‘9-1-1’s Buck and Eddie Queerbait Backfires in the Wake of Bobby’s Death as Audience Ratings Fall Again

Although we may have made it to the end of 9-1-1’s eighth season with no more casualties, viewers are committing murder on the series’ IMDb. Ratings are continuing to plummet, after last week’s brief boost that was largely in part due to the return of Ryan Guzman’s Eddie. Numbers have been falling since the April 17 episode, “Lab Rats,” during which Peter Krause’s Captain Bobby Nash made the hero’s sacrifice and laid down his life for his team. It’s clear that audiences weren’t happy with where the eighth season left off, with many upset about what was presented as a building plotline surrounding Eddie and Buck (Oliver Stark) simply faded to nothing in the finale.

Before we dig into the potential “why,” let’s take a look at the numbers. Remember the beginning of Season 8 when a beenado descended upon Los Angeles? The rating for the premiere was 8/10, foreshadowing a promising batch of episodes ahead. Over the next several installments, the title shifted between 7 and scores closer to 9 until everything tanked with “Lab Rats,” which dropped to 3.7. The next week, “The Last Alarm” sank even further to 3.2 before “Don’t Drink the Water” showed some promise with a score of 8.6. It’s no coincidence that the episode saw the return of Guzman’s Eddie, who has been in and out during the season. But the comeback was brief, with last night’s “Seismic Shifts,” earning an incredibly low score of 2.9.

Source: IMDb