Despite the network's bold efforts to save his show, Sean Hayes seems to be pointing his finger at NBC for Sean Saves the World's low ratings.
His freshman comedy is currently averaging 3.4 million viewers and a 1.3 share in the key 18-49 demo, the lowest of all NBC series. But Hayes told the TV Page that "[the show] is working ... It’s just the struggle of the elephant in the room, which is, ‘How do you get viewers to NBC?’ NBC programs great shows, it just doesn’t have the eyeballs CBS does."
As we previously reported, NBC announced this week that it was putting its most popular sitcom (and Sean's previous lead-in), Parks and Recreation, on hiatus until January, while it shuffles its schedule to cater specifically to Sean, with episodes of The Voice, Saturday Night Live specials and more.
It's also worth pointing out that, while NBC's Thursday night comedy block has been in the gutter for years, the rest of the week is somewhat or very solid, with the likes of The Voice, Sunday Night Football, The Blacklist and Chicago Fire.
The Peacock is currently the No. 1 network overall in the key demo, leading the Big Four. It's also No. 2 (with 9.9 million) behind only CBS in total viewers (11.4 million). Compared to last year, The Office was the network's youngest-skewing show with a median age of 38, while the time slot now has a median age of 53 (in the same hour Sean airs).
To Hayes' credit, he took to the Web on Thursday and said he has "sincere gratitude" towards NBC. This was, however, after backlash from his remarks.
Update: While a Voice rerun on Thursday did lift the time slot occupied last week by Parks (attracting 5.2 million viewers), Sean actually saw a dip in the core demo (1.1 rating). NBC will likely hold out at least a few more weeks.