Ratings Report: ‘Quantum Leap’ Finds Its Stride As ‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Prepares For Its End
Broadcast: NBC’s revival of Quantum Leap is back for a second season. This new series serves as a continuation of the original 1989 series of the same name starring Scott Bakula (Star Trek: Enterprise, American Beauty, Behind the Candelabra). Episode three aired on October 25th, bringing in an audience of 2.561 million in the P2+ group, with a rating of 0.81, and 363,000 viewers in the P18-49 group, with a rating of 0.28. Episode four saw both audiences grow as viewership in the P2+ group rose to 2.952 million, with a rating of 0.94, and the P18-49 group rose to 412,000, with a rating of 0.31. The series has maintained mostly consistent viewership since the season two premiere on October 4th, ranking among NBC’s top ten programs.
Quantum Leap is set thirty years after the events of the original series’ conclusion, this time focusing on Dr. Ben Song, played by Raymond Lee (Top Gun: Maverick, The Lost City, Prodigal Son), as he leads a new team of physicists in what is known as The Quantum Leap Project. The team work to unlock the mysteries of the quantum accelerator machine, prompting Song to upload a new program code to the project systems. After Song activates the accelerator, he is sent back in time. From here the series mimics the structure of the original. Each episode finds Song occupying the body of someone in a different era of history. Song’s fiancé and fellow scientist Addison Augustine, played by Caitlin Bassett (V Is for Vodka), appears to Song as a quantum hologram; she assists him as he traverses time with the ultimate goal of bringing Song back to the present. Other members of the cast include Mason Alexander Park (iCarly, The Sandman, Cowboy Bebop) and Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters, The Family Business, The Crow).
Cable: After taking the summer off, Fear the Walking Dead is back to finish out its eighth and final season. The series first premiered on AMC in 2015 as a spin-off of the network’s smash hit, The Walking Dead. Episode seven aired on October 22nd to an audience of 542,000 in the P2+ demographic, with a rating of 0.17, and 131,900 in the P18-49 group, with a rating of 0.10. The following episode saw both groups shrink, garnering 518,000 viewers in the P2+ demographic, with a rating of 0.16, and 105,000 viewers in the P18-49 group, with a rating of 0.08. The series will conclude on November 19th with its twelfth episode.
Fear the Walking Dead began as a prequel to The Walking Dead, centering on a dysfunctional family working together to survive in the early days of the zombie apocalypse. By season four, the series underwent a soft reboot as the focus shifted to seasoned survivor Morgan Jones, played by Lennie James (Snatch, Blade Runner 2049, Colombiana), a character introduced in the original series. Additionally, Fear the Walking Dead’s timeline caught up to that of The Walking Dead, with the events in each series happening concurrently. Now in its eighth season, Fear the Walking Dead features an ensemble cast with a plethora of survivors, old and new, working together to protect their community from both zombie and human threats. Two notable characters remaining from the first season are Madison Clark, played by Kim Dickens (Gone Girl, Thank You for Smoking, Hollow Man), and Victor Strand, played by Colman Domingo (Selma, Lincoln, Candyman).
Streaming: Back for its third season, Lupin is a French mystery thriller that first premiered on Netflix in 2021. Its debut season was the first French series to rank among the Netflix’s U.S. Top Ten. Its newest season premiered on October 5th and continues to receive the acclaim of previous seasons. Part three currently holds an impressive 100% on Rotten Tomatoes; however, its audience score is notably lower at 72%. Nielsen placed Lupin Part 3 at No. 8 in the top ten list for original streaming content. Since the release of part three, Lupin streamed a total of 436 million minutes across its seventeen available episodes.
Lupin follows Assane Diop (Omar Sy), a gentleman thief who models his style and tactics after the fictional thief Arsene Lupin. As a child, Diop’s father exposed Diop to the Lupin books before his father was framed for theft and wrongfully imprisoned. Tragically, his father soon dies in his cell, leaving a 14-year-old Diop to fend for himself on the streets of Paris. Years later, Diop sets out to get revenge on those responsible for his father’s imprisonment and death, planning to use his master thief skills to expose their crimes. Part three follows Diop as he plots to steal the black pearl, a priceless piece of jewelry, while simultaneously trying to mend his relationships with his wife and his son. Lupin stars Omar Sy (The Intouchables, Jurassic World, X-Men: Days of Future Past), Ludivine Sagnier (The Young Pope, Swimming Pool, The Truth), and Soufiane Guerrab (Patients, A Brighter Tomorrow, Dheepan).
South Korea: On the free-to-air channel SBS, The Killing Vote nears the end of its debut season with a loyal fanbase. Episode ten of this South Korean crime thriller aired on October 26th to an audience of 1.472 million. Only slightly less than the viewership brought in for the premiere, this indicates the audience largely stuck around for the season’s duration. The season concludes on November 16th with episode 12. The Killing Vote follows a masked vigilante as they target criminals that evade the legal system. Known as Gaetal, this anonymous killer conducts surveys via text message, allowing the public to vote on the fate of these elusive criminals. Once the results are decided, Gaetal acts on the will of the people, whatever that may be. The Killing Vote stars Park Hae-jin (From Now On, Showtime!, Kkondae Intern, Forest), Lim Ji-yeon (The Glory, Rose Mansion, Spiritwalker), and Park Sung-woong (Live Stream, Bloodhounds, Bear Man). The Killing Vote can also be found streaming on Amazon Prime in select regions.
On the pay-to-watch channel ENA, Evilive struggles to find its audiences as it pushes further into its debut season. This dark drama airs new episodes every Monday and Sunday. Episodes four and five, airing on October 23rd and 29th respectively, averaged 453,600 viewers, while episodes six and seven averaged only 386,000 viewers the following week. Evilive follows a rational lawyer who finds himself drifting to the dark side after taking on a new client. A charming yet sadistic gangster, this new client finds a way to tap into a darkness already existing within the lawyer, slowly bringing his evil tendencies to the surface. Evilive stars Shin Ha-kyun (Beyond Evil, Soul Mechanic, Less Than Evil) and Kim Young-Kwang (Hello, Me!, The Guardians, Love Rain).
United Kingdom: Coronation Street remains the United Kingdom’s most watched drama, bringing in some of its strongest viewership in weeks. Found on ITV1, Coronation Street pulled in an average of 4.987 million viewers across its three new episodes between October 9th and 15th. On the same network, Emmerdale pulled in an average of 4.232 million viewers across its five new episodes. Over on BBC1, EastEnders trailed behind with an average of 3.810 million viewers across four new episodes. Viewership for each of these series remained relatively consistent in the following week. Between October 16th and 22nd, Coronation Street averaged 4.803 million viewers across three episodes. Emmerdale saw an average of 4.209 million viewers tune into its five weekly episodes. EastEnders remained the least watched of the three, averaging 3.695 million viewers across its four episodes. Between October 23rd and the 29th, E4’s less popular Hollyoaks averaged 330,400 viewers across its five weekly episodes, a relatively strong performance by the network’s standards.