Cancellation Watch: Agents of SHIELD Still Sliding, American Horror Story Gets Renewed

ABC's Agents of SHIELD dropped in the ratings yet again this last week as it pulled its lowest numbers yet with a 2.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 7.2 million total viewers.  That did come after a one week break (when it aired a rerun), though, which usually causes a show's numbers to dip.  And with Thor: The Dark World opening in theaters today, SHIELD should hopefully get some callouts from that movie and the November 19th episode of the show is supposed to deal with the fallout from the events of that film.  So it could get a boost in the coming weeks, but will that be enough to carry it to a second season renewal (it has already received a full season order)?  I say they need to do some more crossovers with the Marvel Universe and I wouldn't be surprised if ABC executives didn't start sticking their noses behind the scenes and demand some changes to help bolster the ratings.  The network did offer some spin on the show's numbers by touting its success among men in the 18 to 34 range which is considered an important demographic, but I still think they have to be somewhat underwhelmed but the recent numbers for this one considering it is likely an expensive show to produce.  Keep an eye on how the show tracks over the next two weeks, though, to see if the Thor movie helps its prospects any.

Over on The CW on Tuesday, both The Originals and Supernatural dropped a bit as they each scored a 0.9 rating in the 18-49 demo with the former pulling two million total viewers and the latter grabbing 2.2 million.  No concern over that drop at the moment as this network's ratings tend to fluctuate like this and these shows should probably continue to hover in the 1.0 range this season which will keep them safe.  In the 10 PM hour, Person of Interest pulled another 1.9 rating with 11.8 million total viewers which matches its series low.  NBC's extending of The Voice into that hour has definitely hurt PoI's demographic numbers, but then it landed in the Top 10 as far as total viewers for the prior week (and has been in the Top 15 all season), so it has little to worry about at this point.

On Wednesday, The CW's Arrow improved notably to a 1.0 rating in the 18-49 demo with 2.8 million total viewers after dropping to a series low last week of a 0.8 score.  Apparently the World Series put a dent in the show's ratings last week, but it rebounded without that competition to contend with.  The Tomorrow People did not improve its numbers in the next hour, though, as it again pulled a 0.6 rating with 1.6 million total viewers.  That one is heading into dangerous territory at this point as its numbers are only barely acceptable for the fifth place network and they have several shows waiting in the wings that could take over the hour at mid-season.  On NBC, Revolution continued to fly low for that network as it scored another 1.4 rating with 5.2 million total viewers.  This one still has a chance of riding out the full season order the network gave it previously, but without an improvement to its numbers it will almost certainly not return for a third year.  Over on FX, American Horror Story improved its numbers to a 2.2 rating with 3.8 million total viewers and it won the night among cable shows.  That series is currently enjoying is best ratings yet and not surprisingly the network has given it a renewal for a fourth season. 

The preliminary numbers for the Thursday night shows will be available later this morning, so keep an eye on the Cancellation Watch Twitter Site for those and other ratings-related news.  You can see the current status for all this season's genre show at this link.  And for more information on the ratings numbers and how I determine the Cancellation Alert status of a show, see the Cancellation Watch FAQ.

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