Cancellation Watch: Zero Hour Stumbles With Its Debut Giving Us Likely Another Genre Show Headed for a Quick Exit

Get the Quickest Updates on Sci Fi TV Ratings at the Cancellation Watch Twitter Site

ABC's conspiracy series Zero Hour debuted this last Thursday and (surprise, surprise!) laid a big fat egg with the Nielsens.  Just as I had previously predicted, this show struggled mightily to find an audience in the highly competitive Thursday 8 PM EST timeslot that previously sank Last Resort.  Zero Hour's series premiere pulled only a 1.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 6.4 million total viewers.  Last Resort debuted in that hour last Fall with a 2.2 rating, and it was already in deep waters with those numbers.  It continued to sink throughout the Fall months and ABC announced the show's cancellation in late November.  With Zero Hour bowing to a score 36% lower than Last Resort's, I highly doubt that the network will wait as long before giving this one the axe.  It might last longer than the two airing's that NBC gave Do No Harm before yanking that one, but I don't see Zero Hour sticking around for too many more weeks.  Some may point out that last Thursday was Valentine's Day and that impacted viewership, and there is some truth to that.  But the TV by the Numbers guys pointed out that the overall numbers were only off by about 6% from the prior week, so it wasn't a huge impact.  Zero Hour needs to be averaging at least a full point higher than what it currently has for even a chance at survival, and it's a long ways off.  And the typical trend after a show's premiere is for the numbers to go down, so don't get attached to it, it will almost certainly be gone soon.

And speaking of numbers going down, NBC's Touch sunk even further with its second Season 2 episode.  That one only pulled a 0.7 rating and 2.5 million total viewers this last Friday.  Those are marginal numbers for a CW show (even on a Friday), let alone one of the Big 4 networks.  I've said before, I don't understand why they renewed this one in the first place, and it looks like my predictions of it not lasting past a second season will play out.  And with the extremely poor performance of the mid-season genre shows so far (even The Following is now on a slide), you have to wonder about the chances of Cult from The CW which has its bow tomorrow.  That's not a good night for that network anyway and viewers just don't seem to be too interested in any of the new entries the networks are offering.  I will have a report on it's debut numbers out on the Cancellation Watch Twitter Site around noon on Wednesday.

The rest of the mid to late week shows all performed at levels similar to where they were the prior week, though the Thursday shows did have a bit of dip because of Valentine's Day.  I covered the return of The Walking Dead plus the current woes of Once Upon A Time and The Following in my mid-week column last week.  And you can keep an eye on the Cancellation Watch Twitter Site for the early returns from Sunday thru Tuesday shows from this week.  You can see the Cancellation Alert status of all the shows currently airing plus the final results from prior seasons at my Cancellation Watch page.  And for questions on how the ratings work and my Cancellation Alert statuses, you can see the Cancellation Watch FAQ.

Ratings Results for the Week of Feb 10:
Once Upon A Time (ABC Sun 8 PM) Rating: 2.2 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Low
The Walking Dead (AMC Sun 9 PM) Rating: 6.1 | Trend: Up | Cancellation Alert: Renewed
The Following (FOX Mon 9 PM) Rating: 2.4 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Low
Being Human (Syfy Mon 9 PM) Rating: 0.5 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Low
Arrow (CW Wed 8 PM) Rating: 1.1 | Trend: Up | Cancellation Alert: Low
The Neighbors (ABC Wed 9:30 PM) Rating: 1.7 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Moderate
Supernatural (CW Wed 9 PM) Rating: 1.0 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Low
Zero Hour (ABC Thu 8 PM) Rating: 1.4 | Trend: n/a | Cancellation Alert: High
Vampire Diaries (CW Thu 8 PM) Rating: 1.0 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Low
Person of Interest (CBS Thu 9 PM) Rating: 3.0 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Low
Beauty and the Beast (CW Thu 9 PM) Rating: 0.5 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Moderate
Nikita (CW Fri 8 PM) Rating: Preempted | Trend: Up | Cancellation Alert: Moderate
Touch (FOX Fri 9 PM) Rating: 0.7 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: High

Revolution and Grimm will resume in March. Lost Girl and Continuum not as heavily tied to U.S. ratings

Ratings Source: TV by the Numbers

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2013 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.

---

Why Were They Cancelled? 
The Plight of Science Fiction and Fantasy Television in the Face of the Unforgiving Nielsens and Networks

Ever wondered why your favorite science fiction and/or fantasy show disappeared from the television schedule, never to deliver anymore new episodes? The reason why, most likely, is that it was cancelled because its ratings were low. And this book looks at those many cancelled sci fi/fantasy shows as well as the Neilsen ratings and television networks that dictate their fates. Available now for only $2.99 on Kindle from Amazon.com.