‘Teen Wolf’ season 5 steady in winter premiere; ‘The Shannara Chronicles’ solid

MTV had some huge expectations for “The Shannara Chronicles” to be their next big hit. They had a huge marketing campaign behind it, the budget was probably pretty enormous for the network, and they even moved “Teen Wolf” to a new night in order to ensure that it had the support of an excellent lead-in. That’s a lot of support to show a single show.

So how did it ultimately fare in the ratings when the dust settled? For the most part, we think MTV has to be cautiously optimistic. A 0.5 premiere rating in the 18-49 demographic is on the level of what “Teen Wolf” also drew. While neither show hit it out of the part, they at least have some room to grow.

If there is still one thing that we would blame MTV for when it comes to the ratings, we would say that they made a mistake airing a premiere that too the show into almost midnight. That is a lot longer than most people are going to be willing to watch a new show, especially one that runs for almost two hours. We think they would have been so much better suited giving a one-hour premiere, and then just bringing another episode / the second part of the premiere back the following week. There’s no reason to get too crazy with the schedule this early.

Ultimately, we know that the biggest real test for this show is going to come in the next couple of weeks, since there are always a wide array of people who end up watching a premiere. The bigger battle is seeing how many people keep watching after that.

Interested in some more news on “The Shannara Chronicles”? Then head over here right now to get our full review of the series premiere! Also, you can sign up now to score some other TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: MTV.)