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Ratings: Arrow Hits Lows, Blindspot Ticks Up, Final Debate Up vs. Round 2
Courtesy of PMC
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Arrow -- "A Matter Of Trust" -- Image AR503A_0222b.jpg --- Pictured: Stephen Amell as Green Arrow -- Photo: Diyah Pera/The CW -- é 2016 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Courtesy of The CW
The CW’s Arrow this Wednesday targeted 1.8 million total viewers and a 0.6 demo rating (per finals), ticking down on each count to series lows.
Leading out of that, Frequency (1 mil/0.3) was flat week-to-week.
Among debate night’s other regular offerings, NBC’s Blindspot (5.2 mil/1.2) rose a tenth, Fox’s Lethal Weapon (6.7 mil/1.7) slipped two tenths and CBS’ Survivor (8.6 mil/1.9) dipped one tenth. ABC’s Great Pumpkin and Toy Story of Terror rose 10 and 20 percent versus last fall.
The Big 4’s coverage of the third and final presidential debate amassed 34.6 million total viewers (per fast nationals), up 16 percent from Round 2 yet shy of Clinton/Trump’s first face-off (45.3 mil).
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Good for Lethal Weapon, Blindspot and of course Frequency (aka the best thing on the CW right now)
Arrow…sigh. I’ve been watching since the beginning yet I can’t seem to care anymore. I watched but barely. Also, the big bad this episode? Terrible actor. Good god.
I had been watching since the beginning too, but fell off last season. Got behind, and just couldn’t find the time or energy to catch up/care. :(
TNT has been running the previous seasons of Arrow now that Arrow is in syndication. And a lot of the things that made S1 so good have been radically altered, or outright abandoned, since then. It started with adding Dig as his bodyguard that was “in” on the secret. Practically it had to be done, because a billionaire would have a bodyguard, but they should have found a way around it. Next came Felicity, which further hurt the show. And I loved Felicity in the beginning. Huge Olicity guy from the end of S1 on. But I was wrong.
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Because Dig and Felicity tried to (and eventually did) change Oliver. When he first got back from the island, he was a lone wolf bad arse. He took names, dropped corpses, and didn’t blink. AND GOD LOOKED UPON THE SHOW AND SAID “THAT IS AWESOME.” But Dig and Felicity made him cuddlier and softer. Instead of meting out well deserved deaths, which were relatively quick and painless, he “merely” wounds them now, often leaving them with crippling long term injuries that will cause them pain for the rest of their lives.
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Honestly, as I rewatch the earlier eps, the move to make Ollie less dark, coupled with that idiotic Tommy/Laurel ship, laid the groundwork for what came later. In early shows, Ollie and Laurel DID have chemistry. They Tommy thing ruined it. They should have kept the fling while Ollie was away story, and eventually had Speedy fall for Tommy (Speedy’s dad being Merlin was another big misstep). Tommy was a great part of the show, and losing him hampered the show. Sadly, in retrospect, Felicity was probably one of those characters that was great in small doses. Just because a little was good (or, even great), it didn’t follow that more would be better. Frankly, having her work with the Arrow, without knowing who the Arrow was, would have been great. She could have had a crush on Ollie and the Arrow, without knowing they were the same person. She absolutely should have been upped to regular, but not lead. As a supporting player, she’d have been great. There would have been a lot of humor in that. Point being, they made what was a dark, gritty take on the comic book superhero into a generic, paint by numbers affair. And it ruined the show.
So many things I disagree with here. Arrow season 1 had season 1 ratings which are always higher. That doesn’t mean everything in season 1 made it a hit. “Ollie” and Laurel had little to no chemistry that was already tarnished by the horrifying backstory starting with the sister cheating and illegitimate child, so much that no one in their right mind would ever root for them. They did not have a chemistry test. Nail in the coffin for them was tommy dying to save Laurel. Dig and Felicity didn’t make him cuddlier, they made him human, but you sure must be happy about him dropping bodies like they don’t matter and retconning 3 seasons worth of development. Tommy’s death made him stop killing. I must have missed the part where Felicity was lead female in season 3 and season 4 and the ratings weren’t more than satisfying… The EPs stated the show only found its footing once they made her part of the team and it focused on these three characters. There’s a defining moment in season 4 where the ratings started to plummet and I’ll let you google those numbers to figure out where. Because you don’t go from the highest rated premiere in season 4 to the lowest rated premiere in season 5 if you delivered consistent and engaging writing. That went to crap during 4B, not after season 1.
