Key Takeaways

• ScreenRant reports that Riverdale’s season 6 lost an estimated 45% of its audience, compared to the figures of season 5’s debut. The article determines that season 6’s debut is a “diminishing return” for the teen drama and weakens The CW’s position in network rankings.
• A May 2022 analysis by Variety found that Riverdale came in at second place in its Trending TV report. Only bested by Netflix’s Heartstopper, Variety’s findings show that between May 9-15, Riverdale drew in over 115,000 viewers, amassing over 100,000 likes on social media and over 10,000 retweets.
• According to Parrot Analytics, the demand for Riverdale is “outstanding”, as its analysis found that the demand for the show is a whole 20.4 times higher than the average demand for TV series in the country. According to the performance analytics software provider, this is only true of 2.7% of all US shows.
• Canceled Sci-Fi, a website dedicated to canceled Sci-Fi shows, notes that between December 2021 and January 2022, CAOS was number 3 in the top 10 charts produced by Nielsen Ratings. The article states, “That show’s fourth season (or “part” as it is referred to) debuted that week and the streamer might want to reconsider its cancellation decision seeing as it brought in 961 minutes of viewership over that seven-day period.”

Introduction

Insights into the Popularity of Films and TV Shows based on Archie Comics Characters.

Riverdale Season 6 Loses Viewership

• ScreenRant reports that Riverdale’s season 6 lost an estimated 45% of its audience, compared to the figures of season 5’s debut. The article determines that season 6’s debut is a “diminishing return” for the teen drama and weakens The CW’s position in network rankings.

• An article by Yahoo! Finance corroborates this, noting that season 6 premiered with less than 250,000 viewers which, the article asserts, is Riverdale’s lowest viewership. According to TVLine, the show received a 0.1 demo rating, with viewers giving the premier “an average grade of C”.

 

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• TV Fanatic places viewership numbers for Season 6 episode 6 at 245,000. The article, describing Riverdale as The CW’s “crown jewel”, declares the current state of viewership as worrying. In March 2022, the article continues, Riverdale was only watched by slightly more than 103,000 viewers.

“Ending the Show wasn’t Easy”

• Decider asserts that Riverdale’s streak will end with season 7, slated to air in 2023. Chairman and CEO of The CW Network, Mark Pedowitz, canceling Riverdale “was not an easy decision.” 

• He states, “We had a long conversation with [showrunner] Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa] yesterday, who’s thrilled by this news, and we are really going to treat this show in the manner it deserves. It is an iconic pop culture star, and we want to make sure it goes out the right way, that is the decision. I think they, too, found seven years is the right amount, and we want to do the right thing. Again, that’s a personal thing, as a fan myself, I want to do what’s right for the shows.”

• Pedowitz describes Riverdale as a show that has “long legs”, possibly pointing to its popularity, and posits that The CW is determined to give the show an “appropriate send-off.”

• He adds that the decision to end Riverside was not based on the content of the show, but rather, was necessitated by “other financial considerations”. Additionally, he states that Riverdale will be given enough time to wind the stories up, “so that episodes could act as both a season and series finale.”

• Decider narrates that Riverdale is a “social, cultural, and streaming hit” that boosted The CW’s reputation. It concludes, “The series was a defining hit for The CW, and TV as a whole, leading to shows taking formerly earnest properties and adding a dash of sex and murder to capture some of that Riverdale cache.”

Riverside’s Popularity was Aided by Netflix

• Fan Sided, an online publication dedicated to entertainment, declares that Riverdale’s “modest debut” on The CW had viewers addicted from the get-go. The same was true, the article continues to assert, for season 2, but with every succeeding season, viewership had waned.

• The entertainment news website posits that Riverdale’s fortunes changed when it began being streamed on Netflix, reporting that season 6 “remains a huge hit” on Netflix, with the new episodes keeping the show on Netflix’s top 10.

• Fan Sided proffers, “ No one can deny the power of the endearingly weird and charmingly chaotic Riverdale, but Netflix is definitely part of its success story.”  

• US Magazine captures the sentiments of Riverdale’s creator, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who commented, “One big moment happened after the season 1 premiered on The CW and then it all appeared on Netflix. Riverdale was one of the early shows from the CW that migrated over to Netflix and that’s when the show captured fans’ imaginations. I remember, we hadn’t yet gotten a pickup for season 2 and the show dropped on Netflix and the response was pretty robust. We didn’t really understand what has since become known as the Netflix Effect, so that’s a moment where it jumped from a quiet show on the CW into a slightly less quiet show.”

• A 2017 Hollywood Reporter article captures the sentiment of The CW’s executive VP of marketing, Rick Haskins, who said, “Probably more people watched it on Netflix thinking it was a Netflix show. Our real challenge was taking those viewers and moving them over to The CW.”

Audience Interaction and Reception of Riverdale

• A May 2022 analysis by Variety found that Riverdale came in at second place in its Trending TV report. Only bested by Netflix’s Heartstopper, Variety’s findings show that between May 9-15, Riverdale drew in over 115,000 viewers, amassing over 100,000 likes on social media and over 10,000 retweets.

