Riverdale All About The Ratings!

[Kelly]

Well the ratings are in for the Premiere episode. Unfortunately they aren't all that great...

0.5/2 1.37 viewers

 

[famicommander]

Looks like an awful week across the board for CW. Supernatural still hitting 0.6 despite the better timeslot, all the Arrowverse shows are down, Riverdale had a week premiere, etc.

Maybe next week will be better.

Even still, Riverdale may get renewed simply because CW doesn't want to cancel all of its freshman shows. And Berlanti having four other shows on CW and three on CW Seed may give him some extra clout.

 

[Kelly]

Looks like an awful week across the board for CW. Supernatural still hitting 0.6 despite the better timeslot, all the Arrowverse shows are down, Riverdale had a week premiere, etc.

Maybe next week will be better.

Even still, Riverdale may get renewed simply because CW doesn't want to cancel all of its freshman shows. And Berlanti having four other shows on CW and three on CW Seed may give him some extra clout.

Definitely this right there....kind of like Bell on CBS, and Wolf on NBC.

 

[DigificWriter]

The fact that the show also helps drive the Archie Comics brand and is produced directly in conjunction with Archie Comics Inc. itself increases the chances of renewal, IMO.

 

[famicommander]

Warner has no monetary interest in Archie Comics doing well -- in fact, Warner owns DC and DC is a direct competitor to Archie. All WB cares about is Riverdale, because they're the ones producing.

And Archie itself is struggling mightily right now. There's talk of them not being able to continue with the Sonic the Hedgehog comic books, which have run for more continuous issues than any comic based on an outside license in history.

Riverdale's fate will come down to three factors:
1. How well the ratings hold up
2. CW possibly not wanting to cancel all of its freshman shows
3. How much pull Greg Berlanti has with the big wigs, and how much he really wants the show to continue

 

[kguillou]

I'm shocked about the ratings. This show had a ton of buzz around it...at least I thought it did? This looked primed to be a Flash-sized hit.

 

[Kelly]

I'm shocked about the ratings. This show had a ton of buzz around it...at least I thought it did? This looked primed to be a Flash-sized hit.

It had the promotion in Houston that is for sure....in my 15 minute drive to work this morning listening to the largest radio station in Houston, it got 3 different promos, not to mention tons of TV promo.

I have to say, I voted on Zap2it that it would receive a 0.5-0.7....but I was actually thinking more 0.7+....

 

[DarthSkywalker]

If I had to guess, the problem is it looks too much like typical CW/MTV/Freeform. Which is probably a problem when trying to get the viewers from the male skewing superhero show. I am watching the episode right now, and I like it a lot. Outside of Archie having a super punchable face that is. But if it was based only on the promos, I probably wouldn't watch it.

On another note, CW has created a slight problem with their major DC projects. They have basically marked themselves as the superhero channel. Now that isn't bad because their superhero shows do the numbers. But with only 10 hours a week, they have kind of boxed themselves into a bit of a stereotype.

 

[Primal Slayer]

This is a major disappointment, especially starting so low it will only go lower. So much for that Sabrina spin off I was wishing for.

Though putting it after Supernatural was so weird to me, put it after The Flash. At least for the first episode.

 

[batdude]

I am a little surprised they didn't put this after the Flash for a week or two or do a Friday rerun at least. I thought this was supposed to be the next big CW show.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Hopefully the ratings hold since so far it doesnt look like any of CWs new shows are going to get renewed.

 

[Sawyer]

The big thing was that it was just dumb as hell of them not to dodge the on-coming Scandal train. The second ABC pushed that premiere back a week, the network should've been like "Yeeeah, let's not." They're both soapy shows, I can't fathom how they wouldn't think that show's return-- after almost a year off the air-- would eat into the show's viewership any. Riverdale's premiere going up against Scandal week 2 would've been more or less okay (even if I do question the timeslot), but both premieres going head to head? Come on...

That's the main one, but the show's promo game was also off. Title aside-- and outside of comic devotees, I don't know whether the town's name would ring bells for the general audience-- there was little to tell the world this was based off a comic that's been around for 75 straight years. The show's creative team is a guy behind literally all the network's top-rated shows AND someone that wrote for Supergirl last season, and there was no mention of either of them on posters/promos OR those other shows. Instead they used "From the network that brought you Gossip Girl (a show that ended almost five years ago) and The Vampire Diaries (a show heading into it's final hours)"... The pilot was the most buzzed about of the crop they picked up back in May, I don't even get why it wasn't on in the fall. I mean, if the network really wanted this thing to be big, they had a bizarre way of going about it.

The good/decent news is that The CW's views on ratings are different than other networks. They take into account a lot of factors, whereas others tend to make decisions based on live numbers alone. There's online/social media engagement, which I saw a lot of last night, it was trending right up there with the TGIT shows. There's critical praise, which they're in no position to turn their nose up at, and the show is, what? High 80s on RottenTomatoes? And then there's delayed viewing, which-- if I'm right about Scandal eating into the show's potential audience-- could end up being substantial on DVR/on demand/streaming. Even the live numbers are at around the same level as the other newbies this season, not below. And when you consider that at least one of those shows had a much more impressive lead-in in The Flash, I think things are... okay. Some steadiness in live numbers certainly wouldn't hurt, though.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

How much cross over with this and Scandal could there be?

