Ratings: ‘Happy Endings,’ ‘New Girl,’ ‘New Normal’ hit lows; ‘Emily Owens M.D.’ up
This is a plea to all major broadcasting networks: please change the schedule up no. Airing all of these comedies at once is turning out to be a terrible idea, and all of them are suffering in the process. Thanks to this baffling decision, the numbers are getting so bad that we are set to potentially lose some pretty phenomenal shows in the process.
The biggest victim at the moment is the little gem of a show known as “Happy Endings.” The issue here is that with a 1.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic, this is a bad-enough number of this to be canceled immediately. Sadly, its failure is largely attributing to it premiering late in the year, and by the time that it did start up, both “Go On” (2.2) and “New Girl” (a series-low 2.0) had already found their own audiences. Remember last year, when “New Girl” was consistently drawing over a 3.0 rating? This is how bad these shows are hurting each other just in this one timeslot.
We actually think that there would still be hope for many of these shows, but there is one major problem here in addition to competition: lead-ins. “Ben and Kate” is a pretty funny show, but the 1.1 it is drawing is so bad that this show should just be canceled already, since you know that this is going to be its only season. The lack of a lead-in is killing “New Girl,” and Fox would almost be better off to kick it and “The Mindy Project” (1.3) to the curb, bring “Glee” back to this timeslot, and then allow “New Girl” and “Raising Hope” to get their numbers back up. “Happy Endings” needs to go back to Wednesdays, and “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23” should just be canceled.
As for “Go On” and “The New Normal” (a series-low 1.6), it’s probably still better off to keep them where they are. These shows do have a devoted following already, and they should fare decently so long as they hold off airing most of their new episodes until “The Voice” returns in March. It’s a long hiatus, but it’s for the best.
The only other data worth sharing here is a beacon of hope to two struggling new shows: “Vegas” did improve to a 1.8 on CBS at 10:00, which still is probably enough to save it from cancellation. However, “Emily Owens M.D.” (0.4) may no longer be the guaranteed-to-be-canceled show that it once was. It is beating both “Gossip Girl” and “90210” in total viewers, and it is almost performing much better than “Nikita” on Friday nights.