‘Rookie,’ ‘Whiskey’ riding high

There’s still time to vote.

USA TODAY’s 22nd annual Save Our Shows survey, which launched last week, lets you cast a ballot for your favorites among 26 endangered TV series.

Early results from 60,000 fans reveal top picks: ABC’s rookie dramas “The Rookie,” starring Nathan Fillion, and “Whiskey Cavalier,” starring Scott Foley and Lauren Cohan, along with CBS fifth-season drama “Madam Secretary,” starring Tea Leoni.

They’re among the broadcastnetwork sitcoms and dramas hovering “on the bubble” between renewal and cancellation as programmers weigh their chances against a crop of pilot episodes for potential replacement series.

But a pair of other series, CW’s “All American” and Fox’s “Star,” need your help if they have any chance of returning: Both scored near the bottom of the poll.

Save Our Shows helped earn a renewal for NBC’s “Timeless” in 2017, days after it had been canceled, the network’s chief Robert Greenblatt said at the time. The timetravel fantasy series won another reprieve, after winning a second poll last year, for a two-hour series finale that aired last December.

Many other, more important factors go into deciding the fate of aseries. Ratings are still key, though the analysis is now spread over a much longer period, as many shows derive most of their viewership from digital, DVR-delayed and on-demand viewing.

But a program’s ownership is important: Networks tend to favor the shows they produce in-house because they benefit from sales to streaming platforms, local stations or overseas broadcasters. NBC’s low-rated drama “Good Girls,” for example, is a lock to return, mostly because the network owns it and signed a lucrative deal with Netflix for streaming rights.

So is profitability. A low-rated but high-cost series is a recipe for financial disaster because ad rates are correlated with a program’s performance.

This year marks an especially tumultuous time for the major networks, as three – Fox, NBC and ABC – have installed new top programming chiefs in recent months.

So make your voice heard: Vote for your favorites. Time is running out: Networks will set their 2019-20 schedules next month. And visit life.usa today.com for final results in early May.