Following the trend set by CBS and ABC, Fox is jumping on the early renewal bandwagon, giving new seasons to its Tuesday night comedies New Girl, Glee, and Raising Hope. These renewals don't at all come as a shock as none of them haven't been doing too badly in the ratings, though it's hard to say that any of them will last that much longer, with all of them seeing steady declines in viewership, making future seasons beyond this recent extension unlikely. This is a tragic commentary on the state of television. All three have shown themselves to be superb comedies, but it seems like nothing can permanently grasp the attention of the general public.
Glee will be back for Season 4, with Raising Hope on Season 3 and Zooey Deschanel's New Girl on Season 2. As I said, their ratings are not exactly the greatest these days. While New Girl started its freshman season with 10.3 million viewers, it has sunk down to 4.6 as of last week's episode, less than half of the Season 1 premiere. Raising Hope has dropped 12 percent from last year with last week's episode only pulling in 3.9 million viewers. Glee is still doing the best out of the three, still managing to pull in 7.5 million before it went on break in February. So what justified the renewals for the other two?
Glee's renewal is an obvious choice. It still has a large fanbase, leaving no worry for its future for now. New Girl and Raising Hope are a little trickier. According to Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly New Girl may not rock it in overall viewership, but it is pulling in a high rating in the key adult demographic, while Raising Hope gets points for being "one of the smartest and most unique offbeat comedies on television." That's high praise, indeed. And really, when you look at the big picture, nearly every show on television is losing viewers these days. We live in a time when success is relative and the bar has never been lower. This allows shows like Raising Hope to scrape by, when they would have been cancelled if they had aired ten years ago.
