Did you tune in for the premiere of Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! on Wednesday? A lot of people did, but not as many as SyFy hoped for.
The third installment in the Sharknado franchise premiered to 2,810,000 viewers during its debut airing. It was the #1 show on capable for adults aged 25-54 and managed to nab a 0.9 Nielson rating in the 18-49 demographic. If you don’t understand these television statistics, it’s basically a numeral way of saying Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! was a massive hit for the network. Some sources even say it generated over half a million tweets from fans during its first run on SyFy.
While it was a hit for the network, numbers were down considerably from last year. Sharknado 2: The Second One received a significantly higher Nielson rating in all demographics and was watched by 3,900,000 people during its premiere in 2014. That means the franchise has lost about 33% of its CGI, cameo filled sillyfest lovers between movies. Sharknado premiered to 1,370,000 in 2013 – about average for SyFy movies from The Asylum – and only soared to new heights during encores days later.
With a fourth movie already in the works, one can only wonder if the joke is over and if the new movie in 2016 will see even fewer viewers. Something tells me, though, that we’ll at least get to Sharknado 5 before they pull the plug on the cash cow… cash shark… whatever.
