Ratings: ‘Arrow’ season 4 up; ‘Second Chance,’ ‘Chicago PD,’ ‘American Crime’ down

For the third straight day this week, we are looking at a television lineup that is, regrettably, more bad news than good. What’s going on here? The easiest way to describe it is that we’re looking at a situation where the numbers surged the first week or two of the year, and now that viewers are getting more into normal routines, they are suddenly finding themselves with a little bit less time on their hands to watch TV.

Luckily, there were at least some shows Wednesday night who had a reason to celebrate.

The winners – As of right now, “Arrow” can celebrate having a very solid winter premiere, posting a 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic during what is a very huge week for all things DC Comics on The CW. This ties the show’s best rating of the season, at least when you exclude the crossover that got some inflation thanks to people who watch “The Flash” tuning in for one week and one week only.

Elsewhere, how about “Code Black”? The CBS show is actually performing far better than we imagined that it would at this point in its run, posting a 1.4 rating last night. It has barely lost any of its viewers since the series premiere, and while it didn’t start strong, that may be its key to a season 2 renewal.

The losers – Here are just some of the shows who lost more than 10% of their demo audience versus their most-recent episodes: “Law & Order: SVU” (1.7), “Second Chance” (1.0), “Chicago PD” (1.5, down over 20%), and “American Crime” (1.0). Of these four shows, “SVU” is probably safe and “Chicago PD” has already been renewed. “Second Chance” is more or less done thanks to it losing so much of the “American Idol” lead-in, and “American Crime” could be saved by being a critical favorite.