Ratings Bubble Report: Is ‘Sleepy Hollow’ season 3 heading for the TV guillotine?

Before “Sleepy Hollow” season 3 premiered on Fox, there was some hope that the show was going to get a chance to turn things around. The second season was a creative mess, largely disliked, and many viewers simply did not come back after being burned by it. Here is one of the biggest pieces of evidence that you can see for this very thing right now: The lowest rating the show had in season 2 was a 1.2 in the 18-49 demographic; meanwhile, the highest season 3 rating was a 1.1, which was mostly just because of a “Bones” crossover.

Ever since moving to Thursday night the show’s numbers have sunk, and with a movie to Fridays on the horizon, we could see it fall even further. Are we getting near the end of the road for this show? That’s something we are ready to dive into in the latest edition of our Ratings Bubble Report series right now.

The good news – There’s good news? Well, for this show the biggest thing that it can celebrate is that Fox’s ratings are not exactly great elsewhere. “Bones” is barely doing better and has an expensive cast, “Minority Report” is already done, their comedies on Tuesday are hardly big winners, and would “Rosewood” be doing anywhere near as well on a different night? All are good questions. What we’re trying to say is that while things do not look great for this show, it is only a tenth or two lower than some others that are out there.

The bad news – So far, season 3 is down an abysmal 40% from season 2, which seemed to have its own renewal in doubt at one point given the lack of satisfaction among fans. Fox clearly took a flier on it then, hoping that bringing in a new showrunner and cast could change things. The show is better, but these aren’t the sort of ratings that inspire confidence on the future.

Renewal odds – Low. “Sleepy Hollow” is going to be going to sleep very soon pending a miracle. It’s being shipped to a terrible timeslot for it, and Fox may look towards “Lucifer” to fill its “creepy TV” quotient for a little while.