Ratings: Chances for ‘Nikita’ season 3, ‘Last Man Standing’ moving forward

The Friday night ratings battle is an interesting one; even though the vast majority of shows fail to even get near a 2.0 rating, there are still many that are on the bubble of potentially returning for another season. Meanwhile, there are also some that are obviously so dead in the water that they are sitting around letting time pass until their inevitable cancellation.

The two shows to us most notably on the bubble are “Nikita” and “Last Man Standing.” In the case of the former, a 0.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic is bad. It’s not any worse than how the now-canceled “90210” is faring on Mondays, but we know that the network by and large wants to ensure that their series draw better ratings than this. The two things saving “Nikita” are the fact that it was drawing better ratings in the demo just a matter of weeks ago, and that the studio would love to get it the 88 episodes needed for syndication. It will be given another season, which will probably be billed as its last pretty early on.

As for “Last Man Standing,” this could just end up being a philosophical debate for ABC. A 1.6 rating gave the show its best performance in weeks, and it was also the top-rated scripted show of the night. However, there were a number of repeats on the air, and Tim Allen does not come cheap. If ABC wants to give a comedy block on Fridays another shot, they will renew the show and probably cancel “Malibu Country.” Otherwise, they will just go in a completely different direction.

Which show do you think is most likely to return for another season? If you want to read a little bit more on “Nikita’s” new Friday-night partner, you can do so over here.

Photo: The CW