Hot Trailer: ‘Man Of Steel’ 
Former Digital Domain CEO & Auditors Sued For Fraud By … 
Fox Acquires ‘Narc’; Zac Efron Attached To Play … 
ABC’s ‘Nashville’ Undergoes Production … 
CBS Wins Season & Ties Sweep In Demo; ABC Tops Adults … 
Mike Lobell Adds Cast To ‘Eisner,’ Plots … 
Sony Shares Rise On Report That It Will Consider … 
Alki David Agrees To End Name Games With Aereo And Barry … 
Next-Gen Xbox One Unveiled With Content Including … 
UPDATE: Apple CEO Challenged For Moving “Crown … 
ESPN Layoffs Could Reach 400 As Part Of Latest Disney Cuts 
Cannes: Weinstein Co Acquires Keanu-Reese Sci-Fi Pic … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Up … 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Wolverine’ 
Ang Lee Departs FX Pilot ‘Tyrant’ 
How Many Times Does Seth MacFarlane Have To Say No To The … 
Cannes: Stanley Weiser To Script ‘Three Graves … 
Cannes: Deadline Crashes Palais Forum With Costa Gavras, … 
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ $164.5M Global: Lower … 
‘The Great Gatsby’ Starts With $5.4M … 
UPDATE: ‘Iron Man 3′ Box Office Crosses $1B … 
NBC’s ambitious new drama series Awake opened last night with a 1.9/5 in adults 18-49 and 6.2 million viewers. While not a great number by any stretch, especially against all-repeat competition on the broadcast networks, I feel like the series starring Jason Isaacs did what it could with what it was dealt — a complex, original concept that is not easy to promote (like the fairytale characters from Once Upon A Time for example) and a spot in a faltering NBC Thursday lineup that has become tarnished as the graveyard of 2 flops already this season, Prime Suspect and The Firm. For what it’s worth, Awake‘s premiere did better than the openers of both of these series (a tenth up from Prime Suspect‘s debut, 36% up from The Firm’s) but they faced stronger competition. Awake‘s premiere was also probably impacted by the woeful state of most of NBC’s schedule (except Monday). It’s hard to promote a show when very few people are watching. For instance, the highest-rated NBC program on Wednesday, the night before Awake‘s premiere, managed a 1.6 in 18-49. Last night, Awake was the second-highest NBC series behind The Office (2.5/7, down a tenth from last week). Awake actually built onto its lead-in, Up All Night, which logged only a 1.6/4, also down a tenth. Earlier in the night, 30 Rock (1.4/4) was down a tenth, while Parks & Recreation (1.7/5) was flat despite mostly rerun competition on the other networks. Underscoring NBC’s deep ratings troubles this season, Awake posted a season high for the network in the 10 PM slot. It was the third highest-rated drama series debut on NBC this season behind Smash, which has a huge lead-in from The Voice, and Grimm, the only new NBC series this season that qualifies as a (modest) breakout, getting on the board with no big promotion or lead-in.
Fox’s American Idol (5.3/15, 18.3 million) was the only series to take advantage of the lesser competition last night as ABC and CBS switched to repeats post-February sweep. The episode, which determined the show’s 13 finalists, drew Idol‘s biggest Thursday numbers this season, up 18% in 18-49 and 17% in total viewers from last Thursday. It goes without saying that Fox won the night in all key measures.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
Loading ...
It has been free on iTunes for weeks.
I wonder if the fact that the pilot has been available online, On Demand, etc. is taken into consideration when deciding how well/poorly the episode performed.
THE NEW GIRL was free as well.
True, New Girl was also free, but I will regularly rewatch 30-minute comedes whereas I rarely rewatch an hour-long drama. Next week’s numbers should be the real tell.
I thought the pilot was fantastic and Jason Isaacs performance was nothing short of perfect.
I hope they sell it to TNT or USA like they did Southland and Leverage and Burn Notice so it stands a snowball’s chance in Hell of succeeding, because it’s a interesting show and deserves time to catch on.
I saw it on iTunes. Actually quite enjoyed it. Very ambitious – I’ll give it points just for trying something different. Not sure about the ad-campaign, though…a bit bland.
I think this is one of the most intriguing new shows I’ve seen in years. The whole episode was handled beautifully and Isaacs is such a pro. Please don’t cancel this one. I think it’s fan base will quickly grow from word of mouth after this premiere.
Agreed.
Isaacs makes this show for me – he comes across as very authentic. I’m just hoping they can prevent the overall story from getting all Lost-ified and spiraling out of control – not sure how they’ll be able to pull this off seeing how there seems to be some overall conspiracy against the main character.
Fingers crossed.
Not sure how you read conspiracy into the pilot, but sure, okay.
Awake is a quality show. Quality does not always mean high ratings unfortunately.
The problem with NBC is that no one trusts them anymore because of the Jeff Zucker era.
The way to rebuild NBC is to start doing quality dramas first. Then, people might come back. But, 1st their dramas need to be top quality in order to create a new perception. Luckily they have Bob Greenblatt leading them. Bob has great taste.
Great taste? Isn’t he the same guy who gave the OK to “Whitney” and “The Firm”?
