Journeyman: Renew or Cancel?

November 30th, 2007 by Bill Gorman

UPDATE: NBC has cancelled Journeyman. It will not return.

NBC’s Journeyman, Monday 10PM Eastern, was thought to be the successor to the Quantum Leap ['89-'93] franchise for time traveling.

It’s got a great location [San Francisco, personal bias alert], a good actor [Kevin McKidd, Lucius Vorenus of HBO's Rome, more personal bias], but could it catch the same Quantum Leap spark?

With our own chance to jump into the future we ask: Renew or Cancel?

Journeyman’s Ratings Rank among New NBC Shows, All New Shows

Date	Viewer Rank among New NBC shows	Viewer Rank among all new shows
9/24	#4 of 4	#9 of 20
10/1	#4 of 4	#12 of 23
10/8	#4 of 4	#14 of 24
10/15	#4 of 4	#18 of 24
10/22	#4 of 4	#17 of 24
10/29	#2 of 2	#13 of 22
11/5	#4 of 4	#15 of 22
11/12	#4 of 4	#16 of 22
11/19	#4 of 4	#13 of 22

NBC has not been setting the TV world on fire this fall, and even with that low bar for comparison Journeyman’s ratings have been last for NBC new shows each and every week.

Among all new shows, Journeyman’s ratings have beaten only new CW and Fox shows on a regular basis.

How is it doing against its competition on Monday?

Journeyman’s Ratings and Rankings @ 10PM Monday

Date	Viewers (Rank)	Adults 18-49 (Rank)	Adults 18-34 (Rank)	Adults 25-54 (Rank)
9/24	9.16m (3)	4.65m (2)	1.98m (2)	5.30m (2)
10/1	8.23m (3)	4.22m (3)	1.96m (2)	4.72m (2)
10/8	6.94m (3)	3.82m (3)	1.53m (3)	4.28m (3)
10/15	6.75m (3)	3.54m (3)	1.64m (3)	3.76m (3)
10/22*	5.72m (3)	2.86m (3)	1.27m (3)	3.22m (3)
10/29	5.75m (3)	2.89m (3)	1.40m (3)	3.24m (3)
11/5	5.13m (3)	2.73m (3)	1.31m (3)	2.89m (3)
11/12	6.09m (3)	3.15m (3)	1.43m (3)	3.59m (3)
11/19	5.61m (3)	2.91m (3)	1.22m (3)	3.34m (3)
11/26	6.05m (2)	3.15m (2)	1.55m (2)	3.48m (2)
12/10	5.28m (2)	2.29m (3)	0.91m (3)	2.64m (3)

Journeyman’s ratings started off fine, beating The Bachelor in some age demos its first two weeks.

Since then, it’s been all down hill. Journeyman’s ratings have stabilized, although at a low level, in the past month. Producers have hinted they’ve saved the best for last. They may have saved it too long.

12/4 UPDATE: Added the 11/26 numbers and Journeyman ratings did pick up as some predicted and it was #2 in all categories.

12/20 UPDATE: Added the 12/10 numbers.

(*10/22 data is Live, all other data is Live+SD, useful for rankings but not viewership trends).

Conclusions

Negatives

1. Journeyman ratings are now consistently last place in its timeslot in all demographic categories among major broadcasters.
2. Journeyman ratings are near the bottom compared to all new broadcast shows from ABC, NBC and CBS.

Positives

1. Journeyman is set in San Francisco! The lead actor played Lucius Vorenus in HBO’s Rome! Ok, straw grasping is over.

Verdict: Cancel. Sadly, there is no past, or future, for Journeyman.

NBC has announced that the last 2 available episodes of Journeyman will air December 17th and 19th. That completes the 13 originally produced episodes. I doubt there will be more.

12/12 Update: NBC has let the option on more Journeyman shows lapse, effectively cancelling it after the fresh episodes air.

Wondering about other shows? Check our all our Renew or Cancel? posts.

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Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2007 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.