Ratings for DC's television shows

[Trey Strain]

The first number in each line is how many episodes were filmed, the second is where the show ranked for the season, and the third is the average number of viewers in millions.

Supergirl's viewership was boosted in Season 1 by its running on CBS. In Season 2 it moved to The CW.


Arrow
Season 1 23 130 3.68
Season 2 23 128 3.28
Season 3 23 135 3.52
Season 4 23 145 2.90
Season 5 23 147 2.21
Season 6 23 181 1.76


The Flash
Season 1 23 118 4.62
Season 2 23 112 4.25
Season 3 23 120 3.50
Season 4 23 151 3.04


Gotham
Season 1 22 68 7.56
Season 2 22 89 5.37
Season 3 22 100 4.52
Season 4 22 129 3.69


Supergirl
Season 1 20 39 9.81
Season 2 22 129 3.12
Season 3 23 154 2.82


Legends of Tomorrow
Season 1 16 135 3.16
Season 2 17 141 2.57
Season 3 18 170 2.24


This data has not yet been posted for Black Lightning and Krypton.

[The Darknight Detective]

Well, all the shows here (other than the two new ones and they look very promising) have made it, or will this Fall, to Season 4, so that's TV success. izombie and even Lucifer should be added, too. The only failure so far has been Powerless.

[Trey Strain]

Well, all the shows here (other than the two new ones and they look very promising) have made it, or will this Fall, to Season 4, so that's TV success. izombie and even Lucifer should be added, too. The only failure so far has been Powerless.

Traditionally, making it to 100 episodes was considered ideal for syndication after production ends, but now the minimum has been lowered to 88 episodes for off-network shows.

An exception was Star Trek TOS, which struggled during its three-year network run but enjoyed huge success in syndication despite only 80 episodes being filmed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_episodes

[jbmasta]

Well, all the shows here (other than the two new ones and they look very promising) have made it, or will this Fall, to Season 4, so that's TV success. izombie and even Lucifer should be added, too. The only failure so far has been Powerless.

With Powerless it's a different genre from the other shows since it's a work com set in a DC universe. Any show takes at least a few episodes to stablise tone, characters and interactions as well as sanding off the rough edges that don't resonate with the audience, yet the first few episodes is how lots of people judge the show. Comedy more so, since they live or die on the characters and interactions. Legends of Tomorrow does have its share of comic relief, but comedy isn't the overall tone regardless of how much Nate was in the comic relief role last season.

[Hawkman]

I no longer watch any of the CW series, but I don't wish them any ill-will, either. That said, I'm not surprised to see they've all dropped viewers as time has gone on. I know with Arrow, after three seasons, I just couldn't take it anymore, and dropped every CW series right then and there.

To be fair, though, I also think the old ways of measuring ratings are just about dead. So many people stream now, even network series, that I don't believe you can accurately gauge how popular a show is by using the traditional metrics. Especially for shows like these, that are targeted primarily at a younger, and thus more-likely-to-stream-their-shows audience.

[Trey Strain]

I no longer watch any of the CW series, but I don't wish them any ill-will, either. That said, I'm not surprised to see they've all dropped viewers as time has gone on. I know with Arrow, after three seasons, I just couldn't take it anymore, and dropped every CW series right then and there.

To be fair, though, I also think the old ways of measuring ratings are just about dead. So many people stream now, even network series, that I don't believe you can accurately gauge how popular a show is by using the traditional metrics. Especially for shows like these, that are targeted primarily at a younger, and thus more-likely-to-stream-their-shows audience.

There could be some super-hero fatigue going on. That's a lot of shows being produced.

[The Darknight Detective]

Traditionally, making it to 100 episodes was considered ideal for syndication after production ends, but now the minimum has been lowered to 88 episodes for off-network shows.

An exception was Star Trek TOS, which struggled during its three-year network run but enjoyed huge success in syndication despite only 80 episodes being filmed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_episodes

When I was growing up during the '70s, popular reruns were The Addams Family (2 seasons), The Munsters (2 seasons), F Troop (2 seasons), The Outer Limits (2 seasons), The Abbott and Costello Show (2 seasons), plus Batman and Gilligan's Island (3 seasons!). How many shows with limited runs in the past 20 years have become classics like that in syndicated form? It shows you how much more popular television was back then than it is now.

As for Star Trek (my favorite show of my childhood), syndication really made it legendary.

