Ratings: Golden Globes hurt ‘Galavant,’ ‘Revenge’ season 4, more

We will never understand the strategy of airing new episodes of any show opposite the Golden Globes, with one key exception: You do not really have any intention of keeping these shows on the air in the first place.

This is the fate that ultimately befell ABC’s Sunday-night lineup this week. The awards show drew a massive 5.0 rating in the preliminary numbers, which will likely adjust later in the finals. This is a decrease from the early totals for 2014, which showed the program with a massive 5.4. Both shows had Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as hosts, so the only real difference here was seemingly the nominees and the presenters.

Meanwhile, ABC had “Galavant” (1.3), “Resurrection” (0.8), and “Revenge” (0.8) were all pretty steady drop-offs from the previous week, and they are all now at series lows. We’ve thought for a while that maybe “Revenge” could get a 13-episode final season or the equivalent, but we now wonder and worry slightly. We just wish that if the show was getting canceled, the network would do the decent thing and just announce it in the coming days at TCA. Let the show go out with some sort of dignity, and with a proper finale. Is that really too much to ask? We don’t feel like it is.

The only good news for the night is that seemingly “Madam Secretary” (1.7) upped its game the night before its season 2 renewal was confirmed. However, this show had a huge benefit of airing after an NFL playoff game, so the figure is probably inflated from what it would be under any normal circumstance.