It is the last post of the year and not really worth finding a picture for 8 entries on the list. I'm not a celebratory person, but if you're going to celebrate, be safe about it. Happy New Year.

This week's list is populated with shows trying to squeeze in their final episodes before the holiday break. I understand the rationale only because Christmas falls on a Wednesday this year and that makes for very awkward scheduling.

I don't know how the holiday schedule will be the next couple of weeks other than I'm sure there will be delays at some point. There aren't a lot of shows that will still air, but I will post whatever comes out.

The CW had a good week with lining up their crossover week with their fall finales.

Those Black Lightning numbers are getting quite scary, but I still think there's a better than 50% chance that The CW saves it anyway to at least drag it across the syndication finish line.

I return from my hiatus just as a bunch of shows beginning to go on their holiday breaks. Coincidence? Not really, but I see not much has changed on the ratings front since I've been gone. There are still quite a few shows that look like they are in danger on the surface but probably are safe in actuality.

I'm actually going to go on a post break for a few weeks. Have a lot going on in my family life and I need this time to take care of business off the internet. I'll be back probably that Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

These CW numbers are looking quite scary to only be about 2 weeks into the season. The Flash is still on top, but I'm not sure you want to brag about a 0.5 demo being your top show. The thing with them is that they are closer to the 'renew everything' end of the spectrum rather than the 'cancel everything' end.

Supernatural has been around so long that it has aired on a network that no longer exists and it has aired on nearly every night of the week. This year is the final run, but the fans seem ready to stay committed for one more ride.

The Walking Dead is definitely coming back to earth with its numbers, but that doesn't seem to give AMC pause. They renewed the show for season 11 a few days ago.

We know at the beginning of the year that several broadcast shows will air their final seasons over the next couple of months. If we're going by the numbers for Empire and How to Get Away with Murder, it's easy to think that it is a good thing that FOX and ABC have decided to call it quits.

I should have pushed to get this up some 7 hours ago, but my life is dramatically different these days. I have to take my moments when I get them.

As far as shows go, American Horror Story started well, but we'll see if it suffers the same type of dramatic week 2 drop that plagues the show every season. VH1 closed two shows for the season (Hip Hop Squares and Love & Listings). As far as those shows go, I honestly think both shows may be on the bubble despite posing pretty dismal finale numbers. Had they put up these same numbers a year and a half ago (Hip Hop Squares averaged just under 500,000 viewers this season while Love & Listings had an average around 650,000 viewers), they would both be canceled with no issue. In this environment where very few shows actually thrive, they may have a chance if VH1 wants to give them another chance and they stay committed to expanding beyond Mondays and Wednesdays.

Going without a picture this week because there isn't a whole lot to go on here. There weren't that many premieres or finales and the numbers were pretty average for all shows across the board. Blame it on being that odd, awkward week before the official start of the new fall season.

Married to Medicine is back. Let's see how many weeks it takes before Bravo starts screwing around with the scheduling.

I got this up way later than I was supposed to. I procrastinated mostly because the holiday pushed everything back and it was not kind to the numbers for a lot of these shows.

This week was yet another continuation of two trends this year. The first being that there's a show in its final season on somewhere. The second trend is the enduring struggle of award shows to captivate large audiences.

I don't think VH1 has ever aired 8 shows at once. It's unusual for them, but it isn't for other networks. I feel the way VH1 is going about it seems quite disjointed and probably a result about worrying about certain shows not being able to perform on certain nights. In other news, Elementary ended its seven season run quietly while VH1 renewed the regular and all-stars version of RuPaul's Drag Race for new seasons.

It feels like VH1 is trying to randomly squeeze a lot of shows into 4 nights without a lot of rationale for their decisions. They might think their moves are helping the numbers for these shows. I think it is having the opposite effect.

August is only a slow month for television on the broadcast side. Cable tends to start their late summer shows in August so that they can take advantage of the fact that people are looking for new things to get into while they are waiting on old favorites to return. Also, cable networks break their yearly evaluations into quarters. The 3rd quarter can make a cable network that doesn't have a larger hit show to fall back on.

