Every year, the ocean of TV programming gets that much wider, stretching audiences' attention spans with an ever-growing supply of original series, making it that much harder to build up the massive viewerships of yore. No matter what average audience totals are, though, we can always anticipate a major glut of show cancellations taking place in April and May as fall and midseason runs head into finale weeks. 2023 is no different, so let's dive into a batch of shows that are most in danger of falling beneath the dreaded cancellation axe.
Lopez Vs. Lopez (NBC)
While George Lopez and his daughter Mayan are great at making audiences laugh in the studio, as well as those watching at home, the show isn't necessarily guaranteed to draw in huge numbers of viewers, laughing or otherwise. And the situation doesn’t get that much better when its Live + 7 Day delayed-viewing ratings are accounted for, with only the series premiere reaching more than 3 million pairs of eyes. When it comes to both total viewership and the all-important 18-to-49 demo rating, Lopez vs Lopez ranks dead last amid NBC’s other scripted shows. (Though it’s tied with another entry on this list to bottom things out.)
Gotham Knights (The CW)
When Gotham Knights was first put into development at The CW, the Arrowverse was still a thing, and the network hadn't yet been bought up by Nexstar. Now, The CW's future will contain only the bare minimum when it comes to original output, with All American currently sitting pretty as the only scripted series guaranteed to return in Fall 2023. And despite having Supernatural fave Misha Collins heading up the cast, Gotham Knights tanked with critics and drew just over 380,000 viewers with its April 11 broadcast, earning a demo rating of 0.05. Which wouldn't have been great at any point, but especially not now that the possible slots for returning shows are so extremely limited.
Housebroken (Fox)
The general belief that Fox execs may never intentionally end The Simpsons, Family Guy, or Bob’s Burgers is a great hook for those particular shows, but viewers have seen a wide swath of other animated shows come in and out of the network’s Sunday night lineup over the years. And while it’s still somewhat early in HouseBroken’s sophomore season, the animal-centric animated comedy’s latest episodes drew just 610,000 viewers (0.2 demo) and 550,000 viewers (0.1 demo) respectively, which is enough of a steep decline from Season 1’s totals that Lisa Kudrow’s Honey will probably need to beg, roll over, and heel like nobody’s business if there’s any hope of a Season 3 renewal.
Grand Crew (NBC)
For my money, Nicole Byer and Carl Tart should be contractually obligated to co-star in at least one project a year together. But while Grand Crew does a fair job of utilizing their less NSFW talents, the NBC comedy’s numbers have drooped with the currently airing second season, which is only averaging around 1.5 million viewers per nightly airings, with a demo rating that has topped out at 0.2. Here’s hoping Echo Kellum & Co. will be having “Wine and Celebratory Renewal News” rather than the alternative.
Fantasy Island (Fox)
As headed up by co-stars Roselyn Sánchez and Kiara Barnes, Fox’s Fantasy Island managed to stay afloat beyond its initial season, and Season 2 managed to nearly match Season 1’s viewership high, while never sinking below the initial season’s lowest totals. That said, the anthology-esque drama’s average stats aren’t quite at “fantasy” levels with just a few episodes left to go, and its demo rating has averaged out to around a 0.2, which is pretty dismal for a Big 4 drama.
True Lies (CBS)
20 years after James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger reteamed for the high-octane caper True Lies may not have been the ideal time for CBS to spin the concept into a weekly drama. The Steve Howey-fronted series technically isn’t doing so terribly in comparison to others, but its average weekly Wednesday night audience only tops out at around 2.6 million viewers, which isn’t so impressive for a CBS action drama from a known IP. What may end up being True Lies’ saving grace, however, is the power of its delayed viewing audience. While not record-breaking, the show brings in an average of 2 million further viewers across each episode’s first seven days, and that 4.6 million viewership certainly helps to balance the 0.4 average 18-49 demo rating.
