In scoring a mere 0.7 adults 18-49 with 2.34 million viewers for last week’s two-hour season premiere, FOX’s “Glee” learned that its final season will air absent significant fanfare.
The news should not have been unexpected. “Glee” ended its fifth season with an even weaker performance, and that came when the series was airing in its more desirable Tuesday night timeslot. Now airing on Fridays and without the interest of the majority of those who made the series a pop culture phenomenon, “Glee” does not have a prayer of delivering big numbers.
It can, however, sustain its core audience. If “Glee” is able to operate on a desirable creative direction–and keep those who returned last Friday interested in seeing how the series ends–it should be able to maintain stability in its weekly ratings.
It is through that lens that the series’ weekly ratings performances should be evaluated. And based on that perspective, the latest “Glee” effectively mirrored last week’s appeal in the key young adults demos but lost some love from its overall palette of viewers.
Per Fast National data, Friday’s “Jagged Little Tapestry” edition of “Glee” drew a 0.7 adults 18-49 rating with 1.98 million viewers.
While the rounded 0.7 adults 18-49 rating (along with the 0.6 adults 18-34 rating and 0.8 adults 25-54 rating) matched that drawn by the 9PM portion of last week’s season premiere (and the average of that drawn by last week’s two episodes), overall viewership was down. Last week’s episode averaged 2.34 million from start-to-finish and roughly 2.26 million in the 9PM portion.
“Jagged Little Tapestry” was only the second “Glee” episode to attract fewer than 2 million. The first was the season five finale, which drew 1.87 million.
— Earlier in the night, FOX aired “World’s Funniest Fails.” It drew a 1.0 adults 18-49 rating with 3.33 million viewers.