Axiom’s Edge Network Ratings Tracker

By John J. Joex

With only a few weeks of the season left, several Science Fiction and Fantasy shows continue to sputter in to the finish. NBC’s Monday night lineup which saw a slight boost last week dipped back down as all three shows prepare to wrap up their seasons. The finales for Heroes and Chuck air on Monday, while Medium will stick around until mid-May. The latter has continued to pull the most total viewers for the evening and has a decent chance of getting a renewal. NBC has already indicated that Heroes will be back, so Chuck could end up being the odd man out, despite my previous claims that if Heroes came back it would to.

Reaper gained a tick from its prior week, but with only a 1.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic, that’s not really saying much. Fringe continues to take advantage of its American Idol lead-in and pull strong numbers. Expect to hear that show’s name on the renewal list when FOX makes their announcements in a couple of weeks.

Smallville and Supernatural came back from two weeks of reruns and, sure enough, their numbers dropped off from the last time they aired new episodes. The CW needs to find a better way to schedule these two so that they don’t keep losing steam.

Dollhouse sunk to a series low as Prison Break has proven an even worse lead-in than The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It only managed a 1.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic and just under 3 million viewers. There’s a slight chance that FOX may give this one a pity renewal and a fresh start for next season, but that’s looking less and less likely.

As we mentioned last week, Kings is now off the schedule after one tepid Saturday outing and will return in Summer to complete its run.

Also, as mentioned, Lost got the expected renewal announcement for another season. It had a clip show this last week but returns this week with new episodes until it wraps up its fifth season mid-May.

Ratings Results:

The Timeslot Rank , and % Change from Prior Week and Lead-In columns are based on the rating in the 18-49 demographic.  The Cancellation Alert column is based on season to date performance and my assessment of how likely the network is to cancel the show.  TVbytheNumbers.com also provides their Renew/Cancel Index which tracks the likelihood of cancellation on a weekly basis.

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