For the most part, FOX has really been struggling this season. When it comes to new shows, Empire is a hit and Gotham’s doing okay but Utopia, Mulaney, Gracepoint, and Red Band Society were dismal failures in the ratings and have already been cancelled. How’s Backstrom doing? Will it survive to see a second season?
On Backstrom, an offensive, irascible yet brilliant detective (Rainn Wilson) is brought back from exile to run Portland Police Bureau’s Special Crimes Unit. The rest of the cast includes Genevieve Angelson, Dennis Haysbert, Kristoffer Polaha, Page Kennedy, Beatrice Rosen, and Thomas Dekker.
With American Idol as a lead-in, the series debuted on January 22nd with a 1.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 7.98 million viewers. That was an okay start but there wasn’t much serious competition on the other networks.
In week two, Backstrom had to start competing with Scandal on ABC and the ratings dropped more than 30%. In week three, NBC’s The Blacklist moved to Thursdays at 9pm and Backstrom dropped another 30% or so once again, falling to a 1.0 in the demo and 3.64 million.
In week four, the FOX series bounced back to a 1.2 in the demo and 4.39 million. Last week’s installment took another big tumble and Backstrom landed at a 0.9 in the demo and 3.54 million.
It’s pretty clear that, while Backstrom may have some devoted viewers, it’s not priority viewing for most people on Thursday nights. It’s pretty consistently in fourth place in its 9pm timeslot and is now FOX’s lowest-rated drama.
With numbers like these, it’s hard to imagine that FOX will renew Backstrom for a second season. FOX has some serious schedule problems but this show doesn’t seem to be a solution. There are eight episodes left in the season (only five are scheduled) so Backstrom has some time to prove itself with better ratings. This seems unlikely but sometimes miracles do happen. Backstrom could certainly use one.
But, what do you think? Do you like Backstrom? If you ran the network, would you cancel or renew this series for a second season? Would you change anything to attract more viewers?
Love the show!
FOX, absolutely keep this show!! It is by far the best on FOX. There is nothing wrong with spoofing what goes on every day in the read world. It is refreshing to see something on TV that actually mirrors real daily activities-the good, the bad and the huge middle grey areas that most of us live in! FOX, keep it going….
This show’s great. Wonderful ensemble cast…all interesting characters. Quirky lead. Interesting cases. I hope FOX gives it a chance to develop its own following. It has really tough competition. This, “Elementary”, and “Battle Creek” are the only must-see weekly shows in our house.
I feel that FOX needs to learn a thing or two about what is good and what isn’t. Firefly was amazing and was canned after one season and it was wayyy better than some of the other crap they gave a chance. Now, Backstrom is another awesome show that has to compete in a time slot with top shows like Blacklist! Well, that doesn’t mean that Backstrom isn’t an awesome show, it just means we can’t watch Backstrom and Blacklist at 9 p.m.! To solve the problem, put Empire at the 9 p.m. slot to battle the Blacklist and give… Read more »
I hope that FOX keeps this show and gives it more time to develop more followers. I never get to watch it during its regular time-slot as I’m usually putting kids to bed. So I watch it on demand later.
I watch very little TV, but I watch this.
It’s got great characters and storylines. Please keep it! 🙂
I love it; it’s unusual & creative & full of fun and interesting twists that makes it different from the run of the mill cop or detective show. Keep it!
Fox, please renew Backstrom. It’s a great show…cast, story lines, and character development. It sure beats most of Fox’s programming in my opinion.
I love this show! Backstrom makes me laugh and the 4/02 episode was my favorite!
Please don’t cancel; i will be very mad at Fox if they cancel!!
I love Backstrom, I hope Fox gives it a chance. They don’t advertise it as much as they should.
I love the characters and their relationships to each other. I loved the reveal in this past weeks episode regarding Backstrom and Valentine. So great. And the intro music for the show is perfect. I so hope it gets another season to catch on. (Good thing AMC gave Breaking Bad a chance. It didn’t do well it it’s first season either.)
Keep this show! The so-so ratings don’t accurately represent the viewership. I either watch Backstrom on FOX.com, or HULU; when I feel like it. Remember, the purpose of the show is to sell advertising space in between segments, not to just sit people down at a certain time of a certain day.
Get with the times and find a more relevant way of deciding how well-received a show is, before you make Netflix pick up yet another perfectly decent show that didn’t fit the 1995 profit formula.
Great show, I never miss it. It’s perfect for ‘Dwight’ he does a great job and the cast is great as well.
This is a great show. It has a superb cast and storylines. The intrigue of the plots in conjunction with the witty remarks by characters in various situations makes me look forward to each episode. The cast delivers realistic, gut-level honest portrayals of life situations with crime solving blended in effectively. Please continue this show.
I love Backstrom. keep it going.
Backstrom is the best series! You can have those pretentious series like Empire and Scandal. We love the real world atmosphere of Backstrom. It is funny and smart and we hope you’ll keep it. We look forward to seeing it every week.
I love the show! Please keep up the good work.