NBC’s ‘Constantine’ Ratings Drop 20%; Series Future Looks Bleak

The future was looking bleak for NBC’s Constantine last November when the network announced that production was being halted. Unfortunately, the news has not gotten any better.

Friday’s return of Constantine saw an even larger drop in viewers, despite its earlier 8pm time slot. Ratings revealed 3.1 million viewers and a 0.8 rating among adults 18 to 49 demographic. That is a 20% decline from the last episode which aired in December.

The Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour has been going on over the last week, and NBC president Jennifer Salke along with entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt both commented on Constantine.

At the TCA press tour yesterday, NBC president Jennifer Salke and entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt both took on the question of Constantine, whose production has been capped at 13 episodes this season. Neither comment was really encouraging, especially after you factor in the Network Executive Comment Curve which demands executives add roughly 30 percent more optimism to public statements made about their shows.

“Still talking about (whether to renew the show),” Salke commented. “We wish the show had done better live. It has a big viewership after [live airings] in all kinds of ways, and it has a younger audience. The live number is challenging. It hasn’t kind of come out of Grimm the way we wanted it to. We love the show. I think it’s fair to say we’re really still talking about it.”

Greenblatt commented on something that we feared last season when the fall line up for all the major networks were announced. Are there too many series based on comics? They seem to do well on the CW, but is NBC the right network for such shows?

“We got on the bandwagon of these shows based on comic books, and maybe there are too many of them. It’s a popular series of comics, but it’s not The Flash. It’s not Batman, so maybe it suffers a little bit there. But as Jen said, it’s a show we really liked. We love Matt Ryan, who is the star of it. I think we did right by the fans who didn’t like the film that was made of it, and I think the future is still up in the air on that show.”

We’re still holding out hope for the series which filmed its 13 episode run here in Atlanta, the home to so many of television’s current supernatural drama. Have you liked Constantine? Let us know your thoughts on the series below.