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.
We have watched every episode. Think the show is GREAT. However, now that NBC put it on a 3 month hiatus, don’t know if we’ll switch back in February……
My husband and I love this show. We don’t normally agree on what to watch but The Event was it for us. We have watched every episode and really hope they let the show continue.
I enjoyed watching The Event! Please bring it back.
I don’t understand why The Event was pulled. I was looking forward on watching this show tonight when I went on line to find out that it had been cancelled. There’s nothing to watch in its place. I also loved flashed forward.
Again, why pull a prefect good show?
I really enjoyed The Event. Ill be looking forward to its return. me and hubby also were getting into it and waiting to see what was going to happen next. Its kinda like a book, you sometimes just have to keep reading to get the point. so when it returns ill be one of the fans watching.
I was addicted to the Event, but like any addiction, when I was forced to stop cold turkey, I lost my taste for it. I was VERY disappointed when it went off, and I don’t know if I’ll want to see it restart in February (do you know how long away that is?). I am EXTREMELY disappointed in NBC’s decision to take away my FAVORITE show. By the way, I was starting to feel like thePresiden’ts wife was “one of them”. I don’t know why, but I just get that feeling. And I’m not positive, but I think that theold… Read more »
I think the reason this show may go down the tubes is the extraodinary amount of commercials which destroys the narrative, focus, etc. A waste and a shame.
The show is great, Im looking forward to its return in Feb.
When ever a good show is released like Event or Flash Forward,the network starts to move it around, or like now it’s pull out for some other shows and you wonder why the audience is loosing interest, I am already tired to try new shows when you don’t know if you will get it in full or not or they will just give up on it without any resolution…all the tme I waisted watching Flas Forward and now ?? I think by doing all these changes in schedule or rotating shows but isn’t it interesting how more and more ER… Read more »
I tried to like it. But the first week had too many flashbacks for my liking. Still I stuck with it, even when I found out it was Sci-Fi with the alien storyline. Still stuck with it, hoping it was a cross between 24 and the X files. It’s not.
Jason Ritter is not his Dad when it comes to acting. And he seems a bit boring in his character. I wish him well in his future endeavours when they inevitably kill “The Event.”
The event is the best show that i have watched on NBC.. I really hope they give it a second chance.. i love the story line and how you have to watch it ever week to stay on track with it.. I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!
My son, myself and several other long term sci-fi fans that I know, only have time to watch the BEST tv series and The Event is one of them. Cut the song & dance and lets get on with the main Event 🙂
Quite all the back stories and be more liner in the story line. This show is not “LOST”
Hubby and I love this show. I really hope that the network keeps it. We can hardly wait for Feb to come.
I think the event is a great show. It takes you about 2 or 3 eposides to really get into it. It is really good and I can’t wait for it to come back in Feb. I Love this show I cant wait till Feb to see what is going to happen next. The network needs to keep it.