Ratings Report: 'Secret Invasion' Fails To Secure Its Fan Base While 'Mayans M.C.' Holds Steady As It Races To Its Finale
Broadcast: The Wonder Years continues to hold its audience as the series pushes further into its Summer season. Episodes 3 and 4 aired on ABC on June 21st and June 28th, respectively, and garnered an average viewership of 1.869 million with a rating of 0.23. Though this is technically a slight decline from the premiere’s numbers, it still bodes well for the series’ fan base and reception. It can be common for viewership to dwindle after a premiere, as an audience has time to settle and decide if they’d like to continue following a program. The fact that the audience retention rate is as high as it is suggests that audiences are mostly taking to this sophomore season. Despite the dip in total viewership, The Wonder Years actually saw an increase in the key demographic of viewers between the ages of 18 and 49 (P18-49). Whereas the premiere had 290,000 viewers in the P18-49 group, these latest episodes saw that number rise to 301,250 with a rating of 0.23.
The station on which The Wonder Years airs, ABC, won the ratings war in the month of June, pulling in significantly more consistent viewers than any of its Broadcast competitors. If The Wonder Years can maintain its numbers moving forward, it could potentially play a huge part in maintaining the station's comfortable lead. At the moment there is a significant lack of new scripted series that highlight people of color’s (POC) voices across the Broadcast landscape. The Summer line-up features a variety of series that contain a mostly White cast. However, if The Wonder Years does in fact prove to be a Summer success, it could pave the way for more future POC content for Broadcast TV during this specific programming season.
Cable: Over on FX, Mayans M.C. moves into the second half of its final season with the viewership it has come to expect. Episodes 6 and 7 of its 10 episode season aired on June 21st and June 28th respectively. Together these episodes brought in a total average viewership of 474,000 with a rating of 0.16. The P18-49 viewership for Mayans M.C. averaged 202,950, also seeing a rating of about 0.16. When compared to its past performance, these numbers are mostly in line with what the series has typically seen. Throughout its 5 season run, Mayans M.C. continued to receive mostly positive reviews and has proven to be a steady source of viewers for FX as a network. With its final episode set to air in only a few days, it will be interesting to see if its viewership will see a notable spike. A strong finish for the series could be a stepping stone for it ultimately finding a new audience when it finds its home on the Hulu streaming service.
Mayans M.C. first aired on September 4th, 2018. This was nearly 4 years after the conclusion of Sons of Anarchy, FX’s hit series from which Mayans M.C. was spun off. Whereas Sons of Anarchy had a predominantly White cast, Mayans M.C. features a primarily hispanic cast with many of its leads having roots in South America. Though a few of its characters were first introduced in Sons of Anarchy, Mayans M.C. tells an original story that takes places within the universe established by the preceding series. Set in a fictional Southern California bordertown, the series follows Ezekiel “EZ” Reyes as he is released from prison and returned to a world of crime as a prospect for the Mayans Motorcycle Club. The series stars JD Pardo (Hypnotic, The Contractor, F9) as EZ. The supporting cast includes Clayton Cadenas (Snowfall, S.W.A.T., American Crime), Michael Irby (Barry, Fast Five, The Unit), and Edward James Olmos (Blade Runner, Dexter, Battlestar Galactica). Though the town may be fictional, Mayans M.C. aims to tell an authentic story inspired by the struggles and conflicts experienced by the hispanic community, including devastation brought on by cartels.
Streaming: The latest addition to the ever expanding multiverse of the MCU, Secret Invasion, fails to meet expectations. According to data collected by Samba TV, in its first five days on Disney+ (June 21-25) Secret Invasion had only streamed in 994,000 households. This falls way below the data collected for Marvel’s other series which saw a high of 2.5 million households for Loki and a low of 1.5 million households for Hawkeye in the same five day, post release window. From a reception standpoint, Secret Invasion has received respectable reviews. According to Rotten Tomatoes it has a critical average of 61% with an even higher average audience score of 71%. With this subpar streaming performance, one must wonder if this is the result of poor promotion, an oversaturated market, or if it's another example of audiences experiencing what has come to be known as superhero fatigue.
