Ratings Bubble Report: Does ‘Containment’ have a real shot at season 2 renewal?

If there is one thing that we have come to learn about The CW over the past season, it is this: The network is crowded. VERY crowded. This no longer is a place desperate fill up time with repeats or imports of British / Canadian shows during the main season. There are more programs than timeslots, and sooner or later you have to think that they will decide to let a show go.

Is “Containment” going to be that said show? For the time being, it certainly appears as though it has a fighting chance, despite premiering late in the season, when shows often do not have one. We’re going to get into this more now in the latest edition of our Ratings Bubble Report, but given that we are just a few weeks into the season it’s pretty clear that the story is still to be written on this particular series.

The case to keep it – First and foremost, consistency. While the premiere audience (0.5 in the 18-49 demographic) was somewhat ho-hum given that it has “The Flash” as a lead-in, the show has kept that same rating for all of its first three episodes. People who chose to watch have chosen to keep watching, and that means a lot when you are a programming head trying to determine which shows will have an audience in a new season plus after a long layoff.

Also, there are several shows renewed by the network (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” “Jane the Virgin,” “Reign,” and “The Originals”) that are drawing smaller overall ratings. “Contianment” is also close to “iZombie” season 2 and “The Vampire Diaries” season 7.

The case to cancel it … or at least wait – There’s no real hurry for the network to renew this just yet, given that we are only three episodes into the season and we don’t know yet if the show can stand on its own. Wait a month or two, and if it is still performing well, you can always renew it then. This is a case where the only real negative you can hand the show is that it’s losing a big chunk of its lead-in, but so was “iZombie” when it was on the air.

One idea we’ll throw out there is that we wouldn’t be opposed to shifting both “Reign” and “Containment” to summer, and having them live there next year. There’ll be fewer ratings expectations, and they can carve out their own time versus just replacing other shows after they end.

What do you want to see done with “Containment”?