The peacock network has announced that they are ordering nine more episodes of The Event. Loyal fans of the series may be overjoyed but, it’s important to look at the news in context with the ratings.
The Event follows Sean Walker (Jason Ritter)who’s investigating the mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend. He slowly begins to uncover the biggest cover-up in the country’s history. 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.
On September 20th, the freshman series had a positive debut with a 3.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 10.88 million viewers. Unfortunately, viewership didn’t stay at that level for subsequent episodes and the show’s numbers have been declining each week. Last week’s episode fell all the way to a 2.2 demo rating and 6.5 million viewers. That’s a loss of nearly 40% in the all-important demo rating — in just four weeks.
What’s more, The Event has been ranking in third place for the timeslot in the demo numbers. For the first two weeks, it was opposite FOX’s ratings disaster Lone Star but now, running against FOX’s Lie to Me, The Event could easily slip to fourth place.
The NBC press release about the renewal touts that The Event is outperforming last year’s timeslot holder (Trauma) by 30% in the demo. That’s not exactly very hard to do considering Trauma tanked in the ratings right from the start. It only lasted as long as it did because NBC ended up having lots of airtime to fill because of the Jay Leno Show debacle.
While the full season order for The Event is a positive thing for fans who want to see more of it, the series will have to turn their numbers around to survive to see a second season. That’s a really hard thing to do considering the fact that it’s an ongoing serial with lots of mysteries and a growing mythology. History has shown us that this kind of show’s audience typically shrinks over time, not grows.
If the show is cancelled after one season, hopefully the producers will give loyal fans some closure by the last episode — instead of what happened with FlashForward last season.
What do you think? Will The Event see a second season or be cancelled? Why do the ratings keep dropping? How would you attract new viewers — or at least keep those that the show already has?
Image courtesy NBC.
Bring it back with a promise of limited commercials. Many of the comments here say that the show is a bit disjointed and commercials every 7 or 8 minutes is a death sentence for this type show.
Love the show! Kept wondering why I couldn’t find it this and last week. I think it’s just a great concept and needs to go on to at least “finish” things out! Maybe 24 was better, but what else offers such a cool idea and more surprises as it goes along? I’ll take “The Event” anytime with 24 gone!
I loved Flashforward and was dissapointed that it didn’t make it. Please keep the Event!
tastewell hit the nail on the head, its rare to find anthything on tv that grabs your attention but sadly tv is flooded with fake police shows and crappy reality tv, The Event was a something to look forward to
Please do not cancel the show. I loved it, and it was exciting. If you cancel it, you will be making a mistake
Thoughts for the day on “The Event” Lose the flashbacks, they smell of LOST and we know what happened to that show Reveal mutiple story lines to the audience all to be resolved in following episodes, making sure to reveal the answers in a timely fashion, at the sametime as giving the show a direction. Make the story bigger than Ben Hur, you have opened the door to this possibility through the satellite communication to these beings, now act on it. Add more suspense and emotion to the storyline, I believe the actors in the show can deliver this, they… Read more »
It is interesting to read the disaprity in the comments. I have enjoyed this show thuroughly since the begining and can’t wait to get a quiet moment each week away from the rest of the family to watch the latest episode on the DVR. I have been hoping that this show would somehow attract a significant fan base to be able to make it but the TV world is filled with shallow viewers and shallow shows who don’t want, or can’t use enough mind energy to enjoy a slightly complex story line. If it does not make it, I would… Read more »
I literally just discovered the show. Watched each one in succession on my Phone! Anyway I think show is well written. Sometimes I think public at large is so blinded by stupidity or reality shows which aren’t real that they can’t see possible reality masked as fiction. The concept of this show is not only plausible, but probably contains more ‘truth’ than any show on tv. Sometimes I think you Could tell the public everything and they still wouldn’t believe it or consider it unless some fake mind controlling celebrity Tells them to beLIEve it. Anyway I’m surprised this much… Read more »
The Event is poorly written. There is no story, it is just a concept with a few contrived situations that give characters an opportunity to explode bombs and point guns. Same as “24”. The producer of “24” suspended production for a few weeks because the scripts were so bad. This production house has a problem. Also, the show is low budget. Indefensible programming, the show does not deserve any viewers at all.
I hope it continues to at least give closeure. I loose confidence in net works that cancel without a finish.
Maybe a different time slot.
We have watched every week.. but find it confusing, and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. But would like to see it through.
WE NEED SOMETHING EXCITING AND UNPREDICTABLE ON TV…..I AM TIRED OF POLICE STORIES. AND IF I HAVE TO SIT THRU ANOTHER CSI SPIN-OFF, NYPD-SPINOFF, GREY’S ANATOMY SPIN-OFF, OR CRIMINAL MIND, NUMBERS, AND COLD CASE I WILL BE SCREAMING AND STOP WATCHING TV ALL TOGETHER.
The shows flashback are annoying at best. Terribly written! The girlfriend is a ****** actor with bad skin! Do you mean to tell me that there isn’t a smoking hot actress with clear skin that wouldn’t have been 100 times better than the completely dull and somewhat dimwitted Sarah Roemer. Wow, I really hate investing time in a series that tanks so I am cutting it loose today. I mean really Hal Holbrook?
Please keep this series going. Among the sci-fi dramas, it is one of the BEST ever. Can “V.” and keep THE EVENT.
Flashbacks are very annoying. However, they do provide an interesting mechanism to fill in blanks. However, I think you could pretty much watch the episodes in any order and not be sure you are watching them out of order. A show needs to progress. This one is too disjointed. I’m sick at the moment so I just watched all 10 episodes via on demand. I kept getting confused as to whether I was watchining them in order. I’ll probably continue watching, but as a low priority show. Have the writers figure out the plot and get their act together so… Read more »