 

[Primal Slayer]

Sooner or later TheCW is going to have to care about ratings. Right now they have their DCTV to save them but even those are slipping drastically. Pretty soon TheCW will be back to the days where their ratings were even worse after working hard to get their ratings to rise.

 

[Sawyer]

How much cross over with this and Scandal could there be?

I think there's a lot more overlap than if you had something like The Flash in it's place. They've both got the soapy probably heavily serialized element, the intrigue, sex, romance, murder. This is comic-based, but not something like The Flash that is probably more innately meant to garner a male audience. I think the audience for this one is probably more female overall and falls into that same demographic that Scandal has had a hold on for 5-6 seasons now. Tonally pretty similar too, whereas The Flash/iZombie/Jane the Virgin lean more towards lighthearted for the most part.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I think there's a lot more overlap than if you had something like The Flash in it's place. They've both got the soapy probably heavily serialized element, the intrigue, sex, romance, murder. This is comic-based, but not something like The Flash that is probably more innately meant to garner a male audience. I think the audience for this one is probably more female overall and falls into that same demographic that Scandal has had a hold on for 5-6 seasons now. Tonally pretty similar too, whereas The Flash/iZombie/Jane the Virgin lean more towards lighthearted for the most part.

I agree that it would be mostly female. The problem here would be the age of the audience. Does Scandal get the younger viewers?

 

[batdude]

I think there's a lot more overlap than if you had something like The Flash in it's place. They've both got the soapy probably heavily serialized element, the intrigue, sex, romance, murder. This is comic-based, but not something like The Flash that is probably more innately meant to garner a male audience. I think the audience for this one is probably more female overall and falls into that same demographic that Scandal has had a hold on for 5-6 seasons now. Tonally pretty similar too, whereas The Flash/iZombie/Jane the Virgin lean more towards lighthearted for the most part.

Yeah, putting this up against Scandal's premiere not smart. Really though, I might have called it something like the new Archie Mysteries and maybe played up the football angle to get more male viewers.

 

[Sawyer]

I agree that it would be mostly female. The problem here would be the age of the audience. Does Scandal get the younger viewers?

I would assume so. Probably a lot of high school/college aged viewers.

 

[Sawyer]

Yeah, putting this up against Scandal's premiere not smart. Really though, I might have called it something like the new Archie Mysteries and maybe played up the football angle to get more male viewers.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the title. Smallville and Gotham were both able to garner pretty sizable audiences at the offset, but they also promoted themselves in such a way to acknowledge what was what. "This is Clark Kent, That's Lex Luthor" "This is Jim Gordon, That's Bruce Wayne" etc. I think I heard Archie's name used once in one of the promos, but otherwise they just sort of buried the comic connection. Like, yeah, I'm a comic nerd, but would someone who isn't see the title attached to a show about a redhead torn between a blonde and a brunette, and be able to put those pieces together? I dunno...

 

[dsfjr1190]

Advertising it as "From the network that brought you Gossip Girl & The Vampire Diaries" was stupid. Gossip Girl is gone and forgotten and TVD is on its way out. They'd have been better off not mentioning either show and instead just promote the series on its strengths: Betty and Veronica.

 

[Sawyer]

Yeah, I really don't know why they didn't namedrop shows with more relevance to A) the modern CW viewer and B) the actual creative team of the show. I mean, yeah, in terms of content it's more in league with GG and TVD than the superhero shows, but those titles are the ones putting asses in the seats lately. Berlanti had a hand in all of them and Sacasa wrote on Supergirl last season. Name-drop the s*** out of them.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Lets just hope it as a strong digital presence.

 

[Kelly]

Advertising it as "From the network that brought you Gossip Girl & The Vampire Diaries" was stupid. Gossip Girl is gone and forgotten and TVD is on its way out. They'd have been better off not mentioning either show and instead just promote the series on its strengths: Betty and Veronica.

Yeah, I really don't know why they didn't namedrop shows with more relevance to A) the modern CW viewer and B) the actual creative team of the show. I mean, yeah, in terms of content it's more in league with GG and TVD than the superhero shows, but those titles are the ones putting asses in the seats lately. Berlanti had a hand in all of them and Sacasa wrote on Supergirl last season. Name-drop the s*** out of them.

I didn't even think about that....but you are right.

"From the Producers that brought you Arrow, Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl NOW BRING YOU Riverdale".

Yep....would have been much better.

AND, I would have put it after Supergirl and left LoT on its Thursday night. You have an element of fans from Glee watching Supergirl, and that is where Sacasa is from...

 

[Primal Slayer]

Ratings dropped even further 1.14/0.4.

Very sad. I wanted a Sabrina spin off. CW needs to move it to a different night and see if it does better.

 

[John Locke]

I don't think it will be cancelled but I agree, when Legends ends they should move it to after Flash and give Thursday to iZombie.