Ratings have emerged for episode two of TNT’s “Claws.”
Are they good? The answer is complicated.
According to live+same-day data posted by Showbuzz, Sunday’s “Claws” drew a 0.42 adults 18-49 rating and averaged 1.20 million overall viewers.
Last week’s premiere broadcast drew a 0.44 in the demo and 1.18 million in total viewership.
Given that many shows fall by upward of 10-20% in week two, the week-to-week demo retention (and growth in viewership) is impressive.
There is, however, one caveat. Last week’s premiere had previously aired after a late-May NBA Playoff game. Billed as a “sneak peek,” the broadcast drew just over 1 million viewers.
It would be unfair to simply add the two totals together to determine the organic premiere audience — it is highly unlikely that all of the “sneak peek” viewers would have watched last Sunday’s broadcast had it been their only option.
But it is surely possible that some of them would have tuned into the regular time period premiere, which means last Sunday’s viewership sum may have been artificially low. And, regardless of initial/organic interest, over a million people did watch the “sneak peek” and could have easily opted to tune in for this Sunday’s episode.
This week’s retention, therefore, may not be quite as impressive as it appears on the surface.
Still, it is hard to view near-perfect week-over-week retention as a negative. And it is still true that “Claws” fared reasonably well competitively; it tied for 9th place among Sunday cable originals in adults 18-49.
