With two more episodes to go, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is still fighting for its potential season five renewal, but the show has still shown some surprisingly strong legs. Show ratings tend to go down over time and certain TV seasons, like daylight savings time, or time slots can affect ratings much harsher than others. ABC’s 10 pm on Tuesdays is a classic example, as it is now more commonly referred to as a “death slot” due to the low ratings it pulls in. When it was announced that SHIELD would start airing here, it did seem rather scary for the show’s future, but it in turn did allow this season to pull out all the stops with a much darker direction.

The darker direction included the chance to feature Ghost Rider, make a rather dark look at LMDs and the current Agents of HYDRA “pod”. In addition, the show has proven that it will not go down without a fight, as the ratings have been surprisingly stable. Its 20th episode has also been able to match last weeks’ 0.7 share with adults 18 – 49, and 2.15 million total viewers. It and Fresh Off the Boat were able to stay stable, while late-starter Imaginary Mary dropped.

That is not all, as once again SHIELD proves that it is a show that has a strong following watching at their own speed, thanks to its Live +7 numbers. The show saw a great 114% increase from a 0.7 to 1.5 share in its week 30 showing. This is the fourth largest 7-day gain of that week, right behind iZombie, Reign and Designated Survivor. This strong showing could help when the ABC Upfronts come around on May 16th and anticipation builds up towards a potential renewal for the show (we should hear renewal news before the Upfront presentation). With September’s release of The Inhumans, Marvel may be interested in letting the two shows build upon each other.

If Agents of SHIELD gets renewed, what would you like to see in the fifth season? Let us know in the comments! Meanwhile, set those DVRs or plan to watch the next episode live, next Tuesday at 10 PM Eastern on ABC.

Source: TVbytheNumbers (02.05. ratings), TVbytheNumbers (Week 30 +7) & SpoilerTV (Upfront Schedule)