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.
Love the show but its too much going back & forth in time. Hard to follow
My husband and I love the show, yes it is in a poor time slot, we tape it to watch the next day. We look forward to what will happen next…I hope they don’t cancel the series.
Great combo of actors and a new twist on “Are they amoung us”…
Seriously – they need to place this show where it’s not opposite that horrible “dancing with the stars” show. The Event is awesome TV. We love The Event and it is the only show we specifically make time to watch together (my husband and I). And my daughter and her husband – same thing – “The Event” is their show. I really don’t want them to cancel this series. We haven’t loved every episode equally, but we love the story and how interesting it is. And the cliffhangar finale…wow! Very nice! At the very least, like some others have said,… Read more »
The event should stay on for all of us who are intrigued by it The problem is the writing. As puredieselbc said it does become frustrating. Step up the alien action, have some things happen to make us sit up and take notice. Get off the young lovers and on to worldwide EVENTS.
I don’t usually comment on this type of thing, but if it will help to get The Event back on, then I am. I really hate to see it go off, it is such a great show! Please bring it back, and add another season to it. But if it isn’t going a second season, the please, please, please, give it a proper ending, so the faithful viewers will have all the answers.
SIMPLY ONE OF THE BEST AND MOST ORIGINAL SHOWS ON TELEVISION. I HOPE THAT THERE ARE MANY SEASONS TO COME!
This is a great show so it figures they are talking about cancelling it. It seems the only shows that last any more are the reality shows which, in my opinion, have ruined TV.
This was a compelling show run in the wrong timeslot. Give the show a opportunity in a decent timeslot and not up against “Dancing with the Stars”.
LOVE this show!!! We will be waiting for it’s return in February……ABC what are you thinking?
I like the show. However, I think it would do better if they just killed off the girlfriend. She has to be one of the worst actresses in history!! Everytime a scene with her comes on I cringe.
I agree completely!
The problem with The Event is that we the viewers know more than the characters in the show. We know what Sean and Leila are running from but they don’t. We know whose behind the conspiracy but the President and his team don’t. So every week we wait for the rest of the characters to catch up to the story. It becomes frustrating and boring. Nick Wauters, the show’s creator, really should have just focused on the aliens because honestly it’s their story that’s at the heart of the series. The gov’t conspiracy and the young lovers on the run… Read more »
I think you might be on to something. You make a very compelling observation about the show that if changed may make it a little better. With that being said…. I love the Event and do hope that it continues. I’m extremely frustrated with all the shows that I get hooked on and turn around and it’s cancelled. I experienced it with Flash forward and with The Unknown (which by the way COULD go well into another season with the cliffhanger ending it had). I don’t know if changing the time slot will help because I’m not into reality tv… Read more »
We love The Event! I certainly hope it’s not cancelled. We have far too many reality shows,which are certainly not what I see as being reality. NBC needs to air The Event on another night and do more promoting.
I love the show and even got my daughter hooked on it. Finally a show with sticking power for Blair Underwood. I love the entire cast including the actor who plays the CIA head. I’ve seen him in many shows/films and he is so good at being bad. Laura Innes is always great to watch and I like the actor who plays Simon very much. Mow, my suggestion is simple … get this great show a better night away from Monday Night BeerBall! Try Sunday night after the Amazing RatRace, or other “reality” show. By the way, stop with all… Read more »
Dear TV Networks: STOP PUTTING SERIAL SHOWS ON HIATUS. Serial shows thrive on momentum, and if you just stop it for three months, no one will remember where it left off, and boom, bye bye viewership!
Yikes! Why are these people so blind?!
OMG it will be the biggest mistake in network history to take this show off the air so quickly! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give this show a chance! For Goodness sake, even Seinfeld wasn’t a smash hit immediately! This is an absolutely fanstastic show and I didn’t watch Lost nor 24! It deserves time to build a loyal fan base and NBC needs to IMMEDIATELY stop talking about cancelling it since it does require commitment that folks are NOT going to be willing to give if NBC is going to snatch it off the air and leave us dangling!
i agree!!!!!!!!!!