Cancellation Watch: Hannibal Improves Its Numbers from its Debut

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NBC's serial killer/horror series Hannibal aired its second episode this last Thursday and succeeded in doing something rarely seen with television shows these days: it increased its ratings after its debut (the preliminaries showed it steady, but the finals went up).  Most shows usually hit their high point with there season/series debut and then begin to trend downward after that (some slightly, others drastically).  But Hannibal, based on the notorious character created by Thomas Harris who has appeared in four novels and four big screen films, bucked that trend and actually improved its ratings with its second episode.  It wasn't a major jump, going from a 1.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic to a 1.7, but it's an accomplishment for a show just to hold on to its debut ratings numbers, let alone improve them.  If it manages to stay in this range, then the show has a decent chance of winning a second season renewal.  And from what I understand, this one is playing the social media angle hard, trying to drum up interest that way.  It's still early to tell, and I'm not going back off from the Moderate Cancellation Alert I have it at right now just yet.  But Hannibal just may succeed in beating the odds that were stacked against it going in and live into a second season.

Most of the rest of last week's Wednesday through Friday shows were in repeats or preempted, so it was a slow week otherwise.  Below are the full numbers for the week and you can read about the Sunday through Monday shows (as well as the cancellation of Cult and renewals of Bates Motel and Being Human) in my mid-week column.  Also, tonight is the debut of Defiance on Syfy which bows at 9 PM EST.  Keep an eye on the Cancellation Watch Twitter Site for the early returns from that one and the other Sunday thru Monday 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 April 7:
Once Upon A Time (R) (ABC Sun 8 PM) Rating: 0.6 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Low
Game of Thrones (HBO Sun 9 PM) Rating: 2.3 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Renewed
The Following (FOX Mon 9 PM) Rating: 2.2 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Renewed
Being Human (Syfy Mon 9 PM) Rating: 0.5 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Low
Bates Motel (A&E Mon 10 PM) Rating: 1.0 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Low
Revolution (NBC Mon 10 PM) Rating: 2.2 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Low
Arrow (R) (CW Wed 8 PM) Rating: 0.4 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Renewed
Supernatural (R) (CW Wed 9 PM) Rating: 0.4 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Renewed
Vampire Diaries (R) (CW Thu 8 PM) Rating: 0.3 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Renewed
Person of Interest (R) (CBS Thu 9 PM) Rating: 1.8 | Trend: Down | Cancellation Alert: Renewed
Beauty and the Beast (R) (CW Thu 9 PM) Rating: 0.3 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Medium
Hannibal (NBC Thu 10 PM) Rating: 1.7 | Trend: Up | Cancellation Alert: Moderate
Nikita (CW Fri 8 PM) Rating: 0.4 | Trend: Up | Cancellation Alert: Moderate
Cult (CW Tue 9 PM) Rating: Pulled | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Cancelled
Touch (FOX Fri 9 PM) Rating: Preempted | Trend: Up | Cancellation Alert: High
Grimm (R) (NBC Fri 9 PM) Rating: 0.7 | Trend: Up | Cancellation Alert: Low

Ratings Source: TV by the Numbers

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

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