The original plan for Love & Listings was to have it premiere tomorrow after Basketball Wives. With numbers like these on a Monday, I wonder if the plan will be to keep it on Mondays to try to save it or stick with the original plan and have it most likely play out the string as a one season show.

It was mostly quiet, but last week did come with the announcement that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will end after next season. It isn't the only final season announcement that ABC has made in recent weeks. They have also revealed that How to Get Away with Murder will end next season as well.

Love & Hip Hop Atlanta is going to post its lowest rated season ever, yet it has a very good chance to end the year as VH1's highest rated show for the 8th year in a row. That is the environment that all networks find themselves in. As the live numbers grow smaller, networks and advertisers, are going to have to come up with better ways to reach people that don't necessarily want to be reached.

There are a couple of things to get out of the way here. The first is that Elementary and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were tagged as specials even though they were both regular episodes that aired over the holiday (networks have done it, but you tend to see it only on Thanksgiving. CBS has a longer track record of doing it, ABC really hasn't done it that often).

Also, VH1 has a couple of MTV shows for the summer. Wild 'N Out is basically a rental for the summer because a lot of the guests this season are from VH1 shows. The info I've seen is that no decision on a permanent move has been made. Scream is a different story. Scream was a show that had abysmal ratings on MTV for 2 seasons and was strangely renewed for a third season before it was inexplicably abandoned (It was originally set to air 4 months ago). Now, it is being burned off over three days and the final 2 episodes of the season air tonight.

It's so hot that the only thoughts I can offer are that Big Brother is definitely off to a weaker start than last year (which was weaker than the previous year) and all of the shows with finales didn't impress, but they didn't hurt their chances for new seasons either.

It's been several weeks since I've offered some thoughts on the numbers, so I'll leave a few here.

The BET Awards is substantially weaker than past years and it is not lost on people that the event saw it's peak exactly 10 years ago (Ironically, I say this on June 25th of all days, but that is the reason why the peak will never be replicated).

I was wary of VH1 getting back into Tuesday nights, but I have a feeling that this may be laying the groundwork to survive the summer. This will be a very weird summer with a lot of specials (particularly linked to politics) and other networks have to make the decision to either counter program or take those nights off. So far, Black Ink Crew Chicago has struggled on the Tuesday move, but there was some recovery from last week. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Claws or Dance Moms. Those shows are off to a very rocky start this season.

I included the 2 highest numbers from the MTV Movie & TV Awards. Every other Viacom network saw numbers of less than 400,000 viewers for their simulcasts.

I probably should have pushed harder to have this up 6 hours ago, but life is different now. These late posts are going to be a thing now.

I wish I had some comments for this week's numbers, but my time is short and my thoughts are elsewhere.

As far as television goes, the summer season has officially begun. That typically means the cable networks will have their time to shine, but I'm not sure we'll see too much of that this year. Many of the networks have already rolled out their strongest shows over the spring. This summer will probably see the takeover of typical long-running veterans and events that pop up randomly (mostly super early Presidential debates and other breaking news like these ridiculous storms all over the country).

This is the kind of week where I would normally do a full list, but current circumstances in my life have and will continue to keep me away from doing any kind of substantial writing for the near future. Anyway, Game of Thrones hit series and network high ratings for the series finale. It was a bit expected, but now HBO and television as a whole probably laments that they don't have anything that looks like it will catch fire the way few shows have over the last decade. HBO has been fortunate enough to benefit from these mainstream successes for much of the last 20 years. We're in a new era now and it will be a surprise to see any future show become nearly as successful as this one.

