Which FOX TV shows will be cancelled or renewed for the 2011-12 season? Glee remains the network’s top show by a large measure with House in a distant second place. The Simpsons and Family Guy are not far behind the cranky doctor’s show. It’s interesting that four of the network’s top six series are animated. Raising Hope is squarely in the middle of the pack and benefits greatly from following Glee. Could another show do better?
Bones continues to be a solid player, competing on the highly competitive Thursday night. Lie to Me won’t be getting a full season order and often doesn’t hold onto much of the House lead-in audience. Fringe is heading to Friday nights but FOX contends that it’s not being put out to pasture (we’ll have to see how patient they are). Human Target is struggling on Wednesdays and Running Wilde is all but cancelled.
Below is a list of the regular FOX TV shows and their 2010-11 season average ratings to date. It only incorporates the ratings for original episodes that have aired this season, not repeats. The data is sorted by the 18-49 demographic averages, the group that advertisers will pay the most to reach.
| Scripted TV Shows | Average viewers (millions) |
Average 18-49 demo |
||
| 1 | Glee | 11.61 | 4.8 | |
| 2 | House | 10.08 | 3.8 | |
| 3 | The Simpsons | 8.20 | 3.7 | |
| 3 | Family Guy | 7.53 | 3.7 | |
| 5 | The Cleveland Show | 6.41 | 3.0 | |
| 6 | American Dad | 5.71 | 2.7 | |
| 7 | Raising Hope | 6.26 | 2.6 | |
| 8 | Bones | 9.28 | 2.5 | |
| 9 | Lie To Me | 5.54 | 1.9 | |
| 9 | Fringe | 5.08 | 1.9 | |
| 11 | Human Target | 5.96 | 1.7 | |
| 12 | Running Wilde | 3.72 | 1.6 | |
| 13 | Lone Star (cancelled) | 3.66 | 1.1 | |
| 14 | The Good Guys (cancelled) | 2.46 | 0.7 | |
| News or Reality TV Shows | Average viewers (millions) |
Average 18-49 demo |
||
| 1 | Hell's Kitchen 9pm | 6.33 | 2.7 | |
| 1 | Hell's Kitchen 8pm | 6.03 | 2.7 | |
| 3 | America's Most Wanted | 4.83 | 1.6 | |
| 4 | Cops | 4.45 | 1.5 | |
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 The Good Guys and Lone Star). 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.
The list has been separated into two sections. Of the two, scripted programming is the most expensive. News and reality TV shows are less expensive to produce but the networks can’t program just news/reality (though they might like to since they are less of a financial risk).
It should be noted that Friday and Saturday nights are the least watched evenings of television so ratings for shows on those nights are lower. The networks understand this and take 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.
Nielsen doesn’t release the final Friday and Saturday night ratings until a few days later. The ratings with an “*” may change slightly once the final numbers are released.
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?
Image courtesy FOX.
I really hope AMW stays on air. I have a feeling it will though 24 seasons strong(:
I’m surprised that Fox isn’t all reality shows by now. Did you know that after one of them failed horribly, they said that they’d never air one again? Guess what? They lied. I don’t watch much on Fox and only one midseason replacement might be good. They screw over shows too much.
Fringe and Raising Hope are the two main reasons I watch FOX. GLEE started strong but has been very weak this season in the writing department. I will keep watching, but I hope they fix the writing and send Mr Schue to a sexual harrassment class cuz that dude does NOT understand teacher/student boundaries at all.
Fringe is my number one favorite show on TV. Hopefully they wont put it back against Supernatural(my second favorite show) when they move it to Friday night. I also really like Lie To Me which is probably my second favorite show on the network. I’m really sad to see The Good Guys get cancelled because it was the first show I would watch off my DVR on the weekend. If Fringe and Lie To Me get cancelled I believe I will stop watching anything on FOX since they always seem to cancel the shows I like and I am tired… Read more »
Running Wilde won’t survive. But I’m worried about Lie to me and Human target. I honestly thought Bones was doing better. But in the end the problem is that people are afraid to watch a fox show because of their reputation for canceling shows. They cancel more shows any other network. So untilo they actually show that they put some real faith into their shows then people won’t be tuning in. So it’s fox’es move. Let’s see what happens.