Tuesday saw The Flash Season 8 debut with its “Armageddon” premiere episode, but ratings for the show weren’t as good as previous seasons’ first episodes.
“Armageddon, Part 1” saw 740k viewers tune in which is down substantially from the Season 7 premiere of 1 million viewers (a drop of over 250k) and down even more from Season 6’s premiere of 1.62 million viewers (down 54% with a loss of 880k viewers).
The numbers are more in line with the last few episodes of The Flash Season 7, which averaged around 700-750k viewers, but what could be worrisome for Season 8 is that as the season progresses, the numbers usually continue to drop, so by the end of Season 8, The Flash may shed another 25% or so viewers.
It’s unknown if it’s because of the lower ratings, but The CW has announced The Flash will be moving off Tuesdays to Wednesdays when new episodes return in March following the mid-season break, as starting in January, Superman & Lois starring Tyler Hoechlin will take The Flash‘s Tuesday 8pm timeslot.
While I haven’t watched the episode myself (The Flash was at one time my favorite show on TV), the “big” Armageddon episode, according to DC Comics, features Cisco Ramon’s replacement character Chester Runk (Carlos Valdes left the show), Batwoman, Supergirl’s sister Alex Danvers, Black Lightning, and Green Arrow’s replacement, Mia Smoak. See where I’m going with this? None of these characters are big draws.
Doing a quick check of the other DC shows on The CW reveals more of the same as the Batwoman ratings are in the gutter with last week’s episode having the worst ratings ever for the show with only 370k viewers tuning in.
It’s more of the same for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, another one of my favorite shows at one time but it went from a cool science-fiction time travel superhero show to a goofy-ass Guardians of the Galaxy wannabe, as last week’s episode saw only 480k viewers.
It will be interesting to see how long these shows stick around as there have been rumors flying that The Flash will soon see its demise, which I’m guessing will happen when the Ezra Miller movie is released, and the upcoming DC shows on The CW don’t look very promising as Naomi hardly seems like it will be a breakout hit. I do like Superman & Lois a lot, but that, too, took a ratings hit following a two-month break after its first three episodes.
The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow ratings:
The Flash ratings:
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow ratings:
(charts via wiki)
