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.
Yes… Please save the show!
The Event needs a 2nd Season! Amazing cast! Brilliant show! Please DO NOT CANCEL!!
The Event and Harry’s Law are the only series I watch. Please do not cancel this show.
My whole family and i watch this show, we mostly DVR it bc we have busy scheduals but we always make time to see it! PLEASEEEEEEEEEEE dont cancel it! i only have 3 fav shows i ALWAYS watch, Fringe, House, and THE EVENT! noooo dont cancel it!
The Event is a well-written, well-plotted, well-acted series. It would be stupid to pull the plug. It is one of my favorite shows to watch. Maybe the network and the producers need to learn a lesson here ~ long hiatuses, not the show itself, sink the ratings.
keep it on
his is an excellent series which i watch consistantly…….it should continue
It’s a great show!
Running us off, Really! is that what you want? Makes me wonder if Networks bought stock in the internet. All those cancellation is not bring in anymore viewer to the Networks . IT HAS NOT HELP THE OVER ALL RATING! BY the old rating system, season after season you bring more cancellation. I think you should invest in a PR man I Love The Event. I am sitting on edge of my chair with excitement. Just like last time. Each season we are forced to put ourselves out there and try new shows, only to have them canceled after 1… Read more »
I only heard rumors about how stupendous this show was in this last week; just two or three. I like it. I find similarities to 9/11 theories; i.e. Thomas looks like Mohammed Atta. …high technology kept secret by the Nazis after WWII. I just watched the first 6 episodes tonight and plan to continue. Keep it on, but I want to see this technology up closer pretty soon.
Love the show hopefully they will come to some closure before it goes away,
I love The Event! It was a slow start, yes, but it was SO worth it now because the show is awesome! Once the show stopped focusing on Sean and Leila, it improved drastically. Less Leila = better.
Keep the Event on!! I love this show! Don’t take it off, save it!!
I like the basis of the show. Moves a bit slowly without building much suspense. MOST importantl, I think some of the actors are not believeable in their roles. I don’t think
either Jason Ritter or Blair Underwood are good in the roles as cast.
I LOVE this show!!! We look forward to watching it every week!!! PLEASE DO NOT CANCEL THIS SHOW NBC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love this show! Please don’t take it off. This is the first time since Martin that I have been so excited about a show and actually follow. I make sure not to miss one episode. Please, NBC, spare this awesome show!