FOX kicked off the 2014-15 season with an ambitious plan — to air their new Utupia reality show for 52 straight weeks. Will it run for years or be cancelled quickly? A stroke of genius or a big ratings flop?
Utopia follows a group of regular people who are relocated to a remote area and given limited resources. They must figure out how to survive and create their own society. Those who are dispensable can be voted out and replaced with newcomers, as decided by the home viewers.
The series launched on September 7th with a two-hour installment. It drew a 2.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 4.63 million viewers. That was an okay start but FOX execs were surely expecting much better — especially considering it followed a highly-rated football game.
On Tuesday, the series plunged 55% in the demo and 46% in viewership to a 0.9 rating and 2.48 million. The Friday premiere drew just a 0.7 rating and 1.99 million. This past Tuesday’s episode did a bit better but the numbers were still very poor.
Utopia is already doing terribly in the ratings and the numbers are sure to get much worse with stiffer competition on the other networks.
Unless the ratings turn around, there’s no question that FOX will cancel Utopia — the only real question is “when?”. I suspect execs are hoping to keep the show going until their baseball coverage starts in October before they cancel it.
However, if the ratings keep going downward — and it looks like a sure bet that they will — they may have no choice but to pull it even sooner.
Fox Television Group co-CEO Dana Walden says that, despite the soft launch, network execs are “pretty happy and relaxed to embrace the risk.” They plan to be “patient” with the new show.
It will be interesting to see how long before their patience run out for Utopia.
But, what do you think? Are you enjoying Utopia? Do you think it should be cancelled? How much time should they give it? Do you think this could be the first cancellation of the new season?
they didn’t put the right group in just turning in to a frat house of booze and sex and no common sense
I say keep. I can’t believe there are so many hotheads, but that makes it interesting.
I have been watching it since day one, and though it doesn’t have the same intensity as survivor, or trashiness as big brother, I think it should not be cancelled. Seeing how they act over a year is fascinating. I really hope it isn’t cancelled.
Great show. Interested to see the dynamics and how they create this society.
network says they plan to be patient. in other words, they have sunk so much money into this loser they have to keep in on in order to try and get at least some of their money back. That and like morons they scheduled it to fill 2 hrs a week possibly three with a encore show every now and then with nothing in reserve to fill the time if it flopped.
I love love love the show! almost all these people are horrifying! I mean some of them should even be shot for goodness sake. I’m super enjoying .hating these people
If you want a real show about people surviving get rid of the whorie little ******* and the guys with the biggest bananas and get real people that have actual skills to get it done
PLEASE do not take Utopia off of the air!!! My fiance and I adore this show, from Bella and her chicken tractor and her silly crush on the contractor Josh. To Red and Dave and their antics together (and even though Dave is gone, we still love Red.) To Hex and her honest and very take it or leave it personality, to the pregnant social worker/ counselor, to the preacher and his love of God and good influence he has on everyone, to the two love birds and their blooming romance, and now to the new dynamics and twist of… Read more »
i like the show alot and don’t think it should be canceled. fox need to give it more time so more people can be able to discover it. definitely a show to watch and keep on
I think it’s an awesome idea and different than any other show. I and anyone else that’s tired of singing game shows will be pretty upset if it gets canceled.
I love this show!!
I didn’t like it at first, but it grew on me….
KEEP IT!!
Cancel. I watched the premier show and it was terrible. I think they definitely picked the most extreme people who could not possibly live together and thought it would be exciting. It wasn’t. I haven’t watched since and won’t.
Love it!!!
I’ve watched since the beginning. The only thing I’m seeing now is drinking and sex. You might want to be a little more selective in the future. This could be a really good experiment/show. I’d like to see if a group of strangers could actually pull this off!
Right now it’s looking like “Big Brother”. Boring and petty!
Stupid and pointless show! It should be cancelled asap!!
Luv this show
Love it want to see how the pregnant chick does!!! In love with the premises!