Whitney was in development when Greenblatt took over. Unfortunately, from a money standpoint, stupid, asinine, multi-cam comedies are great for networks. If NBC can license it into syndication they’ll make TONS of cash. A show like COMMUNITY doesn’t have the same syndication value.
THE FIRM is co-financed by a French company, significantly lowering NBC’s financial liability on it.
Keep in mind that Bob Greenblatt is behind virtually every big show on Showtime now and was the architect that made them competitive, if not better outright, than HBO. He took over a wasteland of a network and won’t be able to rebuild it in a day. I haven’t loved his moves so far, but I’m holding out hope.
I hear awake’s second episode is not to be missed
Awake is a flop
Well gosh, between Nellie’s post and your comment, how do I know who to trust?
Jason Isaacs- frequently unintelligible while (m)uttering dialogue. BD Wong- boring as always, wife and kid- nothing to their characters, boring performances..Harris and Valderrama- pretty compelling..Tennis Coach- talk about forced scenarios (breakdown at net? Then Diner scene?Ugh- is she a relationship ambulance chaser type of woman?) I loved LONE STAR- all those character seemed real, 3D- this PREMISE- probably not sustainable- doesn’t matter if the characters are boring…
While I think the promotion of a show by premiering the pilot early online and on iTunes is a good idea I do wonder how much that hurt the numbers for last night. We will have to see if they improve next week or not with the first new episode.
I watched the pilot on the internet weeks ago…so its not a surprise that people who might enjoy a provocative show, would have seen it on internet already. I am hoping in the coming weeks it builds an audience. I found the show fascinating…its already on my DVR (as was Prime Suspect) what the networks, critics, nielsen don’t get is that appointment tv is a thing of the past…stop gaging using an antiquated system…
You have to remember that Nielsen ratings do account for DVR usage (in the Live+3 and Live+7) so shows that have a bigger DVR following are reflected. BUT given that you can skip commercials, advertisers care more about the live ratings.
Hey a 1.9 on NBC is like a 6 on Fox. We need to grade them on a bell curve.
Isn”t Awake written by the Lone Star guy. One man two lives. One idea two shows. One career two cancellations.
Pushing it online prior to the premier has no measurable impact on the numbers of viewers in the Live+SD. They only had 30K views on YouTube prior to the premiere. Scale that up evenly across iTunes, Hulu and NBC.com and that’s only .02% impact against their 6.2 million broadcast viewers. Putting it online first helps to measure some of the impact prior to broadcast, but until there is a better way to measure that, it’s not going to really give them any actionable data.
Nellie,you are soooo right! If people aren’t watching other shows on their network-how can NBC effectively promote Awake,or,any other new program for that matter. For people who liked the premiere: I suggest to keep watching and hope for the best-this is NBC after all. A network which only premiered Awake earlier because of the failures of Prime Suspect & The Firm. I wish those who liked the premiere all the best, but that 10pm timeslot’s been death to NBC shows.
Puhleese…promoting a show isn’t just throwing up promos on NBC Network alone. It’s ALL the networks of NBC running the spots…buying time and formulating an “outside media” plan. NBC promos for this show were absolutely compelling. It’s just that the stink of Zucker is still in the air.
How much longer can we blame Zucker?
Exactly… Just like how much longer can we blame Bush. People need to take responsibilty.
Um, no. Bush ran up the nation’s credit card and we’re still paying off Bush’s debt (plus interest).
@Bob, Because Jeff Zucker did so much damage to NBC that it will be hard to drag themselves upward even if they start to create quality programming. Plus, the fact is that unlike Awake and Smash, many of the shows were developed under the previous regime.
Eventhough NBC has better management now, because public perception still associate it with the drama shows of the old regime, the new quality shows will suffer. Sort of like how bad NBC continued to do under Brandon Tartikoff before Cosby hit big.
What does the audience know about Zucker?
And by saying that auds primarily associate NBC with its dramas is ridiculous, considering their history of monster sitcom hits.
I don’t know what can be done to get America to tune into the best comedies on the three major networks, with the exception of How I Met Your Mother and Happy Endings.
America is dumb and has no taste. There you go.
And Awake was great. Best drama pilot I’ve seen in years. I’ll definitely keep tuning in.
Damn, the ratings just don’t reflect how good this show is. I really enjoyed it more than I anticipated.
Maybe too cerebral for viewers, not sure? But I hope they give it a shot.
NBC is like an old building that was created in 1930s art deco. You know the building that came from an era of beauty and elegance
Agreed, we can blame Zucker given that Greenblatt didn’t greenlight (no pun intended) a SINGLE show on air currently – they were all developed under Zucker. Once Greenblatt gets some of his projects on, we’ll have a better idea of where NBC is heading. But it’s still an issue breaking 2-3 new shows a season (ideally) when the shows you have on are getting a 1.4 and you can’t promote.
Promote on other networks blah blah blah. It’s called a lead-in. Lead-in retention is one of a show’s biggest metrics. And when you’re starting with a 1.4 or a 2.0, the ceiling is already pretty low.
