Rating Report: ‘Ahsoka’ Shows Off Her Power, While ‘Killing It’ Keeps Up The Laughs

Broadcast: After The CW’s announcement that Nancy Drew would not be renewed for a fifth season due to its expensive production costs, the series came to its conclusion with the season four finale. Airing on August 23rd, this series finale pulled in 353,000 viewers in the P2+ demographic with a rating of 0.11 and 84,000 viewers in the P18-49 demographic with a rating of 0.06. Its penultimate episode which aired the week prior saw higher viewership in the P2+ demographic, with 402,000 viewers and a rating of 0.13, but lower in the P18-49 demographic, with 61,000 viewers and a rating 0.05. Ultimately, Nancy Drew maintained steady viewership throughout its season, performing decently well by The CW’s standards. With this seemingly unexpected cancellation blindsiding the series producers halfway through production, the writers were forced to scramble in order to give Nancy Drew her proper send off.

Cable: The Peacock original comedy series Killing It returns for a second season, airing first on the USA Network on August 7th. As of August 17th all episodes of this new season are available to stream on the Peacock service, but viewers who prefer a linear format can still watch new episodes as they release weekly by tuning into USA every Monday. For its second episode, which aired on August 14th, Killing It managed to pull in 415,000 viewers in the P2+ demographic with a rating of 0.13, while bringing in 201,000 viewers in the P18-49 demographic with a rating of 0.15. The following week Killing It still managed to garner 359,000 viewers in the P2+ demographic with a rating of 0.12 and 182,700 viewers in the P18-49 demographic with a rating of 0.14, despite being available on Peacock.

Killing It stars Craig Robinson (Pineapple Express, The Office, Ghosted) as an aspiring entrepreneur whose quest for riches and his pursuit of the American dream find him wrapped up in the unusual world of competitive python hunting. He and his business partner Jillian, played by Claudia O’Doherty (Long Shot, Trainwreck, Love), eventually find success along with all the accompanying problems. This comedy pokes fun at the American dream while providing commentary on the flaws of capitalism and how one’s pursuit of wealth can end up corrupting one’s values and priorities. Robinson has been a staple of the comedy world for over a decade; his natural comical abilities and charisma have won over critics and audiences alike, with Killing It boasting an impressive 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 85% audience score.

Streaming: Disney+’s latest entry to the galaxy far far away comes in a new series centered around fan-favorite character Ahsoka Tano. Ahsoka premiered on August 22nd and quickly became the focus of discussion across social media platforms, with many fans already speculating about possible directions for the series. In an atypical move from the media conglomerate, The Walt Disney Corporation shared its streaming data directly with the public, revealing that the Ahsoka premiere received 14 million views globally in its first week. Now with four episodes available, Ahsoka currently holds an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 73% audience score.

Ahsoka serves as the live action continuation of the popular animated series Stars Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, in which many of its central characters were first introduced. Rosario Dawson (Sin City, Briarpatch, Zombieland Double Tap) portrays the titular character, Ahsoka Tano, while Natasha Liu Bordizzo (The Society, Day Shift, The Voyeurs) and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Birds of Prey, 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Thing) portray Sabine Wren and Hera Syndulla, respectively, in their first ever live-action depictions. Taking place in the aftermath of the original Star Wars trilogy, Ahsoka and her team of misfits work to prevent the return of an old and deadly threat as the galaxy struggles to reclaim its peace following the collapse of the Galactic Empire. Dawson’s performance conveys a deep understanding of her character and Star Wars lore, with many fans celebrating this casting choice since her first appearance in season two of The Mandalorian.

South Korea: On the free-to-watch South Korean network SBS, audiences can find the second season of the action drama The First Responders. Episodes seven and eight aired on August 25th and 26th respectively and averaged 2.875 million viewers per episode. Episodes nine and ten aired the following week to slightly lower viewership, averaging 2.760 million viewers per episode. Only two episodes remain for this season. The First Responders follows a detective, a firefighter, and a paramedic who operate out of the joint Taewon Police and Fire Station as they tackle the various crimes and emergencies that affect their city. The series stars Kim Rae-won (The Doctors, Decibel, Gangnam Blues), Gong Seung-yeon (My Only Love Song, Introverted Boss, Are You Human?), and Son Ho-jun (Confession Couple, Was it Love?, Reply 1994) as the titular first responders. Season one of The First Responders can be found streaming on Hulu.

On the pay-to-watch network of tvN audiences can find the debut season of the romantic comedy series My Lovely Liar. Episodes seven and eight aired on August 21st and 22nd respectively and averaged 974,400 viewers per episode. Episodes nine and ten aired the following week to slightly lower viewership, averaging 873,600 viewers per episode. Six episodes remain this season. My Lovely Liar follows a woman with the ability to determine whether or not someone is lying based solely on their voice; she develops an inevitable romance with a murder suspect who struggles to get anyone to believe in his innocence. The series stars Kim So-hyun (Love Alarm, The Tale of Nokdu, Bring It On Ghost) and Hwang Min-hyun (Alchemy of Souls, Live On, Boys Planet).

United Kingdom: Despite many of the UK’s most popular drama series seeing slightly weaker viewership over the last couple weeks, Coronation Street still beat out its competition. Coronation Street, which airs four episodes a week on ITV1, averaged 4.450 million viewers between August 14th and August 20th. On the same channel, Emmerdale averaged 3.931 million viewers  airing five episodes a week. During this week, BBC1’s EastEnders averaged 3.300 million viewers across its four new episodes. The following week saw the viewership for each of these series decline. Between August 21st and August 27th, Coronation Street averaged 4.190 million viewers per episode. Emmerdale saw its average viewership drop to 3.820 million viewers while EastEnders fell to an average of 3.205 million viewers. During this week, E4’s Hollyoaks saw an average of 253,000 viewers across its five new episodes, performing slightly worse than it has in previous weeks.