NBC’s ‘Hannibal’ ratings sink again without ‘Scandal,’ ‘Elementary’ competition

HannibalIf you’ve enjoyed watching NBC’s Bryan Fuller adaptation of “Hannibal,” you better hope to get enough enjoyment out of the next few weeks to last a lifetime. Why? Despite not having the likes of “Scandal” and “Elementary” new episodes as competition, the show still found a way to sink to a new series low in the ratings.

Overall, the episode yesterday at 10:00 p.m. Eastern drew just a 1.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic, and that was against repeats. If this is the sort of audience it draws without competition at this point, imagine how terribly it would do against new programming again.  The show was one of the few whose fate was left hanging in the balance after the upfront, but with numbers that are this atrocious, it is just next to impossible to imagine a scenario that involves a renewal at this point in the game.

“Hannibal” already had an interesting journey to TV in the first place. NBC made a weird choice first of all to air the show in their dreadful Thursday-night time-slot, which has been thus far where show after show has gone to die after a low-rated comedy block. In addition to that, they also made the move to put the show on so late in the spring that it bleeds into summer, and when it’s 80 degrees and sunny out (and the sun is out longer), you’re not going to get that many people who are interested in staying inside every Thursday night even if you had a show starring Mick Jagger singing his face off, Scarlett Johansson in various stages of disrobe and the guys behind all of the Halo games.

What’s your take on the “Hannibal” numbers, and do you think the show is pretty much canceled now? If you want to read up on some more controversy surrounding the show, just be sure to visit the link here.

Photo: NBC

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