Staff Writer
If you do a quick Google search on Agents of SHIELD, you’ll see a list of headlines that include reviews that are more harsh than they deserve to be and, more often than not, a depressing nod to how the show keeps losing viewers in the week to week. So, if the show is losing viewers, why did ABC decide to give it a full season order? Wouldn’t that be almost as silly as tying a sinking boat to the dock and expecting it to be there the next day? It would seem that way to us, but to Disney, SHIELD is doing just fine.
Here’s a chart of the demos and ratings since the pilot episode for future reference:
| Date | Demos | Ratings (In Millions) |
| 09/25/13 | 4.6 | 11.9 |
| 10/01/13 | 3.3 | 8.66 |
| 10/08/13 | 2.9 | 7.87 |
| 10/15/13 | 2.8 | 7.85 |
| 10/23/13 (not final) | 2.6 | 7.1 |
| 11/6/13 | 2.5 | 7.03 |
It seems pretty scary, doesn’t it? In reality, these number are just surface numbers. There’s much more going on behind the scenes that TV reporting sites don’t tell you. Sure, you can glance at NCIS’s viewer total and suddenly feel wholly insignificant as a SHIELD viewer because they pull in an average nineteen million viewers per week in the Tuesday spot on CBS. However, that pesky, so called thing called “overall viewers” is very misleading. Very.
Let me just put it to you this way—in the men 18-49 demographic, SHIELD is the number one show and has been for six consecutive weeks. It’s “also currently ranked the number two overall broadcast entertainment series in men 18-49, behind only CBS’ The Big Bang Theory.” What’s more is, according to ABC, the Marvel based series adds another 62% in viewership with playback services which aren’t tallied in the overnights people moan about. So, technically, October’s last episode of the month gained another four million viewers, totaling the ratings out to over eleven million. And, let’s face it, that’s pretty epic for a series whose ratings “continuing to fall.” SHIELD has also improved Disney’s television standings and I’m sure marketing will come along behind it. (If it does, I’m totally getting a Coulson POP! vinyl figure. Those things are so cute.)
So, next week, when TV reporting sites start moaning about the ratings, remember that Disney knows what it’s doing and has turned entertainment to a money machine with a beating heart. With the characters getting more and more relate-able, with the stakes getting higher, with Coulson getting closer and closer to finding out what happened to him, the series is bound to go up, if not in ratings then in heart. And, let’s not forget that this is a Joss Whedon show. Firefly became a cult classic. Buffy ran on the CW for seven seasons. Angel became a hit spin-off of Buffy and lasted five seasons. And um, who could forget The Avengers?
Of course, just to play it safe, there will be a Thor: The Dark World tie-in in the November 19th episode. I’ve heard you don’t need to see Thor to watch the episode but who would want to miss Thor and the snarky, sexy Loki duking it out with Dark Elves? You know your inner fan boy wants to see it.
Anyway, don’t forget to watch the new episode of Agents of SHIELD, which is set to give us a glimpse of Level 8, next week on ABC. Cue the excitement. And a rise in ratings? Hint. Hint. Watch the show same day if you can.
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