NBC saw big ratings with the start of Smash this week but ABC wasn’t so lucky with their newest show, The River.
Based on the fast-affiliate ratings, the first hour of last night’s River premiere attracted a 2.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 8.2 million total viewers. The second hour dropped 12%, to a 2.2 in the demo with just 6.8 million. This was the worst debut of any new dramatic series on ABC this season — including troubled Pan Am.
On the bright side, this was a significant improvement for the network in the timeslots. Last week’s Celebrity Wife Swap registered only a 1.9 rating at 9pm and the last original Body of Proof (January 17th) drew only a 1.6 at 10pm. Compared to one year earlier, ABC was up 39% in the demo at 9pm (vs V’s 1.8 rating) and was up 69% in the demo at 10pm (vs Detroit 1-8-7’s 1.3 rating.
Still, this was a poor start for The River. Based on the fact that so many people tuned out between the first and second hour is a good indication that lots of people won’t be back to see episode three next week. Based on this start, ABC is probably very happy that they only ordered eight episodes. Hopefully all of them will air before the numbers get too scary.
What do you think? Did you tune in to see The River? Will you be back next week or have you tuned out already? Do you think it will be cancelled after one short season?
Image courtesy ABC.
Every week my kids and I stay up to watch it. One of the best shows on in a long time. Hope it continues as this is something to look forward to every week.
Hate the shaky camera. Hate the constant bleeping out. Got motion sick trying to watch. Too much like The Blair Witch Project that I also didn’t watch because of the shaky camera.
Too much drunk shaky cam. I just don’t get that filming technique. Gives me a headache.
Will not watch it again, too boring and too paranormal, still boring. I only liked the Amazons. I can’t believe I missed NCIS:Los Angeles for the River, wasted time.
ZZZZZZZZZ. Drown it.
I thought it was fine. I was there for both hours but hubby couldn’t last and fell asleep. Maybe a 2-hour premiere was too much considering how late it was on? I’ll definitely be watching it but I have learned never to get too invested in a series as what I like generally doesn’t last. 🙁
Could go either way.
Bad editting, they blank out logos/images if they didn’t want them why did they film it?
It’s a “found footage”/documentary trope.
I watched the first half and it was slow, the second half interfered with two of my other shows so I could not watch it. Don’t know if I will come back to The River. I was not impressed with the first half.
First hour was boring and cliche. Second hour was a lot better but not by much. It wasn’t scary and stole the whole doll / folklore story line from the real Island of Dolls (google it). Still, it didn’t have enough to make me watch next week.
Yeesh; based on this, I think I’ll wait till I’ve acquired multiple episodes before watching them. Unless the numbers go up or hold steady, this one’s going to sink and might be canned by the time I have an entire tape of episodes to watch… I’ll give it a try either way, but I’m not holding out hope that this’ll turn out better than any other show I’ve liked on ABC that was swiftly cancelled.
I liked it, it was intriguing, BUT. It was a bit confusing, jumping around too much, TOO MANY CHARACTERS to keep track of. I think they could have made it a lot simpler if they had cut down on the characters. I will watch again. I’m still ANGRY about “V” getting the boot, I loved that show. I will watch The River again, BUT if it’s as confusing and muddled as last night, I fear that will be it for me.