Arrow Series Finale Sees Ratings Drop

01/29/2020 01:46 pm EST

Arrow's finale brought the series to an end last night, but apparently the final episode wasn't the grand event that fans and The CW probably hoped it would be. According to reports now coming in, Arrow's final episode only pulled in 723K total viewers, with a low .3 rating in the 18-49 demographic. That was a drop of nearly 20% from the previous episode (which acted as a backdoor pilot for the Green Arrow in The Canaries spinoff). The final episode of Arrow lost a whopping 50% of the viewership that tuned in for the end of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event, and was down 100K viewers from the season 8 premiere.

All in all: Arrow's ending seems to have failed this series!

Joking aside, it's not all that surprising to hear the low ratings for this final episode of Arrow. The showrunners and cast were always facing a bigger challenge than most TV shows, as the narrative structure of the final season, and its "Crisis" ties, meant that series protagonist Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) would have to die with two episodes still left in the season. The Canaries backdoor pilot episode then pushed the Arrowverse forward toward the next phase of the saga, where Oliver's daughter Mia (Katherine McNamara) takes up the bow to protect Star City in 2040, working with a team of both old and new "Canary" vigilantes.

In other words, Arrow went to the well of grand send-offs and new setups too early to give the final episode the necessary level of intrigue it probably needed. That's not to say showrunner Beth Schwartz and the team didn't deliver: Arrow's ending was marked by poignant emotion and cool cameos / callbacks for the longtime fans, well also helping to flesh-out what this new Arrowverse that Oliver Queen / Specter created truly looks like. In other words, fans who came this far would do well to just finish the series on the somewhat fun and fulfilling note the final episode offers.

The Arrowverse now continues into the post-Crisis era, where its DC Superhero universe has been streamlined into one world, where the likes of Flash, Supergirl, Batwoman, Superman, Black Lightning, the Legends of Tomorrow, and even a fledgling Justice League, all exist in the same sandbox. While the Arrow legacy continues into the Canaries spinoff, John Diggle (David Ramsey) also got a nice setup to become the Arrowverse's first Green Lantern!

Arrow has now wrapped its run, after 8 seasons on The CW.

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