Though Forever has been struggling in the ratings, ABC has ordered nine additional episodes, bringing the first season tally to 22 installments.
On the Forever TV show, New York City’s star medical examiner is Doctor Henry Morgan (Ioan Gruffudd). He can ascertain things that most can not because of his vast experience — he’s been alive for 200 years but can’t figure out how or why. The rest of the cast includes Alana de la Garza, Lorraine Toussaint, Donnie Keshawarz, Joel David Moore, and Judd Hirsch.
The show debuted in late September and got off to a poor start, following the season premiere of Dancing with the Stars on a Monday night. It attracted a 1.5 rating with 8.26 million viewers. The following night, in its permanent timeslot, the demo rose to a 1.8 rating but viewership dropped to 6.62 million.
In week two, the ratings tumbled to a 1.4 in the demo with 5.66 million. In week three, they fell even lower and the numbers have been hovering around a 1.1 rating with fewer than five million viewers.
While Forever can hardly be considered a ratings success, the network apparently feels its performing well enough to be given some more time. They may also not have anything better to put into its place.
The show also sees significant percentage gains in the Live+7 reports, an indication that people are watching Forever but it’s not “appointment television.” ABC recently touted that Forever saw an 82% boost in the Live+7 ratings for October 14th — going from a 1.1 rating to a 2.0 rating. That seems impressive but it’s important to remember that all the rest of ABC’s shows (ones with better “live” ratings) also saw big boosts. For example, that week’s How to Get Away with Murder bumped from a 2.8 to a 4.9 demo rating.
In the long run, unless the ratings improve, it’s hard to imagine that Forever will see a second season.
But, what do you think? Have you been watching Forever? Do you think it’s a better show than what the ratings seem to indicate?
I was delighted to find out a couple hours ago that Forever will be continuing with more shows. I am looking forward to more flashbacks into the past decades of Henry’s life. He has gained a lot of insight over the years, though he started out already will educated for the time period having been a doctor on the ship. There is room for speculation as to why he was there. He was even then a compassionate man with strong convictions even in the face of a gun. I hope next week’s show doesn’t get lost trying to gain attention… Read more »
Thank you for giving this witty, intelligent and entertaining program a chance. I love the show, the characters and how the character Harry Morgan solves cases. The actor is one of my favorites ever since I first saw him in Horatio Hornblower. Keep those episodes coming.
I wish it was on Mondays! I liked how it started out for the 2 day series premiere. 10pm on tuesday is so late! This is by far one of my top fave shows on tv. I love it. Don’t ever cancel!
Forever is a great show. The writing is top notch and the actors are awesome. I hope that this show has a long run. I really enjoy watching this show.
I agree! We love FOREVER and anxiously wait for it every week. Thanks so much for adding more shows!! We are thoroughly sick of reality TV and so many shows that can’t have one episode without sex scenes, nudity and foul language. I am hopeful it does get renewed for another season!
I love this show and am very happy to hear that it is going to have additional episodes!
Don’t know if Forever is going to break the Tuesdays @ 10 p.m. curse for ABC.
HURRAH AND HALLELUIAH !!! Thank you ABC for giving “Forever” a full season. So many of us love and support the show and have been posting our positive comments wherever and whenever we get the chance. Your actors are wonderful, as are the writers and all connected with the show. How about some real promotion for them, please. They need to be visible on the morning and nighttime shows to draw a bigger following.
I, for one, am very grateful to you for adding the extra episodes.
I’m thrilled additional episodes of Forever have been added!! Love this show, and what a “hottie” Dr. Henry Morgan is!! Love the idea of the show because it’s different. Have it set as a series recording on my DVR. Sooo glad this show is being given a chance!!!!!
I am so glad that ABC is giving Forever a chance. Reality shows have ruined TV viewing ever since they got started due to that writer’s strike. I have never watched a single one!
I am delighted to hear this. I hope people tune into this show and recognize how good it is.
FOREVER forever more!
This is a really good show I’m surprised to hear it’s struggling from what I’ve seen and heard “People love Doctor Henry Morgan.” Ioan Gruffud is really great and this is one of the few original and interesting shows on TV right now and Judd Hirsch is always fantastic in anything.
I’ve really gotten in to this show, glad to see ABC is at least going to give it a full season to try and get its feet under it.
CBS may be the #1 network right now, but that doesn’t mean that it still couldn’t learn a thing or two from its competitors…..*cough cough* Intelligence.
It’s in a bad time slot against a couple of veteran shows with strong following. If they put it behind a strong show on that network it’d probably take off. Don’t these programmers understand such basics. Get a show strong and then put it up against popular shows? Seems like simple logic to me
I completely agree. Forever is a rotten time slot, and not getting the audience that it deserves. I love this show, and want to see last for a long time.