I suppose you could say this week is about the future because some of these shows have very clear fates and others are quite uncertain.

1. The Game (1.464 million 0.7)- This was a very short season and of course it was intentional on the part of BET since the show has already been renewed for a ninth and final season. Not many shows get the opportunity for resurrection and then are able to run longer than the original run.

2. Mob Wives (1.297 million 0.6)- This show may be at a crossroads. Though there are still a couple of reunion episodes left to contend with, the season average won’t change that much. The current average has the show at just under 1.1 million viewers (1.075 million specifically. A bit less than the 1.225 million average for the season 4 average and just a tick under the season 3 average of 1.104 million). Though the show has been ridiculously stable and has remained the strongest of the non-Monday shows, this show has the issue of holding on to a mostly original (translation: expensive) cast for practically the entire run. Ratings and the state of VH1’s programming outside of Monday nights poses a very strong argument for renewing the show for a sixth season but behind-the-scenes financial matters could nullify everything and the show is old enough to make those hidden factors hold a lot of leverage over the fate of this show.

3. Bates Motel (2.139 million 0.9)- These numbers are just okay. They aren’t horrible but they could be better. They are down from season 2 and the premieres tend to be the highest rated episode of the season. The numbers for the rest of the season will need to stabilize and they won’t have very much room to comfortably decline.

4. Chicago Fire (9.07 million 2.1)- This is actually a strong showing but it’s mostly because The Voice has returned to help the show out again. We all know the show can survive without The Voice helping it but the numbers the show gets from the help are pretty nice to look at and that’s all NBC cares about.

5. Vanderpump Rules (1.437 million 0.7)- I didn’t realize last week was the finale but it doesn’t matter because it’s like I had anything different to say. The show has done well enough to earn a fourth season and Bravo is probably going to renew the show for that fourth season because their new reality shows haven’t done too well.

6. Black Ink Crew (1.943 million 1.0)- I think it is safe to say that this show is doing pretty well. Sure it could be a little closer to Love & Hip Hop but it isn’t bad for a 9pm show. The show will never do well enough to be promoted to 8pm (plus there’s no room anyway) but it works as a 9pm show and it stops VH1 from ordering a ton of unnecessary 30 minute shows.

7. Hell’s Kitchen (4.09 million 1.4)- This is a little bit low for a return and that possibly shows that FOX has grown too dependent on Gordon Ramsay shows to survive the season. We all know this show functions best as a summer show. They needed emergency programming at the end of last season. This season FOX thought they could get away with doing the same thing and the rest of this season may prove that it wasn’t a very good idea.

8. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (4.48 million 1.6)- I think we all know that this show is going to get renewed for a third season. ABC’s dramas are still a rocky mess and they have quite a few more lower rated dramas with questionable fates to deal with. What we all know is that should ABC renew the show, they are effectively committing themselves to a 2 season renewal. That gets tricky because the way these ratings look today will likely point towards these numbers looking ugly this time next year when I’ll be here saying that ABC will have no choice but to renew the show to get it to syndication (as what happened with Revenge last year and what is going to happen with Nashville this year).

9. Revenge (4.89 million 1.1)- ABC is going to wait as long as humanly possible to decide on what they should do with the show. Common sense and ratings says the show should be canceled because it poses no real benefit to stay on air and they probably need the room for more new shows. Their drama situation also dictates that it should probably be canceled but ordering less than a full season could work because they may come away from this season only renewing three dramas that premiered over the last two seasons meaning they may need some filler programming. That’s not a very good place for this show to be but that is the reality of the situation.

10. Real Housewives of Melbourne (534,000 0.2)- Bravo for some reason decided to pick up the international rights to air this show. There’s nothing wrong with doing that. From what I recall, they gave the first season the daytime treatment. I don’t know what they were thinking in trying to promote this show to primetime but it wasn’t a good idea. They are going to be stuck airing all the episodes no matter what but with numbers like these, I won’t be surprised if they push it back to daytime or do a marathon burnoff.