Though the television networks don’t seem to notice, remakes of old series rarely meet with much success. While shows like Bionic Woman, Knight Rider, and Melrose Place bring name recognition, they rarely live up to expectations. Still, ABC moved ahead with their plans to revive V. Though it was initially successful, will it ultimately meet the same fate?
Like the original, the new V revolves around the arrival of aliens to the planet Earth. While the visitors profess that they’ve come in peace, their ulterior motives slowly become clear. The cast includes Elizabeth Mitchell, Morena Baccarin, Morris Chestnut, Joel Gretsch, Logan Huffman, Lourdes Benedicto, Laura Vandervoort, and Scott Wolf.
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 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. Last week, the numbers evened off and episode four 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.
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If the ratings held steady, the series would likely be headed for a second season. Unfortunately, in part due to backstage problems, ABC has made the risky decision to split up the season into two parts. The first group of V episodes has finished airing and now, the series isn’t expected to return until after the Winter Olympics in March 2010.
If recent viewership trends have taught us anything, they’ve shown that long breaks can be disastrous for a serial drama’s ratings. People naturally become interested in other shows and any momentum is lost. What’s more, because storylines are ongoing and complicated, few new people feel inclined to start watching midseason.
Shows like Lost and Heroes saw significant drops in viewership when they took long midseason breaks. They both had very strong ratings and a lot of buzz going into their respective hiatuses. Fortunately, enough viewers returned to keep them on the air.
The new V doesn’t have nearly as much viewer buzz and can’t afford to lose many more viewers. If a high percentage of people don’t return to watch the second half of the season, V won’t survive and will be cancelled.
What do you think? Are you anxiously awaiting the show’s return? Will the hiatus kill the new V and cause its cancellation?
Image courtesy ABC.
I think ABC is so concerned with numbers they forget that story telling is part of what makes a great show.
ABC are a bunch of **** teases. Look how they tempted us with Defying Gravity, then pulled it. I should just boycott ABC completely. They have the worst track record for commitment to story telling…
It’s true. I was telling my wife they missed out on a campaign like putting up faux “V’s are out friends” postersi n the subway where someone could spraypaint a “V” over them. It would be very eyecatching but it seems noone has creativity anymore.
Part of the issue with the low ratings is NOT the show itself. It is the idiots at ABC that haven’t committed to marketing the show. They marketed the pilot heavily. After that nothing. They had the ability to tie in some social media and offline marketing. For example in the show you see a web site called “VisitMotherShip.com” but even though WB owns the domain there is nothing there. In fact my web site gets a bunch of people visiting it from Google who are searching for that web address. ABC setup an email program where people could subscribe… Read more »
I wasn’t too interested in V when it started after just being burnt by Sarah Conner and previously with Fire Fly. These shows get me hooked then fall apart.
V is a good show and I hope they bring it back.
If it is to be cancelled, it would be nice if the studio and writers give it a proper ending with some kind of closure rather than just stopping in mid stream like they usually do.
I don’t mind waiting until March to see the second half of the season. Also, regarding the ratings I can only watch it on Hulu. I believe this is a problem for many viewers. Everyone now has satellite services instead of basic cable and most people are not able to receive local programming. Big problem when it comes to viewer ratings. Most people who do have local programming also record the shows to their DVR due to work schedules and other issues. I’m assuming that those viewers don’t count either.
I think V is a one of the best new shows out there. The networks would be crazy to cancel it. If they do it will upset alot of viewers who have become invested in the new show.
First of all, it was a big budget, but the first episode was a dog… I don’t mean that lovable little family pet either, I am talking about the ugly scared up, half starved mongrel that is likely to be put down if the dogcatcher wasn’t busy elsewhere. They didn’t develop half the characters enough so you actually gave a damn, and any twists or surprises that came along had no suspense and were quickly resolved. Not to mention there were a couple of plot holes you could fly a mothership through. Add to that that the original hit miniseries… Read more »
Jericho
Invasion
Surface
Sarah Connor Chronicles
Kings
Big budget = Cancelled.
Up next – V and FlashForward
Keep it.
dumb dumb dumb———–I have lost count of how many very good shows have ultimately been cancelled due to long breaks where viewers lose track of the show & lose interest & become hooked on something else. This seems an incredibly obvious outcome on a series that has a continuous storyline, as opposed to encapsulized episodes. People simply forget what has gone before & in a series relying on suspense, it is deadly. Too bad–I really liked it–much better than the original! Then again, most of the excellent critically acclaimed shows that I latch on to get cancelled in favor of… Read more »
Actually I anticipated the first episode, but the writers bungled it – instead of having the ship arrive and letting people react to it for most of the show and then an announcement from the visitors, they rushed it and built NO suspense.
The show is too rushed, I was bored by the end of the first episode. My wife and son watched the second and quit halfway through the third and proclaimed it boring.
I like the show and I’m annoyed that more short sighted thinking has doomed it. Why can’t ABC learn from what it did to the STILL lamented Pushing Daisies? Save “V”!!!
i’m usually good for one go-to show per season. too busy to get involved in more than that. So after only a total of 170 minutes of show, it’s done. If it is simply a matter or ratings the decision to stop airing the show still would not make sense. I’d like to know more about these supposed ‘backstage matters.’ As in maybe, some of the actors quit? The props burned down? Some impending litigation? What could cause a show to halt so suddenly when it appears to be doing well?
V: We come in Peace. We leave without Warning.
@Sanjo V: The network supposedly wasn’t happy with the way things were going. Production shut down after four episodes so scripts could be adjusted. Scott Peters left as showrunner and Jeffrey Bell, who’d originally been brought in to be the post-pilot showrunner, left as well.
This series is great. The remake is very interesting and it gives room for alot more to do with it then the eoriginal story. Don’t get me wrong, the original was awesome. That is why I started watching this version. The new series should not be cancelled. It is really just starting to get interesting.
As usual, network politics and poor decisions have doomed another good series.
Thanks again losers.