Futurama Ratings Down All-time

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Futurama gets a 3.8/6, Fox usually formalizes cancelation when shows get ratings like this.  #4 worst rated show on Fox, John Doe has passed Futurama this week by 0.1, Fastlane, The Pulse, and Married by America had lower ratings than Futurama.  Tis a bad day in deed.
 http://www.mediaweek.com/mediaweek/columns/prog_insider.jsp?vnu_content_id=1858778

[#1 :]

Well I cant say Im too surprized, as FOX never really advertised that the season final of Futurama was coming on. This means that there where probably quite a few fans out there that missed it thanks to that fact and of corse daylight savings didnt help as I missed 10min of it the other night thanks to daylight savings.

I just hope the get rid of some of those other crapy shows that got low ratings before they think about slamming the door on Futurama.

[#2 :]

I would agree that daylight savings time did have a little to do with it. I know of a couple of people who simply missed the show because they did not set their clocks correctly.
Another factor may be spring break. Many people are out on vacation and combined with the time change and of course the all present no promotion were not even aware that a new episode was airing last night let alone such a pivotal one.
It is sad really that an episode hyped so much within the community faired so poorly in the ratings.
RM

[#3 :]

I think all Futurama fans know that ratings mean nothing at this point.  I mean, 1) Fox doesn't promote it and shows it about once a month usually, and 2) how many Nielsen families do you think watch Futurama?  I doubt very many.  Ratings are for suckers.  I've never known anybody who actually was counted in the ratings.  We need a new system, like a website that people can mark what they watched on a given night.  Yeah, that's the ticket!  Futurama would never be cancelled!!   

[#4 :]

Those ratings were in line with what Futurama has been getting all season.  You can probably place a little blame on DST, but the faithful watched and the general public didn't even know it was on. 

I though it was interesting that the little "what's coming on FOX tonight" montage they always show before the show starts didn't even contain one image from Futurama.  In other words, they could have changed their minds at the last second and shown "Large Marge" for the 73rd time this season and used the same promo, which was an option they were no doubt considering.

[#5 :]

FUTURAMA IS UNDERRATED!

[#6 :]

At least "Fastlane" got Friday's Losers! Yep. It's sad that Futurama loses ratings, but that is up to Fox! They have delayed new episodes which are delayed over here (England) too! This is just plain Rude! I think that Fox should kindly think about showning New Futurama episodes more often!
 The main thing that has resulted to low ratings is this, peple go to watch Fuutrama Fox don't have it on, the peple think that they'll do the same next week and the week after that! 
 I'm sure most True Fans Always watch Futurama!
 All this rubish about what Media Weekly think is a biased opion! They don't really know much about the programme so they should watch it more often!
 Well, I'm sure some True Fans, which I state again, would agree that Fox should show more Futurama!

[#7 :]

I wonder what would happen to ratings if they included those that downloaded the episodes?

[#8 :]

It would go up rapitly! lol

[#9 :]

Futurama is currently the 4th worst performing show on Fox, and the 4th best performing show on Sky. Both are owned by Rupert Murdoch.

Futurama recieved very little promotion on Fox.
Futurama recieved above average promotion on Sky (on par with The Simpsons, but promotion outside the network).

So, either:

1) Futurama doesn't perform well due to bad promotion and scheduling.

2) Futurama appeals far more to a UK audience

Out of the two, the former would appear more likely. Futurama on Sky has a stable schedule, 7:00PM on a Sunday (just after the new S14 Simpsons), sometimes being repeated at 8:00 PM on a Saturday.

So it would be wrong to say that Season Five of Futurama is performing badly - on Sky, Futurama has outranked all the episodes of the Simpsons except one in a whole week.

Of course, there are many other factors to consider (like time zones), but I think the point still remains.

[#10 :]

Question why would people in the UK like Futurama more then in the people US?

[#11 :]

Because the people in the Us have loads of diffrent varity of Programmes that take over the time of Fuutrama which means not many people know that Fuutrama is there! This goes for any little kids or adults!

