The peacock network recently premiered a new mystery series for the summer called Persons Unknown. Will the series last? Will viewers get answers to their questions or be left hanging?
Persons Unknown revolves around a group of strangers who wake up in a strange hotel and find that they’re in a ghost town and unable to leave. They see security cameras observing them and their unknown captors create mistrust among the group by offering freedom if they hurt the others. The cast includes Chadwick Boseman, Lee Purcell, Jason Wiles, Andy Greenfield, Daisy Betts, Tina Holmes, Alan Ruck, Kate Lang Johnson, Sean O’Bryan, and Gerald Kyd.
The NBC mystery series debuted on June 7th to very disappointing ratings. The premiere attracted a poor 1.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic and just 4.38 million viewers. That represents a distant third place for the timeslot and is an even worse performance than last year’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!.
In week two, the numbers dropped to a 1.2 rating and 3.52 total viewers. Episode three’s ratings dropped even further to a 1.0 in the demo and only 2.87 million viewers. How much lower can the numbers go?
The network is promoting Persons Unknown as a mini-series and say that all viewer questions will be answered by the end of the 13th episode. There have been talks that if the show is successful, it could return for a second season (like CBS’ Harper’s Island). The series was created with international buyers in mind so if it’s successful in other countries, year two could be forthcoming (ala The Listener). However, with ratings like these, NBC wouldn’t likely have an interest in buying it.
Actually, the peacock network could pull the show off the air before all of the current episodes have even aired. NBC has moved it up to 8pm for the next couple weeks, trying to attract a few more viewers. Hopefully, the network will let all 13 episodes air and allow faithful viewers to see the story reach its conclusion. At this point, a move to Saturday nights or forcing people to watch episodes online wouldn’t come as a surprise.
What do you think? Is Persons Unknown worth watching or would you just cancel it before all the episodes have aired?
Image courtesy NBC.
Keep it. It’s a good series and we only have a few more episodes left until the end.
omg. !! PLEASE DO NOT CANCEL THIS SHOW BEFORE WE FIND OUT THE TRUE MYSTERY,, I HAVE been watching this show since Day one, and it s so good !! oh by the way, why would nbc put this to 8:00pm, Los Angeles pacific time UP AGAINST ,.. THE bachelorette. ?????? .. WHY,, THATS JUST DUMMMM… and you are trying to get people to watch it, thats not the way,,,,… I was watching the stupid ali bachelorette but NOT ANYMORE.. i am hooked on this show, Persons Unknown, please do not take this off the air. please do not.. I… Read more »
Love the show….. it fills the void after LOST was complete…. I want the ending already…lots of theories at this point. DO NOT CANCEL
i really like the show. its different and gives a little change from all the reality shows that have taken over all the networks over the past several years. if the networks would give a show a chance, perhaps a full seasdon then maybe more people would be inclined to stay at home and watch a little tv sometimes to take the stress off all the running we do in this crazy society. my vote says leave it be!!
i don’t think any of the events have mattered so far, if it continues like it is they could just skip to the last episode and no one would notice. so just air the final episode next week and end it.
This show is a MINI-SERIES. So it will not be cancelled. It has a beginning, a midddle and a end(which is the way ALL serialize scripted shows should be). There is NO MORE after that. It was never intended to be a regular series. The worst that’ll happen is NBC will just do what CBS did to Harper’s Island last summer and move the remaining episodes to Saturdays. Persons Unknown is bought and paid for. Hell the DVD is coming out next month.
Love this show. Need to see ending. The June 28 episode was a repeat. Where can the next one be viewed? Kate Johnson a doll. I dislike the salesman but the rest are growing on me.
I’ve watched it from the first episode and I’m trying to give it a chance but I am bored to tears.
I really don’t like it. The concept is interesting and I’m sure it looks good on paper, but I dislike most of the characters and that alone can doom a show.
Dan, it aired before last comic standing last night.
They would probably have more viewers if the show actually aired.
For the past 2 weeks the show was not aired on the Rogers Network. Last night for example Last Comic Standing broadcasted until 11pm right through the persons unknown timeslot.
Love the show. I still think the problem was the marketing. Initially (like the marketing for The Event) it just appeared to be a confusing mess. The series wasn’t explained. I have told 4 friends about the show (none of them ever really knowing anything about it) and now they are HOOKED. NOW, they seem to be doing a great job of marketing, but sometimes if people have already missed the first 3 shows; they are not likely to pick it up now.
I agree 100%! The show was not explained at all–the only reason I ended up watching it is by chance. Also, “the Event” is going to fail because they air so many advertisements for it explaining NOTHING. I don’t care what “the event” is–I just want the ads to stop! I think NBC needs to do a “marathon” and run ALL the episodes to give viewers a chance to catch up–and NBC needs to create a good ad campaign that EXPLAINS the show.
Seven strangers held captive in a ghost town. Who can’t follow that?
NBC better not cancel this show before the conclusion. I have watched since the 1st episode and want to know the ‘who dunnit’. Pull it off now and no one will know. It’s only another 8 weeks till the end.
It’s only scheduled to be 6 episodes. It would be silly to cancel it. I think since Lost, the public appetite for this desert island scenario is pretty much over.
It’s a keeper…….. Love it!
I’ve only seen three episodes at this point. So long as there’s an answer before the end of the series I don’t care either way. But they’ll probably cancel it before giving any answers. If harper’s island had been on nbc it would have been canceled well before the easily predictable (early on predictable – first three episodes predictable) secret.
I really like this show, they should give it a chance to attract more viewers and run all the episodes. I hate when they pull off shows just when it starts getting good.