It’s the nightmare NBC’s Awake fans were dreading. NBC has cancelled the show after 13 episodes and one season.
Created by Kyle Killen (Lone Star), Awake revolves around a police detective (Jason Isaacs) who, after being in a horrific car accident, finds that he’s living in two realities. In one, his son perished — in the other, his wife did. The cast also includes Laura Allen, Steve Harris, Dylan Minnette, B. D. Wong, Michaela McManus, Wilmer Valderrama, and Cherry Jones.
The complex drama had an unimpressive debut back on March 1st, registering a 2.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 6.24 million viewers. NBC had released the pilot episode well in advance so some believed that hurt the premiere ratings.
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Theoretically the second episode should have shown signs of growth but it didn’t. Week two dropped 20%. Week three remained stable but subsequent weeks saw additional declines. Last week’s episode hit a new low with a dismal 0.7 rating and just 2.15 million viewers.
This season has averaged a 1.1 rating in the demographic with 3.5 million total viewers. Awake is the third-lowest rated drama on the network, beating only Harry’s Law and The Firm (both of which have been cancelled as well). On our NBC Ratings Report Card, which measures the relative demo performance of shows on the network, Awake has a “D+” grade.
NBC has now cancelled Awake and the series finale is on track to air Thursday, May 24th. While it wasn’t intended as a series finale, Killen has said that he believes the finale is very satisfying.
What do you think? Are you sorry to hear that Awake has been cancelled and won’t be back for a second season? Was the series too complicated for most TV viewers or did it have other problems?
Image courtesy NBC.
Awake does not have explicit sex scenes, drugs or alcohol and this is why its not a hit with many.. People get your minds out of the gutter. Why is our society so pervert? Awake is an excellent show..So sad we will not get to see a second season.
Come on NBC! Great show…
SO SORRY TO HEAR IT’S CANCELLED, WE REALLY ENJOYED THE TWIST AND OFTEN MAD BETS AS TO WHEN HE WAS AWAKE OR ASLEEP, I LOVE IT
BUMMER!!! I grew to like this show more and more as the series progressed. Now I’m hooked, and of course, NBC dumps it.
Great show !!!!
Intense show – unbelievable concept. The acting is nothing short of spectacular. His melt down moment on the May 10th episode, nothing short of heartwrenching, honest acting. . Should have been given a longer try. . . GIVE ME MORE – I thoroughly enjoyed it and will miss it. Perhaps reruns over the summer can attact a new audience? ? Or maybe another network can pick it up? Hey, its happened many times before 😉
I agree with you 100%. You gave me hope with “another network”…
The show wasn’t complex. It was interesting, and addressed a fairly well known issues of people dealing with massive trauma.
The problem with the show was that there wasn’t enough useless garbage in it to feed the blank and drone minds of the masses.
Arrested Development is a cult classic now, so much so that they were considering making a movie. Yet it was cancelled. Always Sunny was also cancelled, and is still killing on FX.
Great show! Sad to see it has been cancelled.
Heartbroken. Such a great show. Unfortunately the viewing audiences dont have the intelligence to understand this wondeful show. ‘inside edition’ is about as complex a show 75 percent of the viewing audience can understand.
So sad.
This is an excellent show, requiring thought on the part of viewers. That is probably the reason it had low ratings; American TV viewers don’t like to have to think too much. A couple of years ago that was an excellent show called “Life”, starring Damien Lewis. Very good show, same fate as “Awake”.
I don’t watch fictional shows anymore, but I watch Awake. It is a good psychological mind-bender. Should have known that the same country that makes “reality” shows hits and has Tea Party voters wouln’t like it.
Just in case a series might end prematurely….why don’t you have a finale already available so there can be closure instead of just dropping the audience flat. I don’t understand how the TV industry works….If people did there jobs the way TV is run, we would all be out of business.
KEEP AWAKE ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep pressure on NBC. RENEW THIS GREAT SHOW!
I just started watching Awake on Hulu plus and loved the show, my father told me about it. I didn’t know anything about the show until 2 weeks ago, I think lack of trying to pull in viewers. With so many dramas running for many seasons its kind of hard to get someone to start up a new one. Any chance some other network will pick it up?
My husband and I turned to each other after watching the latest episode of “Awake,” both of us saying simultaneously, “What a good show!” The next day I read of its cancellation. Seems like half the shows we think are great get cancelled. “Lights Out” was last year’s loss. “Friday Night Lights” survived but only by the skin of its teeth each year.
Is there any hope of a cable network picking up “Awake”?