Ratings: Being Mary Jane, Suits season 7, The Sinner, and The Fosters
We want to begin today’s ratings discussion by casting a light on BET’s Being Mary Jane, mostly because the state of its ratings remain very much a mystery.
After all, this is a show that in its season 4 premiere episode earlier this year drew a 0.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic. Meanwhile, its most-recent episode drew just a 0.3. In both total live viewers and the demo, the series has lost about half of its audience since the start of season 4. It’s also down in both measures more than 45% versus where it was during season 3.
While there may be a wide array of different reasons for the drop, whether it be a long delay between seasons or an unfavorable schedule in the summer, it’s still very odd to see this sort of decline for a long-running show … especially in the middle of the season.
If you’re watching the show and have a take on the ratings decline, share in the comments! We’re going to move on to a few other series of interest at the moment.
The state of Suits season 7
The most-recent installment of the show on USA actually drew its best ratings of the season! Its 0.4 rating in the demo tied its previous high, and its 1.47 million viewers mark the show’s best total since February 1. Airing in the summer as opposed to the winter aids the show — but remember, when the winter rolls around it’s probably going to lead to some more declines once more. That just tends to be the pattern here.
There is a spin-off series to Suits that could be launched out of its finale airing next year; however, there is no word yet on a season 8.
The latest on The Sinner
Episode 3 of USA’s new limited series event starring Jessica Biel brought in a 0.5 rating plus also 1.64 million viewers — this isn’t the only week that it’s out-performed its lead-in Suits, and the executives have to feel rather great about what they have on their hands. Through three episodes, the show is only continuing to grow. The problem here is that this show has a defined beginning, middle, and end — they may need to find a different property or create a new story if they want to continue things beyond this summer.
Finally, The Fosters season 5
Unfortunately, it couldn’t all be good news within this article. The most-recent episode of the Freeform drama posted a 0.3 rating alongside 612,000 viewers — the show’s lowest total audience of the season. Not only that, but this is the lowest total viewer count of the entire series to date. It’s not by much (there was a season 4 episode that drew 617,000), but you should remember that as with Suits, the lower numbers here do tend to come in the winter.
The one thing that all of these shows do have in common is that in one way or another, they do all face a fairly uncertain future.
What have you watched this week? Feel free to share more in the comments, and of course check back soon for more ratings insight.