It’s no secret that the Teen Mom franchise has been experiencing some hard times as of late.

Ratings for all three shows have been plummeting, and producers have been forced to take drastic action in order to salvage what’s left.

The biggest change is the creation of a spinoff entitled Teen Mom: The Next Chapter which will combine the casts of Teen Mom OG and Teen Mom 2, with both of those shows being permanently retired.

Most of the cast from those series will be featured on the new show, albeit with less screen time.

So where does that leave the ladies of Teen Mom Young and Pregnant?

Well, the future isn’t looking terribly bright for the next generation of Teen Moms.

The show recently returned for its fourth season, but judging by the numbers, viewers simply aren’t interested.

According to a new report from Starcasm, Tuesday’s TMY&P season premiere pulled in just 161,000 viewers.

That means it tied for the lowest-ratings ever for a new episode of a Teen Mom show.

To put things in perspective, the show averaged 700,000 viewers in its first season.

The latest episode didn’t even match the numbers of the ill-fated (and largely forgotten) Teen Mom: Young Moms Club.

After debuting as Pretty Little Mamas (even back in 2018, producers were beginning to realize that the Teen Mom title wasn’t as bankable as it used to be), that show was axed by MTV after just six episodes.

Now, Young and Pregnant seems to be headed for a similar fate.

There was a time when one episode with such abysmal numbers would be enough to seal a show’s fate.

But Young & Pregnant is in a unique position for a number of reasons.

For starters, it’s worth noting that MTV is hurting for fresh content these days.

The Teen Mom, Ridiculousness, and Jersey Shore franchises are basically the only things keeping the network afloat at this point.

And it remains to be seen if the controversial Shore spinoffs will be as successful with younger audiences as

Speaking of the age of MTV’s audience, that’s another factor to consider when discussing Teen Mom ratings.

Shows like Young and Pregnant might not be juggernauts in terms of overall viewership, but they tend to do well in the all-important 18-49 demographic.

And from the network’s inception, MTV’s business model has been built around performing solidly in that demo.

Still, overall viewership does matter, and with Young and Pregnant pulling in just 161,000 viewers, it’s hard to imagine that the show is doing particularly well with younger audiences.

It’s worth noting also, that Young and Pregnant experimented with a different format in its debut, bringing the cast together in Los Angeles, instead of documenting the moms’ individual storylines in their hometowns.

But it’s unlikely that that relatively minor change in the nature of the content resulted in such a dramatic decline in ratings.

So we’re not saying that it’s necessarily time for Brianna Jaramillo, Kayla Sessler, Rachel Beaver, Kiaya Elliott, Madisen Beith to start looking for new jobs …

… But they might want to start polishing their resumes!