When The Event was being promoted last summer, the producers made a point of saying that the series would be different from ABC’s failed FlashForward series. It turns out there were more unintentional similarities than they would have liked. Like FlashForward, NBC’s The Event has been cancelled after one season on the air.
The Event follows Sean Walker (Jason Ritter) who’s investigating the mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend. He slowly begins to uncover a huge cover-up that’s beyond belief. 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.
The serial drama started out with healthy numbers on September 20th, registering a 3.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 10.88 million viewers. Unfortunately those digits started to fall immediately. The series lost 19% of its demo viewers in week two and another 17% in week three. From there, things basically just got worse and worse.
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NBC announced that they were putting the TV series on hiatus over the holidays and indicated they would give it a relaunch in early 2011. That’s never a good sign and it certainly didn’t help the ratings. The Event lost more than 26% in the demo between its last episode in November 2010 and its first in March 2011. The ratings stabilized but not at an acceptable level.
The Event currently averages a 1.8 in the 18-49 demographic and 5.72 million viewers. As poor as that is, the average is only that high because of the early season numbers.
It’s no surprise that NBC has decided to pull the plug. There are two episodes remaining in the series and thankfully they’ll provide some sense of closure for the devoted fans that hung in there.
What do you think? Why didn’t The Event survive? Why did so many people bail on the series, even before the long hiatus?
Wondering where the rest of your shows stand? Check our NBC cancel/renew page.
Image courtesy NBC.
Dear NBC….I tire of you canceling great shows such as Knight Rider, Bionic Woman, The Cape and now the Event. You are complete cowards for not taking on Wonder Woman. The Event is a great show. Also you CAN NOT always believe Nielson Ratings! I have not polled about the show. Did it ever occur to you that those Nielson Rated are NOT ALL of your fan base!!!!!!! Hello McFly!!!!!!
How are these ratings done. I’m an avid TV watcher, in fact some of us at the office joke that’s like a second job (thank God for DVRs). Anyway, I’m tired of these shows getting canceled. I really liked the Event and now it looks like we may miss the actual “Event”. That sucks.
@Terry You are so right about the actress playing Layla! This monday (spoiler! don’t read it you didn’t watch it this week!), she’s literally dying, her boyfriend is trying to convince himself otherwise, has tears in his eyes, and she’s just blank: no tears, no expression! I’m no actress, but I can cry really easily and this should’ve been a walk in the park, yet she can’t pull it off. I can’t believe so many talented actors out there have no work yet this girl lands a big gig with almost no skills. I feel bad for her really, she… Read more »
I usually love sci fi, but while this show started strong, it just got worse and worse. The reason why it was cancelled is easy — bad writing. Period. After watching all of the predictable plot “twists,” I’d like to see the aliens prevail. I can’t stand any of the humans on the show. Blech.
Not a bad show and the plot twists and turns have kept things interesting. But the one huge beef I have with this show is the two romantic leads – Sean and Layla. He’s not much of an actor; pretty plastic and one-dimensional. But her??? Wow! She may be attractive but she is hands down the worst actress (or actor) I’ve ever seen on prime time tv. I mean, how does someone with absolutely no acting skills get a role, let alone a lead role, on prime time? You have to wonder how that girl got the job… I almost… Read more »
I agree with you Terry. No expression (notice how her scared, happy, sad and mad face are all the same). Must have been a light casting call!
I really enjoyed watching “The Event”, and as much as I would like to see a second season, this type of story is better served in a mini-series format, with one one season. Shows like “24” were able to avoid that because the storyline would get completely renewed each season, which was ideal. I have to say the second half of the season we’re being served right now is a lot better, and overall the show was great. I stuck through “Flashforward”, desperately hoping for something good, and “The Event” is much more successful in that sense. “Lost” will never… Read more »
[…] TV show dates: September 20, 2010 – May 23, 2011 Series status: Cancelled […]
The event was a good show. It’s very disappointing that they cancelled it.
