Agents of SHIELD season 5 renewal push continues, based on new ratings
With that said, we’re now starting to see a pretty remarkable thing happen — the show’s fans really coming through and proving that it’s worthy of a season 5. Are its ratings remarkable? No, but they’ve held on in a way that few other shows effectively have.
Last night’s new episode held steady at a 0.7 rating in the demo, with it also retaining a good chunk of its Imaginary Mary lead-in before it. SHIELD has yet to post a 0.6 rating since coming back for the spring, and has even improved up to a 0.8 here and there. This is still third place on the timeslot, but when you look at the landscape of ABC — Time After Time is gone, American Crime likely is, and there are shows like Quantico and Once Upon a Time on a steep decline — it feels like there is more room for a quality show like this. That is the main operative word there — quality. When you are putting on great content, networks are more than likely to keep you around. Add to that solid performances and international acclaim that comes with the Marvel brand. This is a show that can air all around the world, and it gets some lucrative money in turn courtesy of a Netflix deal.
We’re basically now in the home stretch in terms of whether or not certain shows are coming back. Over the next week, we anticipate getting the news on SHIELD and the remainder of the other shows airing on ABC. We do think that some holes are going to be filled in the new season by American Idol coming over to the network, so that move may inform a few of their decisions elsewhere. We just don’t think it changes much here given our sentiment that the network could order fewer SHIELD episodes next year to air it after Inhumans in the fall.
What do you think: Should an Agents of SHIELD season 5 renewal happen, or are we playing too much into the game of wishful thinking right now? Share below!
Meanwhile, head over here to preview the upcoming finale airing next week! (Photo: ABC.)
Michael Cannon
May 11, 2017 @ 6:58 am
I’m pretty sure ABC moved AoS to the 10 O’clock slot in hopes that it would wither and die. While it hasn’t exactly thrived, the fact that it’s held fairly steady in the later time slot is a testament to the show’s quality. And I think that actually surprised ABC.
I very much want them to renew the show. I’m also fine a shorter season order. If the 3 story arcs of the current season have shown us anything, it’s that the writing benefits from a compressed schedule. Episodes of AoS move along very briskly and you don’t get as much B/S filler as you do in most shows.
The actors have also really brought out their “A” games this season. Similar to Orphan Black, many of the actors have had to play multiple versions of the characters this season. And they’ve all risen to challenge very well.