3 dramas lead early Save Our Shows vote
See which endangered series might be saved in our 21st annual survey
The ballot box is still open. USA TODAY’s 21st annual Save Our Shows survey lets viewers vote to keep their favorite endangered broadcast series or to drop those they’d rather see canceled.
A week into the exclusive poll, 100,000 votes have been tallied — on pace to exceed last year’s record turnout — and three dramas have emerged as favorites: ABC’s Designated Survivor, and NBC’s The Blacklist and Timeless. Time-traveling Timeless, which topped last year’s poll, was canceled and then revived days later by the network, which later cited the survey as one reason for its reversal.
The trio is among 30 network shows hovering “on the bubble” between renewal and cancellation in this year’s survey, which also includes comedies such as Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine and CBS’ Kevin Can Wait. The poll also groups sitcoms and dramas into two other categories: Those that have already been renewed or are highly likely to return; and those already canceled or nearly dead.
Full results will be revealed after the poll closes later this month. But fan support is just one factor influencing renewal decisions. Others include Nielsen ratings trends, profitability, the quality of pilots vying to replace them, and whether the network owns the at-risk program. But fan loyalty, a show’s creative momentum and producers’ pitches for what they’d do if given another season are key barometers of whether they can improve.
Randall Park, who stars in ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat, says it’s hard to stand out amid an explosion of shows.
“I’d say that’s the one disadvantage of being in the fourth season with a strong following but one that’s, as they say, ‘on the bubble.’ There’s a tendency for shows like ours to get lost in the mix,” he says.
“I’m pretty confident it’ll come back. But I’m just by nature the type of person who’s always prepared for the possibility that things might not work out.”
You can make your voice heard by voting now for Timeless or any other bubble series.