The State of Things

Vulture has a set of charts detailing ratings declines at the networks during the 2016-17 season, but Josef Adalian follows up by detailing the catalysts beyond ratings that factor into renewal and cancellation decisions these days. Todd VanDerWerff offers seven likely reasons for show cancellations these days. John Koblin identifies a shrinking gap between ratings that make a show a hit and those that make a flop, and he and Sapna Maheshwari look at how advertisers are still holding on the the networks despite viewer declines.