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.
I really hope the Event gets a second season. The story is great and I am enjoying it even more than I enjoyed Flash Forward. The networks really need to give shows a chance to build up an audience; it may even take a few seasons. Think of all the great shows in the past which would have been cancelled if they were only given a handful of episodes to obtain viewers. Great writing, story and acting, this show need to continue!
Change the plot line to eliminate the 2 worst actors on the show – Ritter and what’s her name ( the worst I have ever seen) trying to rescue the younger sister ( we now know they are half alien – who cares). It’s totally superflous and makes a confusing show more confusing. Concentrate more on the president and his staff, the so called aliens, resolution of their isssues. Add some real suspense and plot lines that are credible , suspensedful and develop characters= a viwer can care about.
We do not look forward to this show like 24, lost and heroes…not compelling and the lead lady (ex-ER star) is horrible. Too bad, we were hoping to get hooked on another great series. Don’t care if it comes back or not….
I love the Event my mom and I watch it every Monday!!! In fact we had to come look up why it was not on anymore. I hope it goes well when they relaunch it. I will tell everyone to watch it!!
The Event is an intelligent drama and concerns a topic the public is intriqued with–a good government cover-up of the UFO topic. The casting, the suspense, the pacing, the dialogue is par excellence. I am disappointed to have to wait three months to view The Event again, but I’ll hang in there. I like the idea these are good aliens for the most part, instead of some robotic androids. Jason Ritter and the President are particularly well-cast. I haven’t had such a good time since Close Encounters of a Third Kind and Steven Speilberg’s mini-series about aliens starring Dakota Fanning.… Read more »
Hope The Event will get a chance to stay on TV. Great show!
I absolutely love The Event. its one of my new favorite shows since Lost ended. i really hope they give this show a chance!
I like the show and have watched every one. I wish Some good Sci-fi show would Last on TV. There were several in the past couple years which were interesting yet were pulled. Not all people (At least not ones with Intelligence!) want to watch “REALITY” (NOT!) shows where a group of losers run around acting stupid and mean and filty mouthed. Give the Real people out here in TV land some Real Shows not more Garbarge for Trashy kids to watch.
Has anybody taken into account that this show airs in the middle of Monday night football? I was a dedicated watcher on monday nights but got caught up in football. Now I dvr or watch them on demand. I’m just saying in Feb there isn’t any MNF left and therefore the ratings could improve.
I am very upset that The Event may be canceled. I also think it is terrible to make the fans wait until the end of February to find out the rest of the story. This is bad judgment on NBC’s part.
Im sick and tired of these networks not giving shows a chance to build veiwers! Thats why hbo and cinemax have shows that do so well,they give them time to build momentum.ALL of the major hits in the past started out slow,look at roseanne for one! Any show that involves thinking and paying attention seems to make the networks think the public doesnt want them,not EVERYBODY is a reality show or dwts fan!
I love The Event, ever since Heroes and Lost ended I’ve been looking to watch a show like The Event, and I really hope it doesn’t get canceled
I like The Event alot and hope the show get a chance. I am more interested iun the aliens then in the young couple or the goverment conspiracy
I
like The Event alot and hope it gets a chance. I am more interested in the aliens then
I’m an avid fan of “The Event.” I guess it’s because I like science fiction. The other reason is that it has a good story line. It could, however, use a bit more hints of where the “aliens” came from.
I vote for the show to continue…