Yeah, lack of cheap promotional opportunities in ads and lead-in, that other networks can tap into, is what’s killing everything on NBC.
Smash should be doing better as well. Grimm is holding its own because it’s an ideal cult-following show, which is the only type of show that can eschew traditional promotional techniques, and even then, only on no-expectations Fridays. But NBC can’t put all its shows on Fridays.
Other networks might sell them airtime, but I’m sure they’d charge their competition a pretty penny. NBC can get a better deal from its fellow NBCUniversal outlets on cable – but their audiences aren’t large and/or not the right target.
The USA audience doesn’t go for sci fi or thematic complexity, they’re more similar to the CBS audience in that they like a lot of the same cookie-cutter type of show. A&E should be the place for artistic shows but it’s just a lot of reality crap now. SyFy should also be a good fit, but Awake is considerably smarter than anything they’re showing now. Maybe there were ads on SyFy, I can’t stand any of their programming, so I wouldn’t know, hah!
Awake is not a show that can be haphazardly watched. This was especially apparent at the beginning. However, as you watched it became evident that there were two worlds that Issacs was living in. The question is, which world is real or are they both? The most poignant moment was at the end when the wife told him to gives her son her love.
It is different than anything else on and that makes it a rarity. I believe that the show will gain viewers as the season progresses. I am sorry that Prime Suspect did not make it. Great cast and good storyline. It just seems that the American audience likes their shows dumb and dumber.
There are plenty of smart American shows. But they’re all on cable, and broadcast is losing their audience because they’re not giving them the smart shows that people want.
However, cable has an advantage – they don’t just make money from ads, but also get a slice of subscription revenue. This gives them the freedom to make shows for 7M viewers and under. That’s a big hit in cable-land but can get you cancelled on broadcast. The more you can target your show, any show, at a specialized audience, the better it will be. Only needing to make 13 eps per season rather than 20 or so, is also a big advantage.
What this really comes down to is, you get what you pay for. If we pay for a show via ads, we get a worse show than if we pay for it via ads and a basic cable subscription. We get the best shows by paying the most – a premium cable subscription.
The correlation between what we pay and what we get is extremely strong. The question now is, is there any good-sized market left for meh shows that are also cheap (aka, broadcast). CBS serves that market very well, but is there a need for four other broadcasters serving that diminishing market? ABC and NBC are trying to figure out how, but it’s not obvious there is a solution.
I love LOVE Jason Isaacs, but there was no apparent reason for him to ditch his lovely English accent for a hackneyed attempt at an American one. His voice sparkles with life when he speaks as a Brit and in Awake he sounds like he’s concentrating so hard on his accent it’s taking away from his performance. I don’t mean that to be as harsh as it’s sounds. Maybe things will smooth out.
I also wonder who the einstein was who thought to put posters around town of Isaacs with his eyes closed. The man is on a short list of actors with astonishingly blue eyes so let’s advertise his show with his eyes closed? You couldn’t adapt your ad plans either?
I loved Awake, but my only complaint is the visual style is the same high-contrasty, blue tinted look of Prime Suspect, L&O: L.A. and The Firm.
In other words, hey NBC, can you hire some new cinematographers?!
I know most networks have similar visual styles in many of their shows (see: everything on ABC) but when you’re trying to pull yourself out of a rut and launch something NEW and exciting…make it look different.
AWAKE gets better and better. I’ve seen the first several episodes…Jason Isaacs is fantastic.
Setting aside the reality, the impression of this show is that it’s about a guy who is sleepy. Very, very sleepy. Why do I want to see a guy be sleepy? I’m sleepy. Everyone in this country is sleepy. We want to be entertained while we try to get to sleep.
No,It’s not that American audiences like their shows dumb and dumber(you should be embarassed for your arrogance) but simply,maybe they just want to be etertained…just forget their problems in this very complex,scary world we now find ourselves in …no job,losing their homes,their kids future….Sometimes I want just a “test pattern” simply because I don’t want to think anymore… There are two types of shows…those that are pure escape and don’t require deep thinking…and those that require more of a mental commitment.Both have value. A wonderful show like “AWAKE” belongs on cable. that simple… where the audience makes a different,more meaningful intellecual commitment….as a show like “Two And a half men” belongs on broadcast…Both have value and serve a purpose. That’s why an audience watches “Bridesmaids” one night…then”J Edgar” the next. And stop with the Jeff Zucker.people in the midwest don’t have a clue who this jerk is. Bob is making bad choices for a broadcast network… his heart is in cable.
I got bored by this and the reason is the two worlds… but not the two worlds you think. I’m more of a procedural guy and the family stuff felt endless to me. It’s possible that fans who like the emotional stuff wouldn’t like the police work, thus not pleasing anyone. There’s a reason successful shows like “CSI” don’t spend much time showing the home life of the leads!
When an NBC show can’t even do a respectable rating in primetime against repeat programming, something has to be said and done to curb these lingering issues at the peacock. Seriously folks, they are in danger of finishing in 5th place on some nights of the week and that is just sad, compared to what they were only a few years ago. Thank Zukcerwad and that turd Silverman and that lainbrain Bromstad for just destroying this network to a tee.