#Batwoman season 2 premiere ratings down; blame NFL competition?

The CW may have done their best to promote Batwoman season 2 in advance of the big premiere on Sunday, but they may have still made a mistake. Take, for example, what they opted to do when it comes to the specific premiere date.

In opting to launch the show with Javicia Leslie on January 17, they were metaphorically throwing them to the wolves. Last night’s episode aired directly opposite a prominent NFL game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints, and clearly that made an impact on the show’s numbers. Leslie’s debut generated just a 0.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic and just over 660,000 live viewers. Given the headlines surrounding Ruby Rose’s exit and Leslie’s arrival, you would have hoped for more interest straight out of the gate. The NFL likely hurt that, plus also the extended layoff from new episodes.

The latter cannot be undersold here — The CW typically generates a young viewership, and these are viewers that traditionally are harder to retain year-to-year. They are also moving away from traditional television to streaming services at a pretty quick pace.

Luckily, the fate of Batwoman is not determined by these numbers and these numbers alone. Remember that The CW has a fantastic app that generates a lot of next-day views, and eventually, its series will also be available on streaming services. They have found a way to diversify and then also monetize their content. We’re still hopeful for the future, and curious to see what the ratings for Batwoman are going to be next week. That’s something we’ll have to wait a little while to get more news about, obviously.

For now, we do think that Batwoman is off to a solid start creatively — the transition to Ryan Wilder made a reasonable amount of sense given the position the writers were in entering the hour.

Related News – Check out some more news on Batwoman, including a preview for episode 2

What did you think of the Batwoman season 2 premiere, provided that you had a chance to watch it live?

Be sure to share right now in the attached comments! Also, remember to stick around in the event you want some other news on the series. (Photo: The CW.)