Tonight marks the last episode of The Event for 2010. NBC plans to relaunch the series in three months, on February 28th, after letting their new series The Cape have the timeslot. Is it a risky move? Not really. Ultimately, they don’t have much choice.
The Event follows Sean Walker (Jason Ritter), a young man who’s investigating the mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend. He slowly begins to uncover the biggest cover-up in the history of the United States. Others in the cast include Sarah Roemer, Laura Innes, Ian Anthony Dale, Scott Patterson, Clifton Collins Jr., Taylor Cole, Lisa Vidal, Bill Smitrovich, Zeljko Ivanek, and Blair Underwood.
The series debuted in September to decent ratings with a 3.6 in the 18-49 demo and 10.88 million total viewers. That’s a healthy sampling but, considering all of the promotion that NBC put behind it, the programmers were likely disappointed by its third place rank in the timeslot.
While some viewers clearly love the show, more than half who watched the first episode have already lost interest. The Event has been losing viewers, sometimes as much as 15 or 20% in one week, and to date has never shown an increase week-to-week in the demo. The most recent installment garnered just a 1.7 rating in the demo and 5.19 million viewers.
You can blame the network for not doing a better job of promoting The Event but clearly there’s a problem with the series when people who already watch don’t feel compelled to return week after week.
Will this February “relaunch” help? Based on recent TV history, the answer is no. Just look at V and FlashForward. People who were interested in The Event have either already tried it and stuck around or given up on it. Those who haven’t watched previously are very unlikely to give a try because they assume that they’ve missed too much backstory already. On top of that, when the show returns, the ratings will likely be lower than what they are now. By the time The Event returns in February, many casual fans will have already gotten involved with other shows.
The one thing that The Event has going for it is the fact that it’s on NBC. The peacock network continues to struggle and The Event is currently the fifth most-watched scripted program on the network. If things go as expected, it will drop much lower on the list next year. Still, with the exception of The CW, NBC is the only network that would consider giving this series more time. They’ll surely let all 22 episodes air.
The Event returns on Monday, February 28th and will have 12 more original episodes to air at that point. Will there be a second season? We’ll have to wait and see but hopefully the producers will plan ahead and not end the show without any resolution.
What do you think? Does The Event have a chance for survival? What could NBC do to save this show? Anything?
Image courtesy NBC.
Please give it another chance it was just getting interesting. I Love it.
One great show ! I have looked forward to it each week, Please bring it back
We love this show and want more we have to see what happens!
Please please leave the event on. It is really awesome. I can’t wait to watch The Event week after week. I do have to say, I believe that viewers loose interest because there are a LOT of commercials. Otherwise besides that, it’s awesome. My partner and I are looking froward to the next season!!
PLEASE DO NOT CANCEL THE SHOW. IT IS MY HUSBAND AND I MONDAY NIGHT
please relaunch this series .. its really exciting.. probably people stopped watching it from the first episode because it has a lot of going back to near past then returning to the present again .. but after skipping this episode i really found that this series is interesting . think about the people who are waiting to get to the end of this .. NOT about those who didn’t even thought of watching eat . its a bit different of what we watch this days. it keeps waiting on the edge for more and what coming next. i don’t get… Read more »
The Event is awesome! I don’t know if watching a show on Demand shows a viewer watching the show, but that is the only way I watch it. It definitely needs to finish what we all want to know!
Bring Event back I miss it and all my friend’s do miss it .
Come on!!!!! The show rocks!! How about one more season?
The Event is my favorite show. I hope that it is not cancelled.
save the tv show for all of us we say it is so real like 2012 dooms day
The Event is my favourite Syfi series. Please do not cancel it. I’m waiting for Season 2! Thank you.
The Event is my number 1 show! It is the best SyFi in years. I find myself on the edge of my seat as the camaras start rolling. Please,..dont cancel a show that alot of people just cant get enough of. Thank you
This is my number one show witrhout question. For any scifi fan it really rocks. Please don’t cancel it. Too many great scifi shows have ended way too early. This show has me sitting on the edge of my seat double checking to see if I missed an episode, prior to coming to this site. There are actually some outstanding actors doing a fantastic job. HATS OFF TO THEM !!!! Scifi isn’t easy but they are making the show far better than 99% of the previous scifi shows out there. Great special effects too. Keep up the fantastic work.. keep… Read more »
You Cancelled?
the wromg shows