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A week before the official start of the season, we have the first big debut of fall 2012. It goes to NBC’s Revolution, the network’s first big scripted premiere in quite awhile. JJ Abrams and Eric Kripke’s post-apocalyptic drama opened with a 4.1/11 in adults 18-49 and 11.7 million viewers at 10 PM last night. In 18-49, Revolution was the top drama premiere on NBC in five years, since the ill-fated Bionic Woman in September 2007 (5.7); the top drama debut on any network in three years, since ABC’s V in October 2009 (5.2); and the highest-rated 10 PM premiere in five years, since ABC’s Big Shots in September 2007 (4.5). It eclipsed the debut of NBC’s Smash in the slot last season, which aired on the highly promoted night after the Super Bowl with a bigger lead-in from a Super Bowl-boosted The Voice. This is the highest-rated 10 PM drama telecast on any network in almost three years, since a January 2010 episode of ABC’s Private Practice. The only element of concern in Revolution’s big opening is the 14% drop-off between the first and the second half-hour, but this is an issue a lot of 10 PM shows face.
From 8-10 PM, The Voice (4.6/12) was up 12% from its fast national last week. Versus the comparable telecast last season, it was down 23%. NBC won the night in 18-49 (4.4/12) and total viewers (12.8 million).
On Fox, the season premiere of Bones in its new Monday 8 PM slot (2.3/6) was down 30% from the series’ season premiere on Thursday last fall but up 21% from last season’s finale. The series premiere of The Mob Doctor (1.5/4, 5.1 million) did only marginally better than Fox’s big flop in the slot two years ago, Lone Star (1.3/3, 4.1 million). It also was down 52% from the two-hour debut of the now-defunct Terra Nova on Monday last fall.
Not a lot of action on the other networks. ABC aired the CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night To Rock special (1.7/4), which was flat with last year’s August telecast but may be adjusted down due to NFL pre-emptions. The CW aired two back-to-back originals of LA Complex (0.4/1, 0.2/1).
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Honestly, watching “Revolution” and reading reviews of same makes me feel hopeless..
Shocked, absolutely shocked at how boring this was. Boring!?! How do you make a show like this BORING?? I’ve been following the progression of this project since pilot season and was so excited Kripke and Favreau and Abrams had pulled this one out of a tailspin only to get this? I’m desperately hoping next week’s is an entirely different ballgame in terms of quality and storytelling.
Hopeless indeed…
Revolution was fun! It will not go away!
Be interesting to see how Revolution does when it is up against Castle and Hawaii 5-0.
yeah I didn’t watch Revolution since it will never get recorded givne Castle and Hawaii 5-0 are already in that slot on the Tivo. plus Revolution blocked access to watch it online earlier from certain devices so I passed though after hearing the reviews on Framerate sounds like I saved myself 43 minutes.
What a great show! I hope it stays around as I really like Alcatraz by JJ Abrams as well. You all know FOX they never give anyone a shot. LOST survived 6 years and I think Revolution has a great story line/plot/on the edge of your seat guessing just like LOST did. Give this a chance folks and quit being so picky. If you like LOST then you should like Revolution. I am in the TV business and can tell sometimes which shows are going to make it and which are not. This has a good possibility.
What! What! What! A FOX pilot didn’t work…
Color me SHOCKEY LAWLESS!!!!!
It’s funny how they list the biggest opening since V, Bionic Woman, and Big Shots, I wonder if Revolution will meet the same fate as those shows? Starting out big is nothing in TV it’s that sticking power that counts, I’d like to see where it’s at in 8 weeks when the rest of the new shows have debut.
Terra Nova started out big also.
Yeah, I def won’t be tuning in again.
NBC still needs to clean house.
You better tune in! It was a great show! Why all the hate?!?! Must all be ABC or CBS workers here trying to create negative buzz for a clearly well done show!
Uh, no. The show was horrible. Another example of a great idea not creatively realized.
Terra Nova didn’t start big, it actually was far lower than everyone predicted (low 3′s), whereas everyone predicted moderate ratings for Revolution and it was far higher (most predicted mid 2′s to low 3′s).
Didn’t see it, did they explain why a lack of electricity would affect guns, ie, why has everyone reverted to bows and arrows?
