im finally completely caught up on 911 and ive only got a few episodes of lone star left and i think... i think, controversially, maybe i now prefer lone star ...

I know you’ve posted about ratings in the past but I would be sooo curious to hear what you think about the finale ratings? They’ve been dipping so low the last few weeks that a part of me thinks it’s definitely that last scene that brought in more viewers. But, I dunno. 👀 It’ll also be interesting to see how the premiere does.

Hello!

Okay, I had to do some research on this one. Before I get into the Season 4 ratings, I wanted to first look at 9-1-1's seasonal averages to see how they compare. (M = Million; D = Demographic)

General Data:

Season One: premiered with 6.8M views and scored 1.78 among the 18-49yo demographic and ended with a 6.3M viewer average and a 1.65D average Season Two: premiered with a 9.8M viewers and scored 2.56 among the 18-49yo demographic and ended with 6.0M viewer average and a 1.37D average Season Three: premiered with 7.1M viewers and a 1.59 among the 18-49yo demographic and ended with 6.8M viewer average and a 1.38D average Season Four: premiered with 7.1M viewers and a 1.22 among the 18-49yo demographic and ended with approx. 6.4M viewers* (seen conflicting reports) and a 1.05D average.

(ALSO: Not really relevant but totally of interest: S1E1 of 9-1-1 Lone Star premiered with 11.4M views. WOW)

Season Four Data

Season 4 ended with a total Nielsen rating of 1.7 which is average for scripted network shows of this caliber (for context: Grey's Anatomy also ended with a 1.7). Scripted network shows are NEVER going to beat out football/live sports or reality television like but for what it is, 9-1-1 does pretty well. (source)

To your point about the ratings dipping low lately, the truth is that Season 4's episodic ratings have dropped significantly compared to 9-1-1's previous seasons (1.53, 1.21, and 1.19 were their lowest episodic ratings for S1-3 respectively with 0.85 being Season 4's lowest episodic rating. OUCH). Even though 9-1-1's episodic ratings have dropped this season, their viewer average remains the same. 9-1-1 has NEVER dropped below 5.1M viewers (their highest viewer count, of course, being 9.8M for S2E1). Their highest views this season was Episode 2 "Alone Together" with 7.2M, and their lowest views this season was Episode 12 "Treasure Hunt" with 5.8M. (source)

It's hard to say what, exactly, caused this decline but the world was in shambles for a minute there so I'm not stressed about it. Interestingly, 9-1-1's episodic ratings for Season 4 dropped after their midseason hiatus; not sure why or if that's even calculable, but it is fascinating. As for the uptick in viewers like you mentioned, it's fair to say that the end of Episode 13 did draw more viewers. Whether it's the buddie of it all or something else, 9-1-1's demographic responds well to story arcs that follow their main characters (ex. episodes 3-5, the Daniel Buckley saga, clocked in the second highest views all season, and the tsunami arc clocked in some of the highest views of Season 3). Incidentally, I think this is why their views were kind of messy this year. A lot of episodes this season were filler episodes. There weren't a lot of major plot points to pursue and there definitely wasn't a lot of character development, especially not among the original cast members.

Now, okay. Here's where we dip into opinion territory.

(putting the rest under the cut)

Opinions

While I personally love when 9-1-1's season finales are wrapped up in a nice little bow with little-to-no cliffhangers, I'm not sure I would have done that this year. As I mentioned before, there were very little substantive storylines in 9-1-1 this year. The "meatiest" storylines either focused on other people (Albert in the pileup, Hen's mom being ill), were only one or two episodes, or didn't have enough development that would have made the story, and eventual resolution, worthwhile (i.e. the shooting). Maddie's PPD has yet to be resolved, but when it comes to sensationalist television and what actually draws people in, Eddie's recovery from the shooting would have been far more engaging (NOTE: I love Maddie and I think her story is important, I'm just speaking in general). Obviously, this season was cut short for COVID reasons, but those missing four episodes really do make a difference when it comes to character growth/plot development. I'm looking forward to those additional four episodes next year!

While I'm on the topic of storylines and audience engagement, I think one problem 911 is running into is where and how they stand against 911LS. When you have two shows of relatively the same caliber, you have to figure out how to distinguish one from the other, otherwise your viewers will just be watching two versions of the same story. Tim and Brad have decided to distinguish the two shows by having Lone Star lean into the more serious, gritty storylines (i.e. Judd and Grace's accident, multiple on-screen suicide attempts, the arsonist immolating himself, etc), and that's great, but the problem is that 9-1-1 has drifted into "safe" territory. You can always expect a goofy little laugh and to end the episode on a relatively happy note, and that's nice and all, but that's not how you build a successful show. The WORST thing 9-1-1 could do right now is play it safe. They only have about one or two more seasons before viewer fatigue starts to set in if they keep going this route. Sure, they'll keep the majority of their loyal viewers by virtue of the fact that they've spent years invested in this show and have no interest in not watching, but that's a lazy way to keep viewers. 9-1-1 should continue with their velocity of having Eddie get shot. That scene alone made all 40+ minutes of the episode worth it. Give the characters more storylines that don't always focus on their emotions. I love Buck's growth, Bobby's struggle with sobriety, and Hen's journey into med school, but 9-1-1's writers need to push the boundaries of the boxes they've written themselves into.

And this isn't about Buddie, but if the relationship between Buck and Eddie were to go fully, explicitly canon, ratings would SOAR. They're not bad as it is, but if they went that extra mile, I imagine it would push them well out of the 1.7 range and possibly into the 1.9-2.0. The LGBTQ+ community is a very loud community; combined with the quality of the story being told through Buck and Eddie and how revolutionary it would be to have two gay/bisexual, attractive, leading men on a primetime network show fall in love and build a family together? That'd be a ratings goldmine. 9-1-1 is comfortable and they have strong network backing; if ever they were going to take a risk like that, the next two-ish years would be the perfect time to do it.

Finally, to your last point I think 9-1-1 Season 5 is on a pretty good trajectory to premiere well. Their premieres always pull in their highest views (S1: 6.8M, S2: 9.8M, S3: 7.163M and S4: 7.193M, respectively), so if I had to guess, I'd say Season 5 is going to premiere with a comfortable 6.9M - 7.1M viewers. We'll see where things go with the development of Season 5, what kind of storylines they come up with, and how we leave off by the end of the first half of the season, but I'm optimistic and I'm really looking forward to it!

Thanks for stopping by!