So, Was Glee's Chord Overstreet, Like, Canceled?!

Did actor get offed because episodes about his character tanked in the TV ratings? The surprising results:

By Joal Ryan Jul 06, 2011 6:13 PMTags
Chord Overstreet, GleeFox

The fact is TV shows get canceled (sometimes) because of bad ratings. The question is, does the same happen to TV actors?

Or, to be blunt like Sue Sylvester, is Chord Overstreet off Glee because he got bad ratings?

We looked at the Nielsen numbers for a half-dozen Glee episodes that prominently featured Overstreet's Sam Evans: "Audition," the season premiere; "Duets," the one where he makes cute with Dianna Agron's Quinn; "Special Education," the one where he gets the spotlight at sectionals; "Silly Love Songs," the one where it starts to go downhill (i.e., Quinn takes a detour back to Cory Monteith's Finn); "Comeback," the one where he launches the Justin Bieber Experience; and "Rumours," the one where you learn he lives in a motel with a couple of urchins from Les Misérables.

"Audition" was Glee's second-most watched episode of the season, not counting Super Bowl night. "Rumours" was its second-least watched.

All together, the six Sam episodes averaged 11.1 million viewers.

Pretty good? Better than that, actually. The non-Sam-centric episodes (excluding the Super Bowl, natch) averaged 10.9 million viewers.

So, no, it doesn't seem likely Overstreet was considered TV-ratings poison.

Something for him and his agents to point out at their next meeting.

Elsewhere, here's a quick look at the the latest Nielsen winners: 

The Voice: If the competition show had been a regular-season entry, it would've finished ahead of CSI, The Big Bang Theory and loads more in the 2010-2011 standings. It ended its season-one run as the week's No. 1 show in the 18-49 demo.

• Nancy Grace: Yes, she was beside herself when Casey Anthony was acquitted of murder. But if it helps her sleep at night, her non-stop coverage of the trial helped Headline News to its best-ever month in June.

Love in the Wild: The hybrid reality show (Survivor meets The Bachelor) got off to a Top 10 start in the demo, averaging 6.5 million viewers overall.

• Not True Blood: Is a transfusion needed? The HBO vampire show was down a ton from its premiere week.