Canceled TV Shows 2015: ‘Nashville’ Sinking In The Ratings, Could Be Entering Its Final Days
The list of canceled TV shows in 2015 could soon include Nashville, with rumors that the show’s sour note in the ratings could spell the end of its run.
Nashville debuted in 2012, following the lives of different fictitious country singers in the Tennessee city. Though the show premiered to 8.93 million viewers in 2012, it has never been a ratings smash. It has drawn in between 5 million and 6 million viewers consistent, though this year it appears to have fallen off a ratings cliff that critics think could lead to its cancellation.
As the Zap2It blog TV By The Numbers noted, Nashville is drawing a lowly 1.08 in the coveted 18 to 49 demographic and has sunk to the bottom of the ABC food chain. The site listed the show as likely to be canceled by May of next season.
“‘Nashville’ will end the fall as ABC’s third lowest-rated series, with only the canceled “Wicked City” and Dead Show Walking “Blood & Oil” coming in lower. It’s not a cheap show to make, and it occupies a potentially valuable spot on ABC’s schedule.
“So will ABC announce at some point before it returns in March that this spring will be the final run for the show? It could easily go that way — and if not, a less dignified May whacking could be at hand.”
Though Nashville is close to joining the list of canceled TV shows in 2015, the program has a number of accomplishments. The series has received acclaim from critics, including the casting of Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere as country singers at different career trajectories.
Rayna and Layla make a great team 👯#Nashville
A photo posted by Nashville Official Account (@nashvilleabc) on
Both Britton and Panettiere received Golden Globe nominations for their performances while the series itself was nominated for Favorite New TV Drama at the 39th People’s Choice Awards and Best New Series at the 65th Writers Guild of America Awards.
A photo posted by Nashville Official Account (@nashvilleabc) on
Though the signs for Nashville are not good, this has been a difficult year for predicting show cancelations. While in past years it has been largely cut and dry which shows will last — and where the cutoff point usually is for the network when it comes to ratings — those lines have become much more blurred.
As the Los Angeles Times noted, networks appear much more hesitant to pull the plug on shows than in the past few years. In fact, it wasn’t until November that the first show was canceled this year, the first time in more than 60 years that it’s taken that long.
Traditional ratings no longer seem to hold the sway they once did, with network executives looking to things like streaming video to get a fuller picture of a show’s audience.
“The absence of cancellations is another sign of the tectonic shifts underway in the television industry. Thanks to digital recording and streaming, millions of viewers no longer watch shows when they are first telecast — making network executives reluctant to kill a program that may be quietly building an audience that’s not being counted by traditional ratings.”
But even these new trends may not be enough to save Nashville. Television critics have been saying for months that the show is on the ropes. TVLine noted that Nashville seems to have gotten lost in the shadow of Empire, the breakout show about the music industry that has been grabbing the buzz (and the hit song downloads) that Nashville has never been able to reach.
If Nashville does end up on the list of canceled shows in 2015, it may not actually come until the conclusion of the television year in 2016. There are no indications that ABC wants to jettison the show in the midst of its fourth season, so it will likely be allowed to end out its run and simply not renewed for next season.
[Image via Instagram/ABC]
