Does ‘Murder in the First’ need ratings bump to ensure season 4 renewal?

Tonight, “Murder in the First” is returning to TNT after a week off of the air due to the Olympics, and we’d argue that this may be one of the most important episodes of the season … and not just for story purposes. This is a show that needs at least some sort of ratings stability, let alone a bump, if it wants to have a shot at a fourth season.

Let’s get some of the bad news out of the way first and foremost. This is a show that is coming off of its worst performance of the season, where it drew a 0.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which caused its season 3 average to crash down somewhere right about that. It’s down more than 20% year-to-year, and it is down more than 33% in total viewers to date.

The other bit of bad news? The Olympics are still going tonight. We understand TNT not wanting to air repeats of its shows for two straight weeks, and it is banking on the idea that there may be some viewers relatively burned out on the Rio Games by the time tonight rolls around. We’ll see if that happens.

If there is a reason to be hopeful about this show, we’d argue that much of it stems from the fact that there are many interesting things to come this season, whether it be the end of the Normandy Parker case to also Siletti’s trial. These are the season-defining events that could generate the most attention … to go along of course with Terry and Hildy’s relationship status. As we get into the home stretch, we assume that you’d want to watch live if possible.

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