Ratings: ‘Elementary’ season 3 improves, ‘American Idol XIV’ levels off

Are the odds of an “Elementary” renewal improving? While it may be a little too early at the moment to say for sure, we do at least feel reasonably comfortable here in saying that the show fares much better without having to worry about “How to Get Away with Murder” on the air.

The new episode of the crime show on Thursday night drew a 1.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic and also 8.6 million viewers, which are pretty solid, especially considering that “The McCarthys” (1.7) was not a whole lot better in its own timeslot. This gives us a little bit of hope, given that the show also has going for it the sole fact that it will reach its syndication threshold once it gets through the end of season 4. This may be enough for the network to greenlight at least one more season.

At the top of our “CBS shows in danger” list right now are “Stalker,” “CSI,” “The Amazing Race,” and to a lesser extent “Person of Interest.” We’d say that “Elementary” is neck-and-neck with the latter show, but syndication probably gives it the advantage. “Blue Bloods” and “Hawaii Five-0” are probably a little bit safer thanks to them being on Fridays.

As for some other good news, “American Idol XIV” (3.1) only dropped slightly from its premiere on Wednesday; while the numbers are down, maybe the ratings have leveled off enough so that they will stay around this level for the rest of the season. We can only hope…

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