Did latest The Orville ratings boost season 2 renewal odds?

It’s very rare that we end up seeing big increases for a show during a season, so with that we wonder if the latest The Orville ratings will have some sort of lasting impact on Fox.

After all, in looking at these new numbers one thing does feel very much clear: The network has quite a bit to be excited about if the rating from last night holds. The Orville drew a 1.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which is the highest rating it has received since it first moved to Thursday nights following its first two post-NFL outings. This also is an improvement from most of Fox’s scripted programming elsewhere during the week, save for maybe Empire and STAR.

If the show averages this the rest of the season, we’ll suddenly feel very confident that this is a space drama that Fox isn’t going to just cast aside and cancel. (We don’t need to bring up any other shows here for you to get the reference.) This is a show that certainly does deserve more episodes — it’s funny at times, but more than that it has a lot of heart to it. You can tell that Seth MacFarlane really cares about the source material and this isn’t quite a parody as many many have expected going into its premiere. It has its own mythology and interesting/important characters. The longer the show lasts, the more opportunities it has to explore some of the world and expand these characters and relationships more.

Beyond just this, if Fox gives The Orville an early enough renewal the writers can have a lot of time to think over the stories they want to tell next; also, it gives viewers confidence that the show isn’t going anywhere, and that in turn may give more people an incentive to watch. There are a lot of different things to be excited about when it comes to The Orville as a series and we absolutely hope that Fox realizes that and gives the show a little bit of love. It’s absolutely done enough at this point to show that it is worthy and we need more creative TV properties.

What do you think about the new The Orville ratings, and what do you think it means in terms of the show’s long-term future? Be sure to share in the comments!

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