ABC’s new outer-space drama debuted on Sunday night. Will Defying Gravity be allowed to complete its mission or, like so many shows before it, be lost in space?
Defying Gravity follows the adventures of eight international astronauts as they fly a spaceship named Antares. On a top-secret mission, their lives are being recorded and telecast on Earth as part of a documentary. Despite the fact that the crewmembers wear libido-suppressing devices, there are plenty of romantic entanglements.
The show features the talents of Andrew Airlie, Christina Cox, Paula Garces, Laura Harris, Peter Howitt, Florentine Lahme, Karen LeBlanc, Ron Livingston, Ty Olsson, Zahf Paroo, Eyal Podell, Maxim Roy, Dylan Taylor, and Malik Yoba.
The sci-fi drama’s storyline is strangely similar to the failed pilot for Virtuality that aired a month ago. Defying Gravity is a Canadian series that’s co-produced by CTV, Omni Film Productions Limited, and Fox Television Studios. Filming has been completed on all 13 episodes of season one and Defying Gravity is currently airing in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States.
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The show has been pitched as “Grey’s Anatomy in space” but unfortunately it hasn’t attracted the same level of viewership for ABC. Defying Gravity debuted on Sunday with a pair of episodes and was outperformed by competition of predominately repeats. The first hour attracted merely 3.83 million viewers and only a 1.1/3 rating/share in the 18-49 demographic. The second hour dropped to 3.56 million while the demo numbers stayed the same.
Defying Gravity moves to its regular timeslot of 10pm this Sunday night. Based on these numbers and the expected drop in ratings for the show’s second night, it’s very doubtful that ABC will continue to air the series for very long.
One has to wonder if ABC really expected the series to last very long anyway. As of now, the network has only scheduled some of the 13 episodes. By the time that Brothers & Sisters returns for its fourth season, at most only nine episodes of Defying Gravity will have aired.
Whether ABC intends to move the show to a new night (normally Saturday but there’s college football coming) or pull it altogether remains to be seen. Either way, with numbers like these, it’s inconceivable that the show will be coming back for another year on ABC.
What do you think? Should the show have a future or should ABC just pull the plug and cancel it already?
Image courtesy ABC.
People are SERIOUSLY getting peed off with the cancelling of stuff even before it ever reaches ANY sort of ending.
Seriously, networks, people are SERIOUSLY staying away from watching more and more TV programmes ‘cos they know, what the frakin’ point?
You sods are going to cancel it anyway half way through.
American TV networks such big time. They should learn a thing or two from British TV!
ABC and FOX – cut from the same cloth as idiots!
Everyone go to http://abc.go.com/site/contact-us and send them an email telling them to keep the show on!
Yet another decent network series cancelled. We have decided to watch HBO and Showtime series in future and junk new network tv series completely.
DO NOT CANCELL!!!!!!!!!!!!
This makes me so disappointed! No wonder it had poor ratings with the terrible advertising and time slot. ABC wake up! DG is the first show that actually had me making time to watch it. I barely watch TV because of all the lame reality shows. Please rethink your mistake and put it back on but on a more appropriate time slot.
Here I thought I was going to get to see a show I liked. Now they go off and cancel it without any thoughts to those who appriciated something different. I agree with Bethany, I hate reality tv and refuse to see it. Here is a show that I would not miss and it goes nowhere. No wonder, I really don’t think ABC wanted to keep the show. It was just something to include in the summer prgraming. I asked people I know if they were watching the show and they had no idea it was going on. It wasn’t… Read more »
Unfortunately this show has indeed already been canceled.
WHY??? I only ever have time for 1 show each season and I was so excited this fit into my schedule and was sooo good! I am seriously done! If this is cancelled I am serious about canceling My TV subscription..Actually i am doing it anyway. Not really worth the money if everything I watch is cancelled.. .I’ll keep cruising HULU to see if it gets picked up but Ultimately TV is even more of a waste of money than it is my time. THank you ABC for putting the last nail in your own coffin. I hope you get… Read more »
i really hope that abc will at least show the ending for the series. it is so frustraing when they start a show and then cancel before you can see what happens, especially when all the astronats are at that one chamber ad the door opens and all you see are them looking into the chamber and we don’t know what they are seeing.
vbery upsetting that abc will not at least show us a finish to the show. i enjoyed it
please please please at least give us a finish to the series.
I really wish they wouldn’t cancel it. I don’t like much that ABC has but this was a good show. I don’t think it got the advertising it deserved as well as starting out in a tough part of the season. I only heard about it because I happened to be visiting my parents when it came on and they said it was interesting. I’ve since watched every episode. Sure it’s not scientifically accurate but it’s fun and there were so many things I wanted answered. I was really drawn in… I hope they change their mind…. or someone else… Read more »
Please don’t cancel the show, it was just getting really interesting!
Do not cancel this show. Its an excellent space drama. Haven’t seen anything like it in a while
This is very troubling that they want to take this show off. I enjoy the show and like the idea of this type of travel. Doesn’t hurt that the cast are pretty much all good looking. Can’t deny that some is kind of hoaky but it is good fun
This is a thoughtful, compelling drama that deserves a chance to grow the audience. Rather than cancel it, Fox should air at least 26 episodes to allow it a fair chance to succeed, including a time slot that is not up against the other network’s most popular show. Remember that Seinfeld had poor ratings, in the beginning, before it caught on and became a hit!
I love this show! It is my favorite show on television this summer! I also look forward to the fall season of Fringe, another great science fiction show (rather than merely science fantasy shoot-them up type of show). I love the combination of real science and and plausible future science in Defying Gravity! I also love the sexiness and intelligence of the women characters and the personal relationships of all the astronauts and the personality, intelligence, and character of the Indian scientist in mission control and of many of the other scientists. I love how the show deals with ethical… Read more »