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.
 Loading ... |
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.
This is one of the best TV shows I’ve seen in a long time. I hope it sticks around for a long time.
The pilot was done very poorly and I almost did not watch another episode. But seeing they were posted to Hulu, I watched it during another show’s re-run.
But what I felt from the show, the story structure is poor and they seem to not to have a clue where they are going.
I say cancel the show, but allow them to wrap up the storyline.
V is something that works best as a limited series, not as an ongoing drama with no real ending.
I don’t think the hiatus will kill V, its bad storytelling and weak plot will ultimately be its demise, its no wonder it had a 40% drop in ratings.
To me, even the pilot was boring. It was like watching a bad episode of “earth: final conflict”
I am a 13 year old girl && i looove V.
i will go psycho if they even try to cancel it.
for the past 2 weeks i have beeen sitting at home wondering why
it isnt on TV now i know 🙂
I just posted that on my blog that I don’t think the hiatus is a bad thing. You have the holiday season where V would be competing against holiday specials, sports, etc. You also have the upcoming Winter Olympics. If ABC is smart, they have 4 episodes in the can already. When Lost starts in February ABC will begin to re-run the episodes of V (AND) show commercials which of course will feature the Lost actress Elizabeth Mitchell who is a main character in V. This will hopefully encourage a few fans from Lost to watch the re-runs of V.… Read more »
V is really good, the show is one of the few SCI-FI shows on network TV that is good and not Lame like Lost or Supernatural or even Smallville. This show has me hook ABC should not cancel it esp after the Life On Mars cancellation, which was one of the few shows last season the was great! Life On Mars was better than Fringe and Fringe is one of the wrost shows on Fox right now, and Fox has the Best shows right now with Glee, 24, and Dollhouse (oops sorry fox you did disappoint me!) and The Vampire… Read more »
I suspect you’re a 12 year old girl and possibly mildly retarded? Am I close? Your grammar tells me that I probably am. Anyone with mature interests and average intelligence would disagree with you quite strongly. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with being 12, being female, or being retarded, I just hope the networks don’t start programming for you to a big degree. Just as long as a show has good writers, with actors that can deliver their lines believably, and the show has a good plot, chances are I’ll like it. Fringe, Supernatural, V, Dollhouse, and even… Read more »
To tell you the truth I’m a 21 year old male. I don’t really like Melrose Place, but I do think that Ashley Simpson- Wentz is hot, I think that is the only reason why I watched, but now that she is gone or close to gone I stopped. As for my grammar Sir or Ma’am I was half-asleep. I’m also a stage actor so plz don’t go there with my level of knowledge cause I probaly have a higher IQ than you do sir or ma’am. And to be quite honest I hate the Twilight Saga! My boyfriend loves… Read more »
“V” had a good pilot, but has progressively declined in quality. I truly do wish it was better, but I think there are a few things hurting it significantly. Number one is the cast. There is ZERO chemistry between the characters for an ensemble show. Hell, even “Heroes” has “V” beat on that one. And number two is the start time, and return time. I don’t know what ABC was thinking when they scheduled a pilot launch for a serialized drama in NOVEMBER. Four episodes, then a three month hiatus? Ya, I WON’T be returning for a mediocre show when… Read more »
I never did care for Lost for one, and didn’t I say I stopped watching Melrose Place, and btw 0.6 is a bad rating! I’m sorry that I don’t keep up on the ratings, and I’m sorry I got the highest SAT Score in my whole town! So before you start saying Lost is a smart show, think about it really think about it, It’s a f-ing rip-off of a sitcom with a little bit of elements from that show called Survivor! If you want to talk smart watch Life on Mars, the british verison not the american remake! As… Read more »
I love J-so idea about the posted or they could have spend ages showing trailers with just V or posters. I do love this show it is riveting, I find with some shows I started texing or something but with this I can’t look away, I love that Joel Gretch is a regular as Father Jack Landry he is superb just like he was in ill fated show 4400 another great sh ow if you haven’t seen it. I think the story is good so far, superb actors and definitely enough of the old show to remind us (yes i… Read more »
V was awsome. ABC should keep. It is better then the rest their new shows. Only Lost can compete with it.
I do agree that the show is getting better and the pilot was way too fast. I disagree completely that people won’t be able to figure out what is going on. It seems that they take great pains to point out every week, who everyone is… what happened previously: (Look this is the renegade alien. Look that is rebel police officer who found out her partner was no good.) Rewatching the episodes on hulu shows my point. The storylines are simple and I think there is a real attempt to keep younger viewers (tweens and teens). About marketing… does anyone… Read more »
V is an amazing show and a great plot line!! If ABC cancells it I will boycott ABC! It takes time to get viewers interested. I have already spread a good word about V and many more have started watching it that I know alone. Keep the story going!
I do watch the show but we have been talking at work. They really screwed up the pilot. It should have been a two hour premiere, with some character building before the V show up. Then once the V show up get some action going. Instead they have the V show at the beginning and then move into charter development and have no action. Snore. We said if it stayed the same as the pilot it would be done. We do think it is getting better but how do you get the viewers back that you have already lost. They… Read more »
Where are the shovels to start digging the hole to bury the rest of V’s episodes?????
I watched the pilot and hated it. Most shows where i end up watching the pilot i get sucked in for at least four or five weeks but this one was a dud. I hope it does get canceled, serves abc right for canceling defying gravity and other great shows in the past. The last season of lost looks like crap too, they just dragged that show out way too long. Want to make a good TV show? have a plan for 3 seasons, and commit to good writing with one main plot and few side stories and sub-plots, V… Read more »
If u cancel this show, I will no longer watch abc. Too many other shows and channels that I enjoy to waste my time on a network that doesn’t care about it’s viewers. If abc has any sense at all, they will keep this show or suffer from a massive loss of ratings.
i was really interested in the show keep it going