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 think it needs to be written as a mini series….it’s just to slow moving to withstand the long haul series shows…
The Event is a well written series and I found myself looking forward to watching it every week. The alien survivors have a conscience and a moral code and they are willing to sacrifice themselves for the betterment of mankind. The aliens appear to have the power to destroy mankind but do not. On the other hand, Blair Underwood’s character, the President of the United States, acts very rationally and intelligently in light of the options given to him. His decisions are rendered after much thought and I can relate to them. I think a big problem with the show… Read more »
I really like the show and hate that they took it off the air in the middle of the story! I have been watching it from the beginning and looked forward to Monday nights.
Man I sure hope it works i love this show. Maybe all the Ancient Aliens Series will send people back to watch. I’ll watch it and hope it comes back for a second season. I hope it does not go the way of lost as the writing of that just chased people away
A little bit 24 … a little bit LOST… and some Heroes
too, The Event fills a void in a prime-time schedule with too many
reality shows and not enough scripted dramas. The Sleepers are
intriguing … and Blair Underwood is easy on the eyes.
I hope someone at NBC reads this carefully. The writing on network tv has, overall, never been better. However, when you get a show that has some promise (e.g. Flash Forward) where there is so good character development and a decent story plot, you have millions of people investing their time to watch week over week, only to find out after the holidays the show has been canceled. Not good. I started watching The Event and like many others liked the premise and the first few episodes. However I will not put in the time to watch the remaining 8… Read more »
This show is so boring and poorly acted, I could not begin to care about the characters. If you don’t care what happens to the characters, how can you get invested? I gave up after about 5 or 6 episodes. Reminded me of that other series where the people were kidnapped and stuck in a town they couldn’t leave -shown last summer. I just couldn’t care less what happened to any of the characters.
Damned! I hope the show returns, so far it’s been my replacement SCI FI fix after the loss of LOST and there’s nothing else around that comes even close to that “certain flavor” the Dharmas were putting forward.
I can’t wait to see how the story unfolds. Jason Ritter in particular is proving himself to be a very good actor.
Watched it at first but now it is boring and hard to follow and is going nowhere. I won’t be tuning in in February…..
I just started watching the event on demand an loved it an i cant wait for more!
I think the show should be allowed to die a much-deserved death by obscurity. Anything this poorly written, directed, and acted should never have seen the light of the little screen in the first place. To even air more episodes is to painfully extend the inevitable.
No amount of **** polish is gonna save this beater.
I think they should re-launch it on the syfy channel and maybe do two shows back to back.
On Syfy they can run it several times a week so people have more chances to keep up with the story.
I do like this show and will continue to watch. But folks…really you can’t handle to jumping back in the past?….but you can take all the lame writing….I mean really…you give me a gun with one shell or 100 and my choice is shot myself or shot you…are you serious! Sorry it is you;)
Overall, an interesting show, and worth saving. Part mystery, part political conspiracy thriller, part sci-fi, part psycho-drama. I like the way it delves into the psyches of the characters, but I think it imitates LOST too much by depending so heavily on flashbacks. It needs to develop its own style. I’d like to think it can be saved, but sadly, the odds are against it. The public would rather watch reality shows and dance competitions than complicated science fiction, unless its exceptionally well done. LOST just played every scene and twist perfectly, it seems, and it all came together beautifully.… Read more »