Ratings Bubble Report: Does ABC’s ‘The Family’ have a shot at season 2 renewal?
We’re in the month of May, and of course with that means one thing more so than anything else: The return of some Ratings Bubble Report articles! We did some of these earlier this year with shows that were struggling to find their footing, but with midseason now come and gone, we’ve got a few more shows to spotlight over the coming days.
Today, we’re presenting the curious case of a show in “The Family” that a few weeks ago, we would have considered largely dead to rights. However, things have changed ever so slightly since then. For example, the show has shown some ratings improvement at a time when many other series on the network have started to fall. Maybe this is making the decision on this show slightly more difficult than it would otherwise be.
The case to keep it – The biggest thing going for it is a level of ratings consistency. Sure, you never want shows to be averaging a 0.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic in their first year, but for the past five weeks, the ratings here have improved ever so slightly! Also, remember here that this show airs against “Game of Thrones,” “The Walking Dead,” and “The Good Wife,” and really isn’t that far behind the latter in the numbers. It also has not been dramatically lower than “Once Upon a Time” or “Quantico” on ABC’s Sunday-night lineup, and they’ve renewed a show in “Agents of SHIELD” already that has been generating numbers lower than a 1.0 as of late. The same goes for “Nashville,” which is likely coming back.
The case to cancel it – While there have been some positive reviews, “The Family” is not the sort of show that generates a lot of publicity with its cast or concept. Also, one thing that many of the aforementioned shows other than “Quantico” have going for them is multiple seasons. While the audience may have been steady the past five weeks, what happens when the show goes away for several months? ABC has new executives, and they may be looking to avoid a “Galavant” scenario. We loved that show, but judging from the ratings from season 1 to season 2, it’s pretty clear that it didn’t hold up well at all once it went on hiatus.