Will ‘Scandal’ season 6 come out to a strong ratings start?

At this point, there is quite a bit of discussion out there already about “Scandal” season 6, and this comes without anyone seeing a single episode of the show. It’s easy to understand why, given that this is a show with a ton of social-media traffic, and ABC also has probably been looking very much forward to having the show back after “Notorious” was a timeslot disappointment and we saw many of their other series fall.

Can “Scandal” be the ratings juggernaut that it once was? Even that is currently up in the air given that the show is not exactly going in the right direction. Season 5 was down more 28% from season 4 in the 18-49 demographic, and averaged just a 2.1 rating. If it did that this year, we feel like ABC executives would probably do a dance in an office somewhere. We don’t think that’s going to happen, since few shows these days stay steady year-to-year.

With that in mind, we feel like the most realistic expectation for this show as we start to look towards season 6 is around a 1.8 rating. It is common these days for shows to lost more than 10% of their demo audience year-to-year, and if it does this, it will still be ABC’s #2 scripted drama behind only “Grey’s Anatomy.” Certainly, there is nothing wrong with that. We also think that this would be more than enough to guarantee a season 7 renewal for the show — provided that Shonda Rhimes and everyone involved wants to keep going.

If you’re on the fence about continuing to watch the show, know that the big election storyline, which may be somewhat polarizing at this point, will be resolved early on and we’ll start to move more towards other things. It’s ironic in a way that we rather enjoyed this part of the show when it last aired an episode; after enduring the entire Presidential election, we’re ready to ignore every election plotline possible for the next several months.

For some other news when it comes to “Scandal,” be sure to head over to the link here right now! (Photo: ABC.)