Posted on 09/07/2017 11:13:03 AM PDT by EdnaMode
Kicking off on the night of last year’s election and Donald Trump’s ascension to the Presidency, there was a lot of 2016 in the debut of American Horror Story: Cult. But not the numbers: with 3.93 million viewers and a 2.02 rating among adults 18-49 on September 5, the latest installment of the Ryan Murphy- and Brad Falchuk -created series premiered down significantly from last year’s season opener of American Horror Story: Roanoke.
In overall sets of eyeballs watching the politically drenched Cult, there was a 24% drop from the September 14, 2016 premiere of Roanoke. Among the key demo, the Tuesday installment topped cable and was the second highest-rated original on all of TV after NBC’s America’s Got Talent. Yet, even with that glory, Cult declined a hard 29% among 18-49s from the Wednesday Roanoke debut of 2016.
In fact, the Cult opener is the least-watched AHS debut since the 3.85 million who tuned in for the Asylum premiere on October 17, 2012. The least-watched AHS debut ever was the Murder House Season 1 premiere on October 5, 2011, which drew 3.18 million. However, while not apples to apples, the Cult opener did perform noticeably better than Roanoke’s closer of November 16 last year (2.45 million viewers, 1.3 rating).
Of course, FX has long said it doesn’t put a lot of stock in Live+Same Day numbers and instead waits for delayed viewing results. If last season is any indication, they should continue to be healthy for the AHS franchise now in its seventh season.
It was too much Trump bashing. Yes, it made fun of libs freaking out, but the Trump hating was a bit too much. Especially since I hear it everyday in all entertainment and media.
It is so weird how utterly myopic Hollywood is when it comes to politics. Movie after movie, show after show, failure after failure and yet they seem incapable of learning. And when the rare non-lefty production like American Sniper makes a boatload of money no one tries to replicate it.
Exactly. The people running that industry make so many terrible decisions. And they want to blame all of the declining ratings and box office on Netflix instead of addressing why so many people don’t want to watch their shows and movies.
There’s another thread about the new movie release, Suburbicon. George Clooney directing Matt Damon. Yet another movie with the twin themes of Suburbia’s Dark Underbelly and White People are Racist. Why in the world would I want to see this movie when season 3 of Narcos was just released?
Yeah, last season was bad enough....but this one. Meh. I do believe I’ve given up on the series entirely.
It was an escape into some little silly world. Don’t have any desire at all to listen to the writers of the show express how they thought the election went.
I was there. Saw it, don’t need to see it again. The crazy is in the streets and on TV, don’t feel the need to see it semi-fictionalized.
Exactly. I've watched every season so far, and have enjoyed them. I recorded the first episode of the 7th season, and watched it last night. What a waste of time. It's 60 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. If I want to see, and hear liberals exhibit Trump Derangement Syndrome, all I have to do is read a newspaper, or watch the TV news. I do neither, so why would I watch this year's season of AHS? I deleted the second episode from my DVR list, and won't be watching any more this season. Maybe they'll get their head out of their a$$, and decide to do something better in seasons 8 and 9. We'll see.
I made it a point to watch the premiere and was not disappointed in the portrayal of leftist meltdown. However the who’s-your-mommy and other gratuitous crap had me tuning out soon enough.
I has watched alot of AHS too. And your right; I meet my daily quota of TDS by noon almost everyday. So why would I want to spend my free time on it?
Yeah exactly. Entertainment is supposed to be an escape from politics.
We watched Freak Show. Entertaining and good special effects.
‘Hotel’? Lost us. Haven’t been back.
All shows 2017 2018 will be down compared to previous season.
Yeah I agree. Especially since so many people have cut cable this year.
By that definition of “collapse” (-8%), broadcast primetime ratings have collapsed annually for at least 35 years.
https://twitter.com/TVGrimReaper/status/905546497155940352
Yeah I think that a 10% drop or less would be okay for most shows this season (unless the show is already struggling in the ratings). Some shows dropped 25-50% last season.
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