[#12 :]

Futurama has the cushiest time-slot over here (the one immediately following The Simpsons) and is sandwiched between that and a Simpsons repeat. No doubt a lot of viewers remain to watch the show inbetween (no minimising of the quality of the show, here). Sky also runs promos fairly frequently, even tonight on Monday I saw a promo in one of the breaks for Enterprise. As I've said, Sky have been treating the show fairly decently over here.

[#13 :]

 

Originally posted by Ricky:
FUTURAMA IS UNDERRATED!

FOX is so burned.

[#14 :]

Hey...long time reader, first time poster

Just wanted to say that my local FOX station has an X-men 2 preview scheduled for April 20th.  Damn long preview if it takes half an hour...

I think the low ratings are a combination of things, mostly the bad time slot and the constant preemptions.  But if King of the Hill can do better at 7:30, then some people are laying off Futurama for a reason. 

A lot of people I know always compare it to the Simpsons, and if you go in with that attitude, you're going to come out with an entirely different view than someone who just watches it with no preconceived notions. 

Personally, I think they should just kill it after this run is up, and we'll have 70+ quality episodes of a terrific series.  Look what's happened to the Simpsons in the past 4 years....ugghhhhhhh.

[#15 :]

from what i've heard simpsons went bad around its 8th year. Futurama is only technically in its 4th. Even if the Simpson pattern held true (which i doubt that it would) Futurama could still get another 4 quality seasons before we had to worry about it heading south. We could get ANOTHER 70+ great eps if Fox would only give it a decent chance.
And as for King Of The Hill getting better ratings in its 7:30 time slot, you gotta take into account that it is actually advertised! People KNOW it still exists!

[#16 :]

Futurama rating for the season so far

"Crimes of the Hot" 5.5/9
"Jurassic Bark" 6.9/10   
"The Route of all Evil" 6.0/10
"Taste of Freedom" 4.0/7   
"Kif gets knocked up a notch" 4.3/6   
"Less Than Hero" 5.0/8
"Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles" 4.3/7   
"The Why of Fry" 3.8/6   

Average Rating: 4.975
Higher than the entire Friday lineup and The Pulse

[#17 :]

     Yawn, Futurama gets low ratings.  Tell me something I don't know.  The ratings are irrelevant.  fox has consistently shown for some time that they don't give a crap about the show.  They're just using the remaining episodes as filler for the 7:00 slot.  They're treatment of Futurama goes deeper than the ratings.

[#18 :]

The only ratings that really look concern worthy are the 4.9 and 3.8 .

But I have to absolutely agree it is lack of advertisements.  I didn notice that FOX sunday promo didn't mention Futurama and many people don't realize it's on the air (or what episode is being shown if any).  FOX wants Futurama dead.   

They'd like it to probably get a 1.o-2.o rating so they can cancel it and say "look bad ratings look!!" But anytime such a cruely treated show at 7pm on FOX can get into the 6's (almost a 7) then advertisers stay happy.

[#19 :]

I think the only way Futurama would get lower than 3.8 is if Fox Broadcast promos Fastlane, Married by America,  or The Pulse on Futurama's timeslot while showing Futurama.

[#20 :]

Any reason as to WHY FOX is so hateful to Futurama?

[#21 :]

Fox has no real say on what goes in the show.  Matt Groening has total control, like in the simpsons, and the Fox really didn't like that.  They wanted Futurama to be like the Jetsons or something, according to Matt.  Plus he has control over the merchandise, again like the Simpsons.

What it comes down to is, anything they couldn't do to the Simpsons from it bringing in too much money, they seemed to push onto Futurama.

Also, I think many other factors comes in.  They seem to be flailing around looking for the "next hit".  Most shows on Fox get cancelled in one season, 2 if they are lucky, and they *love* their "reality" tv shows -- more than their normal shows in most respects.

It is sorta difficult to know exactly what is going on, and as a fan I am going to have a slightly negative view of Fox.  But, it would blow my mind if they did what they did to the show if they didn't intend to kill it.

[#22 :]

I agree with Venus, if Fox could just give futurama a chance i'm sure they would see far better results than the Simpsons craze, sure it was good for it's time, but since i discovered Futurama, The Simpsons just didn't seem to cut it. I'd kill for another 70+ Futurama episodes, such entertainment doesn't come easily.