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.
i hate that it was canceled i loved the movie so much the only problem was that some pple changed there carecters which s bad for a series
I was hooked from the first episode, and have been waiting for its return. It was a show that had so many different avenues that you could’ve take the viewer on. I was looking forward to the second season. Give it another try!!! You may be surprised of the outcome.
Since we’re remembering shows prematurely cancelled by NBC, what about Surface (2005)?
Surface had a cutest digital critter ever (small but fiery to grow huge critter). Surface drew 9 mill viewers at one point, NBC interrupted the show for Olympics, then lost viewers when the show returned after a long gap. Still miss that show. A group of us Surface viewers still keep in touch and the Pate brothers dropped by our forum for a 5-year reunion .. now that’s loyalty!
Just watched The Event on Hulu and I was hooked from the first eps.
A GREAT show, inspite of a few minor writing flubs that could have easily been fixed.
My only complaint is that it did not last. Another example of NBC (like other networks) not giving a series a real chance to catch up to viewers.
I agree, I believe The Event has great potential to entertain its viewers. However, the ever changing times as well as the other factors it lost viewers. It wasn’t so much the actual programs fault as it was the people behind it. Give the show another opportunity. Especially with so much going on in the world right now they can write in a lot of other interesting schemes to liven it up.
Too much nothing going on.
Although mounted with a promising idea, the script, with enormous help of some of the casting, did its best to kill it. The 22 episodes story should be spread in 10 episodes @ the most. Instead it dragged its feet just to give us a cliffhanger that more or less was expected from episode 5.
Too bad cause the idea had solid potential.
I was really enjoying the series, but every other week the time slot would change, or there was pre-emption due to some kind of news / sports, or whatever! I simply got tired of planning to watch it and finding that it was shown at an earlier time or moved to a different date. NBC affiliates do this far too much with their new TV series. They almost purposely jinks their own success and then say they are canceling because there’s not enough fan base. If it isn’t the above mentioned problem, the other is…, as a series does become… Read more »
I think the show failed because of the confusing timeline of events. I had difficulty following the events and the rapid pace does not help. I had to force myself through episodes 1-5 and I thought that it has a mediocre, superficial plotline that seems to go nowhere. I’m sure the writers could have done something to fix it, and by the time the show got really interesting, the audience has already left and switched to other channels. It was only around episode 15 0r 16 when I thought the show gets thrilling and seems to be getting somewhere. I’m… Read more »
The last episode ended on such a high.They should do a movie or a mini series to give the fans closure. I am a huge fan.
After all these months, I still periodically check back to see if there is anything new on The Event returning. Was one of the best entertainment shows in years, so intriguing. If only someone in authority had the vision to properly promote quality until it is recognized by the public. But no, it is all short term for immediate return. That is why the best that most of us can stomach are reruns. Ultimately, it is the Networks that suffer as the public grows increasingly disillusioned.
It’s just stupid. There are so many craps nowdays, and the few really good shows are canceled. No wonder we have unintelligent, stupid youth if they grow on what’s left…
I am so mad that there is not a season 2. Those who stopped watching it are the ones who are too stupid to stick with it to figure what was going on. It was not a bad show, it was suspenseful and entertaining. After the first couple weeks, it all fell into place and was a great show. There are worse shows on that should be taken off the air.
Come on NBC, really?!?!? Couldn’t you have balanced all the crappy reality shows out there with one that has a storyline and something to have your writers flex their creativity? Like someone else suggested, place the show over to SyFy, where I’m sure they’d welcome it.
why would this show be cancelled? i liked it very much. sarah roemer is a very good actress. she is a very attractive woman. i hope they reconsider putting it back on again, very soon.
Can’t believe you would cancel this show. Did it require too much thought to follow for the average viewer. Didn’t have enough mindless robots turning it on every week after American Idol or Dancing with celebrities. With all the junk that’s on TV. The shows you call reality TV. You couldn’t pay me enough to waste time in my life watching that crap. Why don’t you make another show glorifying how great it is to be gay.