‘Blindspot’ finally premiered this week, and it did not disappoint! The show launched on Monday night to a huge rating and share percentage. ‘Blindspot’ took the number one spot in the 10pm time slot, edging out veteran series, ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ and ‘Castle’. The show premiered with a 3.1% rating and a 10% share. The show took in a live viewing of 10.06 million viewers.
Behind CBS’s blockbuster, ‘Big Bang Theory’, NBC owned the night with ‘The Voice’ and ‘Blindspot’. As the week progresses, it will be interesting to see the DVR numbers.
It is no surprise that ‘Blindspot’ premiered so well. NBC really pushed hard for the show, using Time Square marketing and a Comic Con panel. It was the most advertised new prime-time show on NBC’s line-up… and it looks as if it really paid off. Because premiere episodes always tend to achieve higher numbers, it will be interesting to see how well the audience sticks in coming weeks.
NBC took 114 million viewers by surprise when it debuted the Heroes Reborn trailer during the 2015 Superbowl. Before this reveal, there was virtually no chatter indicating any expectation for the revitalization of the critically acclaimed series Heroes. However, with the premier just days away, the hype for the 13-episode mini series continues to rise due to the expansive marketing push from NBC.
Though its going to be hard for NBC to top the iconic “save the cheerleader, save the world” slogan, Heroes Reborn has been making waves with its stunning movie posters and electrifying trailers. Check out the most recent trailer below.
Along with various public appearances by the cast at big name events such as Comic-Con and TIFF, NBC furthered its promotional efforts with a digital prequel series titled Hereos Reborn: Dark Matters that fans can stream directly from the NBC website. Additionally, fans are anxiously awaiting the release of a Heroes Reborn video game.
Lastly, this week NBC brought the final push by taking the series to Times Square where fans could interact with the show and “become a hero” through an interactive photo both and multi-visionary experience. All of the fan created content was shared via social media.
It will be interesting to see how NBC continues to promote the show after the September 24th premier.
The early reviews for “Blindspot” have been relatively positive. The critics are all agreeing that this seems like an exciting new show calling it, “the surest drama bet this fall” (Eonline). Jamie Alexander is proving to be an interesting leading lady that has everyone talking. “I have been waiting for Jamie Alexander to snap a leading role worthy of her badassness and she’s definitely found it” (Eonline).
The demographics for the Greg Berlanti produced show fall in line with some of his other shows, such as, “Arrow”, “The Flash”, and “Supergirl”. The action/thriller, “Blindspot” is marketing to the (mostly) male demographic, similar to that of other “superhero” shows. Even though “Blindspot” is not a superhero show, many elements and similarities can be drawn in correlation to the main character and superheroes.
The social media outreach on “Blindspot” is relatively low, with only 9,932 followers on twitter and 1,712 instagram followers, but holds a decent 90,216 likes on facebook. However, I do expect those numbers to grow once the show premieres next week.
Five years after fans said goodbye to the critically acclaimed NBC drama Heroes, creator Tim Kring is bringing the fantasy world of superpowers back to the small screen with Heroes Reborn. While the 13-episode event doesn’t pick up where the original series left off, the show is set in the same world as Heroes and some original characters appear. Heroes Reborn premiers on NBC on Thursday, September 24th at 8pm staring Jack Coleman, Ryan Guzman, Robbie Kay and Gatlin Green.
The show picks up one year after a terror attack in Odessa, Texas that left the city decimated. The world has just come to find out about Evolved Humans, those possessing powers, and blame the “Evos” for the attack leaving them hunted and outcast. The series follows those who survived the attack and the hunters seeking them.
For Heroes fans, the show is a welcome glimpse at the series they know and love. However, many wonder if this mini-series can carry its own fan base.
“Blindspot” is a sci-fi/thriller/drama that stars Jamie Alexander (Thor, Rest Stop) and Sullivan Stapleton (300: Rise of an Empire). Alexander plays Jane Doe. A character who wakes up in the middle of Times Square with no recollection of herself or how she got there. Adding to the mysterious aura surrounding Doe she has tattoos all over her body, including a back tattoo of the name of, F.B.I. agent, Kurt Weller. Why does she have these tattoos all over her body? Specifically one of an F.B.I. agent? Where is she from? What is her real identity? You can find out when “Blindspot” premieres Monday, September 21st at 10pm on NBC.
