While some of this fall’s TV shows haven’t premiered yet, others are settling into the schedule at this point and have already hit some highs or lows. We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s looking more and more as if Castle is going to be doing a lot of the latter. The show premiered to series lows earlier in September and after Week 2, those numbers haven’t increased at all. In fact, Episode 2’s numbers matched the show’s first week lows.
Early reports indicated that Castle’s second Season 8 episode had managed to tick up a bit in the ratings from Week 1,but once the final numbers came in, they weren’t looking so hot. In fact, the show only did a 1.2 rating on Monday night. This happened even though TV Line reports the show did a decent 6.7 million total viewers. It just seems as if most of those viewers were not in the coveted 18-49 demographic, leading the series to continue to hit lows.
Castle’s Season 8 kick-off was pretty high-octane compared to the average episode. Beckett was in a pretty bad place after finding out that her special investigations team had been killed. She later disappeared only to resurface and keep doggedly looking into the conspiracy surrounding her team’s killings and how they relate to her mother’s murder. This had major ramifications for her relationship and should theoretically continue to affect the series in the coming weeks. If you’ve been keeping tabs on Castle at all over the summer, you may know that things are going to change on the ABC drama this season. In fact, they already have.
If a break-up between Rick and Kate isn’t enough to pull in the fans, I’m not sure how the ratings will be able to improve in the coming weeks. Co-showrunner Terence Paul Winter did say the show will still be about “romance” just “with murder” before the big premiere, and maybe that will be enough to garner some extra eyeballs.
As it stands now, though, Castle is having a rough return similar to how Once Upon A Time had a rough return on ABC. That drama also lost viewers year over year with the premiere episode when it hit ABC. While we think it would be crying wolf to call out either of these shows for a cancellation prediction at this point, the numbers really aren’t looking great for either ABC program. Plus, it should absolutely be noted that ratings typically go down as the season wears on, with midseason finales and premieres acting as bright spots in the schedule. Unfortunately for Castle, reports indicate the series will have an extended winter hiatus this year on top of its ratings problems. People are not fans of hiatuses in general, much less extended hiatuses.
We’ll let you know how Castle fares in the coming months. In the meantime, if you’ve ever shipped the Caskett relationship, now is probably a good time to tune in. New episodes of Castle air on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET, only on ABC. In addition, if you are looking for more information on upcoming fall premieres, head here.
