25 November 2017

The ninth episode of “The Brave” saw a significant decrease in its rating and viewers. Its rating decreased 10% to a .9 for the 18-49 demographic. The show’s total number of viewers decreased by 7.3% to 4.659 million viewers. “The Voice,” which is the lead in for “The Brave,” also saw a substantial decrease in its ratings as well. It decreased 12.91% for the 18-49 demographic and saw a decrease of 4.66% in the total number of viewers. However, this decrease could be attributed to the upcoming holiday weekend.

On November 16^th, it was reported that the first season for “The Brave” will end with only 13 episodes and will not receive a back-nine order. The show has not yet been completely canceled so there is still potential for a second season. The next episode for “The Brave” will air on January 1^st. After the series ends, “Good Girls” will take its time slot. In Cancel Bear vs. NBC, week 8, “The Brave” got downgraded to two cancel bears, meaning that the show is most likely to be canceled by May 2018.

14 November 2017

This week, “The Brave” stayed consistent with last week’s ratings. The show received a 1 rating for the 18-49 demographic, the same as last, and received a total of 5.112 million viewers, a 1.29% decrease from last week. In this week’s Cancel Bear vs. NBC, TV by the Numbers concluded that “The Brave” has two cancel bears. This means that TV by the Numbers predicts the show is likely to be canceled by May 2018.

Although “The Brave” is currently being beat by ABC’s “The Good Doctor,” which received a 1.9 ratings with 10.5 total million viewers, “The Brave” is doing much better than CBS’s “Scorpion.” This week, “Scorpion” received a .8 rating with 4.69 total million viewers. “The Good Doctor” even does better with one of NBC’s biggest shows “The Voice.” Monday nights “The Voice,” received a 1.9 rating with 9.49 total million viewers. “The Brave” does not retain the large number of viewers from “The Voice.” NBC’s best show is “This Is Us,” with a 2.86 rating and 10.654 total million viewers. This show has already been renewed for its third season. In order for “The Brave” to get a renewal, it seems that a miracle needs to happen.

7 November 2017

This week “The Brave” saw an improvement in its ratings compared to last week but did not deviate from the season’s average. “The Brave” had a rating of 1.00, which was a 23.46% increase compared to last week. It drew a total 5.220 million viewers, which is a 14.75% increase from last week. “The Good Doctor,” which usually appears on ABC during the same time slot, was not on this week. Overall, NBC’s 10PM time slot does not deviate much from the 1.0 rating. Last week, Tuesday’s “Law & Order Ture Crime” received a .8, Wednesday’s “Chicago PD” received a .7 and Thursday’s “Chicago Fire” received a 1.0.

The reviews of “The Brave” continue to be bleek. A general consensus is that due to its poor character development, the show is entertaining but really nothing special. Hank Stuever from the The Washington Post said, “With so many fingers hovering over nuke buttons these days, it’s not my preferred form of escapism; for others, it will get the job done.” Diana Werts from Newsday called it a “capable enough time killer, but nothing compelling.” Time will tell if NBC thinks the same.

 30 October 2017

“The Brave” will need much more than bravery to secure a full season order. This week’s episode pulled an .8 in the 18-49 demographic, a 20% decrease from last week. Total viewers also decreased by 9.49% to 4.49 million viewers.  As mentioned last week, “The Good Doctor,” may be pulling some viewers from “The Brave.” “The Good Doctor” increased 11.11% to a 2.0 in the 18-49 demographic and increased 4.70% to 10.88 million total viewers. “The Good Doctor” has the appeal that “The Brave” desperately needs.

According to TV By The Numbers, it is a toss-up for NBC as whether the show will be renewed or canceled. Although the ratings are pretty bad, there has been very little coverage as how many episodes have been filmed, if the show has the potential to be canceled, or if it will get the full season order. With reviews and ratings as bad as this one, I personally cannot see “The Brave” having a second season.

25 October 2017

“The Brave” saw a slight improvement this week. The ratings stayed consistent with the 18-49 demographic with 1.00 million viewers. Total number of viewers increased 6.41% from last week with a total of 5.5292 million viewers this week.

Critics however, are not seeing any value in “The Brave.” Kelly Lawler from USA Today remarked that “‘The Brave’ is a middling and dull military thriller.” She explained in the review that the episodes are “boring and formulaic…in its few action sequences, they’re often bloodless and emotionless.” Week after week, “The Brave” cannot seem to give its viewers the emotion and satisfaction they need to like the show.

“The Brave’s” mediocrity could be due to the success of “The Good Doctor,” which airs at 10PM on Monday Nights on ABC. “The Good Doctor,” also in its first season, has averaged 2.06 million viewers in the 18-49 demographic and 10.818 million total viewers. Vulture.com headlined its review of the show as “The Good Doctor Is Filled With So Much Goodness It Might Make You Sick.” The ratings show that viewers are clearly want to watch a feel good drama much more than a military thriller.