The Company You Keep (ABC)
As Milo Ventimiglia's first big primetime drama after This Is Us' emotional conclusion, ABC's The Company You Keep seemed like a lock to deliver an impressive freshman season. In some ways it has, with Catherine Haena Kim helping balance the romantic foibles and high-stakes conman fun, but The Company You Keep hasn't ever broken out of the limited audience scope that its premiere brought in. It's averaged 2.2 million viewers across 10 of its 13 episodes, with the latest drawing the lowest live viewership to date. And its DVR numbers, while not shabby, haven't brought its total viewership above 4 million. The star power, plus the generally solid critical appeal and word-of-mouth reactions, could be enough to convince ABC execs to confirm Season 2 for next fall, but we'll have to wait and see.
Walker: Independence (The CW)
As discussed in part already, basically everything that hasn't been buried yet at The CW is on the cancellation and renewal fence, since parent company Nexstar is focusing on producing low-budget fare. And even though the network will more than likely bring Jared Padalecki's neo-western Walker back for a fourth season, the same confidence can't be had for the historical spinoffo Walker: Independence. And we're not talking about huge viewership differences either, since the flagship's average of 725,000 viewers (1.3 million with Live +7) isn't that much more impressive than Independence's 497,000 (946,000 with Live + 7), and nor is its demo rating, but limited scheduling space is what it is.
Animal Control (Fox)
If PETA was in charge, Fox's Animal Control would have been cancelled before it premiered, given the org's stance on the comedy's animal usage, but the series' own audience numbers might be enough to do the job. Across the nine episodes that have aired so far, the Joel McHale comedy lost half of its initial viewership, going from 2.09 million (0.3 demo rating) to 1.03 million (0.2 demo rating). It is averaging around 1 million more viewers in Live + 7 Day totals, which obviously helps, but it may not be enough to justify strapping McHale in for another season, especially with the Community movie on the way.
Alaska Daily (ABC)
Hilary Swank is always dependable for great performances, and she’s a big reason why ABC’s Alaska Daily has done as well as it has. Which is to say, well enough to put it on the favorable and optimistic side of the cancellation bubble fence, but not so amazing that Season 2 is a sure thing. Its total viewership numbers aren’t so shabby, and Alaska Daily averages an 87% audience increase when Live + 7 Day totals are accounted for — jumping up from 2.84 million to 5.33 million. But the issue here is that the newspaper-hinged drama ranked among the bottom of ABC’s scripted fare by way of demo ratings, which could very well be the deciding factor for whether it gets a second season or not.
Young Rock (NBC)
Despite being one of the biggest audience-drawers in Hollywood for quite a few years now, Dwayne Johnson’s involvement with his biographical NBC comedy Young Rock hasn’t done much to build up or maintain a sizable audience. Season 3 wrapped up at the end of February, with Young Rock tied with Lopez vs Lopez at the very bottom of NBC’s scripted slate, both in terms of total viewership and demo ratings. Only two of those 13 episodes drew more than 1.5 million viewers for live airings, and a similarly low number of eps managed to top 2 million even after delayed viewing was tallied. (Fans have also been pretty critical of the show’s pro wrestler send-ups, with Season 3 introducing so-so takes on Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart and others.)
Welcome To Flatch (Fox)
Though many of the shows populating this list are in the midst of current seasons, and thus hypothetically have a shot at creating their own fates, Fox's small-town mockumentary comedy Welcome to Flatch has been lounging atop the cancellation/renewal bubble for more than two months now. With Chelsea Holmes and Sam Straley as Flatch's central shit-kickers, the series made waves in its first season based in part on its talented and star-speckled cast, and because half of its 14 initial episodes were made available for streaming ahead of their linear airing on Fox. And despite a Season 2 ep's key shift to Sunday for a post-NFL slot that garnered the sitcom's biggest viewership and demo rating, its delayed-viewing average of around 1.15 million may not even justify the no doubt low-cost series landing a third outing. Anytime a comedy is waiting months on end to hear updates, they're usually not great updates.
Stay tuned to see which of these shows will be making it through to the 2023 Fall TV season
