Special Report: Eastwick Ratings
Earlier this week ABC pulled the plug on Eastwick, its new supernatural series which is based on the popular book and film; The Witches of Eastwick. The American broadcaster originally described the series as a “quiet success” after its pilot episode pulled in a modest 8 million viewers but as the weeks went by its ratings fell and soon the series was labelled ‘doomed’. We take a look those ratings which proved to be Eastwick’s undoing.
The pilot episode of Eastwick aired on ABC on 23rd September and pulled in a modest 8.5 million viewers. The following weeks’ episode, Reaping and Sowing, saw a drop of 2 million viewers with 6.6 million returning. Madams and Madames, the third episode, saw another drop in viewers with 5.2 million while the fourth episode, Fleas and Casserole, attracted 5.0 million viewers. Mooning and Crooning saw another drop in ratings with 4.9 million but there was a slight rise for the sixth episode Bonfire and Betrayal when audience levels returned to 5.0 million viewers. Unfortunately the rise didn’t continue and the seventh episode saw yet another drop to 4.6 million viewers – this was the final episode to air before ABC announced the show’s cancellation.
ABC originally ordered 13 episodes and has confirmed that it will air all the remaining episodes of Eastwick – in all six remain to be aired. Production on the series shut down after the 13th episode but as producers were hoping for additional episodes there won’t be much conclusion for fans in terms of storylines as there was no warning the end was coming.
