Ratings: ‘Castle’ rises, ‘Blindspot’ falls, ‘Minority Report’ heads towards likely cancellation

We never thought that “Minority Report” was going to be a smash hit for Fox by any means. However, it never crossed our mind in the slightest that this could end up becoming the first TV show of the fall season to be canceled.

First things first, we should make it clear that it isn’t officially dead yet, but we don’t know how you can sit here and say that something with a 0.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic has a great chance to be brought back for a back nine, let alone another season. The numbers of support just are not there, and Fox is only going to be patient for so long when they’ve got other products, including “Lucifer,” waiting in the wings.

If “Minority Report” is axed soon, we imagine that what will happen is that Fox will air repeats of either “Empire” and “Scream Queens” in the timeslot until after the new year, where they will build a lineup around both “Lucifer” and “The X-Files,” and then “Gotham” and “Lucifer” once the David Duchovny series is done.

We’ll have plenty of time to speculate about Fox’s lineup over that for the next few months, so let’s turn elsewhere for the rest of this article. “Gotham” was pretty steady with its 1.6 rating it drew for the premiere, and “Castle” actually rose significantly to a 1.6 rating. Why did this happen? Think about “Blindspot,” which slid to a 2.6 for its second airing. There were probably many viewers of the ABC series who went to check out Jaimie Alexander and all of her tattoos last week, and then realized that they were better off watching the show they’ve loved for years. (Of course, whether or not they still love “Castle” after that episode remains to be seen.)

In terms of overall winners and losers on the night, “The Big Bang Theory” won with a 3.6 rating, while “The Voice” was second with a 3.3. Both shows still did decline versus last week. New comedy “Life in Pieces” has to already be viewed as a disappointment, given that it drew a 2.0 in its second episode, not really benefiting at all from its “Big Bang” lead-in.