We suppose the right place to start here is with a feeling of shock, mostly in that we’re shocked that this show is already coming to a close. It felt like it just premiered two weeks ago! This is what happens when you only have a ten-episode season, you air them all without breaks, and you have a two-episode finale that ties everything together. Don’t take this as a guarantee that the finale will leave you satisfied. If could very well leave you hungry to take another bite into this show.
In looking at the ratings for The Passage season 1, it’s fairly easy to figure out that this is a show firmly on the bubble. It’s averaging in total a 1.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic and is not that far off from bringing in 4 million viewers on average. Neither one of these ratings is going to lead to Fox sending out celebratory press releases, but it’s also a pretty respectable number for a midseason drama airing against heavy competition. To know more here about this article.
To date, The Passage is posting a better 18-49 average than Lethal Weapon, Proven Innocent, The Gifted, The Orville, or Gotham — while we understand Gotham is ending after the season, that doesn’t take away from the comparison. It’s close to even matching the average of The Resident, a show we’ve considered to be largely a lock for renewal, even with Fox scaling back some of its programming in this post-Disney-merger era. Fox, for whatever reason, seems to be intent on delivering more sports as though there weren’t a zillion other venues for that already.
If we had to read the tea leaves for the future of Fox, it’d go a little something like this: The network needs to take advantage of the midseason gaps and with that, The Passage is the perfect inclusion into the lineup. We’d scale The Resident back to 18 episodes, put it on the same schedule as 9-1-1, and then for the first month and a half of the season, use these two timeslots for midseason shows. Pair The Passage alongside something new, or maybe a ten-episode season of a show like Lethal Weapon or The Orville, the two other bubble shows we see with a slight chance of returning. Fox needs to be creative in its new era if it wants to make the most of limited timeslots; don’t waste spots on repeats, and try to give viewers as much programming as possible.
When will Fox make up its mind?
It’s going to take some time, so don’t anticipate them proclaiming tonight that there’s going to be a season 2. They’re going to want to analyze the remainder of their season and their new pilots before figuring anything out. We’re actually more optimistic about the future of The Passage than we were back when it premiered. It held onto its viewers rather well, especially for a show in this particular genre! That’s a nice beacon of hope that come season 2, most of these people will still be around, but there is always a risk associated with bringing back a show after what is sure to be a long hiatus for another season.