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.
Just as a suspected, first they cancel the unusuals and now they’re going to cancel this. The only two shows that I have liked on this network for years. I guess I will just stop watching abc because if I like it they’ll cancel it.
It’s about the only intelligent show on the air that’s actually good SciFi. But then, since it doesn’t have action chase scenes and CSI-like blood & guts, it won’t make it and will be pulled. Too bad! No wonder why the network is losing viewers.
Why is it that 3-4 million viewers is not enough of a rating to say this is an intelligent show with mystery and suspense and human interest to keep you transfixed for each episode ??? If your not in the 18-49 yo bracket and you don’t live in the US… how can we voice a need for shows like this ? Look what happened to Firefly and still they were able to produce a movie after only a season of shows !!! Where are they pulling their figures from ? who and how do they select those people who set… Read more »
Too good of a show to be on has-been network. Let’s pray it will land in scifi or someone that will take care of it and us die hard fans.
I only started watching the show 3 weeks ago and it has become more and more interesting… it would be a shame if it was cancelled… I got a better idea- FOX: pick up the show!
It needs to be given a decent chance. ABC did nothing to promote it (seriously, why buy a season of it if you aren’t going to dedicate a little time and money to promote it). I didn’t even hear about it until a friend mentioned it to me. I think it has a hell of a lot more potential than the upcomming “flash forward” which did get a ton of promo’s. If Defying Gravity had as much promotion as flash forward has already then the numbers would have been very different.
stupid show but just entertaining enough, in a cartoonish way.
You should have brought out the thing in the pod much sooner.
This kind of reminds me of a few scifi short stories I have read.
Make it a saturday night thing.
there is nothing on saturdays, ever.
I just the show and I was absolutely speechless. It is absolutely fascinating and was one of the most original pieces of work including fantastic acting, writing, & directing that may have seen on Television in a long time. I think that ABC should definately let it run a while and build a good fan base-
As a loyal avid fan of JERICHO (CBS) and now defying gravity, with dismal rating such as the show is pulling in it will be doubtful that the show will continue. When CBS initially cancelled JERICHO, we were averaging 8 million viewers each week. When we were cancelled again in 08 after a 7 episode arc for season 2, we were averaging 6 million +. Unfortunately a show such as Big Brother, another mindless “Reality TV” garbage only averages about 5 million viewers. However, because JERICHO was Substantially more to produce, it was cancelled. Big Brother takes no where near… Read more »
Even if they ever air the remaining episodes from “season 1” – they probably didn’t make a finale that would have a definitive ending.
I just hate when I get invested in a show and then it just up and ends without closure. And that happens just as a show gets interesting.
So sad!!! I want closures. If any network is going to pull a show, at least give us a decent ending.
They didn’t give it a chance!! noone seems to have heard about this show at all…and those that do seem to have happened to it by accident. What the hell do they expect?
Giving up on watching any more of their new shows, at this point I’ll just wait and see what their magic eight ball decides deserves marketing dollars and a decent chance at surviving.
Listen to us ABC! This show is great. Please keep it. The ratings are low because very few people know that it is on. Target the LOST audiences are you’d acquire a large fan base. I only knew about Defying Gravity from browsing Hulu. I know 50 or so people who faithfully watch LOST and are only now slowly learning that Defying Gravity exists – those who have seen it, love it. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater! The low numbers are due to poor marketing and advertizing – not because the show itself is bad. Man up… Read more »
I agree with Scott completely. Why get started on a serial show like Defying Gravity if there is any hint that it will not continue. I viewed the season finale tonight and if it doesn’t continue, I’m left to my imagination as to what the crew saw and what that didn’t know about the mission. Why put in the time if they’re not going to let a series get some legs.
I just finished watching the 9/13 show — this is a terrific series, and I hope ABC continues it or at least SYFY picks it up. I don’t see a listing for next week and then Desperate Housewives/Brothers & Sisters picks up. Too mean if it’s just dropped cold!
let the people at abc family run the show they seem to have a better handle on what to do with a good show. Greek and Lincoln heights are excellent just to name a few!!!