How Timeless finale live+3 ratings could help season 2 odds
Here’s the bad news for everyone out there: There is no new episode of Timeless airing on NBC tonight. Last week was the finale, so what that means from here is that we’re stuck waiting until fall at the earliest … provided that it even comes back on the air at all. At the moment, this is far from a guarantee.
What we can give you a sense of today is how the show fared for said finale (read our review for the episode here) in terms of adults 18-49. The episode improved from a 0.9 rating to a 1.5, which is the biggest increase of the night among the Big 4 networks in terms of percentage gain (69%). The show’s drawn consistently strong DVR numbers all season, which to us suggests that there are a number of people who either cannot stay up to watch it, or are simply checking out something else already on the night.
Can DVR ratings save a show? Sometimes, yes. The thing you have to remember is that shows are monetized by ad revenue, and there are some DVR viewers who are probably just fast-forward through commercials. Therefore, live+3 data matters, but not as much as watching live or streaming on some official channel that forces you to sit through commercials.
We already made our case recently to get the show shifted over to Friday nights, where it could draw a consistent audience at an earlier timeslot without the same expectations. Hopefully, these ratings help to convince the network of that. One way or another, we do figure that this show is going to be one of the tougher decisions that NBC makes before upfronts in May. It’s a bubble show with mediocre ratings, and it comes from an outside studio that has a different financial model than one produced in-house. Yet, it also has a devoted following more so than many shows with far stronger numbers. We don’t envy the position Bob Greenblatt and Jennifer Salke are in as they ponder over these decisions.
How are you feeling as of tonight about the show’s renewal hopes? Share some of your thoughts now in the attached comments! (Photo: NBC.)