The Conners ‘ ratings slipped in its second week of being on the air, possibly an early indication that the retooled Roseanne may be treading water.
As Deadline reports, in its second week, The Conners scored a 1.7 rating in adults within the coveted 18-49 demographic, attracting 7.9 million total viewers. That’s down approximately 25 percent in that particular demographic from last week’s premiere of the retooled show, and down over 50 percent in terms of total viewers overall. As the Inquisitr reported at the time, The Conners ‘ premiere brought in a 7.7 rating with 18.44 million total viewers across all demographics.
Of course, those numbers have to be understood in context. For example, last week’s debut almost certainly brought in a substantial portion of curiosity-seekers who had no intention of watching the show — those viewers likely interested to see how the producers handled the death of former title character Roseanne. What’s more, it’s not uncommon for new shows to lose viewers from Week 1 to Week 2.
However, The Conners ‘ ratings drop is indeed rather drastic when compared to other new shows this season. Another new Tuesday-night ABC show, The Kids Are Alright , for example, lost only 21 percent of its viewers between Week 1 and Week 2. ABC’s Black*ish — a returning show — only dipped about 10 percent in their ratings between Weeks 1 and 2.
One thing that needs to be mentioned, in the context of the ratings for all TV shows that aired on the night of Tuesday, October 23, 2018, is this — the night was dominated by Game 1 of the World Series, as shown on Fox. If the World Series is excluded, The Conners would have been the second highest rated show in its time slot on Tuesday night, behind NBC’s This Is Us . As it stands, it was the second highest rated entertainment show of the evening.
So what do the falling ratings mean for the future of The Conners ?
At this point, it’s far too early to say. For now, what happened in Week 1 — in summary, the show did almost exactly as well as was expected by ABC and Disney executives, neither better nor worse — and Week 2, a ratings slip juxtaposed with a World Series game, are both par for the course in the TV industry. The Conners is not yet a ratings dud, nor is it a big winner, as Entertainment Weekly explains.
In the coming weeks, executives at “The House of Mouse” will be watching The Conners ‘ ratings even more closely. If it continues to decline in the ratings, it may very well spell doom for the show. For now, however, nothing seems to indicate that the show is going anywhere any time soon.
