Tuesday night, FOX debuted a new drama for the Summer months, Mental. So, did the premiere’s ratings make the network crazy-happy or just drive them crazy?
Mental revolves around an unorthodox psychiatrist who becomes the Director of Mental Health at a fictional Los Angeles hospital. Created by Dan LeVine and co-executive produced by his sister, Deborah Joy LeVine, the series stars Chris Vance, Annabella Sciorra, Derek Webster, Jacqueline McKenzie, Marisa Ramirez, Nicholas Gonzalez, and Edwin Hodge.
The series premiered on Tuesday night and finished in third place for the 9pm hour with 5.8 million viewers and a 2.1/5 rating/share among the 18-49 demographic.
Those numbers aren’t that impressive but the drama did build on its lead-in, a rerun of the popular and very compatible House. There was also very little drop off between Mental’s first and second half hours, indicating that most watched the entire episode.
So, while Mental didn’t have a great debut, it wasn’t bad either. As we enter into the Summer months, viewership tends to fall off so the network may be okay with these numbers. But, will people return for subsequent installments? Will FOX give the show a second season once all 13 episodes have aired? We’ll have to wait and see.
So, what did you think? Is the show worth keeping or should it be cancelled?
Image courtesy FOX.
Loved it!!! Keep it!!
Keep it. Not fabulous, but it did keep my interest. I will watch again. So much better than yet another “reality” show!
I just watched it, and found it to be enjoyable. It will be interesting to see how they develop the characters. I usually don’t watch tv on Friday night, but this rerun caught my eye and I am glad it did. There isn’t too much interesting stuff on tv right now–keep it!
I work in the mental health field and this show seems to be up with the times. It’s “recovery” oriented, and about treating people in a new way. It’s not just about a “predictable” main character. It can be entertaining and educational. keep it.
Seems they’re trying to run too many story threads at once. No time to build up tension or interest in any of them. And not enough emphasis on what’s really unique about this series…. the exploration of what makes someone mentally ill or not.
Keep it. Give it a chance to let the characters evolve a bit. I liked it, thought it made for good. light viewing for the first episode
I agree with Lisa. The show made me gag. I’d rather watch the Seinfield reruns
CANCEL IT!!!!
keep it , it the mental version of House.
Keep it. Let’s see where it goes. Interesting but to soon to tell.
Keep it!! I liked it a lot better than most of the crap they give us didn’t find it so predictabe and I’ve never liked house. I like the main lead very fresh handsome. Hope it stays around but will probably be replaced by some mindless reality crap. Death to reality,save scripted shows!!
I vote to keep it. It has a good cast.
Cancel it. It borrows from every medical show past and present including Annabella Sciorra’s version of Lisa Cuddy (House) and the regular group of by-the-book perturbed professionals totally aghast at the unconventional methods of the new director. It’s also no secret that the hospital went outside of it’s own pool of potential directors to hire this unconventional guy. It’s totally predictable, slow, and uncreative.
Yawn!
Keep It…for now
KEEP IT