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.
PLEASE DON’T CANCEL ‘THE EVENT’. IT IS BY FAR ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS ON TV. WE NEED AT LEAST 2 SEASONS SO THAT THE SERIES CAN BLOOM INTO WHAT IT’S CREATORS ENVISIONED. SO WHAT IF THE RATINGS OUT OF THE BOX WEREN’T GREAT???? AFTER THIS SERIES PLAYS OUT I KNOW IT WILL BE LEGENDARY!!!!!! CANCELLING IT AT THIS STAGE WOULD BE A TRAGEDY, A TRAVESTY, AN OUTRIGHT TV ATROCITY. DO THE RIGHT THING AND GIVE ‘THE EVENT’ A CHANCE TO DEVELOP INTO IT’S FULL POTENTIAL!!!!!!
love the start of the second series
They need to either get the first part of the season out for sale or do an all day showing, to catch folks up and maybe grab some new people. I love the ongoing mysteries, but I do really well with ambiguity. Please, please don’t let another good show bite the dust without giving it time to grow some more.
I loved this show and I loved flashforward and you took both off. Every time I like a show you take it off. I allso like Chase and Good Guys and they were canceled.
I hope they dont just cancel the event though i dont want it to be like lost where it never really ended 2 seasons will be just fine for me 😀
Come on- not another great show that I was totally into on the chopping block! The Event was “must see TV”! I couldn’t wait to watch the next episode- what a well written show that is also well executed! This is so rare in network TV, no wonder the masses can’t keep up- but don’t spoil it for the rest of us! Keep The Event alive!!!!
This show was starting to lose me. I would watch it on the weekend on the demand channel. The last episode aired was pretty good. I think shows like this lose audiences because of all the open-ended story lines. I don’t think people want “cliff-hangers” every week, with every storyline. After awhile, in my case, anyway, I don’t care what happens. And while I’m here, I LOVED “Mercy”, another NBC show. It was very good and although it was sort of soap opera-ish, it tied up some loose ends each week. BRING IT BACK…didn’t even give it a chance in… Read more »
I really enjoyed Flashfoward, it sucked that it was just gone, but really how many flashfowards could have happened it would just repeat the motion over and over again, the Event should be given another chance, it was starting to get really good and intense.
Maybe the fact the it starts out suspensful throws people off and annoys them that they dont understand if from the get go. O’well let see what happens or whats the next show the will come out with, as for comedy, Outsource Rocks!!!! lol
The problem with this type of show is that many people are afraid to become involved in it since the networks have very rapidly canceled others similar to it! From past experience a show that doesn’t grab a large audience in 2 or 3 episodes is virtually doomed, and a show that takes a while to build a foundation or mythology generally doesn’t do this. It’s a catch 22. There have been some exceptions, most notably Lost, Heroes to a lesser degree, Babylon 5, etc. All of which built substantial fan bases dispute early problems, still networks and it particular… Read more »
I loved this show! A coworker and I would always discuss it the following morning. We need some closure!!! Please continue the series.
I would relaunch this show in a new time slot and play the entire first season over again. This is a great show and it reminded me a lot of Flashforward which was also cancelled and I also loved. I am so lookin gforward to a new season!
This is such an awesome show! Maybe the network could have more “trailers” for the next season…they could also do some catch up episodes so it’s easy for people to start new…?
I think I’m getting tired of even watching new shows. If you get into it and none of the rest of the viewing world does well you can kiss it good by. I think they should not start a series without a finale built in. If the great heads of NBC Start it with an ending at least we can say goodby. Come on you idiots we already know your not dealing with a full deck after dropping Jay Leno.
This was a show I couldn’t miss..had to record if not at home…the same thing happened to my other favorite show FastForward! Any show that is intelligent and makes you think and doesn;t just entertain gets cancelled..says alot about the American viewers these days! not to mention the dumb networks!!!!
Give it a chance. Remember all the great shows that initially were terrible in the ratings, only to rebound and become legendary. This is an exciting, intelligent and original series that deserves a chance to blossom.