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 watch this show at Hulu. If NBC cancels The Event that simply demonstrates once again that they are really dreadful at programming choices…nothing else they air is worth watching at all. Lots of better things to do.
I too miss Medium but at least it had a good run.
Ratings are a poor measure nowadays – almost nobody watches shows when they air – it’s all on demand. Especially for the audience segment that enjoys sci-fi.
Give it some time. It is a great show. I think V and Event are both very good but unfortunately, both will probably be cancelled. Could any other network like sci-fi pick them up?
I agree that The Event should be saved–it reminds me of the Twilight Zone and the twists and turns are amazing. Is the Prez’s wife an alien? Seeing the Washingoton Monument fall was scary real. Are the “Sentinels” different from the aliens? Sophia is a really compelling character. C’mon NBC keep it going!
I really hope this season continues!!
It is the only non cable series I have ever enjoyed
and I am pulling for season 2!!
I cannot believe such a great and provocative, thoughtful show as The Event is being canceled. Do we just have a bunch of mindless idiots left on the planet? We deserve to be killed off by The Sleepers!!
I stumbled upon this when it returned and watched all the previous ones to catch up; now it’s my favorite Monday night show, even bumping Castle. Please don’t cancel a story line with so much potential and a show with convincing and moving actors.
i love the event, its my favorite show and ive watched every episode from day 1! I look forward to it mondays at 9 and i hope to see it continued, even though i have a feeling it will get canceled 🙁
I thought it was a pretty solid series until that shootout in the police station in ~ episode 4 or 5. That Vicky, an ultra-competent professional bad-guy would slaughter her comrades like that just required too much ‘suspension of disbelief’. I stopped watching at that point.
Why is it that we have to fight to save the good shows and the poor ones thrive. A sad state of reflection upon the American public.
This show rocks and is the only one I make a point to watch each week. Even Cheers did not do well after its first and second season and look what it became.
Jericho, Flash Forward and other shows that were great just can’t seem to find the audience necessary to justify them being continued….it’s very sad.
I started watching The Event from the beginning. It started slow, and to tell the truth, I almost gave up on it. However, when it returned from it’s Hiatus, I started watching again, and now, it’s peeked my interest. The show is picking up steam and becoming exciting. I’m hooked and look forward to the next episode. I hope that NBC will give the show one more season to prove it’s worth. I know I’ll be watching.
If NBC cancels the event, it will prove they are ran by retards.
This show was my “Lost” replacement. Though not the caliber of quality of Lost it certainly helped to fill the void. What does NBC expect when the show disappears for 13 weeks. Of course people are going to forget about it. I can”t understand these long gaps. It used to be that TV shows ran their 26 or whatever weeks and then you saw it again next season. It’s just not enjoyable to be into a show and then it disappears for 3 months.
Love the event! Hope the find a way to save it. The new episodes have been excellent.
My wife and I love this show – it’s one of the few TV shows we watch at all, after most of our favorite shows have been cancelled (Flash Forward, Heroes, and Medium). If The Event is cancelled, we’ve decided we’re going to cancel our cable service altogether and watch TV on Hulu and other online formats. We never watch shows live anyway (always via DVR or on demand later). There’s just nothing on any longer to justify paying for cable TV service.
I am a huge fan of The Event, and this was an excellent episode. Yes, it sucks that they killed of Thomas (Clifton Collins Jr., from “187” [check it out if you haven’t seen it]), but this may not be the last we see of Thomas! Think about it, when this show started, they were showing scenes from occurrences that happened in earlier years, the 40’s, 50’s, etc . . . I think that as this plays out we will start to experience a backstory, detailing the history of the aliens, and what was happening before they crash landed on… Read more »