Fresh Off the Boat season 6 renewal debate: Will we get more on ABC?
As we look towards tonight’s finale, is it okay to also look ahead towards a Fresh Off the Boat season 6 renewal? Could it happen at ABC?
While we know that the network has PLENTY of tough decisions to make when it comes to their long-term future, this to us is one of the larger challenges. We’re talking here about a show with low ratings, but also one with a lot of creative steam plus a great cast fronting it. It really could go either way, and we think that it’s fair to dive into a deep discussion as to what’s working and not.
The reason to renew Fresh Off the Boat – On paper, the show’s 0.6 average rating in the 18-49 demographic is not great. Yet, consider the fact that it’s airing now in an extremely tough timeslot and also that it’s surrounded by competition — including some other comedy competition over on Fox. It is still out-performing another ABC comedy in Speechless, and it’s really not that far behind some other comedies like Splitting Up Together and Single Parents that are airing in other parts of the schedule. If you moved Fresh Off the Boat to a better timeslot, is it fair to expect it to get around a 0.8 or a 0.9? We wouldn’t rule that out?
There is another creative reason to be debating about the future of Fresh Off the Boat — namely, whether or not ABC is willing to really cut a show that features such talent as Randall Park and Constance Wu, who is still coming off of the success of Crazy Rich Asians. These are people you want employed at your network, even if it’s just for one more year.
The reason to cancel it – A 0.6 is still a 0.6. While Fresh Off the Boat is doing better than its Friday-night companion Speechless, we are still speaking about one of the lower-rated comedies on the network … and ABC’s got a LOT of comedies. You could easily see them making the decision to not program five hours’ worth of comedies a week moving into next season, and to try to do something different with their Friday lineup. There’s an easy justification for it in how far they’ve been behind Fox and CBS as of late.
As we’ve noted in our piece online about Speechless, another factor in the show’s future at present may just be the presence of new ABC programming head Karey Burke. She doesn’t have anything against Fresh Off the Boat per se, but she doesn’t have the attachment to it that other people in her position have in the past. Often, people stepping into this position like to make their own splashes with their programming and are quick to cancel bubble shows.
In the end, we do think that ABC would like to keep Fresh Off the Boat for another season … but with its ratings the way that they are, there’s no guarantee that it will happen.
Do you want to see a Fresh Off the Boat season 6 renewal over at ABC? Be sure to share in either the comments.