The Event is an engaging, well-acted, and well-scripted sci-fi show It’s something DIFFERENT on primetime network TV. Are the monkeys throwing the darts at the programming schedule boards again? If I see one more silly, gratuitious “reality” show, I’ll scream. Enough is enough all ready!! There are intelligent people who would like to use their brains and have a participitory experience with a TV show — something that we could stand around the watercooler the next day to discuss. How many of us would prefer that to those dime-a-dozen, phoney-boloney, oh-so-coached reality shows overtaking our TV experiences at a greater… Read more »
You are exactly right! Reality shows are a mindless waste of time. And I get sick of shows like Criminal Minds. It is a shame that shows that actually take an IQ to watch always get cancelled, e.g., Flash Forward, Jericho, and now The Event. The result is that we only have brainless TV so all the mindless will be happily entertained!
I’d agree with Linda and Charl too – If we take a step back and seriously consider the fact that a program like Jersey Shore is one of the most, if not the most watched TV show then we just have to realise that we wont get shows that are as in-depth or involved as they used to be. Albeit Jersey Shore may be funny to watch because they are all head cases, and albeit certain actors needed to be changed in The Event, but it’s getting to a stage where shows are getting cancelled left right and centre! The… Read more »
I liked the Event but I have to say I think it would have played out better as a mini series, just because of the nature of it. But that being said I hope they will actually end it and not leave us hanging with loose ends.
Well, it was expected. They shot out in many different directions simultaneously, said they were avoiding similarities but each storyline was similar in some way to a successful TV show. I “saw” LOST, “X-Files”, “Flash Forward” and some incredible things that just can’t be (even on a TV Series).
Starting with ep. 14, it seemed to be picking up again but the actors are too “weak” and create “non credible” characters.
R.I.P. “The Event” – and may we one day know what “the event” was meant to be!
Craig, I’m thoroughly annoyed that network TV has become one crappy reality series after another. I think Lost wasn’t a one-time thing, but it had what The Event did not- a great idea that was executed VERY WELL. The Event got boring- VERY boring, and there were storylines that I found myself fast forwarding through on my DVR. Each episode didn’t advance the story enough, and some of the mysteries weren’t engaging enough to care about. I liked some of the actors, but others were awfully annoying.
People who watch network TV are not really interested in a serial series like this. Lost was a one time thing. It won’t happen again. Serials only work for soap opera stype plots like Grey’s Anatomy, and thankfully, they don’t work very often in that format either. The event would have been much better as a focused mini-series or maybe as a series on a cable station like SyFy.
The concept itself wasn’t bad, but the execution sucked, especially in the beginning. It tried too hard to be another LOST. I’ll miss the actors involved, but not the show itself and I’m actually a little glad that NBC had to end up cancelling The Event (as predicted) because this is the show they threw their weight behind when they decided to cut The Cape off at the knees (another not-so-great show, but definitely a lot more fun and full of promise than this one).
Just like flash forward u get involved & they cancel it on u. I doubt NBC knows what they are doing Lost (was marginal on the first season) Friday Night Lights great show canceled. The Event great show canceled, I am surprised they didn’t cancel Parenthood the only over show I watch on NBC. You now have to go to cable to get anything other than stupid reality which we all know is not reality but producer making the guible think it is some-one’s reality.
I believe so many viewers left early because of the horrible acting!!!
I agree… it was definitely the acting that turned this show from promise to demise very quickly. Sarah Roemer is expressionless; “Sean” suddenly became a master of all, but Jason Ritter unfortunately couldn’t pull it off; and so on. I have to say, though, I actually liked watching the show (just wanted to replace the actors!).
Thank god it’s over. So many plot holes, so predictable, so unbelievable. I can suspend my disbelief for science fiction, but it has to be consistent and at least seem plausible.
Well, I am one of the minority, unfortunately, that really liked The Event. It had many twists in plot and caught my attention immediately. This is just another good show with a good plotline that didn’t catch on to the buying consumer.