Ratings Progress Report: Does CBS’ ‘Pure Genius’ have a shot at renewal?
When “Pure Genius” first premiered on CBS a little bit earlier this year, it was already rather easy to say that the deck was stacked somewhat against it. After all, this was a show that premiered several weeks into the season, and with that, there was more of an inherent challenge present here in getting viewers to check it out. They’d already probably figured out much of their plans!
Now that we’ve said all of this, we do think that this is a show with a tremendous amount of heart, and some really interesting characters to go along with it. There’s a lot to like here, and there’s certainly nothing else in the medical-drama field quite like it.
In this edition of our Ratings Progress Report series, we’re going to do our part to look at some of these numbers, and try to determine whether or not this is a show that really has much of a shot at a future on the air.
The good news – If you’re looking for consistency, “Pure Genius” has that figured out. It scored a 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic for the premiere, but the three episodes since have all drawn around a 0.9. If you can get an audience of loyal viewers, that builds confidence that you won’t see any huge drops. Or, who knows? There’s also a chance that you are able to attract some new people over time if word of mouth starts to spread.
We do like the year-to-year comparisons, and one other thing to consider here is that the first episodes of “Elementary” last year, which aired during the same timeslot, failed to really do much better than this.
The bad news – Averaging a 0.9 rating is still not great, especially for a show in its first year. While CBS did renew “Elementary,” it had more of an established audience and was of a format that is easy to bring in viewers week to week. Crime shows in particular are great at that. It’s also not generating an enormous amount of buzz online, which could be problematic down the road.
Outlook – As of right now, we’re lukewarm. Granted, we’re still very early in the run here, and it’s possible that the show maintains this rating the entire season and gets us more optimistic about a renewal. It’s future could be in many ways determined by the longevity the rest of the season of shows like “Code Black,” plus midseason entries like “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.”
Do you want “Pure Genius” to stick around? Be sure to let us know in the attached poll!
Want to get some other news when it comes to our Ratings Progress Report series? Then be sure to head over to the link here right now! (Photo: CBS.)