Fans of NBC’s “Powerless” need to take this seriously. The show is heading toward cancellation, despite seeing a slight rise in ratings recently. The average ratings are still poor across the board, especially for a Thursday night. It’s not like the show is owned by an affiliate of the network to save it (something that may save the likes of "Emerald City" and likely saved "Shades of Blue").
‘Powerless’ living up (or down) to its name
Let’s get one thing straight, "Powerless" is not a name that a show should aspire to. Right now, the show is suffering from that problem. There are just a couple of weeks left, but the writing has been stale with a series of one-liners rather than hilarious scenes. Some of the most memorable parts have been Jackie’s dryly-delivered one-liners and Van and Wendy’s interrogation moment in episode 6.
“Powerless” hasn’t been the show that many people expected. While it could have been an ingenious show that stood out on its own, it’s stereotypical characters and unoriginal storylines trapped in an office have left potential fans disappointed.
NBC hasn’t exactly helped the show out
Let’s not forget about the unexpected week off two weeks ago. One week was fine. It was planned and fans could work around it. The next week, fans tuned in for a new episode, only to be disappointed with a rerun of “Trial & Error.” There was a slight uproar on Twitter, but the network never came out and explained what had happened. Even the “Powerless” showrunners couldn’t explain much.
Instead, fans were left wondering whether the network would bother with it the next week. They nervously tuned in with some hope, slightly expecting some disappointment. This week the network seems to have skipped a week rather than offer an extra week of airtime as an apology.
It looks like the network doesn’t even want the show to survive.
It’s not all about the live ratings for ‘Powerless’
One thing is for certain, “Powerless” has never been a live numbers game. The network knew that this wasn’t going to be a show that audiences watched live. They would look at the DVR and streaming ratings to see if the show was a hit. Unfortunately, these numbers haven’t been as high as expected.
There are still two weeks to go. It’s doubtful that this is enough time to save “Powerless” from cancellation, but there are some things that audiences can at least try. It’s important to watch live and boost the ratings by streaming afterwards. It join's NBC's "Timeless" as a new show with an uncertain future.