The cancellation of Star was by far the most shocking news from the last week. I found it shocking, but my first thought was that the cancellation only made sense if Empire ended next season (FOX made that announcement official yesterday). Going by already released schedules and the habits of networks still to come (CBS and The CW at the time of this post), next fall will see the networks taking a highly conservative route; going with known entities and plotting graceful exits for some long-running shows. Unfortunately, that means everything after January will be a mess with the normal slew of awards shows and sports events plus coverage of the 2020 Presidential primary elections. My view is that the Broadcast networks know that they don't have too much to rely on as far as shows go and they may just try to survive next season by acquiring and promoting as many live events as possible.

It took me until 2:45 this afternoon to realize it's Tuesday. At least this post isn't super late today.

It's about that time to start the new list for 2018. You know how this goes. All shows appear in the order in which they premiered, the specials appear at the bottom of the list and shows with split seasons are marked under the original listing. The list will be updated at least once per week and shows with 2017 premiere dates but aired episodes in 2018 will be found in the 2017 list (which will also be updated weekly until the conclusion of those seasons) [Updated 5/7/19].

I have never seen one episode of Game of Thrones. Not likely to watch once it's all wrapped up, but these numbers took a big bounce from last week.

I don't have an opinion on much of anything this week. I do question if Married to Medicine LA has done well enough to get another shot, but it might if the plan is to throw it on Friday nights like the regular show.

This past week kicked off the final season of one of the last ratings juggernauts on TV and it featured the resurrection of a show that has been dead for nearly a decade.

Some strange things going on with Martha and Snoop's show. First, they quietly changed the name of it, but they still consider it to be season 3, they meant to premiere it next month, but they are advertising it to come on at a totally different day and time now (at 11pm, which is usually considered to be a burnoff zone for anything on cable that isn't a talk show). I have no idea what any of it means. It will be a challenge just to try to keep track of it.

I could have thrown up a list several hours ago, but there were a few too many shows to talk about this week and I couldn't ignore them.

The biggest news of the week was the announced ending of the long-running series Supernatural, a show that is older than The CW network itself. I also want to note that Freeform probably hoped to see better numbers for their Pretty Little Liars spinoff.

This is actually my 550th post on this blog, but I'm much too distracted to celebrate it.

Having a few issues with the photo this week. That isn't important though. The big news of the week is the announcement that the next season of Arrow will be the final season. Since the order is only for 10 episodes, it's likely that the show will wrap before the end of this calendar year.

There were a few premieres and finales last week, but my thoughts are focused on How to Get Away with Murder. Personally, I think the numbers all season have pointed towards the show being canceled. ABC is typically very mum on the fate of their shows, good or bad, and you can't read anything into their silence thus far. If they cancel the show, it will be because they have found something that can comfortably sit in that spot for at least half a season (Preferably the front half). If they renew the show, I'm thinking that it will probably be an announcement for a final season and it may not be for the full 18 episodes either.

The list is super short this week because a lot of networks dodged the Oscars on Sunday while others are getting ready to transition towards their spring lineups.

The holiday delayed everything an extra day, but at least it gave me time to pull together a full list.

I'm sick with the flu and can barely concentrate. I can only hope there aren't too many typos here.

The Super Bowl was a bit of a disaster (I didn't watch it. I only watch for the game and the matchup wasn't interesting enough for me), The CW dropped their bulk early renewals and VH1 seems to not be pleased with how January turned out for them. In summary, last week is what trying to put on a brave, united front when things behind the scenes are falling apart looks like.

There isn't much to say about the numbers over the last week except that CBS might be wasting their time with Celebrity Big Brother, but because they have the Super Bowl this year, they won't care (they should because I don't believe the game/commercials/halftime show will get the numbers that they expect to get). Also, Cartel Crew is increasingly looking like a one season show.

Going to a list this week because I'm a day late, sick with a cold and all the broadcast shows that returned over the last week basically returned at the numbers they were getting before the winter break.

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do a whole list today. Somehow I managed to pull one together without repeating shows from last week.

I'm back for the new year and I've got some premieres to talk about. The broadcast shows aren't back yet, but there's plenty of content on cable to get into.