In Defense of ‘Reaper’

April 24, 2009 by Chandra

Bret Harrison, Ray Wise, Tyler Labine/Reaper

I read an interesting column not too long ago. In the wake of the Hollywood Reporter’s recent proclamation that Reaper is as good as gone at The CW, writer Daniel Fienberg defends the devil dramedy and offers several reasons why the network should at least give a Reaper renewal proper consideration before lowering the ax.

Among the fine points made is Reaper’s sturdy, if not impressive, performance against reality behemoth American Idol, the Fox reality show that The CW intentionally threw Reaper under the bus for in order to save sappy 90210 from a swift and certain ratings death. Remember, the network moved 90210 from its original 8pm ET time slot to 9pm, just so Reaper could take on — and get crushed by — Idol at 8pm instead.

Well, hardy Reaper not only refused to die, but it has performed steadily, luring an average of 2.25 million viewers each week. Best of all, Fienberg notes as well that Reaper has consistently attracted more viewers overall than 90210, despite its most unfortunate time period. As a result, while 90210 had an estimated 1.9 million viewers on April 21, Reaper clocked in at a superior 2.2 million. That, readers, is what industry types call bleeding viewers.

However, the kicker — and there always is one — is that networks care more about the audience segments that advertisers care about because ad dollars pay the bills. In that case, 90210 is a stronger performer because it averages about a 1.2 rating (the percentage of televisions tuned to a show) in the sacred 18–34 demographic, while Reaper hovers around a much lower 0.8.

Number games aside, Fienberg does a solid job establishing the case for why Reaper shouldn’t be written off as quickly as the Hollywood Reporter and other publications seem to have done. So, if you call yourself a fan of the series, it might not be too late to show your support and fight for its renewal in several ways. Of course, there’s no guarantee that such fan campaigns will work. But, hey, they certainly can’t hurt at this stage, either.