Ratings Progress Report: Is ‘Scream Queens’ creating numbers worth screaming about?
Is “Scream Queens” the biggest disappointment when it comes to the fall TV season? If you are speaking in terms of quality, the answer’s gotta be a clear “no.” The show is wacky, funny, and very entertaining from start to finish. We also think that it’s made a star out of Glen Powell.
The problem is that for one reason or another, the show hasn’t been able to get the numbers that many people expected it to do, and this is in spite of a wonderful cast featuring Lea Michele, Jamie Lee Curtis, Emma Roberts, Keke Palmer, Niecy Nash, and guest stars like Ariana Grande and Nick Jonas. There isn’t a new show out there that has rounded up these sort of big names. So what is happening? That’s something we hope to figure out in this edition of our Ratings Progress Report series.
The good news – The show fares well in live+3 and live+7 data in terms of percentage gains. Also, if you care about Twitter traffic and social-media buzz, it definitely has that. It’s also rather popular internationally much in the way that a previous Ryan Murphy show in “Glee” was.
The bad news – Unfortunately, it’s also getting the ratings that “Glee” was in its final years on the air. (Okay, more season 5 than season 6.) It is averaging around a 1.3 in the 18-49 demographic, though in recent weeks it’s barely hung on to a 1.0. That’s not great, and no amount of Twitter traffic can make up for it. We think Fox hurt it by forcing people into a two-hour premiere right away, and it also didn’t help that it aired on Fox rather than FX. We think that created the impression that it wasn’t edgy enough for some people, and that it could have just been a scarier version of “Glee.”
Also, Tuesdays have just been terrible for Fox for some time. The only silver lining for “Scream Queens” is that most of their programming right now is flailing. We think that in terms of live numbers, it has a better shot of coming back than “Minority Report” (which is already dead more or less) or “Sleepy Hollow” (which has fallen asleep in the ratings).
In the end, we think that this could be largely a toss-up. While the plan for “Scream Queens” seems to be to bring back surviving characters year-to-year, a season 2 could be helped by having a different setting and a fresh start for many viewers. This is one we’ll be keeping a close watch on the rest of the season.
What do you want to see happen to “Scream Queens”? Share below, and head over here to get some other TV news, including some exclusive teasers, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)