‘The Floor’ Wins On Wednesdays As Season 2 Drives Compelling Audience Growth On Fox
EXCLUSIVE: It looks like The Floor has not yet hit its success ceiling, as the Rob Lowe-hosted game show continues to grow its audience with Season 2.
Wednesday night’s episode was the most-watched since the second season premiered in September, drawing 2.2M total viewers, according to live + same-day Nielsen data. In fact, the episode tied with the premiere for the season’s largest audience to-date.
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But, where Fox is really seeing a promising performance is in the delayed numbers. The Floor is currently the top game show across broadcast and cable after seven days of viewing. The Floor Season 2 premiere is up 123% from its live+same-day audience after 35 days of multi-platform viewing, indicating that the game show is still finding an audience well after its original broadcast airing.
Lowe attributes much of the success of The Floor to its strong co-viewing, as the game show attracts viewers from all age demographics, which he thinks is becoming increasingly rare in the TV landscape.
“My big takeaway is how many families are watching this show together, and in a world where our entertainment choices are becoming more and more segregated and siloed off, a show that multi-generations are watching together and loving equally is a gift,” he tells Deadline.
That, and game shows, along with sports and other competition series, are some of the few programs left that incentivize audiences to tune in day-and-date, so they don’t get spoiled on the outcome by waiting to watch.
“If you’re a fan and you want to know who won the season finale, you better tune in, or you might hear about it on social media or whatever,” he explained. “It’s super rare.”
Lowe likened hosting the game show to “being an air traffic controller while doing a one man show,” explaining that it’s “so much more complicated than I ever thought it would be, which is why I’m still doing it, because I like that. I get bored really easily.”
The Floor isn’t alone in boosting Fox’s Wednesday ratings. The Masked Singer Season 12 is also pulling its weight, with the premieres of both series leading Fox to deliver its most-watched Wednesday with entertainment programming in 9 months in the 35-day viewing window.
It’s easy to see why The Floor was concurrently renewed for Seasons 2 and 3, which Lowe teases will ensure the game show runs effectively all year. He also says he doesn’t take for granted the “vote of confidence” from Fox to give the series time to grow.
“I remember the old days, if you were a hit, ‘two seasons, here we go,’ but today, boy, no, they sweat you over one,” he said. “But to get the two seasons, and not only that, what I love is they’re going to run them concurrently. So really effectively, it’s just one giant season.”
Lowe has an unscripted first look deal at the network, and he tells Deadline he is already workshopping other game shows that he’d be interested in developing. One, he says, even came to him in a dream.
“I go wherever the muse takes me,” he says.
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