Kung Fu: Season Three Ratings

(Photo by: Nino Muñoz/The CW)

The CW is now run by Nexstar and its management reportedly wants to focus on using inexpensive and acquired programming that generates good ratings. That’s going to be a challenge. Nexstar CEO Perry Sook and CW president Dennis Miller are reportedly fans of Kung Fu, but can the reboot generate enough income to justify the cost? Will Kung Fu be cancelled or renewed for season four? Stay tuned. *Status Update Below.

A martial-arts action-adventure TV show, the Kung Fu TV show stars Olivia Liang, Kheng Hua Tan, Shannon Dang, Jon Prasida, Eddie Liu, Gavin Stenhouse, Vanessa Kai, Yvonne Chapman, Tony Chung, JB Tadena, and Tzi Ma. The series revolves around Nicky Shen (Liang), a young Chinese American woman who questions her life’s trajectory and drops out of college to go on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China. When Nicky returns to San Francisco, she finds that her hometown is overrun with crime and corruption. The third season picks up after an earthquake and Nicky, her family, and her community attempting to rebuild in more ways than one. Nicky, still reeling from her abrupt breakup with her boyfriend Henry (Liu), and the shocking death of her nemesis-turned-ally Zhilan (Chapman), puts on a brave face as she juggles a new job teaching kung fu while fighting a growing crimewave in San Francisco.

The ratings are typically the best indication of a show’s chances of staying on the air. The higher the ratings, the better the chances for survival. This chart will be updated as new ratings data becomes available.

3/9 update: You can see the latest night’s ratings in context.

Note: If you’re not seeing the updated chart, please try reloading the page or view it here.

For comparisons: Season two of Kung Fu on The CW averaged a 0.07 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 413,000 viewers.

Note: These are the final national ratings, including all live+same day viewing and DVR playback (through 3:00 AM). Early fast affiliate ratings (estimates) are indicated with an “*”. While these numbers don’t include further delayed or streaming viewing, they are a very good indicator of how a show is performing, especially when compared to others on the same channel. Though other economic factors are involved, the higher-rated shows usually get renewed and the lower-rated ones get cancelled.

What do you think? Do you like the Kung Fu TV series on The CW? Should it be cancelled or renewed for a fourth season?

*5/12/23 update: Kung Fu has been cancelled after three seasons by The CW.