It's kind of like looking at the impossibly low water line at Lake Mead these days.
With broadcast's share of the overall U.S. TV audience dried up to only around 23%, according to Nielsen's latest assessment for June, viewership levels for some network TV shows have dropped to levels we couldn't have imagined a decade ago.
Take CW's Season 2 premiere Sunday of UK youth drama Dead Pixels, which debuted to a "0" rating in the all-important 18-49 demographic, according to Nielsen Fast Affiliate ratings.
Overall, the comedy about a trio of online video game enthusiasts, created by Succession executive producer Jon Brown and acquired by CW after debuting on Britain's E4 in 2019, registered a 0.1 rating/1 share and was watched by just 189,000 souls, the research company reported.
That might be a low-water mark for broadcast television.
Dead Pixels led out at 9 p.m. to New Zealand series Wellington Paranormal, co-created by Flight of the Conchords mastermind Jemaine Clement and watched by just 225,000 viewers.
Neither The CW nor NAB are putting out press releases today confirming that this is an all-time low ratings performance for the network or the broader broadcast TV industry.
But if it's not a record low mark, it's gotta be darned close.
