Despite unsourced rumors being pushed by sites like We Got This Covered and the unabashedly alt-right Bounding Into Comics, Batwoman and Supergirl are in no danger of being cancelled. In fact, ratings are soaring.
Last Sunday’s overnight ratings found CW programming up across the board, with Batwoman registering 1.16 million viewers, second best of all CW shows. Supergirl was close behind, up almost 10% in total audience. These aren’t the kind of performances that get shows cancelled on the CW network, shows that also enjoy significant Live+3 and Live+7 ratings boosts.
“Certain fan sites are engaging in a subtle form of trolling by pushing the narrative that DC’s female-fronted shows aren’t as popular as others on the network,” explains television writer Craig Balfour. “It isn’t as extreme as the Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB review bombing the alt-right does to movies and shows, but the intended message is the same: women should be kept in their place.”
Three years after billionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne and his vigilante alter-ego Batman disappeared, his cousin Kate Kane sets out to overcome her demons and become a symbol of hope by protecting the streets of Gotham City as Batwoman.
Kara Zor-El was sent to Earth from Krypton as a 13-year-old by her parents as her world was exploding, and Kara’s parents sent Kara in a spacecraft to Earth after her cousin. The series begins eleven years later when the now 24-year-old Kara is learning to embrace her powers and has adopted the superheroic alias “Supergirl”.
Who are you kidding Joey Davis, no one is review bombing those 2 feminist man hating shows. It is just bad storytelling that is why it has those low rating and it will be cancelled due to low viewership. Research why the show suck instead of blaming it on just say it is review bombing. Wow and you are a writer.
Dear ‘Anonymous.’
Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt. Surprised you’re up this early reading. Did your Klan meeting end early last night?
Well, if a feminist show is failing, you can always blame white males for being sexist. Or maybe the show isn’t great enough? Could it be that easy?
Could be (no scratch that) it IS the official numbers vs. the whiny alt-right man babies pushing fake numbers.
It really IS that easy.
If feminist shows are succeeding, which Batwoman and Supergirl seem to be doing, who do you blame?
Well that is a revealing retort.
Mate, the piece clearly says that ratings are up, and cites statistics. I’m not sure your low ratings and no research arguments hold a lot of water.
Viewership dropped by 6% since ep 5? how are the ratings soaring?
Cite the source that shows official numbers, not a sources that claims those are the numbers. This really isn’t difficult. We’re dealing with official Sunday overnight ratings vs. claims to the contrary by unnamed sources.
As readers can see, I post official numbers released by the Nielsen company and the alt-right man babies are STILL in denial. I mean, how can something they not likely possibly be successful?? 🙂
Could you also post the official numbers for Flash series and Arrow series as a comparison?
Using your sources?
Guessing it shouldn’t be a problem, and suprised you didn’t in the first place to really prove the point
Sure. Here are the average overnight numbers for the season so far. Keep in mind that the 18-49 demo numbers are typically what’s most important to advertisers. Therefore, that’s how the networks measure success. Advertisers pay more for ad time on a show that has a higher 18-49 demo rating. Because older viewers don’t count? No, it’s because younger viewers watch less traditional TV and are harder to reach. Notice Batwoman is the CW’s second most watched program this season.
And here are the numbers again for the past Sunday night. Notice Supergirl’s impressive 10% improvement.
Where is the nielson link? The only link I saw was to another article claiming the same numbers but no official source.
So, Paul, first click the link to the story. Then go down to the very bottom where the author links to her source. Then, you’ll see Nielson-copyrighted numbers in several charts broke out by demographic for you.
Let’s see. Article states Batwoman had 1.16 million total viewers. Nielson confirms.
Article states Supergirl was up nearly 10%. Nielson confirms.
Looking forward to what the Ratings Truthers come back with.
Joey, I must say, you set the trap and they walked right into it.
I find both shows quite good, and what was Superman”s loss in the comic version of “Crisis”, is now befalling Supergirl. I am ready to see the visual version of “Crisis”.
The show sucks ass, your review just confirms who I will never be reading articles from. You suck as a journalist/writer as you just spew out political propaganda as excuses for honest criticism. Maybe you should stop lying and inserting your own personal political views into the conversation. Anyone who detects this must bias should automatically discredit this article.
Um. Ok. ~ Editor
Batwoman’s 1.16 million viewers is dire.
Compare Batwoman”s premiere with Supergirl’s series premiere, which was watched by 12.96 million viewers.
“Sarah,” 1.16 million viewers is not dire for the CW. Fire up your google machine and learn how networks measure ratings in the 21st century.
“Sarah,” Supergirl’s premier is really beside the point. Supergirl debuted on CBS which has a near 100% nationwide coverage and a dramatically higher marketing and promotion budget. It was also five years ago. “Sara” – lots of shows have premiered with higher ratings than Batwoman. “Sarah,” Supergirl also debuted with many many many more viewers than ANY show on the CW. “Sarah” I think I’ve discovered a new denialism to go along with climate science denialism and vaccine denialism. It’s called ‘ratings denialism.’
Batwoman is a virtual lock for renewal. Sorry this pains you and your type so.
