Supernatural season 15 renewal odds: How optimistic should we be?

Supernatural January 10, 2019

We’re back with another edition of our long-running Ratings Watch article series and this time around, we’re talking Supernatural. Is there a reason for confidence in regards to a season 15? We like to think so, but in this piece we’re going to expand the reasoning further.

Related Supernatural video! – Be sure to check out some thoughts on the recent fall finale at the bottom of this article! Meanwhile, remember to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube for some other insight and take a look at our full series playlist.

Let’s start this discussion with a focus on the live ratings, which is the most-important thing when determining the future of a show like this. To date, the series is averaging a 0.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic for season 14, a drop of just over 20% from season 13. On the surface, that’s not great since networks like to see a measure of consistency — especially for a show that has this long of a run. We think that the drop is probably in part due to the rise of streaming / DVR viewership, though it could have also be impacted this fall by it airing opposite NFL football, The Big Bang Theory, and Grey’s Anatomy all at one time — this is one of the most-challenging timeslots on television by a fairly-wide margin. This is why we think the show will have an interesting test next week when the series returns — it doesn’t have the NFL to think about anymore!

So what are the chances at a season 15 then? Even though the ratings drop is a tad worrisome, there’s nothing to be altogether afraid of at this very moment in time. After all, this show has a huge international following, great streaming data, and also DVR / streaming numbers backing it up. It’s also in line with the bulk of the other CW shows these days — we don’t want to say that the network is ratings-challenged as a whole right now, but we do think that it’s feeling the impact of younger viewers flocking to other mediums more than a CBS or an NBC.

We’ll go back now to what The CW boss Mark Pedowitz has said in the past — so long as Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles want to keep doing the show and the ratings are there, he wants to keep it going. Lowering the episode count down to 20 this season could help with keeping the actors, since it allows them to have a larger break.

What do you think are the odds of a Supernatural season 15 on The CW? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments. (Photo: The CW.)

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