The series premiere of CBS’ Supergirl drew in an incredible 13 million viewers on October 26th. Critics awarded the series with excellent reviews, and it even received a 97% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, the next few episodes of Supergirl that have aired have not drawn in as many viewers. The second episode, “Stronger Together”, aired on November 2nd, dropping to approximately 8.9 million viewers. The third episode, “Fight or Flight”, dropped to approximately 8.1 million viewers.

The decline in viewership is not necessarily directly related to the quality or entertainment value of Supergirl. When Supergirl originally premiered, it aired directly after The Big BangTheory, and was able to retain some of the well-liked and established comedy show’s 16.3 million viewer audience. Subsequent episodes of Supergirl did not have the advantage of airing directly after The Big Bang Theory, and this is partially responsible for the viewership drop.

Supergirl airs on Monday nights on CBS, and therefore has to compete with Monday night football on other networks. Many people will watch the football games live, and then DVR or even forget about other Monday night programming. Supergirl is unable to avoid this pitfall, and has lost a large portion of its viewers to the football games.

While the reasoning behind the loss of ratings is understood, Supergirl fans are nonetheless upset. “Every show’s ratings would drop because of Monday night football, so it would be expected. But it’s unfortunate because it’s a good show and [the plot] would develop well” said senior Rachel Alvarez.

Hopefully, ratings for Supergirl will increase in the near future, and CBS will make a decision to renew the series for a second season.