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.
I love this show. It’s sexy, intelligent, provocative and there is so much story left to tell. I hate that its being cancelled. Don’t end it with “Venus”
PLEASE DON’T CANCEL!!! THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST SCI FICTION SHOWS EVER!!!!!!! Who cares about V, been there done that! How lame, and unoriginal. Unlike DEFYING GRAVITY who doesn’t deserve this and either do the “few” fans. Maybe if they actually promoted the show more people would have watched, now give the people who don’t watch TV when it airs, but have dvrs and TIVO, and internet the rest of this show. It has everything good science fiction is; a great concept, it looks realistic, the storyline is good, they took time developing characters, and it is so well… Read more »
I love this show and I think ABC has got to be stupid to cancel such a great drama. No wonder they’ve gone so downhill! My friends and I all agree this is one of the best new shows out there, and now that I’ve addictively watched 10 of the available episodes, I find out there’s no more! Crying shame in my book…
I can’t stand the fact that its just people are stupid. They don’t like thinking across the shows as one story. They like stuff like “CSI” and “Law and Order”. Hell I can’t believe “Smallville” is still airing. I used to watch it all the time, but after a while all the episodes have the same plot, Clark Kent saves everyone. That is why people like it because all these show require very little attention spans. I for one love the show its amazing to bad I prolly won’t get to see it through due to it’s ratings. What did… Read more »
Only good thing on TV is Defying Gravity and House…. Keep it alive. I like the actors and the plot. I don’t know how long they could keep it going but don’t care. It might be refreshing not to see something go on for 6 years, but finish this story with a good ending and a trip back home.
Keep Defying Gravity. it’s interesting, and far more thoughtful than some of the other scholck on TV. Give it some time. The writers will pump it us abit it will get some traction is year 2, and for God sakes stop calling it Grey’s Anatomy in Space. that’s adeath kiss to any show.
Cancelling Defeying Gravity just reinforces how out of touch ABC and the big three (as they used to be but aren’t any more) are. If they can’t weave in some social justice or other liberal cause, they won’t air it. The good news is that with cable and satellite we have choices – and exercise them. ABC can GTH.
I think ABC should at least air the episodes they’ve already filmed! Give the people a chance to get hooked. I also agree that the show could use a bit more action, the talking and flashbacks do get a little boring without some excitement or conflict mixing in. I was really enjoying the show! On the plus side, I did find Ron Livingston’s previous show, Standoff which is great. I hope ABC at least airs the last three episodes, those of us who have been watching would at least like some closure!
really loved the show. it would be terrible if this show was not given another chance opposite Leno – and not opposite Brothers and Sisaters or in place of Brothers and Sisters. Acting was good and I DONT KNOW WHAT IT WAS OUT THERE or in Hatch #5 they all saw that influenced them. Wrap this series up and give us viewers some closure if you are going to cancel it for good, I say.
Quiet frankly I tired of these networks canceling these shows like that. Just ’cause of the money!
Who can we write to to put a stop to this?
Or better yet, who can we get to invest in a “For the Fans” network / production company, where in we could all have a share and keep some of our well liked shows on the air?
Hopefully the canadians can keep the show going north of the border. I would like to them complete their mission. I have been getting the later episodes that haved aired in Canada, but they only go as far as episode 10. It was the only show I rushed home to watch.
The show is good but boring too much talk .It seems like a show designed for women who we all know love to talk.If you want me to keep watching your gonna have to put some action into it opening an airlock isn’t enough.Blow something up have some fighting and or some stunts .Watching a chick get her thumb cut off isn’t enough lets see some real man stuff.
I enjoy this show and will be sad to see it go, but not surprised. I don’t get the sense it’s been promoted enough, or via the right channels. It was nicely plugged on Hulu, but I doubt that’s a huge help to ratings. The characters are engaging and the plotline is intriguing. I’d like to see the team on Venus (and beyond). Crossing my fingers it’s still available somewhere when/if ABC lets it go here in the States. Maybe online? Maybe Sci-Fi? (I would agree that Sci-Fi has some awful, and non-sci-fi stuff at present too.)
I would hate to see this show cut. Been a while since i have seen some good sci-fi. Good to see that Dell is doing alright with its panels in 2052. Look there is my screen!!! *gets glare from girlfriend* Look they look just the same in the future!! *gets thud by girlfriend* *rubs arm* ouch but i do have one of the most futuristic screens yay!
Seems as though the only shows ABC doesn’t cancel are the ones my wife and I don’t watch. This is another great show they decide to cancel just when it starts to get good. Gee let’s stop showing it at a cliffhanger. They’re already recorded, at least show us what’s in POD4. The only thing it will get replaced with is something else we won’t watch.