 

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• However, in April 2022, Yahoo! Reports that Riverdale’s performance dipped even further in the demo, attracting a 0.0 rating. The article notes that it attracted about 0.22 million viewers. “Riverdale wasn’t even The CW’s best-performing title Sunday,” the article asserts.

• What’s On Netflix, a website dedicated to reviewing and discussing Netflix’s array of shows, notes that Riverdale is one of The CW’s biggest shows. Referring to Riverdale, the website states, “The long-running show from The CW is the show everyone loves to hate. Adapting the Archie comics, the series continues to be one of the network’s best performers and continues to perform well on Netflix too.”

• Collider supports this sentiment, referring to Riverdale as “a phenomenon” as each new season has been consistently ranked amongst the most watched on Netflix. Collider credits the show’s success for the creation of offshoots such as Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

Audience Interaction and Reception of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

• Media Plays News asserts that the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, or CAOS, was a “top rising and top binge” show on TV Time charts in January 2022. Cinema Blend agrees, noting that the show was “met with positive reviews and a bewitched fanbase.”

• In 2018, when the show began, Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, a measure of a show’s performance based on viewers' and critics’ ratings, gave the show a rousing 91% rating, with critics and viewers alike purportedly raving about the show. “Bewitchingly beautiful and wickedly macabre, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina casts an intoxicating spell and provides a perfect showcase for Kiernan Shipka's magical talents,” reads a summary of the ratings.

• In 2020, however, the show’s ratings had dropped. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the critic’s rating gave the show a 68%, while viewers gave it a 73%. The summary given on the website posits, “Though it leaves some fan favorites high and dry, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina's final season hits enough emotional highs to serve as a fitting farewell to the Queen of Hell.”

Spend/Budget data for Films and/or TV Shows

Helpful Findings

• A 2019 article on Style Caster reports that all the main characters in Riverdale purportedly make about $40,000 per episode. According to the article, this roughly translates to about $800,000 per character per season.

• Another news article by Cision claims that Riverdale’s presence in British Columbia, Canada, saw over $60 million injected into British Columbia’s economy, with over 1,000 jobs created by the show alone.

• The only publicly available information on production budgets for a film based on the Archie Comic characters is 2001’s Josie and the Pussycats film. The Numbers reports that approximately $22 million was spent in the production of the film.

Performance of Riverdale and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Overview of Riverdale’s Performance

• According to Parrot Analytics, the demand for Riverdale is “outstanding”, as its analysis found that the demand for the show is a whole 20.4 times higher than the average demand for TV series in the country. According to the performance analytics software provider, this is only true of 2.7% of all US shows.

• Despite this, Parrot Analytics also found that, in the last 30 days, the demand for the show has waned, as the data shows that demand has decreased by -3.2%.

• That said, however, Parrot Analytics determines that within the Drama genre and titles within the US, Riverdale is within the elite 99.6%. This means that the show enjoys a higher demand than over 99% of drama shows in the country.

• Additionally, since it is an American show, it has benefitted from 100% travelability in the US. Mexico, at 26%, had the lowest travelability for the show amongst the markets reviewed for the same.

• TechRadar reports that Riverdale’s season 6 has only managed to attract about 500,000 viewers, only 25% of the viewership it enjoyed during its second season. This, according to Tech Radar, may be one of the reasons for its cancellation.

• Additionally, TechRadar proposes that the end of The CW’s deal with Netflix could be a contributing factor. According to the article, with the end of Netflix’s $1 billion deal, “ The CW's executives are cutting right back on their programming, as shown by last week's epic house clean”, including Riverdale.

Overview of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s Performance

• Parrot Analytics dubs CAOS’ performance as good, as, in the last 30 days, it has 7.5 times the demand of an average US TV series. According to the data, only 8.6% of US shows enjoy this level of demand. This is also bolstered by the finding that demand for CAOS has increased by a whole 11.7% in the last 30 days. In the Horror genre, the show is said to rank at the 94.5% percentile, meaning that it has a higher demand than 94.5% of titles in this category.

• When it comes to travelability, it enjoys a 100% travelability rate in its county of production/origin, the US. Its travelability stands at 73% for New Zealand, and 23% for Germany.

• Canceled Sci-Fi, a website dedicated to canceled Sci-Fi shows, notes that between December 2021 and January 2022, CAOS was number 3 in the top 10 charts produced by Nielsen Ratings. The article states, “That show’s fourth season (or “part” as it is referred to) debuted that week and the streamer might want to reconsider its cancellation decision seeing as it brought in 961 minutes of viewership over that seven-day period.”

• Speaking about CAOS’ popularity, Vanity Fair states, “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is fun, silly, and, as ever, gorgeous to look at. If you’re looking for a trip to Hell this Sementivae, Sabrina Spellman is the one to take you there.”

Research Strategy