Yeah, I don’t believe that person’s name is ‘Sarah,’ either. I never would have imagined people denying actual Nielson ratings, as if Nielson is involved in some kind of conspiracy to fool people that the show is successful. But we do live in the age of Trump and truther/birther-type trolls are everywhere.
WHY WOUD ANYWON WANT TO WATCH A SHOW ABOUT A GAY LESBINA! BATWOMAN WILL BE CANCELED! MARK MY WORD. ONLY FAGS WATCH. CW IS LYING ABOUT WATCHERS. NOBODY WATCHING THIS GAY TRASH!
A gay lesbina?
Have to hand it to you. You’re probably being the most honest with your feelings than most other people commenting here.
Hey, “lesbina” is a fine word. Its the complementary form of “lesbino.” ?
Joey, kudos on your willingness to set up this reality trap for the Little Rascals’ He-man Woman-haters Club. It probably also pains them that #Supergirl also skewed a slightly older demographic than other Arrowverse shows when it premiered, with a near equal percentage of gender in viewership. I don’t think that percentage ratio changed all that much with the show’s move to The CW in subsequent seasons. And so far, the performance of newcomers #Batwoman and #NancyDrew are aptly illustrating that the network clearly understands its potential audience.
Just the other day during the constant goal posting moving that comes when people can no longer credibly avoid facts, someone remarked TV shows shouldn’t target ‘other’ demographics. What he was saying in not-so-many words is TV shows should be made for the enjoyment of white men, with themes white men can identify with.
I enjoy all the DC shows honestly although the politics sometimes seems forced and unnecessary… As long as there is a viewer base then who cares? If they alienate too many people then maybe they should just push a compelling storyline and kind of leave the political agenda on the subtle side for a bit? It doesn’t make the shows a little bit boring and predictable when it becomes so obvious what they’re trying to push
James, the targeted audience for these shows is young, politically aware and involved, and trending female. You may think the social issues being addressed are forced and they may make you feel uncomfortable, but to the demos they’re hitting, it’s a very natural and real part of their lives. Everything doesn’t have to appeal to white males. And entertainment companies are not required to coddle the easily offended.
I mean, seriously. it’s like those snowflake man-babies who couldn’t stand movie theaters having women-only showings of Wonder Woman. After centuries of white male dominated culture, they’re getting their panties in a wad over shows the highlight strong POC and women?
Know what I used to do when shows came on I didn’t like? I changed the fucking channel. I didn’t go whining about them, denying people were watching them, and praying for them to be canceled. Hell, if that worked shit like Walker, Texas Ranger would have ended after ep. 1.
Apt quote: When You’re Accustomed to Privilege, Equality Feels Like Oppression.
wow, dude. You totally struck a nerve here. You’ll be persona non grata at this weekend’s Comicsgate dinner.
What I’m loving, is how the guys just can’t stand NOT being enabled to thrust themselves into the public’s face – as they’ve been accustomed to all their lives; whether anyone – really – cared to see them, or not. Like I always say: today’s so-called “modern” men, are essentially just their great-great-great Grandfathers… before them. Just with a glitzy piece of (…most likely..?) porn-infected tech clutched possessively in their paws.
When you consider that .5 is the highest rating The CW can garner, you then have to realize that Batwoman isn’t going anywhere. Not because it’s a good show, the ratings clearly show it doesn’t have mass appeal, but because its actually a pretty high rating for the CW. Now, go to another network, like Fox, and you will see that even the lowest rated of their lineup completely eclipses anything The CW has to offer in terms of ratings. So really, what this article does is just try to give The CW some credit. But honestly talking smack as a viewer of higher forms of television should be beneath anyone. Let them love their batwoman, it’a not hurting anything and only helping the market move away from this type of garbage.
Thanks for your input.
I think you fall into the same trap other critics of these shows, and the CW in general, do. The CW was never meant to compete with the other major networks head to head. It’s intention was always to micro-target demographics, specifically valuable ones, and produce content that would also be valuable to streaming platforms. While they didn’t pioneer the Live+3 and Live+7 ratings methodology, it appears tailor-made for their young and mobile audience who watch a lot more TV via DVRs and streaming than other age groups. And they do this by design – they would rather watch their shows late night or days later than the night they air, and these views are now counted in the overall computation of weekly ratings.
A store like Forever 21 (just an example) might never do the business of (again, hypothetical examples) Target and Walmart, but one could never make a convincing case Forever 21 isn’t successful, or should be closed down, because it doesn’t do the level of business or have the ‘mass appeal’ their more mainstream competitors do. They’re targeted to a specific audience and do well there. And when an extra layer of criticism is lumped into the comparison – like Forever 21 donates money to gay causes and therefore should be closed – those making these argument would deserve a fair amount of ridicule.
And this is a very apt comparison. When you have the perennially poutraged ignoring the business model of the CW, and rooting for these shows to fail for the simple reason they don’t like the ‘woke’ messages (even though the very foundation of the comic book industry was created on ‘woke’ messaging), then they deserve a fair amount of critical push back. And make no mistake, there is a cottage industry of conservative thinkers, using the language of intolerance, to try and convince people these shows are failing when, in fact, they are not. And we’re fortunate writers more qualified than I am are finally pushing back on them.
Applause applause applause applause!!