Amid strong indications that its current season will be its last, “Greek” is again proving that it simply does not work on ABC Family.
While the college-set dramedy is the best-reviewed component of the cable network and one of the best-reviewed shows of its kind, it simply cannot click with the ABC Family brand.
Its season four ratings, which are available for two of the three broadcast episodes, have simply been abysmal. Despite receiving a mammoth 4.22 million-viewer-lead-in from “Pretty Little Liars” on January 3, “Greek” could only muster a total audience of 1.21 million. Among the network’s target demos, it posted a 0.5 in 18-49 (down from the 1.5 for “Liars”), a 1.1 with women 18-34 (down from the 3.5 for “Liars”) and a 1.4 with teens (down from the 5.3 for “Liars”).
While retention was technically better in week two (revealing that “Liars,” like every previous lead-in on the network, does not overlap well with “Greek”), the performance was still underwhelming. Last week’s airing scored a 0.4 adults 18-49 rating with 1.07 million viewers (out of the 1.1 and 3.21 for “Liars”). The women 18-34 rating was a 1.0, while the show net a teen demo of 1.2.
TNT’s “Southland” is also off to a rocky start this season. Its third season premiere was good for 2.11 million viewers with a 0.7 adults 18-49 rating. While not a totally terrible performance for a cable series, “Southland,” originally broadcast as a network series on NBC, should be expected to have a wider reach.
Last week’s airing dropped to a 0.6 rating with 1.64 million viewers.
