The Penn & Teller: Fool Us series hasn’t drawn big ratings, but it’s presumably fairly cheap to produce and has been renewed year after year. Now, The CW has a new owner that wants to focus on inexpensive and acquired programming. Is Penn & Teller: Fool Us sure to be renewed for season 10, or could it still be cancelled? Stay tuned. *Status Update Below.
A magic competition series, the Penn & Teller: Fool Us TV show is hosted by Alyson Hannigan and is judged by comedic illusionists Penn Jillette and Teller. In each episode, aspiring magicians are invited to perform their best trick to try and fool the world-famous team. Anyone who succeeds wins the right to perform with Penn and Teller in their celebrated show at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The live studio audience and the TV audience watch along with Penn & Teller as they try to figure out the secrets. The master magicians see the trick only once and have to try to immediately figure out how it was done. The live studio audience knows there are no camera tricks, secret edits, or helpful camera cuts — just real magic. Magicians in season nine include Jon Mobley, The Van Hargen Twins, Axel Adlerm, Chris Canfield, Theron Christensen, Jaana Felicitas, Benjamin Barnes, Brian Curry, Yann Yuro, Helen Coghlan, Jason Michaels, and Alexander Boyce.
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 of survival. This chart will be updated as new ratings data becomes available.
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For comparisons: Season eight of Penn & Teller: Fool Us on The CW averaged a 0.10 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 748,000 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. There can be other economic factors involved in a show’s fate, but typically the higher-rated series are renewed and the lower-rated ones are cancelled.
What do you think? Do you like the Penn & Teller: Fool Us TV series on The CW? Should it be cancelled or renewed for a 10th season?
*5/19/23 update: Penn & Teller: Fool Us has been renewed for a 10th season by The CW.