Lethal Weapon season 3 ratings rise on New Year’s Day; The Gifted falls
Yesterday, we noted that moving Lethal Weapon season 3 up an hour was a sign that Fox had some belief in it. This is their stronger timeslot on Tuesday nights and with that, they clearly wanted to see if the move would pay some dividends.
As it turns out, the move has very much done just that — especially in total viewers. In the 18-49 demographic, Lethal Weapon drew a 0.7 rating. While there wasn’t too huge an increase here, it does tie the show’s best demo rating since the second episode of this season. As for that total-viewer count, with almost 3.4 million people watching this was the most-watched installment of the show since the season 3 premiere. That’s a little bit more encouraging, even if the ratings are still on average down a good margin versus season 2.
There are two interesting ways that you can choose to look at these numbers. The positive spin is that Lethal Weapon did this without a ton of publicity around the timeslot move, while airing on a holiday, and airing against a lot of popular college football games. Yet, the negative spin is that Lethal Weapon didn’t capitalize further from many other networks airing repeats. We do consider the ratings a net positive, but it is difficult still to draw a determination as to whether or not the series actually improved its season 4 odds. It may have helped itself slightly, but more so than the specific ratings the greater cause for concern right now is that Fox is dropping two hours of programming next season for SmackDown. This is the sort of thing that could easily take the show off the map since Fox is going to have to make perhaps even more cuts than usual.
As for The Gifted…
Last night’s new episode generated such a 0.5 rating in the demo. While we’re going to continue to watch its performance, there are so many more reasons to be pessimistic here. After all, we’re talking about a low-rated show on a network losing timeslots that also is in the midst of a Disney – Fox superhero quagmire. There’s really not all that much of a reason to have hope here.
What do you think about the latest Lethal Weapon season 3 ratings and what they mean for the future of the show? Share some of your thoughts and insight right now in the comments.