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ABC’s midseason drama Happy Town is fading fast. In its second airing last night, the mystery drama (1.2 rating/4 share among adults 18-49, 3.9 million viewers overall) dropped 29% in the 18-49 demo from its disappointing premiere last week. Also down 29% week-to-week in its second outing in the higher-profile 9 PM time slot was NBC’s bubble freshman Mercy (1.0/3), hitting a series low in the new tryout time period two weeks after hitting an all-time-low in its regular 8 PM berth. Mercy faced stiffer competition this week, with CBS’ Criminal Minds (3.3/9) returning to originals.
Meanwhile, Happy Town’s steep decline was due in part to the overall slide of ABC’s comedy lineup. The Middle (2.2/7) was down 8% from last week, Modern Family (3.8/11) down 10% and Cougar Town (2.4/7) down 14%. And it’s not that Happy Town viewers migrated to the broadcast competition at 10 PM. NBC’ Law & Order: SVU (2.6/8) was down 10%, CBS’ CSI: NY (2.2/7) down 15%.
Fox’s American Idol result show (6.3/17, 19.1 million viewers), which won the night for the network, rebounded slightly from the low numbers for the performance show on Tuesday, up by 2% in adults 18-49 and by 9% in total viewers.
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I’d say Happy Town’s steep demise was more owed to the fact that it was horrible than anything else. Sure some people turned in for the premiere because it was so heavily promoted — and then a lot of those people said no thanks. I tried four different times to make it through that dreck — even as background noise while I was cleaning the house — I still had to delete from the Tivo before the last act. Why does ABC keep hiring these same guys to write bad shows that nobody watches?? Sign me up — I’ll write something nobody wants to watch.
Mercy is the best new show of the season. Cast and writing are excellent.
Mercy ought to be back next year with a better time slot. Given the time to grow, it has the potential to be the next Friday Night Lights. It’s routinely growing into a hospital drama that isn’t really about hospital drama.
Happy Town was one of the worst pilots I have ever seen. I made it 25 minutes in and cut my losses. Even tried multiple attempts like WhatWhat?’s The dialogue was painful (would you like some subtext with your buffet of exposition?), the characters cliched, and the premise was pedestrian. I prayed for death to come swiftly.
Happy Town = Harper’s Island, but worse.
What a bunch dolts to have put this on after the Harper’s Island failure.
ARe you guys insane…..MerCY is awful.
There’s zero chance NBC will bring back Mercy for next year. It’s ratings have simply kept going lower and lower. It’s crazy to think that the two medical shows that NBC bought to fill the ER void failed to capture any of the audience.
I loved Harpers Island last year and it had a little bit of success. It wasn’t a total failure. I am obsessed with these type of concepts but I agree this show is pretty brutal. I have watched both episodes and will continue but I don’t think it had a bright future.
Personally, I love Happy Town. I love a good mystery/drama/comedy/thriller all rolled into one, someting different. All tv is anymore is reality tv, cops/criminal dramas or hospital dramas…sheesh, enough already.
Everyone in our home really loves a good mystery. We all enjoy watching Happy Town and would love to see it renewed for next season. Anything would be better than all the reality shows that seem to be so popular these days.
Although the acting is a little weak, I am a huge fan of Happy Town. It isn’t the best show out there but it is entertaining and I look forward to it every week. People should give it a try because its a fun show and besides Castle is still on the air so why not Happy Town?