On Monday, 90210 returned after six weeks of repeats and it looks like a few people forgot to tune in. The drama attracted a 1.7 in the network’s target demographic of females 18-34 years old. That’s a loss of 19% when compared to the December 6th episode. Gossip Girl was down by 21% in the young female demo.
On Tuesday, The CW execs opted to not air the State if the Union address. One Tree Hill was up by nearly 6% in the demo and Hellcats was up 7%. On Wednesday, The CW aired repeats.
Finally, on Thursday, a new episode of The Vampire Diaries aired and saw an increase of 4.5% in the young lady demo. Nikita saw a whopping 18% increase in the demo but was still a full ratings point below Vampire Diaries’ performance.
Wonder if your favorite FOX show’s been renewed or cancelled? Check out our comprehensive list. We’ll keep updating it as new info becomes available.
Below is a list of the regular CW TV shows and their 2010-11 season average ratings to date. It only incorporates the ratings for original episodes that have aired this season (no repeats). The data is sorted by the 18-34 female demographic averages, the group that the CW focuses on attracting and selling to advertisers. The “compared to” column reflects whether the demo average has gone up, down, or stayed the same.
| W 18-34 demo rank |
TV Shows | Average viewership (in millions) |
Average 18-49 demo rating |
Average women 18-34 demo |
Compared to last week |
|
| 1 | The Vampire Diaries | 3.40 | 1.6 | 2.5 | --- | |
| 2 | Gossip Girl | 1.83 | 1.0 | 2.3 | --- | |
| 3 | America's Next Top Model | 2.87 | 1.3 | 2.2 | --- | |
| 4 | 90210 | 1.91 | 1.0 | 1.8 | --- | |
| 4 | One Tree Hill | 1.91 | 1.0 | 1.8 | --- | |
| 6 | Hellcats | 2.19 | 0.9 | 1.6 | --- | |
| 7 | Life Unexpected (cancelled) | 1.52 | 0.7 | 1.3 | --- | |
| 8 | Nikita | 2.63 | 1.0 | 1.2 | --- | |
| 9 | Supernatural | 2.37 | 1.0 | 1.1 | --- | |
| 10 | Smallville (ending) | 2.71 | 1.1 | 1.0 | --- | |
The closer a show is to the bottom of the list, the closer it is to being cancelled (if it hasn’t been cancelled already like Life Unexpected). If it’s closer to the top of the list, it’s more likely to be renewed. Shows that are in the middle (“on the bubble”) can be a little tougher to call. Their future typically comes down to other factors like overall costs, contracts, who produces the show, and what new shows are on the horizon.
It should be noted that Friday nights are one of the least watched evenings of television so ratings for shows on that night are lower. The network understands this and takes it into account. However, regardless of when a show is aired, its production costs remain the same. Ultimately, it must still be profitable enough for the network to keep ordering more episodes.
Raw data: © The Nielsen Company via Media Week.
What do you think? Which shows do you think won’t survive to see a new season?
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