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.
really looking forward to seeing beyond “Red Skies” please don’t leave us hanging!!
it would be very dissapointing if this one wind up incomplette as the oldserie did. And this is the only abc program that has caught my attention. Hope they don’t cancel. Greetings from Costa Rica.
All the begging in the world won’t help keep the show on the air. Look what happened to the Sarah Conner Chronicles.. another great great show that had hundreds of thousands of people begging them to keep it going to no avail.. This one will be just like that…
from someone that was only seven when i watch the first V series to be now 35. i must say that i like this version . i’m not sure how long this can last but i enjoy watching each episode . i like the way they had Anna have human emotion in the season finale cause it leads me to think she can become unglued . the orignal series lacked the power story line and i remeber that from when i was a kid. this one is spreading things around morein my book. example 1 : the 5th column is… Read more »
I absolutely cannot wait until Tuesday nights roll around so I can sit and watch this fantastic program. Keeps me enthralled and a little scared may I add up right up until the last moment. PLEASE OH PLEASE DO NOT CANCEL THIS SHOW life would be so terribly boring without it.
OMG please don’t cancel that great new tv show! It has suspense, I like the story line and the cliffhangers within the show and when it ends. It is NOT implausible, science fiction becomes real science every minute now, look at cloning! I have a lot of friends who watch this show religiously and we would all hate the network for canceling it! Happy town is really good too, a mystery within a mystery, MY GAWD, lose the reality and keep some decent shows alive. We all live in reality, don’t need to see it on tv.
Bette
Well, even though I understand that a handful of people won’t convince ABC to continue this series (as I would hope they would). I escpecially like this series, not giving much thought to the original (which I have seen most of), but it is a decent show, maybe not “great”, but for us followers, it is good enough to look forward to. First off, I can’t really remember much of the original series other than the effects were horrible (good at that time tho!!). I like the fact that it is, somewhat, believable… minus the reptile part… (come-on… the aliens… Read more »
why even bother watching a starting series? X-files, the 4400, Jericho, possibly Heroes….and the list goes on and on, it’s like selling a book with half of the pages missing.
i wanted to buy any season i could find of this show…but if there are already talks of cancelling the show, i’m not even going to bother. this was the last series i even tried to watch.
I really don’t understand the people that make the decisions at ABC. But I feel that the ABC is the weakest network among ABC, NBC, and CBS. Infact CBS has got the real tv shows that I like to watch. The reality shows REALLY? There are way to many of them. the people on these shows need to get a life and not parade their lives in front of everybody elses. Bottom line ABC get your act together, don’t cancel “V” or “Happy Town” you need to give them a better story line an you will keep viewers interested.
I strongly implore you to please keep “V” on the air. Our family makes time to watch it every Tuesday night. Even my wife, who doesn’t even like SciFi type shows absolutely loves “V” and raves about it. The show is intense, riveting, full of surprises around every corner, and incredibly well written. Each episode is so mesmerizing that it’s painful to see it come to a close. The excitement and anticipation for next weeks show is too overwhelming to contain. I don’t know what else to say other than we are completely addicted to the pure genius of your… Read more »
For what it’s worth, Brian, you’re not the only one who despises reality TV shows. While I find that the new “V” lacks some of the charm of the original – partly to blame would be the sterile CGI backdrops as opposed to real sets – I’d still hate to see it canceled after only one season. Here’s hoping they pick it up at least for season 2.
It figures! Another show I like will more than likely get the ax. Am I the only person on Earth that HATES reality tv shows? I HATE Survivor, American Idol, America has Talent, ect. This was about the only other decent scifi show left. ABC if you cancel V then you can kiss my A**!!
I think V is the best thing that’s on TV. Add a major big screen name to the cast and ratings will shoot up. They need to give the show some publicity. Have the cast members on Ellen or some other big name show . Regis and kelly. I hope they don’t cancel it!
This series does have it’s moments, and I like some of the characters, (The new V leader is disarmingly friendly, but of course, she is good at hiding her true motivations.) However, I don’t think this show has the charm of the original NBC V Miniseries. This series is way too serious and too sterile. It borrows too much from shows like “The X files.” I like the idea of the visitors having been here long before the Triumphant entry, but the story lines really aren’t going anywhere. It’s ready for the chopping block.
The production values are high but the show builds way too slowly. Bring on the reveal and the obvious and eventual battle.
i swear to god if they cancel this show i will never watch another abc show!
anrkie — I agree!!! I HOPE To CHRIST ALMIGHTY abc Signs “V” onto a 2nd Season!!
Im Done with them if they dont!! >:-(