Awake: Cancelled; No Season Two

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?