SEAL Team season 2 episode 17 ratings: A step in the right direction

When it comes to reporting on SEAL Team season 2 ratings, we haven’t had a whole lot to be excited about as of late. The show’s numbers have been dropping ever since it first redeployed on Wednesday nights at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time. Ultimately, we get why. Most shows lose viewers in later timeslots, and it’s not exactly like we’ve seen SEAL Team flourish with great lead-ins, either. Million Dollar Mile, which briefly preceded it, has already been booted from the night. It’s being replaced starting next week by The Amazing Race, and you have to hope that all of its CBS reality synergies will lead to a bump in the numbers.

For now, though, we gotta report on some of the numbers that we got — and at least there’s a sliver of good news in the ratings from Wednesday night!

For discussion on SEAL Team ratings and the prospective future, just take a look at what we’ve got in the video below! On the other side of checking this out, remember to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube.

While this episode entitled “Paradise Lost” (read more about it here) generated the same 0.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic that we saw for the episodes before it, it did post close to 4.5 million viewers. That’s the best overall performance for SEAL Team in total viewers since the first episode after the Wednesday move on March 20. It’s also the first time since December when a new episode of the show posted a better viewer count than the one that aired before.

So how do we credit the ratings bump? A part of it may be attributed to the intense promotion leading into this episode that someone’s life could be put in jeopardy. (As it turns out, that person was none other than Clay.) Another part of it may be airing opposite NCIS — while it was a repeat, that’s a show that has a much more natural lead-in audience than Million Dollar Mile ever did. It’s the sort of thing that makes you wonder why SEAL Team never got a chance to air after NCIS in the first place — we know that CBS has used that spot for some other shows including Bull and then FBI, but it would’ve been nice to see it get a little bit of that ratings momentum as well.

Next week should be a critical one for SEAL Team since it’s got that new lead-in, and beyond that, is probably coming off of one of the best cliffhangers of its entire season. This is really the show’s opportunity to lay down the hammer and show a little bit more of what’s it’s capable of commercially. We’re still crossing our fingers for a season 3, but with the current state of the numbers, it’s hard to be confident in anything more than a 50-50.

What do you think about the latest SEAL Team season 2 ratings, and where do things stand in your mind in terms of hope for a season 3? Be sure to share in the attached comments. (Photo: CBS.)