It found its footing because it became a generic, paint by numbers melodrama focusing on romantic relationships. Which was much easier to write, I’m sure. Plus, what is the show runner going to say? “We screwed up.” No, because that is the thing you say before you get fired. He spouted the same nonsense that all showrunners spout after running the show into the ground.
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As for the “made him more human” argument, I suspect that is just a point of disagreement. I think making Ollie more human, more merciful, was a mistake. He didn’t need to be more merciful. His softening, and refusal to kill, has had disastrous consequences, both plot wise and from a watch-ability POV. A more brutal approach might have resulted in complete victory over Merlin in S1, meaning all those people wouldn’t have died. His mom would have survived S2. Merlin wouldn’t be causing trouble in S3, nor would so many members of the League have killed so many people in starling. Laurel is likely to still be alive. His decision not to kill bad guys seems to have resulted in the deaths of lots of good guys or outright non-combatant innocents.
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IMO, this has become the giant glaring problem with Felicity. I think she seems to treat this as a game. In her view, Ollie should play dress up, slap around some street criminals, and then hustle home for family time. She thinks being a vigilante is the hobby that one just sets aside when one wants to, and that no one should get hurt, and that you can just stop when it gets too hard or unpleasant. Being a vigilante, and saving lives, requires violence and hard decisions (to which Felicity seems allergic). It isn’t a game. Felicity thinks it’s a game, but it is not. And, more distressingly, she really falls apart when this world view is challenged. She had to send a nuke from a heavily populated area to a less populated area. Which was absolutely the correct decision. But she didn’t seem to learn from that.
Yeah, the ratings took a nose dive when laurel was killed off and the show has not had good numbers since.
Again, I disagree. Felicity knows when it’s necessary to kill. She knew when he needed to save Thea from Slade and was the only one to tell him to do whatever it takes. She knew when she told him to kill Ra’s because it was a duel and it was going to be either Ra’s or Oliver. She knew when Laurel died because of Darhk and the only way to stop him was killing. Felicity knows better than anyone that it’s not a game if we’re gonna talk about Havenrock. I feel like you’re stuck with this vision of season 1 Felicity but like every character, she evolved. Even season 1 Felicity didn’t object to killing when Oliver broke down a target’s sins to her before going in the field. Oliver literally stopped killing because his best friend called him a murderer before he died and Oliver hated himself for it.
@rebecca Nope, it dipped before that.
I agree with everything except the Diggle thing. I like that they teamed up.
To me the team up wasn’t really the problem. I’m not crazy about how many people know Ollie’s secret, but that is a truly niggling point for me. My problem wasn’t with the team up. It was with the softening of the Arrow. Almost from the jump Dig was trying to subvert Ollie’s mission to stop the undertaking. He got Ollie side tracked. As a former SOF operator, I’d have thought Dig would better understand Ollie’s mission and tactics. It was a very generic take on their dynamic. Instead of Dig talking Ollie down, it would have been nice if Ollie had convinced Dig that Ollie’s mission and tactics were appropriate.
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I should have been clearer. I love Dig and Ollie’s relationship. I don’t like how Ollie from the Pilot (one of my favorite hours of TV in recent years) was changed as a result of that relationship. It would have been nice to have someone support Ollie’s vision, and Dig could have been that without trying to change Ollie.
I agree 100%. I dropped the show for all of the reasons you mentioned.
Arrow has always been set up as a Hero’s Journey from the beginning. Even before Diggle and Felicity joined, the path was set for Oliver to recover from his trauma and PTSD but it was Laurel who was supposed to be his light to recovery.
When Oliver decided to leave being a vigilante behind, it was Felicity who convinced him to return to Star City and stay there to fight.
Felicity knows she made the only decision she could have to save Monument Point but that doesn’t mean she’s not haunted by the choice she made. Read Romeo D’Allaire’s book on his PTSD from trying to help in the Rwanda genocide in his role as the general in charge of the UN forces.
