Late in the 2013-14 season, NBC and ABC launched three new Sunday night dramas — all with single word titles. NBC cancelled Crisis and Believe while ABC renewed Resurrection for a second season. In retrospect, was that a good decision for the alphabet network? Should Resurrection have been cancelled as well?
On Resurrection, a small town in Missouri is turned upside down when long-dead loved ones return after 30 years. The cast includes Omar Epps, Frances Fisher, Matt Craven, Devin Kelley, Mark Hildreth, Samaire Armstrong, Sam Hazeldine, Landon Gimenez, and Kurtwood Smith.
Debuting on March 9th, Resurrection had a great launch with a 3.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 13.9 million total viewers. (Those numbers are about the same as this season’s How to Get Away with Murder’s debut.)
Unfortunately, Resurrection’s ratings dropped about 19% in week two and they kept falling nearly every week of the eight episode season. The seventh installment hit a low of a 1.9 rating with 7.85 million — half of the premiere’s demo rating.
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Considering the poor luck that the alphabet network had last year launching new dramas, it wasn’t much of a surprise that ABC renewed Resurrection. They didn’t have much choice. However, the ratings slide was a terrible sign for the future.
Now, the show has been really struggling in season two. After a positive second season debut, the ratings quickly dropped, falling to new series lows week after week. The October 26th installment registered a mere 1.2 rating with 4.36 million.
ABC recently ordered full seasons and additional episodes of many of their new and older shows. It was a telling sign that the network is only producing 14 episodes of Resurrection this season.
Unless the ratings improve, it looks very likely that Resurrection will be cancelled by May. Hopefully, the writers will give viewers some degree of closure before the end.
What do you think? Did you stop watching Resurrection? Should it have been a mini-series? Is competition from The Walking Dead and football the cause of the low ratings? Do you think Resurrection should be cancelled or renewed for a third season?
I hope it is renewed, I really enjoy it. I always watch on Monday morning, since I’m never awake at 9 pm on Sunday. I really think they need to put it in a different time slot if they want to “resurrect” the ratings. TWD is too tough to compete with. I’m not a TWD fan, but if you go to the FB page, the likes to page are in the 10s of millions, while Resurrection’s page is just past 1/2 million. Too much to compete with. Change the time slot and the ratings will go up.
The whole premise of Resurrection was great and refreshing during Season 1. However, it needs a major writing overhaul. It has gone from a decent family drama to this dark and evil black cloud episode after episode in Season 2. There is no depth to any of the characters, and at this point, I don’t think the vast majority of the audience really cares about any of them.
I liked Resurrection at first and hoped it would be different than what the story is becoming in the second season. It is too focused on evil….I hoped it would be more balanced. Sorry to say we stopped watching it this season it has become to evil focused and murderous.
We need shows with more Light and HOPE.
Although I like Resurrection, I confess there have been episodes that kinda bored me. Still, I stuck with it, and now I am very eager to find out how Grandma Langston is involved in why they have returned. She’s an evil one, I think! I did not like Believe (I couldn’t stand that little girl) and do not miss it, but Crisis was entertaining and fast-paced, and I was sorry to see it get cancelled when there seemed to be more to the story. At any rate, I hope ABC won’t just leave us hanging here without solving the mystery.
What started out as a somewhat interesting premise has acquiessed into a sea of
banality. Why did these people come back? How can this be happening? Unfortunately, most viewers agree that the writing and execution has been too cumbersome, with scripts that are so absurdly contrived and yet, at the same time, confusing – get ON with it already – wrap it up ABC the party’s over.
I don’t want it canceled OR messed with. The show is amazing, and if it can stay in a timeslot that is recognizable and not altered due to sports earlier in the day it airs, the viewers will start flocking to it, once they get a hold of Netflix for binge watching past seasons. The show is creative and has potential to run for at least a good few more years.
I love the show. Wish it was longer.
Do not canceled Resurrection it is a great show I still watch. I am a new viewer just this season. Please renew.
I am loosing interest. It has become a really weak cop/dr/soap opera. All that makes it interesting is the least covered topic why they have returned. The rest is crap.
Have to agree with you, what started out as an interesting premise has become convuluted and contrived….and confusing! Wrap it up ABC and get to the point – why did these people come back – I can’t see it going into Season three –
Please leave Ressurection on, it is the only show that I do really watch, like other people said most people dvr the show,so many people are at work nights when it is on,and watch when they come home,with life so busy for the working force it would be unfair that they would have to lose something that they like to watch, because of the stay at home folks.
Please don’t cancel this show because I’m hooked on it I can’t get enough of Resurrection why do the network so hung up on ratings, they are nearly as bad as politicians & their ratings.why can’t they think about the many viewers that love these types of shows,we look forward with batting breath to the next few seasons too explain why these people come back and why some disappear and the network decides to cancel it because of drop in rating it’s just not fair!!!thumbs down to ABC for doing this to us fans,at least tell us why they come… Read more »
I understand that ratings equal the money they can charge for advertising, blah, blah, blah… but I think they are still expecting ratings number similar to those given when there were only 4 networks on the air, or even when cable had a whopping 40 channels on top of the basic broadcast networks. They seem to be lacking in their inclusion of On Demand and other alternative program viewing as well. There is no way you can make me believe that the cable companies and such don’t keep track of DVR viewing either.
I don’t understand why networks still rely on ratings to determine show popularity givent he number of people who DVR stuff to watch later these days. It’s rare that I watch a show during the actual time it comes on. Putting Resurrection up against TWD is also a bad move as TWD has been around for a while now. Switch it to a new night and leave it alone – the show is amazing!
Please don’t stop “Resurrection” ! My son is hooked on “Walking Dead”, so I DVR it for him at the same time I watch and DVR “Resurrection”. With so many shows airing the same time it’s really hard to even DVR them with Comcast/Xfinity’s limit of 2 at a time. Several others I have to watch ON DEMAND hoping they won’t be cut because of the limiting shows I can DVR. That doesn’t help their ratings either. I was puzzled when I was trying to set the recordings and couldn’t locate “Resurrection” scheduled for Nov 16th, so worriedly I searched… Read more »
Joyce, good news, it will be back on the 23rd!
i love this show one of the few good shows on any more
Resurrection still has some meat and strength left in it. Do not be so quick to cancel this one. This show has sooo many opportunities AFTER those that are dead disappear. This could be a very different sort of paranormal and how this contact mite have affected the people and other happenings to come because of the resurrections.