Futurama delivers strong ratings!

[Reply #360 on:]

I don't recall Ugly Americans ever being renewed for a third season. But I don't think that Futurama is going to be brought back with these kind of ratings. Maybe CC will pick it up for one last season after this one ( for 2014 to 2015 ) , but that might be it. But we never know, maybe something else will happen. I wouldn't worry about it too much until the time comes.

[Reply #361 on:]

I predict that ratings will improve over the next several episodes, as people learn that it is airing in its new time slot.  We should start to see this in the upcoming numbers for Decision 3012 -- instead of a 20% to 30% drop in ratings from the initial episodes to the next week's episode, as seen in both the 6A and 6B seasons, viewership should decline much less or even increase.

edit -- Having said that, I decided to see if the numbers are out yet:

Wednesday night numbers

7ACV01 1.574
7ACV02 1.645
7ACV03 1.452

So an 8% decline from "The Bots and the Bees", and a 12% decline from "A Farewell to Arms", call it a 10% decline overall.  In relative terms, this is a much better performance than we saw for the second week in the previous two broadcast seasons, so I stand by my prediction that the viewership numbers for the broadcast season as a whole will be similar to that of last year.

[Reply #362 on:]

Ugly Americans only finished its last season in April, so it may be that CC just hasn't made a decision yet....that said, I wouldn't expect it back unless it's VERY cheap to produce, since the ratings for the last batch of episodes were fairly poor. Consistently below 1 million.

I think this still isn't too much to worry about. Especially with Futurama having a dedicated cult audience that Fox and Comedy Central KNOW will follow it wherever it goes. I don't think Ugly Americans had that.

[Reply #363 on:]

7ACV01 1.574
7ACV02 1.645
7ACV03 1.452

So an 8% decline from "The Bots and the Bees", and a 12% decline from "A Farewell to Arms", call it a 10% decline overall.

It also came in 11th place this week whereas last week it came in 14th and 15th places.  I still think many casual fans are unaware it has moved to Wednesdays.

[Reply #364 on:]

From what I heard, the episodes are doing very well on iTunes.  These claims aren't backed by any sources though.

[Reply #365 on:]

Aaaaahhhhhrrrrrrooooooooooooo ooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

[Reply #366 on:]

Compare the actual viewers in millions... Futurama is doooooomed!

I still for the life of me cannot understand all of the doom and gloom coming from supposed fans.  Ratings were even lower during the original run on Fox!  I've been watching Futurama for 13 years and in my mind anyone who calls for its doom is going to need some salt to go with their crow.

[Reply #367 on:]

What are you talikng about.. when the first ep aired on Fox it had 11 million viewers.

Even the left over episodes that aired Summer 2003 on Fox as the final original Fox episodes got 4-3 million viewers each.

When it came back to CC two years ago it was getting 2.5 Million at first... it of course dropped off after the hype... but just under 2 million each week.

Under 1.5 million for a show this great... is just sad.

Shows get picked up b/c of ad revenue... if the ratings keep going down... the ad revenue will follow.

All this GLOOM AND DOOM... comes from the fact this show has technically been canned twice now!

I've been watching since day one as well.. so you can go eat crow or poop on a stick for all I care.

I don't want the show to end... you just can't handle the cold hard truth.... the ratings are kinda weak.

[Reply #368 on:]

What are you talikng about.. when the first ep aired on Fox it had 11 million viewers.

Even the left over episodes that aired Summer 2003 on Fox as the final original Fox episodes got 4-3 million viewers each.

When it came back to CC two years ago it was getting 2.5 Million at first... it of course dropped off after the hype... but just under 2 million each week.

Under 1.5 million for a show this great... is just sad.

Shows get picked up b/c of ad revenue... if the ratings keep going down... the ad revenue will follow.

All this GLOOM AND DOOM... comes from the fact this show has technically been canned twice now!

I've been watching since day one as well.. so you can go eat crow or poop on a stick for all I care.

I don't want the show to end... you just can't handle the cold hard truth.... the ratings are kinda weak.

There's no need to be rude.  I said ratings, not viewers.  Don't doubt that people from CC read message boards like this one.  If even devoted fans are saying things like "doooooooomed" they will read that as people being less interested and it no longer being worth the money.