Agreed. I’m not enjoying Arrow without the “team” at all. Kinda bummed.
How many people know his secret now? Batman would have been leaving these folks in insane asylums under someone else’s name. Also, they would have amnesia.
I’m willing to give him a pass for the poor acting, since over the last decade his “acting” has only been presented through his wrestling personas, which of course tends to require a certain cheesiness, and since beyond that he hasn’t had an acting job (to my knowledge).
On a side note, the reason he was on the show was a play on the fact that his former WWE character “Stardust” had a match against Stephen Amell in 2015.
The debate may have sucked some of the air out of Arrow’s room. I was planning to watch the show live after the debate (West Coast) but the post-debate incredulity over Trump’s latest stunners (to say nothing of the Cubs) was too interesting to switch off. I’ll catch up through On Demand when it pops in.
Huh, I guess the reboot they’re attempting for Arrow isn’t working. Sad for the hard-working cast but this dip started last season and they don’t seem to understand where it went wrong yet. 1)Creating a new team when they were supposed to “go back to basics” and focus on giving strong storylines to the main characters. 2)Uneven stunts-characters moments ratio, even though the stunts look better this season because the focus is back on one-on-one fighting. 3)Inconsistent writing leading to character regression even for THE MAIN CHARACTER. 4)Alienating their most vocal online fandom – when it was the one creating any kind of buzz – knowing how important it is to the CW. Arrow will probably get another season but how do you lose 0.4 in demo over a season and not question your writing choices?
Plus, I’ve always said Berlanti & Co got greedy after the flash. Legends didn’t do as well as they predicted which baffles me because the premise wasn’t that appealing. Supergirl had to be moved to the baby network otherwise it would have gotten cancelled and it already lost 400K viewers in a week. Too much attempts at a shared universe and it’s a mess all around. So much that one of the biggest effects of flashpoint on Arrow had to be incorporated in the “previously on…” when their respective audiences don’t overlap. Don’t know if it’s superhero fatigue or just a result of quantity over quality.
It’s working for me and I doubt a 0.6 is going to make the CW worry too much.
You are right. They did alienate their most vocal fandom. But listening and doing what someone says online about a show is not how you write for ANYTHING! I’m a Youtuber and i’ve been working on a couple of Fan Films/Shows. And the relationship advice for one of the shows i’ve been giving. Would turn it into a soap opera. This happened to Arrow. And it’s going to keep on happening even if they stop listening to Olicity fans. They have already done too much damage and it cannot be repaired. And The Flash had a bad start with Flashpoint since it wasn’t that accurate or good. But the quality is rising in my opinion. And Legends is improving since they stopped Marc Guggenheim from having access to relationships. You saw Hawkgirl and Atom. It was cringeworthy. It did not work. The Flash is currently my favourite since they are getting some of my favourite storylines from the comics and incorporating it for Season 3B and 4B
Arrow is probably the weakest out of all the DC shows on the air. I still watch it cause I don’t wanna miss out but it’s beginning to be like a chore. Now I tend to use my ipad during that hour and look up from time to time. Also the CW shows take a long time to be added on demand, so it could be that viewers aren’t up to date yet and can’t watch live.
Kinda liking Frequency….
Arrow is better than it’s been in a while.
Lethal Weapon is pretty awesome
LW is amazing. Great chemistry at all levels. Riggs and the shrink are great together.
Hope Blindspot being moved to Wednesdays @ 8 should definitely work for NBC.
The Felicity/Oliver pairing hurt the show. Although that fan group is very vocal, they don’t represent the majority of the audience, in my opinion.
The majority part of the audience is certainly not the 50k comic book readers. Nor is it the pairing’s online fanbase. People want interesting writing because what keeps the audience around after 5 years aren’t the stunts and/or the villain of the week, it’s the characters. When you put them aside, everything else becomes redundant. But it’s important to note that ratings went up when they were together & went down once they broke up.
WRT Bigdede, I quasi disagree. Her behavior since the coupling has become grating. She doesn’t seem to recognize the serious stakes involved with what Ollie doing as the GA. Worst of all, IMO, is how she reacts when things don’t go her way. She completely falls apart.
