Hopping on the Mad Men bandwagon, ABC recently began airing Pan Am on Sunday nights. The network’s been searching for some new hot dramas to replace Desperate Housewives and their aging medical series. Have they found the solution in a show named after a defunct airline or will this one just crash and be cancelled?
Pan Am follows the pilots and flight attendants that work for the world-famous airline in 1963. Dean (Mike Vogel) is a young pilot who’s just been promoted to captain. His co-pilot, Ted (Michael Mosely), is hiding a secret. Stewardess Maggie (Christina Ricci) isn’t afraid to push the limits, Colette (Karine Vanesse) flirts too much, and Kate (Kelli Garner) has taken on a dangerous side-job after helping her sister, Lara (Margot Robbie), become a runaway bride. While traveling the world, the flight crew have interesting brushes with history.
The series debuted on September 25th to a 3.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 11.06 million viewers. Those aren’t bad numbers but they’re hardly impressive either. Pan Am was second in the timeslot, behind NBC’s football coverage. Looking at the breakdown for the show’s ratings in quarter hour increments, about 10% of the demo audience tuned out before the episode was finished. That’s not terrible but certainly not positive either.
The second episode dropped 16% in the demo to a 2.6 rating with 7.76 million viewers. That’s a pretty normal second week drop-off but Pan Am really didn’t have many viewers to spare. Week three is where things really got bad.
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The third episode saw the demo drop by an astounding 27%. Did the people who tuned in for the second episode decide that they’d seen enough or, was the third week just a fluke?
Apparently it was the latter because the ratings dropped by another 5%, to a 1.8 in the demo with 5.84 million. Last night’s numbers held steady according the fast affiliate numbers. That’s positive but a 1.8 demo rating is certainly not.
Pan Am is currently the lowest-rated new show on ABC with an average of a 2.2 rating in the demo and 7.36 million. Those numbers will keep dropping unless future episodes perform significantly better. Of the 14 scripted shows currently on the network, Pan Am ranks 12th, beating only Body of Proof and already-cancelled Charlie’s Angels.
While Pan Am’s fate seems all but sealed, ABC doesn’t seem ready to throw in the towel just yet.
They’re reportedly bringing in veteran writer and producer Steven Maeda as showrunner. He previously worked on Miami Medical for CBS and Lie to Me for FOX. ABC execs, who apparently still really like Pan Am, want to hear Maeda’s story ideas before deciding on whether they want to order additional episodes for a full season.
It’s very likely too late to pull this show out of its downward spiral but perhaps ABC will get lucky and beat the odds. Typically, once viewers reject a show, it’s nearly impossible to get them to take another look.
What do you think? Should ABC keep Pan Am flying for a full season or should they just pull the plug and cancel it now?
Image courtesy ABC.
French fan.
Do not cancel it, please. We do love this show, the characters, the story, the historical point of view, the glamour. Keep it going ! It is my sparkle in my workweek…. and I am sure I am not the only one 😉
This series gets progressively better each week. Yes, the dialogue at times needs to be “punched up”, but all the sctors seem committed to their roles. More romantic attachments might help. I also record it on my DVR since that’s the only way I can view tv. The endless commercials (I have sometimes counted nine in a row) certainly interfere with the viewer’s concentration. ABC: You have an above average series here, just give it a chance. Another reason for the declining ratings might be its time slot: Sunday at 10:00 p.m. is definitely a poor choice. Who is going… Read more »
As for the “Rocket Nozzles” that “James in LA” is so professed to be an expert about…. They did in fact exist, on the commercial versions of these particular Pratt and Whitney engines, for sound suppression (think of them like a muffler on your car). References: Video of a former Pan Am clipper 707: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkvmpQUvfqk Photograph of a former Pan Am clipper 707: http://www.panamair.org/aircraft/b707-121/707-stewart1.jpg And it is this very realism that I appreciate so much about this show, and what keeps me watching week after week. I enjoy the characters, the realism, the human element, the attention to detail, the… Read more »
I love this show and I love the characters.While it may not be a perfect representation of Pam Am in the 60’s as others have stated, I love the feel of the show and the glamor reflected that we used to see with the airline industry in those days. Such a change in the way air travel is today with terrorism and lack of true customer service by the industry. Please keep the show!