The "truth" is that the show has been on for only one week (eight days) and many viewers are not aware the show moved to Wednesday.  There's also a slight change in viewer interest due to competition.  It doesn't mean Futurama is going anywhere, unless fans start to ditch it, or call it weak, or say it's "doooooomed" to be eliminated. 

[Reply #369 on:]

I see a lot of sad faces and doomsday messages regarding the ratings. But Comedy Central doesn't care about ratings anymore. Check out what Trey Parker and Matt Stone said about this matter FIVE years ago here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj3gaG3kkRY#t=2m34s

[Reply #370 on:]

I think it's time to include some perspective into this discussion.  Below is a chart showing the number of viewers for each week that a new episode has aired.  Dark blue (weeks 1-12, with week 12 being much later in the year than weeks 1-11) represents production season 6A, red (weeks 13-24) represents production season 6B, and green (weeks 25-36) represents production season 7A.



It looks to me like viewership has leveled out since the beginning of 6B, the big difference being that there was no beginning-of-the-season spike in viewership this year, due to the airing time changing from Thursday to Wednesday, so we are seeing only the devoted fans who are aware of the time-slot change.

And we know that Comedy Central was perfectly happy to renew Futurama with the viewership levels of most of 6B (1.4 to 1.5 million viewers), which appears to have been retained this season.

So I am not concerned about cancellation at all.

It is pointless to compare viewership levels between the Fox run and the CC run.  Fox is a major network that has much greater reach than CC, which is a fairly minor narrowcasting network.  It was to be expected that viewership levels would take a big hit when Futurama switched to CC from Fox.  What matters is that CC appears to be happy to have a well-known series with viewership at the current levels.

[Reply #371 on:]

Aaaaahhhhhrrrrrrooooooooooooo ooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

[Reply #372 on:]

MuchAdo, I must admit that you sound completely crazy and I can see why futuRAmaMA would say you were rude. But if you are just being funny with the "dooooomed!" stuff, then let's just chalk everything up to a misunderstanding, shake hands, and be friends. Deal? Deal.

Eric Rogers seems happy enough with the lack of drop-off in the most recent episode's ratings. I really don't know enough about cable ratings to know what makes something cancelable and what makes something renewable.

But here's the thing: Futurama appeals to a different/non-mainstream audience, and everybody here should know that by now. I can't believe people are freaking out because House Hunters gets better ratings than Futurama. Those two shows are not in competition with each other! The housewives who watch House Hunters will never be Futurama fans(well, except I guess for MY wife who likes both shows). Futurama viewers probably aren't going to ever watch House Hunters. The shows have completely different audiences...I don't think Comedy Central is going to make the renewal decision based on how well it does compared to stuff like that.

I'd be more concerned with stuff like ad revenue (how much money does the show actually bring in?) and how it compares to other Comedy Central shows. If Futurama is one of the top-rated shows on Comedy Central (note: I have no idea if it is or isn't), they aren't going to cancel it just because it's not getting Jersey Shore numbers.

[Reply #373 on:]

Haha, I love the fact that Eric Rogers actively told a non U.S. fan to..."acquire" episodes since he had no legal way of watching them otherwise.

But here's the thing: Futurama appeals to a different/non-mainstream audience, and everybody here should know that by now. I can't believe people are freaking out because House Hunters gets better ratings than Futurama. Those two shows are not in competition with each other! The housewives who watch House Hunters will never be Futurama fans(well, except I guess for MY wife who likes both shows). Futurama viewers probably aren't going to ever watch House Hunters. The shows have completely different audiences...I don't think Comedy Central is going to make the renewal decision based on how well it does compared to stuff like that.

Yeah, it seems like people think that Futurama has to be the #1 show on cable just to get renewed. It doesn't! Being in the top 20 for cable is pretty damn good, especially when that ranking encompasses all time-slots of the night and not just its own.

If Futurama was up against, let's say, It's Always Sunny or Archer or something and consistently losing badly to those shows in its time slot that would be more concerning. Those shows have more similar sensibilities and fanbases and would be in more direct competition with each other. CC is going to look largely at how it fares against other comedy shows and shows that target its main target demographics, which shows like House Hunters clearly do not.

The most concerning thing would be probably be the Adult Swim ratings vs. Futurama (especially in its time slot), but Adult Swim has always bested Comedy Central programming like The Daily Show and Colbert Report too, and those shows are still wildly popular and not about to be canceled any time soon.

