This week was a slow one. Outside of Empire, there wasn't much to talk about. Next week should be a little more active with quite a few season finales lined up.

1. Empire (13.02 million 5.2)- No one saw the quick rise of this show coming. FOX came into this midseason hoping for a hit and believing that the show could keep Wednesdays afloat but this show is doing so much more. This show is singlehandedly saving their season. Notice how no one mentions how bad FOX struggled over the fall anymore. Empire shields all of that bad press and now people are wondering how high the ceiling is for this show.

2. The Walking Dead (13.431 million 6.9)- The fact that AMC chooses to keep airing this show in February knowing how bruising Sunday nights in February can be (this year featured the Super Bowl, the Grammy Awards, the SNL 40th Anniversary special and The Oscars in four consecutive weeks. The Walking Dead aired against 3 of those 4 programs) is a testament to how strong this show is. The show took a little bit of a hit last week but it bounced back and the people at AMC look like geniuses for sticking to their guns and not taking the option to skip because the show had an off week. You will not find too many other networks willing to be that bold.

3. Being Mary Jane (2.464 million 1.1)- After 3 episodes this show appears to be holding up so far. I’ve said a scripted cable show averaging over a 1.0 demo is a good thing. Given the recent struggles of The Game and Real Husbands of Hollywood, BET needed this show to remain stable and it looks like they are getting that so far.

4. Better Call Saul (2.870 million 1.4)- This is a little down from last week but it is not bad for a fourth episode. Had the show not already received its second season renewal by this point I believe it would have been renewed by now anyway. AMC has renewed shows with half of these numbers (specifically in the demo because this show skews a little younger than a lot of scripted shows) so the show is pretty safe.

5. Two and a Half Men (13.52 million 3.2)- Nobody expected this show to set records for the series finale. Nobody expected this show to do half as well as the newly rebooted episodes (after the Charlie Sheen firing) several years ago. That is why the show ended in February and not later in the year. I do believe CBS was happy the show ended on its own terms but perhaps if things were left up to chance they would have tried to drag this out for at least one more year because they have had terrible luck with launching new comedies.

6. The Voice (13.97 million 4.1)- These aren’t bad numbers to start the season off with. For NBC they are very good numbers. Similar to FOX with American Idol, this show has become a Band-Aid for them. These numbers aren’t going to hold up the whole season but NBC doesn’t have and won’t premiere another show this season that will do better so the goal now is just getting to May and looking forward to next season.

7. 2 Broke Girls (8.47 million 2.1)- Decision day is coming and that day is coming very soon. I am not exactly sure when that day is but if tradition is any indication then CBS will renew a huge chunk of their schedule sometime in the next 3-4 weeks. Just about everyone expects this show to be part of that group because none of the remaining veteran comedies on CBS have low enough numbers to warrant cancellation.

8. American Idol (Wednesday: 10.70 million 2.8; Thursday: 8.98 million 2.1)- For the first time in many years, this show will not end the season as the highest rated show on FOX. Indeed, it is an old show but it is a show that FOX still needs because they still need to find way more than one hit and one moderately rated show. American Idol provides a Band-Aid for half of the season.

9. Elementary (8.21 million 1.5)- Nothing has really changed about this show. The ratings are still low and CBS is still expected to renew the show next season. The only real question about this show's future is whether this gets moved to the CBS syndication farm (Friday or Sunday nights) next season and which current occupant has to go to make that possible.

10. Preachers of Detroit (309,000 0.1)- I am not sure what to make of these numbers. They are low numbers but they aren’t lower than numbers I’ve seen for other Oxygen shows on other nights. I do not get the motivation for Oxygen scheduling this to air on Friday nights other than the possibility that this is a burnoff season because they were unhappy with the performance of the last season of Preachers of LA (a show that has still not been renewed for a third season). I will need to see several more weeks of numbers but I am not sure that will help me figure out what is going on with this show.