Conviction: Cancel or Keep the ABC Drama?

Marvel’s Agent Carter drew low ratings and was cancelled but star Hayley Atwell was often praised for her work on the series. Now, she has a new TV show on ABC called Conviction and the network has given it Castle’s old timeslot. Is this new TV series worth watching? Cancel or keep it?

A legal drama series, Conviction follows what happens when attorney Hayes Morrison (Hayley Atwell), the daughter of a former President, gets “blackmailed” into joining the Conviction Integrity Unit. It’s a NYC department that re-examines cases when there is suspicion of wrongful conviction. The rest of the cast includes Eddie Cahill, Shawn Ashmore, Merrin Dungey, Emily Kinney, Manny Montana, and Daniel Franzese.

The series launched on October 3rd and attracted a 0.92 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 5.17 million viewers. It was a disappointing start to be sure. The second installment fell more than 15%, registering a 0.78 rating with 4.23 million.

While it’s still early in the season, the ratings for Conviction so far have been terrible. It’s the network’s lowest-rated series in the demo with a 0.85 rating and 4.7 million. Last season, Castle (which was cancelled) averaged a 1.08 in the demo with 6.20 million viewers.

Unless the numbers for Conviction improve quickly, it looks certain that the legal drama will be cancelled and may not even be allowed to finish out its 13 episodes.

But, what do you think? Do you like the Conviction TV show? Do you think that it should be cancelled or kept on the air to give the audience a chance to find it? Is it a better show than the ratings seem to indicate?