Something extraordinary is going on at ABC. They’re actually killing their top rated comedy on purpose.
When we left “The Conners” last May for their season finale, they had 6 million viewers. They were ABC’s biggest prime time comedy. The show aired, as it had for two seasons, on Tuesdays at 8pm.
When we returned last week, “The Conners” had moved to Wednesdays at 9pm. This seemed like a strange choice. Why make it later? And on another day? The ratings proved a disaster: down to 4.9 million. Lowest numbers ever.
Last night, a new low on week 2, “The Conners” dropped to 4.1 million viewers, again at 9pm on Wednesday. The total loss from last season is 31%. It’s 16% more from last week.
You could argue that “The Conners” still won its time slot at 9pm. But its key demo is shrinking, and the audience is skewing much older than before.
If “The Conners” numbers keep falling, and ABC does nothing, it would seem like they’re trying to get the show cancelled. Weird, since they fought so hard for it after Roseanne Barr’s big scandal.
