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.
I have just read through the last several posts and I couldn’t agree more. We have a very busy household and choose not to devote our lives to television. There are few programmes we watch and those that we do are always recorded to watch later. It does seem that most of the shows that foster thoughtful conversation get cancelled – Awake being one of them. I wish the networks kept programmes that catered to the living and not the dead.
I just watched this episode, and anyone hoping for a second season, stop. They hastily tie everything up into a not-so-neat package at the end and the way they handled it reminds me of St. Elsewhere. Not Good. Unfortunately before this episode I loved the show!
This was the only show on NBC that I would watch religiously. It was creatively plotted, well acted, and kept you guessing with intelligent twists. If there is another network exec out there reading these posts, please for the love of all that is intelligent and decent, pick up this show! You will have an instant fan base. Its no wonder NBC sucks
Moving shows to better time slots was the old way of doing things. Networks could care less about it’s viewers, it’s all about the bottom-line and who’s tuning in to watch the commercials. No DVR’s, on demand and on line viewing does not factor in. It should since most of the target demographic watches TV that way now. WTH are thinking? Obviously not about us. I watch the new shows on Network YV with an expectation that they will not last past season one. CBS is the only station that will work hard to give every show a chance, especially… Read more »
Yes, I too was hooked on this show. It was intelligent and just got better with each episode. Probably why the masses tuned it out. You had to watch a few episodes and get into the flow of things. I will miss it but I’m not surprised its gone. Who wants to actually think a little when they are watching TV? I guess just the people posting here.
I cannot believe they cancelled it when there’s idiotic shows like Rookie Blue’s.
I never missed an episode, it was intelligent, well acted, unpredictable. I always hated to start loving any tv show as I hate it to get the axe. I hope that another channel will pick it up, some time it take time to develop a fan following, I still tune into Firefly even though I have seen the episodes at least 2 or 3 times. I wish everything didn’t boil down to the almighty dollar………
This is why the only good shows are on cable TV. Networks don’t give great shows a chance to find an audiance. Instead they put on mindless TV. Shows that I don’t understand why people watch to begin with. It just shows the lack of intelligence in the USA.
I was very disappointed to find out the show will no longer be after this season! I loved the storyline, the actors and the drama. Due to busy Thursday nights, I would watch the episodes on Hulu. I hope by some miracle, they decide to keep the show and try it out for at least one more season. Either way, I will watch the final episode with anticipation.
Does DVR factor into viewer stats???????????????????? Because my friends and i LOVE this show, and they are all intelligent people with tight schedules who watch all of their programming on DVR. Maybe people who use DVR was the show’s demographic? If so, not fair it got cancelled. Hmmm.
Cancel stupid shows like Family Guy, American Dad, Futurama, The Simpsons. No wonder all engineers, scientists, and accomplished people in the business world are foreigners.
I’ve grown used to intelligent, creative shows that I love being cancelled. It’s still terribly disappointing as I could watch this show forever, it’s so well done. The plots are brilliant as is the acting by Isaacs. Probably too many people watching dumbed down nonsense shows to watch this. IF ONLY IT HAD BEEN GIVEN MORE OF A CHANCE!!!! PEOPLE, PAY ATTENTION, THIS WAS AN AWESOME SHOW!!!
Oh, well, there goes another one.
Churn out some more junk to keep them in their zombie state.
I LOVE this show. And I’m notoriously guilty of being too picky with my tv show selection…. Someone needs to start a petition. I’m extremely disappointed.
Not surprising at all. TV has one primary purpose above and beyond all other considerations: Population Control. –This through the implanting of socially weakening ideas and the distraction of the masses from real life by plugging them in front of flickering screens. Measured by this standard, “Awake” failed miserably; it introduced powerful and surprisingly relevant concepts wrt consciousness and reality which are *not* kosher in official culture, AND it failed to distract the maximum number of people during a prime-programming time slot when the largest number of people are susceptible. Two strikes. The only way it could have maintained its… Read more »
Why am I not surprised that Awake is being cancelled? With people’s attention spans these days being three seconds, it’s probably too difficult to follow all those words, and plot twists.
Those of us whose attention spans are sufficient enough to PAY ATTENTION to the entire show, have to pay the price. Okay, so the numbers were not good…why not move the show to a better slot? Um…what? Too logical? Takes some thought? Can’t do that, now can we?