The second episode of American Odyssey premiered on Sunday night to a bit of a smaller audience than last time. The second episode brought in a .8 rating/2 share in 18-45 with 4.05 million total viewers according to Tv By the Numbers. It came in second for its 10 o’clock time slot behind Revenge on ABC which earned a .9 rating in 18-49 but 3.84 million total viewers. The time slot is very interesting because Battle Creek lost in 18-49 with a .7 rating, but won overall pulling in 6.48 million total viewers. Revenge is the most popular for younger audiences, and Battle Creek is the most popular overall with older demographics, leaving American Odyssey in second overall, appealing to some people 18-49 but also a slightly older demographic. American Odyssey’s lead-in A.D.: The Bible Continues brought in strong numbers with 7.75 million total viewers. This could be helping keep some viewers for American Odyssey since the demographics may be similar. According to Deadline, American Odyssey fell -27% from its first episode, which did not have the most successful turnout to begin with. It is normal for numbers to fall a little bit from the pilot episode, but when the numbers start relatively low it is hard to come back from. Deadline is already predicting the show to not be renewed, and possibly cancelled before all of the first season airs. Tv By the Numbers is also predicting the show to be cancelled, but only time will tell.
Publicity wise, the Facebook page is doing another Twitter Q&A with one of the stars of the show, Jake Robinson, this Tuesday at 8:30 pm. The Explore American Odyssey page has been updated to reflect material for each new episode. They have also been running promos on NBC, but there hasn’t been too much other publicity being pushed. I think the best way to sum up all of the reviews for the show so far is from Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus: “With a been-there-seen-that premise and multiple muddled plots, American Odyssey can’t escape the shadows of its superior predecessors in an age of solid spy/action television”. The people who are already fans of the show are very engaged.
The writer/director of American Odyssey Peter Horton did an interview with the Hollywood Reporter about the show. He said that he thought the show was better suited for a television network as opposed to cable because it’s a big enough show to handle a network, while it’s good enough quality to raise the bar for networks to compete with cable networks. Horton also spoke about one of the show’s biggest challenges which is balancing the three separate main characters storylines. He said that this season is mostly focused on Odelle and her journey home, but the focus will shift to the other two characters in the future. You can find the full interview here.
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