11 October 2017

This week’s ratings stayed consistent with last week’s ratings. This shows that “The Brave” will be consistent in drawing in an audience each week. There was a 1.10 rating for the 18-49 demographic, with a total of 5.138 million viewers. Last week, there was also a 1.10 rating for the 18-49 demographic and had a total of 5.168 million viewers. Adweek released an article comparing all three military shows that are currently premiering this fall. The article quotes NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt who said, “I don’t think of The Brave as a military show, because it’s not like it’s the Marines of SEALs…It is a show that spoke to us and felt hopeful, patriotic and moving.” While the Adweek article did mention how “The Brave” failed to hang on to the audience from “The Voice,” it mentioned how out of all the military shows, CW’s “Valor” is the most concerning show as the networks demographic may be unable to connect to the military theme. This opinion may be correct as “Valor” only received a .30 rating in the 18-49 demographic with a total of 1.198 million viewers.

4 October 2017

The ratings for this week’s episode saw a slight decline. Last week the show received 5.958 million viewers compared to this week’s 5.168 million viewers. Although it declined 13%, the show was able to stay above the 5 million viewer mark despite receiving bad reviews for the first episode. However, it is important to note that “The Brave” only received half of the number of viewers that “The Voice” did, which airs in the time slot before “The Brave.” Last week “The Voice” received 10.570 million viewers and this week the show received 11.043 million viewers. Although there was an increase in the number of viewers for “The Voice,” the same did not occur for “The Brave.” An even smaller percentage of the 18-49 demographic continued to watch “The Brave” after “The Voice” compared to the total number of viewers. Last week, “The Brave” had 1.33 million viewers 18-49 and this week it had 1.10. Last week, “The Voice” had 2.63 million viewers 18-49 while this week it had 2.60 million. Many in the 18-49 demographic are not continuing to watch “The Brave” after “The Voice.” This proves my theory that “The Brave” is geared towards an older audience.

All ratings are from TVseriesfinale.com.

September 12^th, 2017

NBC’s The Brave starring Mike Vogul and Anne Heche will premiere on Monday September 25^th at 10PM. The show was green lit in early January and picked up to series on May 4^th  before NBCUniversal’s upfront on May 15^th. The pilot is written by Dean Georgaris and directed by Brad Anderson. The show is produced by Universal Television and Keshet Studios. The show was originally called ‘For God And Country’ and changed names between the time the show was picked up to series and presented at the upfronts. Production of the show started at the end of July in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico and will continue to the beginning of December. The Brave will compete with CBS’s Scorpion and ABC’s The Good Doctor during the Monday night time slot. It will also compete with a variety of other military shows such as CBS’s SWAT, CBS’s Seal Team and CW’s Valor. The Brave however sets itself apart from following both a special operations unit on the ground and a intelligence office in the United States.

September 19^th, 2017

Deadline’s Dominic Patten reviewed all the new military series that are about to air earlier this week. The competition between “SEAL Team,” “The Brave,” and “Valor” is strong due to every show premiering their first season this fall and encompassing the similar military storylines. While Patten praises SEAL Team, he says that the only bravery one can attribute to NBC’s The Brave, is that “you have to be very brave indeed to sit through it with any level of excitement.” In another Deadline article, it was reported that when asking Executive Producer and Showrunner Dean Georgaris about the competition among military shows, he said “We’re not worried about standing out… We’re focused on doing the best job with our approach, which is immersive.” The show does not have an ongoing plot line and focuses on a new subject being rescued each week. In the interview, the showrunner also mentioned that The Brave is supposed to be a tribute to the military men and women who fight for our country every day. The show is supposed to be an immersive and realistic representation of what these people go through. As the show premiere’s next week, hopefully the reviews will mirror that intention.

September 27^th, 2017

The Brave premiered this past Monday with disappointing and bleak reviews. Variety called it “as generic as broadcast piltots get… its characters are bland and even the action sequences have nothing special to set them apart.” Indiewire also commented that there was poor character development in the first episode, claiming that the episode would have been much more interesting had the network killed off many of the major characters and instilling fear that The Brave deserves. “Nothing about the first episode makes us think The Brave is any different than most case-of-the-week fare built for mass appeal… it sure feels like The Brave is happy playing it safe.” However, Indiewire’s opinion of The Brave may change as the ending of the episode had the main characters playing on the beach when a suicide bomber crashes near them. The pilot ends with an explosion, leaving the viewers to wonder who is going to survive in next week’s episode. Hopefully next week’s episode will provide more character development and thrill for the military drama.