[Reply #374 on:]

Did everyone forget that Fox didn't take Futurama back after the dvd's and that CC almost didn't re-new after the last 26 episodes?

Fox took Futurama back in a DVD-only format. And you've pulled the idea that Comedy Central almost didn't renew them last time out of nowhere. It was pretty much a done deal before they announced it; I don't think anybody was really, genuinely worried that they weren't going to.

[Reply #375 on:]

Haha, I love the fact that Eric Rogers actively told a non U.S. fan to..."acquire" episodes since he had no legal way of watching them otherwise.

He said that?  Good for him!

Although when I think about it, it would be in his interest to encourage Futurama fans even if they cannot legally watch the CC episodes, since they can still buy Futurama merchandise.

[Reply #376 on:]

He made some joke about how "we're already paid enough." Thought it was funny. I think at the end of the day, they want the show to be seen above all else. People seeing it legally whenever possible is still important for keeping the show running, though.

[Reply #377 on:]

Aaaaahhhhhrrrrrrooooooooooooo ooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

[Reply #378 on:]

Few shows, even successful ones, don't operate at least slightly on the seat of their pants when it comes to renewals and writing potential series finales. It's pretty standard for a lot of network shows to not receive official word for their next fall season until May, when all or nearly all of the episodes from that current season have already aired. The difference is that with many shows it really doesn't matter whether they have a "proper" finale, or for that matter they just end up hedging their bets. There have been many shows, even reasonably popular ones, that ended on cliffhangers simply because the writers hedged their bets on a renewal and bet wrong. If a show is lucky, they'll be renewed early so they can already write their last episodes of the season and early ones of the next with confidence, but this is still reasonably rare.

If anything, renewing the show after only half of a total season order had aired is really a sign of good faith for the show. Waiting so long may not be ideal for the show's production, but comparatively to other cable programs, it was a good sign.

[Reply #379 on:]

Good points about futurama being comparable to similar shows, and not house hunters etc. Very true, and it leads me onto this question - how has futurama compared (ratings-wise) to ugly americans? and south park? and any other cartoons on comedy central?

[Reply #380 on:]

Those are the only two really recent ones...I can't find any info on the ratings for Drawn Together, which was on for a while, but was last on in 2007 I think (so, not very recent at this point). It doesn't compare to South Park, which is CC's top-rated show, but it does much better than Ugly Americans, which usually rated below 1 million viewers in its last season.

[Reply #381 on:]

Good to hear it's doing better than ugly americans. And that got renewed didn't it? So doesn't this mean futurama will most definitely be safe?

[Reply #382 on:]

I imagine Futurama is considerably more expensive to produce than Ugly Americans, so sadly, no.

[Reply #383 on:]

Good to hear it's doing better than ugly americans. And that got renewed didn't it? So doesn't this mean futurama will most definitely be safe?

There hasn't been any word of a third season. Still though, Futurama is doing pretty good compared to some of the other Comedy Central shows right now, so I think that we shouldn't worry about the matter yet.

[Reply #384 on:]

CC now doubt pays something less for the show than what it actually costs to make. The rest of the difference - and the profit - would be made up for by FOX via syndication and DVD sales.

So, it would partially depend on whether the show earns enough in revenue to make back CC's own investment in it, not just whether it earns back its entire production budget (which a lot of popular shows don't in their initial airings). Fox probably produces and sells it to CC at a loss, with the understanding that it will make back the rest via other avenues.

[Reply #385 on:]

Futurama   CMDY   10:00 PM   1.067   0.6

Not surprised though, it was the fourth.

[Reply #386 on:]

I was expecting a slight drop in viewership, but this was more of a drop than I wanted to see.

[Reply #387 on:]

Futurama   CMDY   10:00 PM   1.067   0.6

Not surprised though, it was the fourth.

Exactly. Major holiday. People were partying, spending time with friends and family. And what time does Futurama air? 10 PM, which put it in competition with the fireworks displays.

[Reply #388 on:]

Futurama   CMDY   10:00 PM   1.067   0.6

Not surprised though, it was the fourth.

Exactly. Major holiday. People were partying, spending time with friends and family. And what time does Futurama air? 10 PM, which put it in competition with the fireworks displays.

Oh right, I forgot about that, not being an American.  This holiday and the Futurama airtime would certainly explain the dip in viewership for this specific episode.

