Mistwell said:
Is there some way to see the entire nielsen ratings each week? I'm curious what shows are on the air still that are doing worse than FireFly.
http://www.sfgate.com/tvradio/nielsens/
FireFly did better than Buffy and Angel. Unfortunately, it looks like it's still Fox's lowest rated show.
Push, Nevada and That Was Then have been put on hiatus, so it looks like the time when networks start axing shows has rolled around. I guess we'll be finding out FireFly's fate soon.
With FireFly, I'm reminded of both The Flash and Brisco County, Jr, two shows which got their legs cut off before being given a real chance.
Flash was put up against The Simpsons and The Cosby Show, then bounced around so much it rarely aired twice in the same time slot. On top of that, the Gulf War interrupted several episodes.
As a result, the ratings looked bad and it was canned.
If it was given a 2nd season and a regular time slot, I'm sure it would've succeeded and lasted a few more seasons.
And Brisco outdrew SeaQuest (at a time when Fox had much less stations than the other networks) and was cancelled while SeaQuest lumbered on for another season or two.
Brisco was replaced by M.A.N.T.I.S., the superhero show that Sam Raimi produced, which then went on to finish dead last in the ratings week after week.
M.A.N.T.I.S. also holds the record as having the stupidest finale ever. He battles an invisible dinosaur and blows himself up to kill it (taking his girlfriend with him...great superheroing there, chief

).
And, remember, kids, whenever you see a tv show in which the villain is invisible and it takes place in the woods, it means they ran out of money two episodes ago.
Fox probably wished that they gave Brisco a 2nd season since it literally couldn't have done worse than its replacement.
I hope they keep that in mind when reviewing FireFly.