Gotham Ratings Watch: The Supergirl Effect

I’m not a fan of DC and WB’s approach to TV strategy. Marvel has the benefit of being owned by the parent company of ABC so everything they put out is under the same umbrella. DC is just throwing things into the air and seeing where they land.

Case in point, the Greg Berlanti-run series Supergirl is on CBS while his other 3 projects The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow are on the CW. That’s not a terrible sin since that network is a joint project with CBS and WB, but then Constantine was on NBC, Preacher is on AMC, Titans will be on TNT, Krypton will be on SyFy and both Lucifer and Gotham are on FOX.

That can’t help anyone.

Supergirl premiered with a crazy viewership upward of 16 million. The second episode saw a significant drop in its second week to 8.9 million – the same number as Gotham‘s premiere, which it has yet to duplicate since. What makes this extremely sad is that Supergirl and Gotham share a time slot opposite each other.

By letting those shows compete with each other has cannibalized their own audience. Here’s proof:

"TimeShowAdults 18-49 Rating/ShareViewers (000s)8 p.m.The Voice (NBC) (8-10 p.m.)3.3/1012.06Supergirl (CBS)2.2/78.87Dancing with the Stars (ABC) (8-10 p.m.)1.9/612.09Gotham (FOX)1.6/54.27Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW)0.3/10.959 p.m.Scorpion (CBS)1.9/59.51Minority Report (FOX)0.6/21.75Jane the Virgin (The CW)0.4/11.0910 p.m.Blindspot (NBC)2.2/78.02NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS)1.3/48.41Countdown to the CMA Awards (ABC) – S0.8/34.98Network averages:NBC CBS ABC FOX CWAdults 18-49 rating/share2.9/91.8/51.5/51.1/3 0.4/1Total Viewers (000s)10.718.929.763.01 1.02"

Via TVbytheNumbers

Gotham‘s numbers are up for the first time in a while, and Supergirl dipped. I seriously doubt that’s a coincidence. Gotham needs some sort of boost to get a season 3, but that can’t really happen consistently if Supergirl is stealing so much of the target audience. These numbers prove that they appeal to a similar demographic.

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If DC wants its properties to succeed they should probably stop outsourcing them to competing networks who will do nothing but sabotage them.