to get results. It’s also a change-of-pace series for them given that it’s one of the few where someone isn’t dying every week. At the same time, it fits in very well with much of their audience, especially some of the same demographics who enjoyed “The Good Wife” at the time in which it was on. It also had to withstand many other factors that we haven’t even mentioned yet, including “The Walking Dead,” “Westworld,” “Shameless,” and a wide array of other options on cable.

One last thing: “Madam Secretary” is far from the network’s lowest-rated show. CBS by and large has a solid lineup, but there are trouble spots on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and even later on Sunday nights.

The bad news – All you do have to look for a moment at the raw numbers here. For the third season so far, “Madam Secretary” has drawn in total a 1.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic. That’s down almost 19% from season 2, when the show aired following “60 Minutes” and had more of a boost courtesy of the NFL. While it is still a competent performer, it’s not drawing numbers that will get executives jumping up and down. It’s performing worse than many of the network’s shows pretty much any other night of the week, including Fridays.

Overall outlook – For now, we still say that it gets renewed. If nothing else, we can envision a scenario where if “Elementary” is canceled, this show shifts to 10:00 p.m. Eastern in hopes of CBS boosting that timeslot. We do think it is slightly on the bubble (to answer the question that we first raised), but there may not be all that much to specifically worry about.

Should “Madam Secretary” be renewed? Let us know in the attached comments, and be sure to head over to the link here in the event you do want to get some further news regarding the show. (Photo: CBS.)