"Agents of SHIELD" Returns to Series Low Ratings

[kalorama]

It's dumb to blame Agent Carter for what's been happened to the show. This is the very same thing that happened to it last season.

Last season when . . . they also took it off the air and replaced it with Agent Carter, which (like this season) (A) also lost viewers at a steady clip over its run and (B) finished its run with fewer viewers than AoS was pulling in before the hiatus. Quite the coincidence. Oh wait . . .

[simbob4000]

Last season when . . . they also took it off the air and replaced it with Agent Carter, which (like this season) (A) also lost viewers at a steady clip over its run and (B) finished its run with fewer viewers than AoS was pulling in before the hiatus. Quite the coincidence. Oh wait . . .

It's first season did the same thing, and there was no Agent Carter then. It just loses people as it goes along, it's been doing that since it started.

[Tighelander]

This show was pretty good, but as a whole, it's been one of the weakest comic book shows on TV. I keep watching though. The budget is so low. That hand-held device that Mac (and previously Fitz) used I'm sure is from an in-store 3D scanner. Yeah, last season's "Shield vs. Shield" was a waste of time.

[Liven]

I can't watch any of these shows live. I have 2 kids who have weeknight activities, but both of them (13 yo girl and 15 yo boy) watch these shows with me. It's Friday nights and weekends only where we get caught up on everything on the DVR, FF through commercials. I know the ratings they get from me don't help with ad revenue, but that's how it is.

[simbob4000]

This show was pretty good, but as a whole, it's been one of the weakest comic book shows on TV. I keep watching though. The budget is so low. That hand-held device that Mac (and previously Fitz) used I'm sure is from an in-store 3D scanner. Yeah, last season's "Shield vs. Shield" was a waste of time.

It doesn't need the comic book qualifier, this has been one of the weakest shows on tv since its time on air. And the big networks all have their own shows about special government agencies going around fight crime that are better.

[JBatmanFan05]

This show is sooooo weak compared to the DC & Netflix ones...so, so weak.

[Iron Fist]

Seems like the MCU angle is really holding the show down. They can't do anything because Civil War is coming.

They need to have an episode or two with some movie actors in it. I mean RDJ said he'd do AOS, Jeremy Renner will sign onto frickin anything, Colbie Smoulders would easily come back and maybe SLJ. Why can't they write an arch that has a mission crossing over with a D List Avenger like Hawkeye? Or an episode where RDJ is simply there to help them solve a science issue for Fitz and Simmons?

The show had it's own version of a big arch but the fact it's not making ripples in other MCU properties is really killing the show's believability, how hard is it to say Inhumans once or twice in Civil War or in Daredevil?

[AndrewCrossett]

The show is not doing badly compared to the norm for network TV genre shows (that is, shows with a central science fiction, fantasy or superhero element). AoS's average rating this season has been 1.43. The highest-rated genre show on network TV (Supergirl) is only a 1.77.

There are only so many nerds out there watching TV shows. Most people only want procedurals, reality shows, sitcoms, and football. There are so many genre shows on TV because nerds spend money on entertainment and related merchandise at a much higher rate than other people. For this kind of show, networks and sponsors look at the quality of the eyeballs they're getting as much as, or more than, the quantity.

[kcekada]

Gave up on it midway through 2nd season -- and the Inhumans development bores me -- much the same way it does with the comics (though I am a fan of the original Inhumans). I will give the Mockingbird series a try when it debuts -- because I thought that character was the best thing about season 2. I wish they had just made Coulson an LMD -- and used more comic book characters and had more of a super spy feel (like the Steranko comics).

[Captain Smith]

I thought the episode was a bore. There is no resolution of the endless plot threads. I really don't care about the characters. Unless the loving couples actually do a sex tape, I don't carry about their unrequited loves. I don't care about Ward. The interaction of Coulson and the President was so forced as to be ridiculous.

The destruction of Shield in the movie was a great plot. However, it ruined the show because of instead a vibrant organization, we have 8 guys and one plane futzing around. Fury is off plotting something - oh, wow.

The show might work if Shield was really back in business and fighting some of the MU types that aren't in the movies but interesting. I still got to laugh about the mutating Fish Oil. Where are all the old geezer Inhumans - that's who takes fish oil.

[lilyinblue]

There is no resolution of the endless plot threads.

I wouldn't have expected anything to be resolved. This was a mid-season premiere - the kind of episode where you start spawning threads, not closing them.

[PretenderNX01]

The show is not doing badly compared to the norm for network TV genre shows (that is, shows with a central science fiction, fantasy or superhero element). AoS's average rating this season has been 1.43. The highest-rated genre show on network TV (Supergirl) is only a 1.77.

Yeah but this is the show connected to the billion dollar Marvel universe. It should be doing more than CW numbers.

[Powerboy]

This show was pretty good, but as a whole, it's been one of the weakest comic book shows on TV. I keep watching though. The budget is so low. That hand-held device that Mac (and previously Fitz) used I'm sure is from an in-store 3D scanner. Yeah, last season's "Shield vs. Shield" was a waste of time.

The irony is that the first season seemed to be mostly a long commercial to promote "Captain America: Winter Soldier" and then the movie has a different cyborg instead of Peterson and a different cyborg project instead of the Deathlok project and a different main Hydra takeover of Shield villain instead of John Garrett.
It's as if the movie was taking place in a parallel universe with similar events but not in the same continuity.

Unfortunately, AoS has been locked into being nothing but a commercial for the movies with no payoff in the movies. "Jessica Jones" and "Daredevil" have the advantage of being about, respectively, Jessica Jones and Daredevil and their lives and stories.

It makes me think DC made the right choice by having their television shows and movies be in separate realities so the shows can shine by being about themselves rather than tools to promote the movies.

[Powerboy]

Yeah but this is the show connected to the billion dollar Marvel universe. It should be doing more than CW numbers.

IF the movies treated the show as being of any relevance to the point of even mentioning any events and any characters at least making cameos and anything happening in the show being relevant at all to the movies and maybe some minor things in the movies would be resolved in the show, the ratings of the show would probably skyrocket. But somebody only watching the movies would never know the show existed or that anything happened in it that was relevant to the movies.

[AndrewCrossett]

Yeah but this is the show connected to the billion dollar Marvel universe. It should be doing more than CW numbers.

The billion-dollar Marvel universe is a movie thing with a movie budget. It's hard for a TV show to leverage that when they've got a TV budget, none of the "franchise" stars doing guest appearances, and basically no influence on what happens in the movies. And unlike the CW shows, Supergirl, etc., they can't really "go big" with their plots for fear of disturbing the status quo of the movie universe. If they want to stay in continuity, they have to stay under the radar.

I'd have to say the MCU connection ultimately does them at least as much harm as good.