Beyond Zoo season 3, what should the series’ lifespan be?

We’re a few episodes now into Zoo season 3, and there’s little doubt in our mind that the show is entertaining and then some. Yet, there’s also a pretty significant problem that it’s also facing — a ratings problem. The numbers are down over 20% at the moment from season 2 in the 18-49 demographic, which in turn was down around 30% from season 1. That’s not exactly a great retention to be losing such a huge chunk of your audience in two years.

Are there some mitigating factors? Sure. For one, this is a show that airs in one of the more competitive summer timeslots against The Gong Show and The Night Shift on Thursday nights, and it generates good DVR ratings and streams. This is stuff that does matter to CBS now, especially since they can monetize many of their own streams in some ways. It also does have that rich Netflix deal, which makes monetizing this show much easier than it would if that wasn’t in place. (Heck, if that deal wasn’t there we’d make a case right now that Zoo probably would not have come back for a third season in the first place.)

The ratings for season 3 at the moment leave us in a different place than we are in many other entries in our TV Lifespans series. We’re not trying to focus so much here on whether or not the show can get another three seasons; we’re just hoping for one more.

So how can that happen? Watching the show live is key, especially if you’ve got a Nielsen box that really monitors how numbers are calculated in 2017. It’s a very antiquated system, so we recommend finding someone who has one! (Okay, that’s a lofty goal, but still.) Convincing people to watch the first two seasons on Netflix helps considerably — it shows the service and CBS that there’s an interest there, and maybe some of these people can be converted over to live viewers.

Our current hope

We’re aware at the moment that Zoo is probably not a show with a long life; however, we’ve also heard nothing about this being the final season. The one thing that we’re hoping for is that CBS determines that there is enough gas left in the tank in order to give the show a ten-episode final season to wrap up the craziness and say goodbye to these characters. That’s not something that we’ve gotten with some other shows over the years like Under the Dome that have aired in the summer, and CBS in general isn’t always interested in closure. This would mark a great opportunity to try and turn that around.

Do you think that Zoo has some life in it beyond season 3, or are we doomed to see the show go the way of the dodo sooner rather than later? Be sure to sound off now in the comments! 

Meanwhile, be sure to click here in the event that you want to get a further preview for the next new episode of the show airing on Thursday night. (Photo: CBS.)