Supergirl Ratings Are Plummeting, Fans Abandoning The Show

The most recent episode of Supergirl saw the show hit all-time low numbers. Fans might be completely out now and won't be back

By Doug Norrie | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

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Supergirl fans might want to start tuning into the show more or work harder to get friends on board with the program. And they might want to do it sooner than later because this thing might not have long for the air. That’s because, according to Cosmic Book News, the Supergirl is reaching a complete nadir with its ratings. These numbers are getting, well, comically bad and it stands to reason the show won’t be able to ever fully recover. While the CW might have an appetite for keeping the character in the Arrowverse, there’s a breaking point for every show and this one likely hitting it now. 

According to this most recent report, the ratings numbers and viewership have been trending in the wrong direction for Supergirl for some time and this last episode might be where studio folks really start hitting the panic button. The last episode, “Phantom Menaces” had only a reported 586K viewers tune in which was down roughly 20% from the season premiere. And it’s not like those numbers were all that robust to begin with. In fact, they were pretty darn bad already. This has continued a season-over-season trend for the show which has it headed in the completely wrong direction. 

The precipitous drop in the Supergirl ratings has been going on for some time now and shows a series in serious decline. It all started out great in the first season with almost 10 million people tuning in for the show’s premiere episode with Melissa Benoist in the lead, titular role. That was on CBS though and for the second season, the show moved to The CW. The expectation was that moving to a new, smaller network would of course impact ratings but the show still managed more than three million viewers per episode for that season. 

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The graph for Supergirl though has been heading downwards ever since. Last season, Season 5, saw just a little north of 1.5 million viewers per episode. And that number was dropping by the end of the season. We could have just reached a saturation point for the show and the character after a solid run through the Arrowverse. 

And it’s worth mentioning that these Supergirl numbers don’t necessarily point to comic book, Superman, or Arrowverse fatigue. That’s because they stand in sharp, though negative, contrast to the numbers for the spin-off show Superman & Lois. Through the first five episodes of that show’s pilot season, it is apparently averaging right around 1.35 million viewers after a 1.75 million viewer debut.  

Could this season be the end of the line for Supergirl? These numbers are sure to make the case for the show getting canned with the season wraps. And we already know that Melissa Benoist won’t be carrying her version of the character over into the DC Extended Universe with The Flash. That will be Sasha Calle in the role. So like I said, Supergirl fans (those who are left of course) might want to start making a real push for the show starting now, because there might not be much time left.