NBC’s struggling serial drama, The Event, returns tonight after 13 weeks away. The network has been giving the series some nice promotion and is bringing it back with a two back-to-back episodes. Will that be enough?
The Event had a solid debut back in September with a 3.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 10.88 million viewers. Unfortunately, it fell nearly 20% in week two and another 17% in week three. The ratings kept falling until they seemed to even off at a 1.7 rating and about 5.5 million viewers. That’s a far cry from the promise that the series once held.
NBC put the ailing series on hiatus at the end of November, promising a big relaunch in late February. That return was later bumped to tonight to make room for The Cape, another casualty of the timeslot.
Networks have tried putting serial dramas on long hiatuses in the past and they just don’t work out. Many viewers assume that a series like The Event has already been cancelled, that they won’t remember what was going on, or have gotten into the habit of watching other shows. Whatever the reason, a show like The Event has to fight to get the viewers who were watching pre-hiatus to return, never mind attracting new ones.
Sadly, it seems that it will take a ratings miracle to save The Event at this point and NBC certainly hasn’t shown a lot of confidence in getting new people to give the show a try. More than half of the audience who were interested enough to watch the premiere, left over the course of the first 10 episodes. Of those who did stick around, it’s reasonable to expect that a sizable percentage have moved on after 13 weeks.
If you check our season rankings to date, you’ll see that The Event is currently in the middle of the pack with a 2.2 rating and 6.86 million. If the new episodes can attract the same number of pre-hiatus viewers, it will slowly sink lower down the list. If The Event starts doing Cape-like numbers (a 1.2 in the demo), it’ll fall much quicker.
Either way, unless the ratings turnaround or NBC has no faith in its new pilots, it’s very doubtful that The Event will be coming back for season two.
What do you think? Will you be watching The Event? What could NBC do to save this series or is it too late already? Is it worth saving?
Image courtesy NBC.
I Love this show.
This show is terrific. For people who don’t follow internet conspiracy sites, The Event is like all the different conspiracy stories balled into one, and they are actually making it work. The acting is fantastic as well. I was hooked before it went on break, and was upset at having to wait around. But even with the waiting, I was caught back up by halfway through the comeback episode. Along with the show “V”, The Event feeds a certain hunger of the population. There’s a lot of fans out there for these types of shows if they promote it well… Read more »
I liked the show too, and the concept. I wished it wasn’t so slow, and that I could get to know the characters better…but the dropping the show for so long is annoying. It is typical of networks to not understand viewers, though, so. . . .
I was one of the many viewers that enjoyed the show in the fall. Unfortunately they did it again. NBC stopped airing the show after a while, leaving viewers wondering what happen to it. How do you expect to keep the ratings up when you continue to do this. People get involved and interested and you either change the time and day of the show or you stop altogether. Unfortunately I was unable to watch it last night. I tried to view it on HULU but since I am from Canada I did not have access….why is that?
The Event used to hold promise with me. Now the lack of any semblance of decent writing will doom a show with a mildly entertaining plot and above average acting. The two hour episode last night was absolutely terrible–some of the worst TV I have seen in a while. (I also would have appreciated NBC giving me a refresher without having to watch the previous episode On Demand beforehand)
Last night’s two hour episode was the best yet of The Event. The writing and acting for this series are some of the best on television. The plot is very absorbing. I sincerely hope that NBC renews this series … or … if they must cancel it, please give us a finale that ties up all the plot threads. Thank you NBC for giving us such a terrific hour of science fiction drama!
I really like this show and would like to see it continue. I too sometimes watch it on Hulu so I’m interested to know if those numbers are added in to NBCs figures.
The Event is the only reason I bother tuning into NBC. I hope it returns for Season 2.
I really like this new show and it has a lot of promise. It should get at least one more season to come into its own.
I’m happy to see The Event has returned, totally enjoyed the first half of the series despite being slow moving at times. The story line isn’t all that complex, to pick up new viewers they could do the quick recaps in the beginning like Lost. NBC seems to make a train wreck of all their new shows – they just need to keep it simple. Stop switching the F-ing time slots more than once in a season, don’t take 6 month breaks from filming, and if it doesn’t look like it’s going to work out, write a damn ending. Really,… Read more »
I really like the show and would love to see it to the end. It seems like now a days they bring on a show with a specific story and cancel it before you see the end like the series Flash forward, please give this one a chance. So many shows are broke up with short seasons that were not given a chance to really get interested in them.
I love this show; however, sometimes, I am unable to watch it on Monday nights, so I watch it on Hulu the next day. I wonder how many other people are doing the same thing? My question to NBC would be the following: does the ratings reflect those viewers (like me) who watch The Event via Hulu?
Finally, I think this show is absolutely wonderful and is worth saving!
Keep it…
The Event is a great concept and show very interesting potential. I found every episode interesting, but can understand why others may have tuned out. Several scenes were repeat several times, so it appeared the story did not progress quickly. I was pleased there new episode did not repeat the plane disappearing again. I liked how it progressed and believe The Event will gain viewers.
I personally love this show. I’ve been watching the show since Day 1, and although it may be slow at times, I’m hoping that later on in the long run the show will be interesting and worth it. So basically, I think the show is worth saving and I hope viewers give it a chance.