Secret Invasion stars Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, Glass, Kong: Skull Island) returning as the legendary and seasoned Nick Fury. The character of Nick Fury has been appearing in this run of Marvel projects since the cinematic universe was first launched with Iron Man back in 2008. Fury debuted in the film’s post credit scene, with his presence implying that there were much bigger things on the horizon. Since then the character has appeared in some form in nearly every major entry. Secret Invasion marks the first time the character has been given their own focused storyline, elevating Nick Fury to a full blown protagonist. The series sees Nick Fury work tirelessly to prevent an invasion from a faction of shape shifting aliens known as the Skrulls. Fury must race against the clock, teaming up with whatever few allies he can manage, to save an oblivious Earth. Compared to many other recent Marvel projects, Secret Invasion maintains a more mature tone and depicts much more graphic violence. In addition to a strong performance from Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle (The Wonder Years, Iron Man 2, Black Monday) reprises his Marvel role as James Rhodes (AKA War Machine) in a few intense scenes that manage to bring real world political and social issues into a highly fictitious and fantastical setting.
South Africa: When compared to the previous month, South Africa’s viewing numbers for June for some of its top series remained mostly consistent. However, certain series did see a slight surge in viewers while others exhibited a slight dip. On the country’s most popular network, SABC1, three of its major series witnessed this decline. Uzalo, Skeem Saam, and Generations: The Legacy each saw 5.195 million, 4.639 million, and 4.078 million viewers respectively. Ultimately these numbers are impressive and the fluctuation in viewership is minor. On SABC2 some of its programs saw a small increase in viewership. Muvhango rose to 1.431 million viewers and 7de Laan was able to cross the 1 million mark, reaching a total of 1.191 million viewers. On ETV Scandal saw a slight decrease, dropping to 4.489 million, while House of Zwide saw a slight increase, rising to 4.025 million viewers. Finally over on DSTv, both Gomora and The River lost a few viewers, dropping to 775,118 and 606,366 viewers respectively.
South Korea: One of the newest series to find a home on South Korea’s free to air channel, SBS, is the mystery, thriller known as Revenant. This supernatural series is led by actors Kim Tae-ri, Oh Jung-se, and Hong Kyung. Revenant is about a young woman possessed by an entity who, with the help of a professor capable of seeing ghosts, works to uncover the truth behind a series of mysterious suicides plaguing the city. Having first premiered in late June, episodes 3 and 4 both aired during the week of June 26th to July 2nd and averaged a total of 4.830 million viewers, marking a strong start for the new series. Episodes 5 and 6 aired the following week with similar viewership, averaging 4.669 million viewers.
Premiering on Wednesday, June 28th on the paid South Korean channel JTBC was the new mystery, fantasy series known as Miraculous Brothers. Led by Jung Woo and Bae Hung-sung, this new series focuses on the budding friendship of a young man drowning in debt and a mysterious young boy with unusual abilities. So far Miraculous Brothers is off to a slow start with episodes 1 and 2 averaging a total of only 890,400 viewers. Episodes 3 and 4, which aired the following week, saw a slight rise in viewership, averaging 940,800 viewers. As the series progresses, time will reveal if it is ever able to find its loyal audience.
United Kingdom: Found on ITV1 is the long running drama Coronation Street. During the period of June 19th to July 2nd it aired a total of 6 episodes and averaged about 4.573 million viewers an episode. Found on the same channel is Emmerdale, which aired a total of 10 episodes during this window and averaged 4.058 million viewers an episode. On BBC 1 the rival drama EastEnders aired 8 episodes during this window and averaged 3.536 million viewers an episode. Between June 26th and July 2nd on the channel E4, Hollyoaks aired a total of 5 episodes and averaged about 293,200 per episode. When these numbers are compared to data collected from previous weeks it demonstrates a mostly consistent viewership for each of these series.