I confess I did not see this coming.
Despite super-low ratings, NBC has elected to give the Charles Manson hourlong “Aquarius” a second season.
How low are the “Aquarius” ratings? It gets clobbered by repeats. It and the just-cancelled “Hannibal” were last Thursday’s lowest-rated Big Four shows. Here’s how it compares to the others:
Thursdays, May 28-June 18, 2015
(18-49 finals; repeats in grey; prior weeks in parentheses)
1.6 (1.5) (1.5) (1.5) Big Bang Theory
1.3 (1.2) (1.1) (1.2) Dateline
1.2 (1.1) (1.1) (1.0) Mike & Molly
1.1 (---) (---) (---) Astronaut Wives
1.1 (1.0) (1.0) (1.0) Mom
1.1 (1.2) (1.2) (1.1) The Odd Couple
0.9 (---) (---) (---) Mistresses
0.8 (0.6) (0.6) (0.6) Elementary
0.7 (0.8) (0.7) (1.1) Aquarius
0.7 (---) (---) (---) Golf
0.7 (0.7) (0.6) (0.7) WWE Smackdown
0.6 (0.5) (---) (---) Braxton Values
0.5 (0.5) (0.7) (---) Hannibal
0.5 (0.4) (0.3) (0.5) Ridiculousness
0.4 (---) (0.3) (0.3) Beat Bobby Flay
0.4 (---) (---) (---) College Baseball
0.4 (---) (---) (---) Complications
0.4 (0.4) (0.4) (0.5) The Daily Show
0.4 (0.4) (0.4) (---) House Hunters
0.4 (0.4) (0.3) (0.5) House Hunters Intl
0.3 (0.3) (---) (---) Beauty & The Beast
0.3 (0.3) (---) (0.3) Cutting It
Just after the “Aquarius” premiere NBC dumped its entire 13-episode first season online and On Demand. So maybe NBC is making a ton of money off the streams? Advertisers probably love the streaming and On Demand versions because they don’t allow viewers to fast-forward over the commercials.
NBC’s press release almost screams “Nobody is watching the broadcast!”:
“It’s no secret that the way people watch television is evolving, so we took a unique approach to how we delivered Aquarius and it’s driven some record numbers for NBC Digital,” noted NBC entertainment president Jennifer Salke.
