The surprising ratings fall of Riverdale season 2, Life Sentence on The CW
What’s going on with some of The CW’s ratings as of late, especially when it comes to their Wednesday lineup of Riverdale season 2 alongside Life Sentence?
Let’s start here with the former — Wednesday night’s new Riverdale drew just a 0.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which in turn represents the lowest rating that it’s received in live+same-day figures all season long. To go along with that, it also fell under a million total viewers this season. While it seems incredibly unlikely that this show is getting canceled, it is curious to see how it went from premiering with over 2 million viewers to having less than half that. It is possible that there are some viewers out there who simply chose to wait and watch the show over on Netflix; meanwhile, there could also be some who feel like the season has suffered from having such a large episode order. We did feel from this past summer that it was a mistake to give a show like this 22 episodes, mostly because it can tell a story that is a little more compact somewhere between 13 and 15 episodes. A smaller episode order may have also helped to keep ratings strong for a while.
What’s equally odd as the Riverdale ratings drop is that The CW has struggled mightily to find a show to actually pair up with it. Dynasty this season struggled to the point that it was shipped off to Friday night exile. Meanwhile, new comedy/drama hybrid Life Sentence received what is basically a death sentence in getting only a 0.1 rating for last night’s new episodes. Shows that fall that low rarely ever make it to another season on broadcast TV. You would think having a star like Pretty Little Liars alum Lucy Hale would boost the viewership a little, but this seems to suggest even further that cancer stories, at least on broadcast/cable TV, are not altogether appealing to young viewers. Remember how another show in Chasing Life only lasted a couple of years before meeting its own unfortunate end?
We don’t expect Life Sentence back for another season; at the moment, really the only thing you can hope for if you love this show is that it at least manages to stick around on the air for the remainder of the season.
What do you think about some of the ratings drops for Riverdale and Life Sentence? Share right now in the comments!