It’s that time of year folks, the time of year when new programs have returned to the fall TV schedule and people are settling into their viewing habits. Unfortunately for me, I think that’s very bad news for one brand new TV series. Yes, it’s only been a few weeks and I’m already concerned my favorite new fall TV show is gonna get the old cancelation axe.
Which fall show am I talking about? None other than newbie Line of Fire.
Is Line Of Fire Going To Make It To Season 2?
Here’s the gist. Every fall I usually try to watch the pilot at least for most of the new fall TV slate. Sometimes I’ll pick up shows for the whole season afterward; other times I won’t. This year, I was really intrigued by Peter Krause’s latest Line of Fire, an NBC family drama set in the realm of law enforcement that’s straight up giving Blue Bloods vibes. I’ve been avidly watching. However, things have not been totally rosy for the newcomer.
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So far, Line of Fire has aired four episodes. The fifth hits the network on Monday night. The show honestly kicked off to a relatively decent number in Live+7 Day ratings, bringing in 8.6 million total viewers. (It has since allegedly grown that number even further.) I was happy to see it grew the live audience in Week 2, and this past week NBC ultimately ordered extra scripts, which means the first season show should go longer than was originally projected. So what’s the problem?
The freshman drama is only doing OK overall. In terms of Live+ Same Day ratings, the show dropped the last two successive weeks. Then, there’s a fact that it doesn’t fare even close to as well as some of NBC’s more established fare.
Let’s take The Voice, for example. I bring up The Voice even though it is one of the best reality competition series and not a scripted drama because it acts as the lead-in to Line of Fire right now. The Voice actually did fewer viewers than Fire during its premiere, but it also skewed younger. It landed around a .40 share in the advertising demo during its premiere, which is quite a bit better than the .17 ratings demo that Line of Fire did.
This becomes even more important when you have a little context. First, skewing younger means you can sell better ads. Secondly, remember Brilliant Minds? The Zachary Quinto medical drama was only doing a .2 share in the 18-49 demographic by the time its second season rolled around. You know what happened in its second season? The show got canceled.
Peter Krause’s got a great TV track record, hopping from shows like Sports Night to Six Feet Under to Parenthood and 9-1-1. However, let’s not forget there were a few duds in there like The Catch. (Which OK made it two seasons but no one talks about it ever.)
NBC’s said the numbers of younger folk watching the newcomer show has increased since the premiere. In a lot of ways the new show has also compared favorably to its Brilliant Minds predecessor, so again, I’m not completely writing off Line of Fire yet. I’ll be watching, as I love the family dinners (which again, remind me of Blue Bloods in format) and the sharp dialogue between the siblings and parents quite a bit already. There’s still plenty of time, too, before NBC makes a spring decision on some of its on the bubble shows. I just am hoping this one won’t be in the… line of fire… when cancelation season comes around.