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.
I didn’t watch the first episode….didn’t want to get into something that was a waste of time………..BUT….after catching it on VOD….I was hooked….I love it. Should it be an ongoing series after the 13 episodes……….no…we will soon get tired of the group.
Oh please NBC finish airing the shows, if nothing else just the final episodes of this “Season”. I really have gotten into it, and I’m sure if they did some plugs on leno or something similar and gav it more face time on ads and on demand shows and stuff like that and actually give the people who havnt seen the show at all, some more insight on it. I’m sure it would take off. If they cancel it before my questions are answered I’m gonna go ape “poopie”. And for all of you who havnt seen it, tune in.… Read more »
I am more intrigued with each episode. The relationship between characters about which I most want to know more is presently Tom & Joe. Tom seemed to be getting almost sadistic pleasure out of the idea of killing Joe’s love interest, Janet, and yet seems to actually like Joe at least enough to hope Joe himself does not get killed. I want to know to what Tom was referring when he queried Joe, “After everything you’ve been through, after everything you’ve worked for, you’re ready to give it all up — for her?” So, that made me wonder what those… Read more »
LOVE this show! It is fun, and a nice surprise during summer. People love it at work as well.
Keep it on the air! It is a refreshing change. Sooooo sick of reality TV I could choke.
Like many of the shows and there spin offs, but it is so nice to have something that stands on its own.
@Hope RE: Sooooo sick of reality TV I could choke.<—AREN'T WE ALL NOW! But those were designed during writer's strikes and cost very little and don't use Union Writers (Writer's Guild of America (WGA)) and they were brought in as Fillers when the networks were being held hostage over the cost of a script and the residuals that should and are being paid over each script to the writer. The Networks learned that they were cost efficient and kept them. (Sigh)
I loved this movie The Cube and the sequels. Viewers might enjoy the similarities between the characters and the very powerful/wealthy kidnappers if you enjoy a good 2 hour event. It is slightly gory and I say that upfront because it shows the kidnapped victims getting killed in the movie instead of cutting away. The plot relied on mathematics and solving puzzles to get out. It never explained *who* took the Soldier, the Housewife, the exec, etc., and that is left to the viewers imagination. Part 2 showed more about the puzzle than part one. Taken from Wikipedia: Cube is… Read more »
Thx, Lucinda for the movie reference… maybe I’ll look into watching it next Monday when I wish I could be watching Persons Unknown…:o( Either that or I’ll have to go get caught up with The Bachlorette- which after getting attached to Persons Unknown, doesn’t sound that appealing…
Didn’t they come out with an X-Box game for the same movie (s)?
@Bridget Didn’t they come out with an X-Box game for the same movie (s)? <–Not really sure about that since I don't own an X-Box and don't keep up on the games. Head's up on the Cube movie series, if you don't like blood, then when you watch get ready to fast forward at a moments notice. It's an odd movie that I had to watch more than once to try to figure it out. The Cube never tells you who, why or how it is all happening. It never has a real ending in the sense of closure etc.… Read more »
I think I’m probably like a lot of people, and record the show with my DVR. I could barely have told you what day of the week it aired, let alone what time slot it had, and I love the show! Let’s hope all the networks start showing these types of summer miniserieses. Keeps me from channel surfing too much and watching reruns, but doesn’t fill my fall-winter-spring with another show to watch. I watch too many already.
Love this show, keep it !
You don’t think that maybe the reason these shows always seem to fair so poorly is that people are afraid to become invested in them because you can’t count on the network to stick with it long enough to finish them out? See Happy Town, Harper’s Island, and Jericho for details.
For fans of the show you might want to see the Facebook page. Many of the fans are expressing the same sentiment that you are on here. That NBC has no one to blame for the show failing but NBC’s publicity department for dropping the ball. Sadly, the major networks don’t know how to promote a show that isn’t a boring old standard family series like Eight is Enough. All these new, more unique niche market series have an audience but will rarely be seen.
Feel free to check out the Facebook Group.
I just found Persons Unknown yesterday through ON Demand which is a part of Comcast. I watched all 4 episodes in one day. I then searched the guide for it and there is no listing of it coming on television for the next few weeks. I am very disappointed. I hope NBC will not take it off the air. I don’t recall any adverstising for it I accidentally found it and hope to see more.
I LOVE THIS SHOW!!! I think we still need some great shows to watch in the summer. This one has been awesome! Apparently, a whole lot less people follow summer programs but for those of us who do, I wish NBC & several other networks would take heart and stop pulling programs off the air that people look forward to each week! Remember Kath & Kim? So FUNNY! They yanked that off the fall schedule, so why not show it in the summer? Same with In The Motherhood on ABC. Another favorite of mine was Mental on FOX. Just when… Read more »
Please give it a chance…NBC can replay the episodes during the fall season “downtime” instead of other repeats. Then promote the DVD hardcore. Finally, when the second season starts, pick a timeslot and STICK WITH IT!!!
Persons Unknown is a good show. A good show that sadly got no real promotion from NBC and when it didn’t immediately have millions and millions of viewers NBC suddenly moves it to a new time slot. Moving new shows to different time slots does nothing but confuse the viewers a show already has and drops the ratings. I actually convineced a couple of people to watch it. Low and behold they missed it because NBC changed the time slot. Two shows in and a time change does not make a high viewer show. Two shows in and a time… Read more »
This show is a MINISERIES, you idiots! It only has 13 episodes. There will not be another season. That’s why it’s called a miniseries.
Don’t be a troll. This was actually a decent comment section for once. No one on this page was saying anything negative until you came on and started calling everyone idiots. I don’t care if that’s how they do it in middle school, in the real world, adults don’t just sign up to give negative comments. And for the record, they were planning to make it a regular series, but producer Remi Aubuchon and NBC wanted to make it feel more like a summer “event” and Aubuchon wanted to end with less cliffhangers. So he felt that calling it a… Read more »
@Nate … I hate to burst your bubble, but being angry and spewing hate rants at people that post on boards and insulting a money making enterprise like Twilight isn’t a way to earn friends or followers. NBC reads all the posts and if they see that it brings hate filled rants and psychotic threats to people that don’t agree with one thing or another, the execs PULL the show even faster. Sadly, Persons Unknown is tanking with the vast majority of viewers even faster than the 10pm Jay Leno show. There was NEVER any talk of this series going… Read more »
I’m not living in a bubble, just reality. And the reality is that my source, if you had actually read my reply, was the show’s executive producer Remi Aubuchon. In an interview he gave, he stated the show was going to be an on-going series, but he and NBC decided they wanted a more event-style feel and more closure. They felt they could springboard off of this if the network wanted another season. I already typed that, but you must have missed it in my last comments. And yes, it is tanking, but that is the network’s fault for little… Read more »
I also missed last weeks episode was afraid this show was canceled. I really hope they show thewhole season and would like to see another season. Well guess all we can do is cross our fingers and hope for it!
Keep the show. In my house we look forward to every episode. We love the cast and all the questions.