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.
 Loading ... |
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.
Is there anything we can do?
If viewers are too confused to watch, it probably says something about the intelligence of people these days. I love this show! Just like Lost and Alcatraz….you need to PAY ATTENTION to the show….not playing on your iphone or ipad or some other nonsense thing. UGH. Sorry to see this show go away 🙁
Awake, The River, and many more were awesome. Bent was really funny and just what we needed that was not too dirty all the stinkin time. Wake up networks. You are raising kids on sex so guess what your future workforce is going to be doing in the closets by the water coolers at work when they should be working: texting and *******.
Ditto to all the disappointed fans’ comments. I will be sad to see it go too. But I have to admit maybe its the perfect story for a mini series. I wouldn’t mind networks coming up w/ a concept like this and telling us ahead of time this is a one-season mini-series. (like Harper’s Island, Happy Town, and Persons Unknown kinda were, but Happy Town….what a debacle of a finish there….)
The people running these networks are too stupid to realize which shows are actually good. Instead they would rather concentrate on reality crap television instead of intelligent entertainment. AWAKE is an awesome show. THE RIVER was an awesome show. ALCATRAZ was an awesome show. And…..GCB was a clever show, but its controversial? Really? Idiots…..all of them!
I just started watching this show through hulu. When I first heard about it I wasn’t excited but when I began watching I was hooked!!! I wish Netflix would pick up this show!
I agree… Idiots to cancel such an interesting show!
Confusing? huh? it is supposed to be confusing.. that is the entire concept
I was hooked from the first show. It is edge-of your-seat suspenseful. I guess when people couldn’t figure everything out in the first five minutes they stopped watching.
I’m getting tired of great shows being replaced with silly junk with “pretty people”.
NBC could you please reconsider and not cancel this show?
NBC has not had a show this caliber of amazing since the first season of Heroes. It is overall one of the two best television shows airing in this decade. The only two shows out there that satisfy every component, every aspect of what makes the perfect television show are ‘Awake’ and ‘Touch.’ (The other one would be ‘Pan am’ but it was cancelled as well.) Everything about this show is brilliant- if you’re a technical viewer on top of the content as I am, this show is literal perfection. The lighting alone between the two realities is goosebump worthy;… Read more »
“Too complicated?” Really? Required a little thought? The Firm also?? WOW! The crap survives and the good shows get canned…..what a joke! Very disappointing. Compelling show and stellar cast deserves better.
depressing to see that my favorite show is finished. great show would be good to continue for years.
man i love this show so much why is nbc always the laughing stock of shows, when this show is so promising
NBC wake up – your killing a good show – I hear people say to show is confusing – hello that the part of the show. Very sad to see it go.
What a shame to see this series get axed!
There is so little television that I find interesting and the intelligent writing, superb acting and mysterious premise had me hooked. A 26 episode complete series would’ve been very satisfying to me.
I love this show.
Great storyline, character & plot development. Interesting premise. I agree with those who said that it was good that this series didn’t go for years. I think it would have been PERFECT for a full (20 – 22) episode season.