Ratings Bubble Report: Is ‘Once Upon a Time’ season 6 in any renewal danger?
At this particular point in time, we’ve heard on several different occasions that no one is planning for “Once Upon a Time” season 6 to be the final one for the show — at least from the production side of things. The issue here is mostly that these people are not the ones in control of the bottom line, and they absolutely don’t have the final say in this. It’s all about what the network wants, and what they believe to be the long-term viability of this series.
Based on the numbers at this point, it feels pretty clear that this fairy-tale drama is on the downswing. It got off to a great start in season 1, started to fall, and had a brief renaissance with the “Frozen” arc at the start of season 4. Since that point, we’ve seen a steep decline. Season 6 to date is averaging just a 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic, down over 20% from the 1.4 rating the show averaged in season 5. Meanwhile, season 5 was down over 35% from season 4 in the same measurement. Look at it this way: Season 4 averaged around a 2.2 rating. Over the course of the past two years, half of the people who were watching the show live in the demo no longer are.
What happened along the way? You can look at a few different things.
Inability to bring over “Frozen” fans – The show got fans of Anna and Elsa to tune in at the start of season 4, but they couldn’t get them to stay beyond the first handful of episodes of that season.
Muddy storytelling – We look back at the first half of season 5 as one of the show’s biggest trouble spots — the non-linear way in which the tale of the Dark Swan was told was muddy and uninteresting. It didn’t quite live up to the hype, and that is something that we can say in some regards about this season so far with the Agrabah storyline. You’ve got good actors and interesting ideas, but they are being executed in a way that isn’t clear. It doesn’t feel like the show has a strong-enough take on Aladdin and Jasmine so far.
All of this is a shame given that we found the Underworld story for the most part legitimately good, and perhaps the best bit of storytelling we’ve seen from the show since the very first season.
Natural viewer fatigue – This impacts many shows, but especially those who have a younger viewership like this one. To compare this with a show like “NCIS,” its viewers are more set in their ways, and they know what they like to watch. The odds are higher that some viewers in the 18-29 range for this show are more likely to get disinterested, watch via non-traditional means, or simply get involved in other things.
Here is the good news: It still feels like there is another season in the cards for the show. It’s been such a franchise player that it would be shameful for ABC to not give it a proper ending. Even if you only give it a ten-episode run during the fall like “Secrets and Lies” had this year, that’s enough to start to wind things down and bring everyone to their Happily Ever After. The show deserves it, and the same goes for the fans who watch religiously.
Should “Once Upon a Time” be renewed for another season? Vote in the poll below, and head over here if you do want to see some other news now when it comes to the show. (Photo: ABC.)