[Reply #389 on:]

I myself was only able to shoo out the last of my guests in time to catch the last half of Thief of Baghead at quarter past midnight.

[Reply #390 on:]

Sounded very worrying at first... but after what's been said about firework holidays and such, let's hope it's a one off and next week's episode's ratings are back on par with the first 3

[Reply #391 on:]

I have looked at all the 10:00 PM Wednesday cable shows listed on the "tv by the numbers" website, comparing their numbers from this week to those of last week, and found that Futurama was quite typical in its decline:


June 27 -- July 4 -- % change -- Station -- Program

1.608 -- 1.681 -- +04.5% -- HGTV -- House Hunters
1.497 -- 1.428 -- -04.6% -- TNT -- The Mentalist
1.371 -- 1.277 -- -06.9% -- TRU -- Operation Repo

2.847 -- 2.100 -- -26.2% -- TBSC -- The Big Bang Theory
1.452 -- 1.067 -- -26.5% -- CMDY -- Futurama

1.869 -- 1.160 -- -37.9% -- ADSM -- American Dad
1.598 -- 0.989 -- -38.1% -- AEN -- Barter Kings
1.391 -- 0.843 -- -39.4% -- DISC -- Fast n Loud

[Reply #392 on:]

Futurama   CMDY   10:00 PM   1.067   0.6

Not surprised though, it was the fourth.

Not that the ad people care (Because they don't)

The overall viewing audience for the time period nationwide was down too.

[Reply #393 on:]

BARTER KINGS   AEN   10:00 PM   1549   0.7
PICKED OFF   HIST   10:00 PM   2290   0.7
Futurama   CMDY   10:00 PM   1102   0.6

Not looking good........ It may be that the directv went out, is to why we lost some viewers, but i'm starting to fear that these views are going to stay this low.
 I got a bad feeling about another season, which is something that I really want now.....   

[Reply #394 on:]

BARTER KINGS   AEN   10:00 PM   1549   0.7
PICKED OFF   HIST   10:00 PM   2290   0.7
Futurama   CMDY   10:00 PM   1102   0.6

Not looking good........ It may be that the directv went out, is to why we lost some viewers, but i'm starting to fear that these views are going to stay this low.
 I got a bad feeling about another season, which is something that I really want now.....  

In my view it's for two reasons: (1) casual fans are still unaware the show has been moved to Wednesday this year; (2) there isn't much enthusiasm among casual fans over this season.  The episodes have been less than stellar up to this point.  I'm hoping that 7a will get better as the summer progresses.  Of course, all the episodes are completed with only minor post-production waiting to be done.  I remain hopeful that things will get better over the coming weeks.

[Reply #395 on:]

I will attribute the low viewership this week to the DirectTV lockout, but the numbers had better improve next week (assuming that the DirectTV dispute is settled by then).

[Reply #396 on:]

In my view it's for two reasons: (1) casual fans are still unaware the show has been moved to Wednesday this year; (2) there isn't much enthusiasm among casual fans over this season.  The episodes have been less than stellar up to this point.  I'm hoping that 7a will get better as the summer progresses.  Of course, all the episodes are completed with only minor post-production waiting to be done.  I remain hopeful that things will get better over the coming weeks.

I agree with your two main reasoning for the low viewership levels.  But 7A have in its first five episodes been far better than 6A or 6B were in their first five episodes.

[Reply #397 on:]

This isn't looking too good.

[Reply #398 on:]

This is concerning...though I wonder why the July 4th drop off remained like that? I would think the first three episodes wouldn't have done SOOO much better than episode 5.

I've rarely if ever heard casual fans say that they don't like modern episodes either so I don't think that's it.

Zapp Dingbat has a good iTunes ranking....hopefully all these things will be factored in. At the worst anyway, Futurama has 21 more episodes that it can prove itself with.

[Reply #399 on:]

As I said before, I think that "Thief of Baghead" was down because it was July 4th, while "Zapp Dingbat" was down because of the Viacom boycott by Direct TV -- that's 20 million potential viewers lost out of 127 million, or a 16% drop. This means that 1.4 million Futurama viewers (including Direct TV subscribers) drops to 1.18 million without Direct TV -- almost exactly matching the actual drop in numbers.

I do not think that any other reason is needed.  Once Direct TV starts showing the Viacom networks, including Comedy Central, the Futurama numbers should return to their expected levels.