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 love the v series. please dont cancel it
I love the v series. please dont cancel it
Sometimes it takes a while for a show to get its “legs”. Unfortunately due the the huge cost of these programs the networks can’t afford to give these shows time to mature and develop.
I love the show. Hope they keep it on. It would help a lot of it was easier to find out when it’s on and what channel though, in one’s local market.
The series gets better each week. I hope ABC doesn’t decide to cancel it after just one season. This might wind up being as big as the Lost series is. I hope so anyhow.
The current “V” series reminds me of daytime soaps with the slowness of the storyline developments. For me, the characters have not come across as being compelling, with caring or despising them. What’s lacking in this series, compared to the original V series, was the suspense with how the humans discovered the nefarious motives of the Visitors. The peeling back of the Visitors benevolence was cleverly done in the original series. In the current V series, there were a couple of guys that spelled it out from the get-go. If ABC should end V this season, it would come as… Read more »
I love the new V. It seems any show I like goes off the air. Let’s hope this one get another chance….
“Bring on the lasers”?
Sigh.
Best show on TV
As a fan of the original V series and its sequel, I have to say this version is really boring. One thing I have really noticed is the lack of action. Don’t these Visitors have weapons? If they do they never seem to use them. Bring on the lasers!
I didn’t even know about the old version until recently. All I know is that I look forward to V all week. It is by far my favorite TV series. It is actually the ONLY TV series I watched. I would be thoroughly bummed out if they cancel it.
I liked the old V and the new V both are aweasome! I hope the new V gets more than sesaon. The Old V only had one seaon.
I watched in 2009, but since I don’t watch ABC, I didn’t hear it was back on.
This show is getting better, Better and BETTER as each week
programs.
ABC, don’t end this great show.
I love the new season.. It deserves to be seen for a second season. It will be a big mistake for ABC to cancel it after only one season. It’s new and fresh and as I was also a fan of the original series, this new version is in touch with modern times. I absoulely love it as do many others that I know who watch it.
I couldn’t agree more. For those of you who may not have noticed, Jonathan Frakes (StarTrek NG) directed the Thursday April 15th show.