Ratings Review: BACKSTROM (Season One)

By the ad promos, BACKSTROM looked like a good, light hearted crime drama, along the lines of classic like COLUMBO or even HOUSE. But after sampling one episode, I see why its ratings were so bad, and its was not because of its time slot.

BACKSTROM was just not fun to watch. its humor was lost and did not work well. Like when a friend tries to tell a funny joke, but he has no comedic delivery. From the premiere episode to the third episode, BACKSTROM lost over half of its audience, over 4.3 million viewers and a drop of nearly a full ratings point, in the A18-49 demographic.

For the season, BACKSTROM averaged 3.99 million viewers and a 1.0 rating in Adults 18-49, in Live+SD rating. The series would increase its A18-49 ratings by roughly 50%, in the A18-49 demo, but that was still below a 1.5 rating, for most episodes.

BACKSTROM (Thursday at 9 p.m., on FOX)

Date	Viewers*	A18-49	L+3	L+7
01/22/15	7.98	1.9		10.54 (2.7)
01/29/15	5.32	1.4		7.41 (2.1)
02/05/15	3.64	1.0
02/12/15	4.39	1.2
02/19/15	3.54	0.9		(1.6)
02/26/15	3.81	0.9		(1.6)
03/05/15	3.90	1.0		(1.5)
03/12/15	preempted
03/19/15	preempted
03/26/15	3.69	0.5		(1.4)
04/02/15	3.16	0.8		(1.4)
04/09/15	3.29	0.8
04/16/15	3.39	0.8		(1.3)
04/23/15	3.00	0.8
04/30/15	2.80	0.7		(1.2)

* - in millions