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 watched the entire origanal series of V before the new version aired and I am a little disappointed in ABC for canceling the show after 4 episodes. From what I can tell, the new version of V is following a similar story line from the original version of V. ie we come in peace, offer a ‘miracle’ drug to benefit mankind, 5th column and then the pockets of resistance forces that seemed to sprout up overnight in the first episode. I thought that the first episode went rather fast in the story line and was rather confusing in the… Read more »
I really liked the show and thought it has great potential. Morena Baccarin is a very talented actress. I would love for this show to make it. I am letting it go out though. If they are playing games with its production then its not likely to make it. I don’t want to get invested. If they start over and re-air everything in march 2010 and commit to a second season . . . maybe.
well i think V would have been a great show the first 4 weeks i loved it. I wasnt very happy to hear it was being removed till after march last time a channel did that was a few years ago cbs had what looked to be a huge hit with jericho ratings were great right up till they took it away for 4-6 weeks. then when it came back nobody watched it. i hate how stations are doing this with current schedules. i remember good old TV 23-24 eps per year u would get 12 starting sept or oct… Read more »
ABC where quality programming goes to die a premature death. Pushing Daisies, Eastwick, Eli Stone, Dirty Sexy Money etc, etc, etc,
@johnboy,
You outta be ashamed of yourself. Although the Olympics are part of our culture as a planet, Xylas1 has the right to not like them. I didn’t even lend a second look to the Beijing Olympics. But that isjust one of many opinions I have or Xylas1 has or anyone on the interwebs(ha!) has. If you are so into the world uniting,stop tearing other people who could possibly be from other countries down.
This is a horrible marketing technique. First they throw themselves into a V media frenzy, every commercial break there was always “Anna” speaking of peace infront of the white screen. We’re all hyped. I loved watching “V” as a child so I was excited. Then the series just gets good, the other Vs are coming. Now they cut us off for 4 months. I’m still going to watch but with the shortening attention span of the 18-21 viewers V is bound to lose a hefty amount. Plus I thought the Olympics were NBC’s thing anyways?
I don’t know who makes these calls.This lack of consistency just just cools me to the tv experience.This show is enertaining,then its gone.Happened to many times in resent years.Loyal fans are tiring.
The name calling is boring and far to common in many bloggs.What happened to a right of opinion.
Xylas1, Your a jackass, The olympics are an importaint part of television. pushing daises and v? You should meet the same fate. I was a avid fan of lost untill I had to put up with month long breaks and now 6 or 7 months between episodes? Forget it. I will gladly give up a few weeks of piss poor television to watch my country compete in an age old tradition, winter and summer.
What you talking about? Don’t get me wrong, I love the Olympics too, but come on , I need the SWEETS man. Watched LOST on G4, it was good. It can’t touch V or PUSHING DAISIES. so suck on THAT.
I really hope this show doesn’t get canceled because I’m really warming up to it. But I do admit, taking it off after 4 shows just so they can shoe the stupid Olympics is just plain stupid; look what happened to Pushing Daisies when they did that. That was another blow to the series(which I LOVED so dearly). I this to say to ABC: Get your head out of your ass and get your head straight if you don’t want to lose viewers or you’ll be the butt of many jokes on the web and TV. The hulabaloo about Obama… Read more »
Go outside…play, live, and enjoy life.
I certainly hope its cancelled. The show is TERRIBLE.
Great show!!! bothers me they stopped it so quickly. Better bring it back!!
I only watch V on the web as I abhor the 20 minutes of commercials.. been waiting for a few weeks for V to ‘continue’. Now I know what is going on. They just lost a viewer. I don’t watch TV typically. It is extremely rare for me to pick up on a series. I quit watching Battlestar on cable because of mass commercials, and screwy scheduling. I stopped, and didn’t go back.. even though I loved what I did manage to see. Battlestar is on a future potential list. Mainly due to its accessibility on DVD now. Thanks to… Read more »
The only truly great tv remake was Battle Star Gallactica. It pushed the enevelope and yet stayed true to the core of the original series.
V is a good try but they haven’t really pushed the enevelope on the show enough. Maybe with the real invasion coming it will take a new twist and get the viewers interested again.
I honestly think they want the show to cancel because it shows a certain political entity in a “negative light” and they couldn’t be happier for it to fail hence the extended break. Those whom stopped watching the show more then likely did so for the same reason.
It really is a great show as far as scifi is concerned.