Batwoman returned for its much-discussed second season a couple of weeks back, and while DC fans praised Javicia Leslie’s debut as new heroine Ryan Wilder, wider audiences unfortunately didn’t seem that bothered by The CW show’s semi-reboot. Ratings dipped to make the premiere one of the least-watched episodes so far and while there was hope that things would pick up the next week, now that the figures are in, we can say that it only got worse.
2×02 “Prior Criminal History” officially stands as the single least-watched installment of the series to date, as the episode was caught by a mere 621,000 households, down from the premiere’s 659,000. That said, it did receive a slight increase in the 18-49 demo, with a 0.16 rating over the previous week’s 0.15.
The bad news continues, though. The season opener had previously been reported to have been viewed by 663,000, but the updated, more accurate figure given above has shaved off 4000. It seems logical to assume that ratings will either remain around this low level or continue to drop over the next few weeks and while the network no doubt won’t be pleased with that, changing up the lead one season in was always going to be a big risk.
The previous lowest-rated episode was season 1’s seventeenth outing “A Narrow Escape,” with 634,000 viewers. Unfortunately, folks checked out of the show week in, week out across its debut year, and it seems that the loss of Ruby Rose as Kate Kane has caused even more to lose interest. It’s no wonder that the latest word on the series’ future points to The CW maybe cancelling the Gotham-set program soon.
Batwoman season 2 continues Sundays on The CW.