by Kallo » April 23rd, 2019, 8:53 am
[quote="JackStover"]You guys do know that the vast majority of television programs don't get an announcement that a show is ending, right? Most simply die quiet deaths with little fanfare. Networks only make those announcements for the big shows, as it drives up the ratings and gets everybody tuned in.[/quote]
That's simply... not true. While certainly not all shows get huge mentions in many places, there's always an official announcement somewhere about a show ending. Especially these days with social media and all that. Whether it be from the company producing the show itself, the network airing it, or some third party site they've chosen to allow the first reportage of the news. Not to mention we're talking a big company like Disney here, so an announcement is a guarantee. If S3 will be the last, we're definitely gonna have an announcement somewhere about it by the start of it at the latest.
[quote="JackStover"]But The Lion Guard can scarcely be called a hit show, and it's not like the target audience of preschool kids is going to be hyped up for an announcement that their show is coming to an end.[/quote]
I've seen it referenced a hit show on quite a few news articles, actually. Whether you think that's neither here or there, let's consider a few facts: "Star vs. The Forces of Evil" and the new "Ducktales" reboot are two currently airing Disney shows that are considered big hits. They have a far wider target audience than The Lion Guard, which not only is aimed mostly at preschoolers, but has huge shoes to fill as far as the legacy of the original film, which undoubtedly alienates a lot of older audience. But let's look at the numbers: "Return of the Roar" had very little promotion and it reached over 5,3 million viewers (which is insane for a modern preschool cartoon, btw), "SvTFoE" also had barely any promotion and its premiere reached about 2,3 million. "Ducktales" premiere, which had quite a bit of promotion, only reached 280k, which TLG still averages over. TLG, now 3 and a half years into its run, after awful airing schedules, currently averages at about 500-600k viewers per episode, and its peak viewership after the premiere was almost 2 million. "SvTFoE", half a year older show than TLG, now averages at about 300k views per episode, with its peak at about 900k. "Ducktales", which still gets a lot of promotion, and is only in its second year, averages at about 550k, with its peak at just over a million. "Tangled: The Series", another Disney show, was wiping the floor with all these other shows in its first season, consistently getting around a million views if not much more, but even that show never came close to the 5 million premiere of TLG or 2 million for a regular episode, and now early into its third year it only averages at about 350-400k views.
If we compare the promotion of each of the shows, the airing schedules, target demographic, as well how long they've been around, TLG definitely has the shortest end of the stick. Taking this into account, it's actually proving to be the most popular out of all the current Disney cartoons. It should be doing the worst out of all these shows, no question, because of all the things I mentioned, but it's actually doing the best and most consistent. "Ducktales" might pass it soon in its average viewership, because TLG isn't the "new show" anymore and will probably keep going down in viewership, but for reference, TLG is still the only show out of these that has actually managed to capture 700k viewers after 15 months of being in the air (in fact, it has done so even after 36 months, and was consistently pulling in over a million after 20).
All the shows I mentioned here are currently considered "hit shows", and as said, looking at the numbers, The Lion Guard has in fact managed to most consistently for the longest time keep the highest viewership. So I'd argue it can definitely be called a hit.