“Harry’s Law” Ratings Sink to Low For Season Finale

Never a true “winner” in the adults 18-49 ratings race, NBC’s “Harry’s Law” nonetheless seemed to be a lock for a renewal early in the season. Its demo numbers, while not great, were still the best of any NBC series on Monday, and with viewership in the ten million ballpark, it clearly brought value to the Peacock.

But after several weeks of early ratings stability, “Harry’s Law” began to slowly sink in the ratings, falling from the 2.0 range to the 1.7 threshold. Worse, the show began seeing little “bounce” in the ratings when one of its network competitors (either ABC’s “Castle” or CBS’ “Hawaii 5-0”) aired a re-run.

Still, even at a 1.7, the critically-acclaimed “Harry,” for which Kathy Bates has to at least be in contention for an Emmy nomination, seemed likely for a second season. The viewership remained fairly high for NBC, and that demo rating, no matter how mediocre within the general television universe, did not seem too far off from what NBC could realistically expect achieve with a drama in the 10PM not named “Law & Order: SVU.”

There are still a lot of things, notably the high viewership and acclaim, working in “Harry’s Law”‘s favor as it relates to the prospect of a second season–fans should not yet worry about its prospects. But its season finale performance, beyond any shadow of a doubt, is not one of those things.

The David E. Kelley legal dramedy ended its first season with a 1.3 adults 18-49 rating and 7.40 million viewers. Though respectable in the total viewership column, that demo performance is abysmal. Only one-tenth above what dud “The Event” delivered Monday, “Harry’s Law” doesn’t really even have the “built on its lead-in” bragging right this week.

Obviously, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship is a candidate for blame. But the competition it offered is not necessarily enough to justify the entire 19% drop in the demo. The potential for audience overlap is not as strong as it would be with the game and a male-skewing comedy or action series, as evidenced by the fact that “Dancing with the Stars” and “Castle” held up comparatively better.

And, even if the game were the only culprit, there is no guarantee “Harry’s Law” would have been able to bounce back next week had a new episode been on the schedule. “Harry” has been something of a momentum player–it built its initial audience against repeats of either (or both) “Castle” and “Hawaii 5-0,” yet after sinking when forced to contend with originals of both series, it lost momentum and did not return to its original levels when one of those shows switched back to a repeat airing.

“Desperate Housewives,” which has had far more time to build its loyal audience, has been suffering from a similar issue this summer–its truly low ratings might be explained away by awards show competition, but if it doesn’t bounce back to truly “great” levels when not against such shows, the damage is still done.

Ultimately, many are confident in a “Harry’s Law” renewal, but there was definitely no celebrating over a series low for a season finale.