Ratings Report: ‘The Black List’ Bids Farewell To Loyal Fans While ‘Grown-ish’ Enrolls In Its Final Semester

Broadcast: After 10 years on the air and a total of 10 seasons at NBC, The Blacklist has finally come to an end with its 2 part series finale which aired on July 13th. These 2 episodes along with episode 20, which aired the previous week on July 6th, were able to bring in an average of 2.594 million viewers with an impressive rating of 0.83 for the P2+ demographic. Less impressive was how the series performed in the P18-49 demographic. For this group these episodes only brought in an average of 299,500 viewers with a rating of 0.25. This data suggests The Blacklist had appealed primarily to an older audience. Ultimately, it was the loyalty and commitment of this audience throughout the years that allowed The Blacklist to make it to 10 seasons, a feat that most series are unable to accomplish.

The Blacklist stars James Spader (The Office, The Watcher, Lincoln) as the clever and brilliant criminal Raymond ‘Red’ Reddington who, after evading law enforcement for years, willingly turns himself in to the FBI. Along with the help of the FBI, Red starts a task force where he uses his keen abilities and vast resources to track down and find some of the world’s worst criminals. Of course, Red cannot take on the criminal world by himself. Assisting him on this mission is Harold Cooper, the Assistant Director of Counter Terrorism for the FBI played by Harry Lennix (Ray, Man of Steel, Insecure). Additionally Red’s closest friend and trusted bodyguard Agent Dembe Zuma, portrayed by the Muslim actor Hisham Tawfiq (Gun Hill, Dead Man Down, Harlem), plays a pivotal role in the series as well. Tawfiq has gone on record talking about how important it has been for him to bring his faith to the character. The son of a religious leader, Tawfiq said he felt a certain duty when it came to representing Islam and Muslims in an authentic way. Appearing in nearly every episode of the 10 season run, Tawfiq’s Agent Zuma had been a significant example of Islamic representation on broadcast TV for the last decade, with only about 1% of speaking roles being given to Muslim characters. Hopefully the success of this series has helped paved the way for greater presentation on broadcast networks like NBC.

Cable: Another series currently in its final season is the Freeform original series Grown-ish. The 6th and final season of Grown-ish will be split into the two parts. The first part will be airing this summer, having premiered on June 28th, whereas the second part is expected to air early 2024. The first few episodes of this final season averaged 121,000 viewers in the P2+ demographic with a rating of 0.04. For the P18-49 group these episodes saw an average of 62,650 viewers with a rating of 0.05. These numbers may not be particularly high but they are consistent with how the series has performed in the past and still make Grown-ish the 2nd most popular show on the Freeform channel. Time will tell if these viewers will stick around to see the series to its conclusion.

Grown-ish is a spin-off of the hit ABC series Black-ish. It first premiered in early 2018 after Black-ish had already been on the air for 4 seasons. Grown-ish follows Zoey Johnson, portrayed by Yara Shahidi (Peter Pan & Wendy, Extrapolations, The Sun Is Also a Star), as she leaves the familiar Johnson home setting to attend college. The daughter of Black-ish’s Dre and Rainbow Johnson, Zoey must now figure out how to navigate this new environment and deal with any problems she may face without her parents by her side. As the series progressed, Zoey eventually graduated and the role of series lead was passed down to her younger brother Andre Johnson, Jr. portrayed by Marcus Scribner (Black-ish, The Good Dinosaur, Ron’s Gone Wrong). The series also stars Trevor Jackson (Superfly, Burning Sands, Someday Isles) and Daniella Perkins (Knight Squad, Red Ruby). With Black-ish ending in April and the other spin-off series Mixed-ish ending back in 2021, the conclusion of Grown-ish will mark the end of the -ish universe created by Kenya Barris (You People, Coming 2 America, Entergalactic) back in 2014 when Black-ish first premiered.

Streaming: The second season of The Lincoln Lawyer premiered on Netflix on July 6th and has quickly found its way to the top of Netflix’s charts. During the week of July 3rd to July 9th the new season racked up a total of 31.4 million hours streamed. Anticipation for the second season triggered a surge in viewership for its previous season, with season 1 being streamed a total of 19.2 million hours by audiences. This was enough to put season 1 on the Netflix Top 10 list as well. During the week of July 10th to July 16th, season 2 had been streamed a total of 35.3 million hours, marking a slight increase from the season’s release week. Additionally, season 1 also saw an increase, rising to 28.3 million hours. The second half of this season is set to be released August 3rd.

Based on the best selling novels by Michael Connelly, The Lincoln Lawyer follows an idealistic and ambitious defense attorney as he takes on cases all around LA while operating out of the back of his Lincoln Navigator. The titular lawyer, Mickey Haller, played by the Mexican-born actor Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (A Man Called Otto, Dos Estaciones, Widows) is a former drug addict who finds himself back in the saddle after inheriting the law practice of a fellow lawyer who was murdered while working on a mysterious case. Haller puts himself in danger to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves while simultaneously hoping to one day make a name for himself. The series also stars Jazz Raycole (Jericho, The Quad, I Ship It) as Izzy Letts, a former drug addict and client who now works for Haller as his personal driver.

South Korea: On the free to watch station, KBS2, The Real Has Come! has been dominating the weekend airwaves for months. This new romantic drama series first premiered on March 25th and has seen impressive viewership ever since, with a new episode airing every saturday and sunday. Episodes 33 and 34 aired on July 15th and 16th respectively and brought in an average of 9.959 million viewers per episode. Episodes 35 and 36 which aired the following weekend managed to pull in even more of the South Korean audience, averaging 10.488 million viewers per episode. This debut season is set to have a total of 50 episodes. The Real Has Come! stars Baek Jin-hee, Ahn Jae-hyun, Cha Joo-young, and Jung Eui-jae and focuses on the romance between an unmarried pregnant woman and an unmarried man who enter into a false contract with one another. 

Offering some slight competition for the weekends is the romantic fantasy drama Durian’s Affair which airs on the paid network, TV Chosun. Premiering back on June 24th, this new series has seen respectable viewership since, but ultimately its ratings fall far below its free counterpart. Episodes 7 and 8 which aired on July 15th and 16th respectively averaged 1.781 million viewers per episode. Episodes 9 and 10 which aired the following weekend saw a slight increase with an average of 1.965 million viewers per episode. This debut season will have a total of 16 episodes. Durian’s Affair stars Joo-mi Park, Min-Joon Kim, and Eun-jeong Han. It centers on two women from a noble family in the Joseon Dynasty who become involved in a romantic, time traveling journey with two men that bring them to the year 2023.

United Kingdom: The long running ITV1 drama Coronation Street continues to be the uncontested champion of the ratings war in the U.K. The 3 new episodes that aired during the week of July 3rd to July 9th saw an average of 4.601 million viewers. On the same network Emmerdale’s 5 new episodes saw an average of 3.892 million viewers. On BBC1 EastEnders saw an average of 2.765 million viewers across its 4 new episodes. The following week yielded very similar numbers for each of these series. Coronation Street saw an average of 4.769 million viewers per episode, Emmerdale saw an average of 2.775 million viewers per episode, and EastEnders saw an average of 2.775 million viewers per episode. Additionally, this week saw the lower level drama Hollyoaks, which airs 5 episodes a week on E4, bring an average of 282,600 viewers per episode.