[Trey Strain]

When I was growing up during the '70s, popular reruns were The Addams Family (2 seasons), The Munsters (2 seasons), F Troop (2 seasons), The Outer Limits (2 seasons), The Abbott and Costello Show (2 seasons), and Gilligan's Island (3 seasons!). How many shows with limited runs in the past 20 years have become classics like that in syndicated form? It shows you how much more popular television was back then than it is now.

Something else about that -- those shows were often being shown in the afternoons or after the news between 7 and 8 PM -- that is, before prime time started at 8 PM. That's when young kids are watching television, and if they like something, they don't care how many times it gets rerun. They'll keep watching it. Kids loved Gilligan's Island, which became a smash hit in syndication.

Leonard Nimoy said in one of his books that in its third season NBC foolishly moved Star Trek to 10 PM on Friday, when no young people are watching. Gene Roddenberry knew that time slot was a death trap for the show, so he let Fred Freiberger run it while he went to an office across the street and worked on other projects.

[The Darknight Detective]

Something else about that -- those shows were often being shown in the afternoons or between 7 and 8 PM -- before prime time started at 8 PM. That's when young kids are watching, and if they like something, they don't care how many times it gets rerun. They'll keep watching it. Kids loved Gilligan's Island, which became a smash hit in syndication.

Excellent point, Trey. My siblings and I never cared how many times we saw an episode, we still kept watching and watching anyway. BTW, Lost in Space was another one I should have added.

Leonard Nimoy said in one of his books that in its third season NBC foolishly moved Star Trek to 10 PM on Friday, when no young people watch television. Gene Roddenberry knew that time slot was a death trap for the show, so he let Fred Freiberger run the show while he went to an office across the street and worked on other projects.

It was lucky to have made it to that third season, though it really lost a lot of steam by then (including Shatner's toupee! )

[The Darknight Detective]

With Powerless it's a different genre from the other shows since it's a work com set in a DC universe. Any show takes at least a few episodes to stablise tone, characters and interactions as well as sanding off the rough edges that don't resonate with the audience, yet the first few episodes is how lots of people judge the show. Comedy more so, since they live or die on the characters and interactions. Legends of Tomorrow does have its share of comic relief, but comedy isn't the overall tone regardless of how much Nate was in the comic relief role last season.

I agree it was different than the others. It's a shame it got axed, because it did find its groove.

[Trey Strain]

It was lucky to have made it to that third season, though it really lost a lot of steam by then (including Shatner's toupee! )

Star Trek suffered a huge decline in quality in its third season because Freiberger was the wrong man to run it. He was an excellent writer, but he had the wrong idea about Star Trek. Nimoy said Freiberger wanted more fistfights and the like because he thought it had been "too cerebral" to pull good ratings. Nimoy said that twice he went across the street and convinced Roddenberry to overrule decisions Freiberger had made, which infuriated Freiberger. Nimoy and Freiberger had been friends, but they never made up after that falling out.

[The Darknight Detective]

Excellent point, Trey. My siblings and I never cared how many times we saw an episode, we still kept watching and watching anyway. BTW, Lost in Space was another one I should have added.

One that didn't follow that kiddie script was The Honeymooners (1 season). At least in the NYC area, it usually aired around 11-11:30 PM for decades.

[The Darknight Detective]

Star Trek suffered a huge decline in quality in its third season because Freiberger was the wrong man to run it. He was an excellent writer, but he had the wrong idea about Star Trek. Nimoy said Freiberger wanted more fistfights and the like because he thought it had been "too cerebral" to pull good ratings. Nimoy said that twice he went across the street and convinced Roddenberry to overrule decisions Freiberger had made, which infuriated Freiberger. Nimoy and Freiberger had been friends, but they never made up after that falling out.

Batman took an ever bigger creative hit it's last season, since the stories were only a half hour now (instead of the two-episode plots for seasons 1 and 2).

[TheNewFiftyForum]

With Arrow and Flash (I'm not sure about the other series) being available worldwide on Netflix, I doubt the Nielsen ratings are representative regarding how well the shows are doing in the eyes of WB execs.

[The Darknight Detective]

To be fair, though, I also think the old ways of measuring ratings are just about dead. So many people stream now, even network series, that I don't believe you can accurately gauge how popular a show is by using the traditional metrics. Especially for shows like these, that are targeted primarily at a younger, and thus more-likely-to-stream-their-shows audience.

Another thing is, since the CW and FOX have fewer affiliates than the Big 3, some further analysis is need. For example,a 3.0 on the CW is far more impressive than it would be on ABC.