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 is grate. However, I will not be sorry if the unexpected ending does not ruin every thing. I hope it will remove all the remaining ambiguities and keep backward compatibility. Especially, I need a more clear expatiation of why in one dream (or reality) dirty cops could not get rid of heroins while Detective Michael Britten is around, but in the other one they seems to have no trouble, or at least it is not mentioned in the show.
It ends well sooner, is better than it disintegrate gradually over a long period of time.
This just shows the intelligent level of the audience you’re focusing on. Today, it’s very easy to throw in some staged, low-budget reality shows which are rarely cancelled. Awake is a smart, unique, and well- acted show. It has become my husband’s and my favorite show. Pretty soon NBC will just continue taking away all the intelligent shows. I am disappointed and angry. Shame on you!
We only watch two shows on tv, just two and awake was one of rhem, this is very dissapointing to hear. There is so many shows on tv that just do not interest us, finally something good to watch on thursdays and now its gone, booooooo!
My husband and I love this show. Awesome story line , always kept us thinking, and had freaking great suspense. We cannot believe its getting cancelled. We’re so sick of getting disappointed by the networks cancelling great shows. Has our society become so shallow and dumb to only be intrigued by ridiculous and fake reality shows. This is fucken irritating!!!!!!! Keep the good shows networks and cancell the fucken losers from their reality shows. We really don’t care how drunk, depressed , or how fucked up these people are. For all the hard working responsible adults out here, we need… Read more »
I love the show Awake! Guess those other stupid reality shows such as The Kardashins or 16 & Pregnant are much better. This world is #$/@ up!
Awake is my favOrite show… Super creative. Very sad it’s being cancelled
We lose awake and get love in the wild as a replacement.
Way too much reality TV on these days.
No one wants to person up and write a story.
Count me as on that is very upset at this cancellation.
Obviously NBC does not care about excellence. Awake is the most creative show on TV this year. It is hard to understand why so few people watched this excellent series. Is anything more complicated than a reality show now unappealing to most people?
So it’s official. I will never again waste my time watching a new television show in the first season. I should have learned my lesson on Jericho, or Life, or Life on Mars, or Invasion, etc. etc… Well I’ve finally learned my lesson. Have the networks not yet figured out that my attitude may be fairly pervasive and that it may be that first season ratings are low because many viewers are tired of wasting time getting involved in a story line only to be left feeling unfullfilled and abused. From now on, I’ll wait until at least second season,… Read more »
I loved Awake. It was a truly great show, that kept me interested and made my brain work. Also, all of the actors were great. I’m going to miss this show. It was so interesting and amazing. I’d love for it to somehow be picked up for at least one more season, though I know that’s doubtful. Still…
yea this really sucks, this is one show that my wife and i watch faithfully. it is very original. any other show i try to watch is like a every other show i’ve seen and quickly lose interest. i was hoping to maybe find a rumor about when season 2 starts and come across this..wowwww. i’m never watching anything on nbc now..unless they change their mind
Loved everything about this show and caught every episode. After watching it last week (“Two Birds”), I actually sat up and said to myself out loud, “That was EXCELLENT television!”.
Guess it was too good to last. Bye the way, has anyone else noticed that Jason Isaacs seems to be the reincarnation of Mike “Mannix” Connors?
So sad! This was one of the few shows I watched faithfully and was really intrigued by. I looked forward to each episode. I wish you would reconsider and renew this series. The acting was great.
The networks need to stop being so cancel happy. It takes a little time to build a big audience. Some of the shows being cancelled are top notch they just need a little time
This show is so intriguing and complicated in a good way. Not like some dramas which make the story lines more complicated and claim the viewers just don’t understand. This show really resonated, and both worlds were believable. What a waste of a great actor. What can we do to change NBC’s decision? Let an incredibly smart show develop a following.