V: ABC Series Gets Three New Castmembers, Will They Help?

Three new faces have been added to ABC’s new version of V. Can they, or anyone else, help save the show from cancellation?

Like the original NBC version, the new V revolves around the arrival of aliens to the planet Earth. While the visitors profess that they’ve come in peace, their sinister true motives slowly become clear. The cast includes Elizabeth Mitchell, Morena Baccarin, Morris Chestnut, Joel Gretsch, Logan Huffman, Lourdes Benedicto, Laura Vandervoort, and Scott Wolf.

According to TV Guide, the new performers are Charles Mesure, Nicholas Lea, and Lexa Doig. All three are familiar faces to fans of cancelled sci-fi shows.

UK actor Charles Mesure has appeared on Xena: Warrior Princess and NBC’s Crossing Jordan. He’ll play a recurring role as Kyle Hobbes, a mercenary who forms an unlikely alliance with the resistance.

What's the best thing ABC could do to help V? Run a marathon. Run a recap show. A big stunt. Tons of advertising. Cancel it already. View Results  Loading ...

Canadian performer Nicholas Lea is a familiar face from playing Tom Foss on Kyle XY, and roles on The X-Files, Andromeda, and Men in Trees. He’ll be playing Erica’s ex-husband who re-enters the lives of Erica (Mitchell) and Tyler (Huffman) at a crucial point.

Canadian actress Lexa Doig, from Andromeda, The 4400 and Stargate SG-1, will join the series as Dr. Leah Pearlman, an OB/GYN who’s treating Valerie Stevens (Benedicto) after she discovered her pregnancy.

The bigger question of course is if these performers, or anyone else, can help stop the show’s decline in ratings and overcome the long hiatus.

The new V started out strong with a 5.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 14.3 million total viewers. That was the highest rated debut to date of the 2009-10 season. Unfortunately, a large percentage of those viewers didn’t return for the second week. Episode two brought in a 3.8 rating and 10.7 million.

Week three dropped yet again, to a 3.1 in the demo and 9.26 million viewers. In week four, V attracted a third place 3.1 rating for 18-49 viewers and a total viewership of 9.2 million. While those numbers are pretty good on their own, they do represent a 40% drop in the demo when compared to the premiere.

And then, there’s the hiatus. The show won’t be back on ABC until March 30th. That’s more than a four month hiatus and a big hurdle for the network and producers to overcome.

While devout fans may be counting the days until the return, many TV viewers think that V’s already been cancelled. If not, they may believe that they’ve missed too much of the story to be able to catch up.

What do you think? What, if anything, should ABC do to help the new V survive? A big stunt? A marathon of past episodes? A recap special? Or, is it already too late?