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.
I LOVE THE SHOW I WATCHED ALL EPISODE AND I HOPE IT WILL COME BACK I THINK IT SHOULD AIR AT 10.00 , INSTEAD OF 9.00 PM.
I am stunned that they would cancel this very good show without resolving the story. Goodbye NBC!!
I hope this series isn’t canceled there isn’t alot on t.v. to watch anymore. My of it is reality tv, sometimes I wonder who writes these shows, they have no creativity. The event is great it has supense, and who knows we could some day find out its true….
Can’t believe we may not see any more of “The Event”. We loved that show and watched it faithfully. What’s up NBC?
i love The Event! we watched it weekly and never missed a show! please return it to NBC.
I don’t know what your thinking? You do all the promotion for The Event months before it came on. It was one of my top 5 shows that I wouldn’t miss watching.I am sick of all the reality TV, this is a great show with great acting that deserves a aecond chance.We are baby boomers & your not giving us what we want. That is why I am finding myself watching more shows on TNT, USA. & others in HD. Hope to here that The Event comes back.
I love Event and V, just as they were getting good NBC takes it off! please put them back on I want to know what happens next!!!
I think the EVENT was a good show with a good cast. I cant believed that it was canceled. Me and my family loved that show and we think that you made a mistake to drop this show. Myself and millions other want this show to continue. Please consider
We have been faithful followers of The Event since day one. Please don’t cancel the show until we find out what is up with the new planet, Sophia’s people, and the Event. This show seemed to get better and better with each episode and now it seems like we’ve been left hanging with no resolution. Please at least have a series finale so we are not left in limbo.
Why is this show being canceled? I love this show, I’ll admit that it was kinda slow in beginning but as the show went on it got good why can’t nbc keep the show. There are some of the stupidest shows on now that never get canceled, why is that? The stupidest show stay on for the longest. The good shows always gets canceled. Please bring the show back because I love that show.
THE BEST SHOW ON TV AND YOU CANCELLED IT, TAKE YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR A__ es AND LET THE SUN SHINE ON . BEST SHOW SEEN IN A LONG TIME.
THE SHOW FAST FORWARD WAS THE SECOND BEST SHOW AS WELL.
PLEASE CANCEL THE CANCELLED SHOW THE EVENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Steve J.
I hate that NBC canceled the Event. I thought it was good. I don’t like your network for doing it and will boycot the network untill it returns.
Cheryl Abrams
I LOVE THE SERIES AND CANNOT WAIT FOR THE RETURN. I HOPE THAT NBC CAN FIND A WAY TO CONTINUE THIS ACTION, MYSTERY SERIES WITH IT’S AWESOME
CONTIUNING MY COMMENTS ON THE AMAZING CAST, I JUST LOVE THEM ALL.
A great show I really miss it, so want to know what happens please bring this back good acting and something different
DONT CANCLE!!!!! WE LOVE THE EVENT!!!!