Arrow is so bad this season it’s almost unwatchable. I’ve been a fan of the show since the pilot but I’m ready to bounce pretty soon(or atleast until after the crossover). WTF happened to this show??. On another note Frequency is awesome. One of my fave new shows this season.
Really? I think it’s been great. So much better then last season. Probably on par with the first 9 episodes of season 3 (which everybody forgets was actually pretty good). Curious though, what don’t u like?
Me too, I think it isn’t bad.
Lethal Weapon and This is Us are my two favourite new shows this year.
I’m hearing great things about Lethal Weapon, so I may have to start tuning in. As for Arrow, they messed up when they killed off Laurel. You don’t just kill off Black Canary! That was a poor writing decision, imo. I’m losing interest in the CW superhero shows. They used to be “can’t miss,” but now I’m just “meh.” Even The Flash is lackluster this season:(
Lethal Weapon is great TV. You should check it out.
I quit after Episode 1 Arrow because WTH are all these people in promos? They finally did the smart thing kill off Laurel and her absolutely nonsense story of becoming a vigilante and the horrific stunts where they literally acted like they needed to be tapped into fight and downgrade “Olicity” which made Oliver look like a lying idiot (WHY PROPOSE x5 WHEN YOU’RE HIDING A CHILD) and Felicity an overdramatic mess…. she literally walked out after paralysis. I was patient through the worlds dumbest storyline… nuclear bomb?
Only to have every commercial to be these new people plus Curtis who is suddenly a costume wearing fighter? He’s basically Laurel part 2….
Olicity act more together this year (they have that random actor playing her boyfriend) but for all intent and purpose they are together and frankly it makes sense. Which means they are just planning on adding relationship melodrama with the boyfriend.
If we need a black canary, move Sara (the good black canary) back from Legends, if we need teens bring back Thea and Roy.
“The Voice” Season 11 Top 20:
Team Alicia
1. Wé McDonald
2. Kylie Rothfield
3. Christian Cuevas
4. Michael Sanchez
5. Josh Halverson
Team Miley
6. Darby Walker
7. Ali Caldwell
8. Sophia Urista
9. Aaron Gibson
10. Belle Jewel (speculation)
Team Blake
11. Sundance Head
12. Dana Harper
13. Austin Allsup
14. Gabe Broussard (speculation)
15. Jason Warrior
Team Adam
16. Billy Gilman
17. Simone Gundy
18. Nolan Neal (speculation)
19. Riley Elmore
20. Josh Gallagher
Goo for Lethal Weapon. I thought it might drop more but it did fine. Sorry for Arrow.
Sorry I meant good not goo
Too bad for ARROW, it’s been very good so far. Might just be that the damage they’ve caused is irreversible. Good thing that content is viewed in so many different ways now that ratings do not hold the same weight as they used too.
The damage by Olicity in Season 4 pissed off casual, comic fans as its ratings trended downward especially after Laurel’s death. The toxicity towards the show made people wary and now it will either take time to build back up the trust or the damage is not repairable.
I missed almost all of last years’ Arrow and Flash episodes and from the comments it seems that I really didn’t miss much. This season’s Arrow is better than I expected but I’m not that wild about the new team. I’m happy that Laurel is dead. Flash is dreadful however. I can barely get through it. Since I watch TV through Roku/Hulu I didn’t see last season’s Supergirl on CBS but now its on CW I’ve been watching some of last season and this season and its way better than I expected. I suffered through some of Legends and its relationship angst and I’m willing to give it another chance.
I quit watching Arrow last season. I was tired of Felicity and Oliver not getting together. I am very curious to see what the male/female split is in terms of viewership slips. It think people were watching this show for different reasons.
The new team on Arrow is terrible. They act like clowns. Arrow has lost its luster. The show is too slow this season. I don’t like the wasted time as Mayor. It doesn’t add to the show. The show has become too much talk and not enough bad ass Arrow.
As Arrows ratings drop, I can only LAUGH. Good job killing off Laurel and making it the Felicity show. Idiots.
That’s what happens when you get rid of the best things about Arrow — the Oliver/Diggle/Felicity team and the Olicity relationship, an dbring in a bunch of newbies to the team.
It’s not a bad show, it just doesn’t have enough of what I watch for.
And Felicity being in a relationship with Det. Mayo is a pebble in my shoe, it sours even the good on the show.