Keep it going!!
DONT CANCLE IT! I love that show, I think its extremely different and love how every set design looks different to match the country they are in. It would be a huge shame to cancel!
I think this is the most interesting new show of the season. They have done a great job developing the characters. It is the only show I really look forward to every week. I am so tired of all the insipid boring comedies that seem to be doing so well. I especially like Collette’s character, she’s very interesting and the scene between her and Dean when they were arguing about the stowaway on this week’s ‘Unscheduled Departure’ was an amazing piece of acting. I think the entire cast does a great job. They actually have layers, someone might seem unkind… Read more »
There are several major difference between Mad Men and Pan Am which make the show almost impossible for me to watch, not because I want more Mad Men- MM has also strayed from the original dynamic which made it successful as well, but because these things are essential for the level writing and execution which must be present for a franchise in this genre to be engaging to the audience which it seems to be attempting to court. There is no strong, prominent, unapologetic lead who behaves in exactly the Darwinian way we all know strong alpha males behave. The… Read more »
Pan Am is enjoyable, well-written and well-acted and I hope it is not canceled. The sets and costumes are a spot-on tribute to the elegance of the era, and it is fascinating seeing the stories unfold against the backdrop of momentous, historical changes: John Kennedy speaking in Berlin, the burgeoning civil rights/women’s movements, unrest in Haiti (last night’s episode). I do hope the recurring “stewardess as spy” storyline bites the dust soon. It is needlessly melodramatic, implausible and boring. The character, “Colette” is easily the most interesting of the four stewardesses, and I’m hoping the writers will reveal more about… Read more »
I was a United Stewardess of that era and love watching Pan Am. Even my hubby loves it and doesn’t think it is a girlly show. It’s pretty dead on except we only flew with the same crew for a month and the stews really didn’t hang out with the pilots except for sharing a meal or a cab. Dress code and weight check were strictly enforced. We were not allowed in the airport out of uniform. We even wore almost the same uniforms as Pan AM until 1968 when a very mod uniform was established. Wish I had kept… Read more »
Just watched the episode titled Unscheduled Departure. Fakey is the word. Rediculous. But the episodes I had seen before this one were good.
My husband and I are as stuck on Pan Am as we are on Mad Men!!! It is definitely Emmy award winning material, and it would be a tragedy if it were taken off the air. We DVR it too, but we usually can’t wait to see the recording so we watch it live.
I love Pan Am! The cast, the writers, the attention to detail are all awesome! I appreciate being able to follow an actual storyline rather than be irritated by the punchlines or dramatic antics of sitcoms. I wonder if the time slot is an issue or the tons of commercials that interrupt and frustrate viewers. It’s not a good time for me and I have a low tolerance for commercials so I take advantage of the DVR and have the whole series scheduled. Now I enjoy sitting down to watch the show on my timetable. I hope I am not… Read more »
Pan Am was a great idea for a TV series and I was expecting a suspenseful drama similar to any of the other “on the job” type drama shows such as CSI, NYPD Blue, ER, or Greys Anatomy. Even Mad Men was more suspenseful. I found myself being disappointed in the lack of “in the moment suspense” and cheesy computer generated aircraft scenes that look like Microsoft Flight Simulator. It’s not that hard to get real shots of close up landing gear and tires touching down or even dark night footage of jets landing and taxiing without being able to… Read more »
My love of era’s past has always been strong. I’ve watched tcm movies since I was ten (i laughed when I was older and found out what Maggie REALLY wanted from Brick) . That love definitely fueled my interest in the show. I thought it was ok but kept watching it. Collette definitely made me show interest. The xhracter development of her was so interesting, she is calm cool yet intuitive and vulnerable. Then it seemed all the xhracter seem to develop…well character. They were not playing dress up anymore, they took on unique roles , Laura naive innocence is… Read more »