“Blindspot” is taking the time slot of “Night Shift” from the Spring 2015 television season. Following NBC’s two hour block of “The Voice”, “Blindspot” goes up against the long running series, ABC’s “Castle” and CBS’s “NCIS: Los Angeles”. The pilot episode leaked online a month prior to the show’s premiere date, so it will be interesting to see how the ratings reflect that.
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.
As far as the internet is concerned, The Slap never existed. Where many shows, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones come to mind, engage viewers the entire year (including the off-season), The Slap has had little to no activity since its finale. On April 7th, five days after the season/series finale, its Twitter and Facebook posted the same thing. They each posted the same quote with a picture of the cast. The most recent news article is from April 4th, just two days after the finale. This seems like a surefire sign that the rumors of cancellation are true. If no one is talking about a show, there’s no reason to keep it on air.
The quote on the social media posts was, “At some point you’ve got to decide what kind of person you’re going to be.” The Slap had to decide what kind of show it wanted to be. It apparently chose to be a show that no one was really going to miss.
My past predictions for One Big Happy were false. I thought the show was going to flop because of its worn out comedic strategies, but I was wrong. Critics were still harsh about the show last week but more and more viewers say that the show is growing on them. Last week’s rating (March 31st) was 1.2 with 3.9 million viewers. This week, the rating increased to 1.3 with 4.7 million viewers. I believe the reason for this increase is One Big Happy’s compatibility with its lead in show, Undateable. After doing some research, I was also able to find that the show ranks number one at 9:30 PM among the “Big 4” in women 18-49 and 18-34. It tied for number one in adults 25-54. The show also generated NBC’s third highest 18-49 rating in its time slot since November 18, 2014. Now that the show has grabbed the attention of a decently large audience, it needs to do what it can to keep that audience loyal. Ellen will have to continue promoting the show due to her high celebrity status and the success of her talk show. There has been no predictions for a show renewal.
American Odyssey debuted on Easter Sunday in the 10 o’clock slot on NBC. TV By the Numbers reported that it received a 1.2 rating and a 4 share with 5.4 million total viewers in 18-49. It beat Battle Creek on CBS in 18-49 ratings and share, but lost in total viewership. Battle Creek received a .7 rating and 2 share, but had 5.6 million total viewers. A.D.: The Bible Continues was the lead in which brought in 9.5 million total viewers, so there was a significant drop-off between the two programs, but I attribute that to the biblical nature of A.D. on Easter Sunday.
The first episode has received mixed reviews so far, with slightly more positive feedback than negative. American Odyssey has a 55% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 59% on Metacritic– not overwhelmingly good, but not terrible for the first episode of a television series. Critics are saying that there are too many storylines going on that are too contrived. Another critique of the show is that there are a few lapses in logic and coincidences that held advance the storyline. Positive reviews of the show have complimented the complex storyline calling it clever and fresh. It is difficult to make a conspiracy story with a unique story that also sticks as close as it can to reality, and it seems to me that American Odyssey is accomplishing that pretty successfully.
The Slap finished this week with 3.13 million total viewers, a number mostly on par with the rest of the season. The episode seemed to wrap everything up nicely. The slapper received his punishment, the parents of the slapped child were taught a lesson and, in a time jump, they all learned to coexist. For a show called The Slap, it doesn’t seem like there is anywhere to go from here. Though one of the producers of the show was holding onto hope that there would be a season 2, it looks like that is not going to happen. According to tvseriesfinale.com, NBC has confirmed that Thursday’s episode was its last. The mediocre ratings could just not justify continuing with the show. Plus, with a Metacritic score of 62, it wasn’t exactly a critics’ darling that could score the network any prestigious awards.
The Slap has been through a lot of criticism in its 8 weeks. It’s hard not to argue the show’s wasted potential. With such a great cast, big names behind the scenes and the support of NBC, this show could have been a very interesting turn for the struggling network. Instead, it filled its episodes with wildly unlikable characters and became yet another one season wonder. In this day and age, it is always possible this show will find new life elsewhere (i.e. Netflix, Hulu) but I highly doubt it has that kind of dedicated fan following.
