Tonight marks the last episode of The Event for 2010. NBC plans to relaunch the series in three months, on February 28th, after letting their new series The Cape have the timeslot. Is it a risky move? Not really. Ultimately, they don’t have much choice.
The Event follows Sean Walker (Jason Ritter), a young man who’s investigating the mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend. He slowly begins to uncover the biggest cover-up in the history of the United States. Others in the cast include Sarah Roemer, Laura Innes, Ian Anthony Dale, Scott Patterson, Clifton Collins Jr., Taylor Cole, Lisa Vidal, Bill Smitrovich, Zeljko Ivanek, and Blair Underwood.
The series debuted in September to decent ratings with a 3.6 in the 18-49 demo and 10.88 million total viewers. That’s a healthy sampling but, considering all of the promotion that NBC put behind it, the programmers were likely disappointed by its third place rank in the timeslot.
While some viewers clearly love the show, more than half who watched the first episode have already lost interest. The Event has been losing viewers, sometimes as much as 15 or 20% in one week, and to date has never shown an increase week-to-week in the demo. The most recent installment garnered just a 1.7 rating in the demo and 5.19 million viewers.
You can blame the network for not doing a better job of promoting The Event but clearly there’s a problem with the series when people who already watch don’t feel compelled to return week after week.
Will this February “relaunch” help? Based on recent TV history, the answer is no. Just look at V and FlashForward. People who were interested in The Event have either already tried it and stuck around or given up on it. Those who haven’t watched previously are very unlikely to give a try because they assume that they’ve missed too much backstory already. On top of that, when the show returns, the ratings will likely be lower than what they are now. By the time The Event returns in February, many casual fans will have already gotten involved with other shows.
The one thing that The Event has going for it is the fact that it’s on NBC. The peacock network continues to struggle and The Event is currently the fifth most-watched scripted program on the network. If things go as expected, it will drop much lower on the list next year. Still, with the exception of The CW, NBC is the only network that would consider giving this series more time. They’ll surely let all 22 episodes air.
The Event returns on Monday, February 28th and will have 12 more original episodes to air at that point. Will there be a second season? We’ll have to wait and see but hopefully the producers will plan ahead and not end the show without any resolution.
What do you think? Does The Event have a chance for survival? What could NBC do to save this show? Anything?
Image courtesy NBC.
The problem with the ratings is that shows don’t follow regular schedules anymore. I work rotating shifts and rarely watch television live anymore because it doesn’t fit into my schedule. On the rare occasions when I watch television I have to wade through 15-20 minutes of commercials to watch 40 minutes of a show – it’s not worth it. Paying for cable and then suffering through commercials turn a lot of people off to the process. For example, I watched Smallville last week on the WB and it had more than 50 commercials. Broadcasters need to consider the following: *… Read more »
I live in China. There is no way I can watch these shows unless its using online services like PPTV or Tom365.com … all of these shows are recorded by Chinese companies and redistributed with Chinese subtitles … I watch the show every week, but who’s gonna count my rating? There needs to be a new ratings system… a way for people to send a message about what show they are watching. That message system needs to be active for 2-3 weeks after each episode aires… and then backdated into the viewing date. For example, a code is embedded on… Read more »
My family and i love this tv series so very much it brings us together and now you telling us you would cancel it…… So plssss and plssss and plssss Nbc do not think of canceling this tv series it means alot to my family,friends and i….so plssss do not cancel i repeat do not cancel so as not to put my family apart………
My family and i love this tv series so very much it brings us together and now you telling us you would cancel it…… So plssss and plssss and plssss Nbc do not think of canceling this tv series it means alot to my family,friends and i….so plssss do not cancel i repeat do not cancel so as not to put my family apart……..
I’d say the main issue is that people are mostly sick and tired of “getting nowhere” shows. Tell it how it is already! The Event, claimed to explain things early on, but not really. Who are these people, what is “the event” ? Why can’t they just tell the truth instead? And I’d suppose “the plan” is to reveal it in 10 years.. Sorry, no dice. People just doesn’t like that anymore. Thats why shows, who have simple short stories fair better. There is that small amount of escape from the boredom of today and enough likeability in the characters… Read more »
It is February 28 th and its 9 :15 pm WHERE’S THE EVENT?!!!! I’m so pissed.
My husband and I truly enjoyed the Event. Each week it became our special appointment to keep and our motivation to get the kids to bed early. We’d have a great time guessing what was going to happen next. We loved the reverse timeline-replay format.
I’ve watched this show from the beginning as has my husband – we really enjoy it – never got into V. This took the place of Lost and 24 for us ….. I’m sure you don’t take into effect that CBS doesn’t air their shows on cable on demand so there are probably a lot of people who catch up with this show that way and whoever does these ratings sure isn’t calling us.
I love the show,and please finish all the episodes…thanks
I might watch the show but I’m getting sick of the propaganda. NBC can’t even make a sci fi show where the villains are only Republicans and greedy corporations.
This ratings system rarely has a broad enough sampling to be anywhere near accurate. Without taking cable and satellite information its impossible to have any idea how anyone watches any show. They do not take into account webisodes being watched, much less dvr use. Don’t get me wrong I do not want someone to be able to come into my home essentially but the ratings system from years ago is dated.
Been wanting to see how they resolve this….are we going to get confirmation that we are not alone?
I have watched all of the available episodes on Comcast Cable. . . I did not watch these shows the night they actually were shown on TV… I watched them later which Comcaste Cable allows us to do. I seldom watch the actual TV shows the nights that they are shown on TV but rather I watch them later…. so the ratings {however these are established} would not include people like myself that watch the episodes at a later date! I have really gotten into this show and I hope that more episodes will air soon!
The whole family liked it and that is tough with a 24, 20 and 15 yr old kids still around.
Promos that it was coming back sent us to the web so that is good. In Promos they should let people to webcast the previous shows for a new update or something.
Don’t leave us hanging. I am really getting tired of getting interested in a show and then have it canceled. I only have a few favorites because most tv is a wasteland of garbage. One by one, I am losing all my favorite shows and I’m really getting sick of it.