With TV now in the full swing of season finales, fans will be saying farewell to many of their favorite shows, and only some of them will be returning again in the fall. Luckily for everyone invested in the goings-on at Chastain Park Memorial Hospital, The Resident has been renewed for Season 2 at Fox, so there's no need to get out the defibrillator paddles, since we're not sure how that would work anyway.
As Fox's newest and only medical drama (outside of some portions of 9-1-1), The Resident supplies the latest leading roles for TV vets like The Good Wife's Matt Zcuchry, Revenge's Emily VanCamp, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Manish Dayal and The People vs. O.J. Simpson's Bruce Greenwood. (Among others.) So there were a lot of reasons to think and hope that The Resident would succeed with viewers, and this Season 2 renewal is almost definitely the biggest and best sign of approval that Fox could have delivered. And it wasn't exactly a sure thing, either, so here's hoping everyone involved can set their worries aside for now.
Across its first twelve episodes, The Resident hasn't exactly blown the ratings game wide open at Fox, but it has been performing admirably enough. While the premiere brought in an impressive total of over 8.6 million viewers, with an excellent 2.6 key demo rating (for adults 18-49 years old), there was a large drop-off going into the second episode. But since then, The Resident has had a fairly consistent audience base, with between 3.8 million and 4.8 million tuning in each week, with the demo rating hovering around a baseline-impressive 1.0. Those are just the Live+Same Day stats, too.
When the scope is broadened to include delayed Live+7 viewing numbers, The Resident looks even better. Each week's episode adds an additional 3 million viewers or so when DVR is accounted for, and Fox reports that when viewers for both TV and the multiple non-linear platforms are totaled, The Resident is averaging more than 10 million viewers a week. In comparison to the programming in the same time slot last year, Fox says the medical drama has earned a 31% lift in the key demo. And you can bet the network kept an eye on all of those factors in coming to the renewal decision.
The Resident, which went through some behind-the-scenes troubles earlier this year involving claims made against the show's medical consultant, was previously one of Fox's several on-the-bubble shows. But while it can now set itself up for next season, other Fox series like The Last Man on Earth, The Exorcist and Gotham are still waiting to hear about their own respective fates.
You can check out the preview for The Resident's penultimate episode below.
The Resident airs Monday nights on Fox at 9:00 p.m. ET, with the big season finale airing on May 14. Keep current with our TV finale rundown, and to see what new shows will crop up in its aftermath, head to our summer premiere schedule.
