Fox had one of the most bizarre shows in primetime this fall with Season 2 of Scream Queens. The horror -comedy series was even crazier in its second season than it was in its first, and it even brought in stars like Taylor Lautner, Colton Haynes, and John Stamos for new roles. But for all that it did deliver, Season 2 didn't bring the ratings for Fox, and the question now is whether or not the numbers were high enough for a renewal.
Season 2 moved the horror action out of the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority and into a hospital, where the girls who survived Season 1 discovered a brand new serial killer called the Green Meanie. The mystery of the Green Meanie evidently wasn't enough to draw a big audience to the season finale; preliminary numbers indicate that the resolusion only attracted 1.38 million viewers and scored a disappointing 0.5 rating in the valuable 18-49 age demographic.
1.38 million viewers and a 0.5 rating would be disappointing in any time slot on a Big 4 network, but such numbers might not spell disaster if they could be counted as a fluke in an otherwise popular series. Unfortunately, in the case of Scream Queens, the 1.38 million was actually a tick UP from the previous five episodes, and TVLine reports that the 0.5 rating was a series low. Given that the demo dropped by nearly 50% from the Season 2 premiere to the finale, the future is looking pretty grim for Scream Queens. It's Fox's lowest-rated and least-watched series on average for Fall 2016.
The numbers for Scream Queens Season 2 average out to 1.44 million viewers and a 0.6 in the 18 - 49 demographic. Both the viewership and the demo are lower than the shows that got the axe from Fox in the 2015 - 2016 TV season, including The Grinder, Minority Report, and even Second Chance. Fox just doesn't usually gamble on shows that do as poorly as Scream Queens did in Season 2.
That said, it's not impossible for Fox to give the show a chance for a Season 3. The numbers were more or less consistent over the last five episodes of Season 2, and Scream Queens could be a good fit for a show to air as a winter series while bigger shows are on hiatus. ABC has featured limited-episode seasons of shows during winter hiatuses in years past, with Galavant and Agent Carter attracting a loyal core audience. Granted, both of those shows have been cancelled, but both also scored higher ratings than Scream Queens. If Fox is looking to tap into the audience looking for something new to watch while their other shows are on hiatus, Scream Queens could be a good fit.
Besides, Scream Queens was the victim of scheduling difficulties throughout Season 2. Its Tuesday night time slot meant that it was bumped for events such as presidential debates, and the World Series kept Scream Queens off the air for nearly a month. Those breaks may have worked against Scream Queens holding on to an audience throughout the fall. A third season could do better if it gets the chance to air consistently rather than forced into frequent breaks, but we'll have to wait and see.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in TV news. To see what shows are in danger of cancellation, take a look at our list of big shows that may get cancelled this season. And for everything that's definitely coming back in the new year, head to our midseason premiere schedule.
