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.
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288 Comments on "Pan Am: ABC’s Retro-Series; Cancel or Keep It?"
CANCEL IT. It’d show them right for cancelling V on us!
I liked “V” also! And when ABC cancelled it, the Earth was under major attack! I really would have liked to see a good conclusion to the show. However, cancelling “Pan Am” because “V” was cancelled is a terrible idea. I LOVE “Pan Am”.
I loved V, a lot more than I care for Pan Am, but why should one show being cancelled have anything to do with the other? The two shows aren’t even in the same time slot. It’s the fans that will suffer if Pan Am gets axed, as well as the cast and crew who worked hard on this show, not the TV execs who pulled the plug on V.
This is a fun show. Please give it a chance. Its just getting juicy. And the idea that there types of things were happening then is facinating. I watch on Sprint T.V, I bet your not counting web and phone watchers.
KEEP IT ON !It’s better than MadMen!
I think the producers of PanAm have done a great job on this period series.Great sets,characters you care about,good story lines, a show that makes me feel good ,and one I want to see every week!
Not coming from the airline industry I can’t comment on technical accuracy but I disagree that the acting is “terrible.” I think Karine Vanasse is a fine actress and she has won awards for her acting in the movie “Polytechnique.” When the show does showcase her skills, like in the Berlin episode you can see what she is capable of. (If only the show will show her more. I also thinks she was perfectly cast as “Colette.” (Nitpickers have said her French has her native Quebec accent, but that’s a small point. 😉 )
I actually really like this show. It’s seems like every new show I get into gets canceled. It’s kinda sad that the networks don’t give shows a chance anymore. If the numbers aren’t good in a handfull of episodes they pull it. Too many people are into all the trash tv reality shows anymore. I wil admit to watching a few, like survivor and the amazing race, but the majority if reality shows are garbage in my opinion.
I love it. Keep it going!!!
I actually ready like this show. It’s seems like every new show I get into gets canceled. It’s kinda sad that the networks don’t give shows a chance anymore. If the numbers aren’t good in a handfull of episodes they pull it. Too many people are into all the trash tv reality shows anymore. I wil admit to watching a few, like survivor and the amazing race, but the majority if reality shows are garbage in my opinion.
I think they should have kept Brothers & Sisters. Now that had depth and great acting.
I stopped watching Brothers and Sisters because all they did was FRET and ARGUE about EVERYTHING! Not my type of entertainment.
Sink it
Those of us who are Seniors continue to comment on how few of the current shows are appealing to us. Then PanAm came along. It really seems a shame to cancel a show like this. Okay – it doesn’t have a lot of sex and violence. Wow – that’s actually GOOD!! Please keep this show on the air!!!
They should keep it. At the very least let it run a full season. It’s a great show, just needs a bit more spunk to reel in people who are stuck in our own decade with cap shows like jersey shore.
Well call me crazy, but I think the non present shows don’t belong on major networks. Mad men and Boardwalk empire aren’t on those networks and are doing better because of that. And to back me up even more, The playboy club. Maybe Hugh was right and it should have been on Bravo. I’m just saying you argue with the numbers.