Yes, this bugged me as well. I’m neither a gun expert nor owner, but you don’t have to be Davy Crockett to wonder why everyone’s running around with crossbows and 18th Century-style muskets when more advanced firearms would be perfectly plausible. As far as I could tell, only elites like Esposito’s militia officer and the warlord’s bodyguards are permitted to carry modern guns. But when you think about the 8 bazillion guns that exist in the real world, you have to ask where they would all go in the 15 years since the big blackout. I bet antique bullets are more reliable that vintage asthma inhalers.
They had guns.
It didn’t affect the guns, it’s just after 15 years guns are pretty rare…
how did the millions of guns in almost every home, business, military base, etc. disappear and even the people in power only have hunting rifles and muzzle loaders ?. do you realise how many guns are out there ?
Lack of electricity did not affect guns; most people have bows and arrows only because (as stated by a bad guy in the pilot), the Munroe Republic (read: local militia bullying everyone) has forbade ordinary people from owning them, on penalty of death. Clearly, they don’t want an armed revolution against their rule. ;P
Guns still worked. I wondered about that myself. It was surprisingly consistent. Got to watch the show!
It didn’t affect guns. They are still in existence, although concentrated in the hands of the ruling militias. Possession of one, as explained in the pilot, is a hanging offense.
Yes.
This is just speculation, but since the series takes place 15 years after the blackout incident and they can’t machine bullets anymore, chances are pretty good the bullets left behind would have been horded and used during conflicts early on.
Millions of bullets are millions of bullets, but 15 years is a long time to make them last.
Plus, crooked governing characters still need some to use.
For centuries they were making guns and ammo without juice..and we had a cohezive country and government without it also. flimsy wxcuse for a premise..but did like the action.kinda like the movie from Kostner..the Postman.
I watched it last night and asked that at work. They mentioned that guns work (the one guy had a 47), but without electricity they can’t manufacture bullets – after 15 years I guess I would expect them to be gone.
Then explain how they manufactured bullets during the civil war?
I would say since it’s been 15 years since everything turned off, ammunition has probably become pretty scarce for the guns that are most commonly available, where bows and arrows are fairly easy to make and use/reuse.
And this is why I dont watch series written by uninformed hollywood types like JJ Abrahms, and Jack, you dont need electricity to make gun powder or craft bullets. Reloading equipment is very simply and there are millions of rounds of ammunition in the world. I guess you think that before 1860 there werent any guns.
No one said that there weren’t any guns; just that it was a hanging offense to own one. Didn’t anybody listen??
When ‘Castle’ returns I have a difficult choice to make. With luck NBC will replay ‘Revolution’ on Saturday this season, like they did with ‘Harry’s Law’ this past season. Oh, wait – that didn’t work out well for poor Harry.
Revolution only gets better. Here’s hoping the ratings hold.
Honestly, could it really get much worse?
That pilot felt like crap from the 90s. Dull dull dull.
Hoarders was waay better last night. It had, you know, CHARACTERS!
Well it couldn’t get much worse than that terrible pilot so that isn’t really saying anything.
Be honest I saw Revolution I thought it suck I was asking myself WTF throughout whole episode
I may go back to reboot Hawaii Five O next week or just watch Burns and Allens on Antenna TV here in SO CALI
HAHAHA!!! If you didn’t understand what was going on maybe you should try a different show… Like Cake boss where they make nice beautiful cakes and there is no plot… its better for people who don’t appreciate a well written drama.
Waa kind of excited about Revolution, but it was dreadful. The leads were not memorable. The girl was hot but annoying. All they seemed to care about was “wouldn’t it be cool to see a run down Wrigley Field!” and other known places. The story was so boring. Felt like a 2 hour episode. It’ll drop huge.
It was good… not dreadful… The leads were memorable and had decent acting for a pilot!! Go back to your network job and stop trolling bad buzz.
I try to give every new show a shot and had high hopes for the intriguing plotline for Revolution, but what a misstep. I was hoping for some nuanced performances, but the only nuanced performance was from Tim Guinee and he was gone in the first 10 minutes. Everyone else was extraordinarily bad and mean (the military leader, for example) or ridiculously sweet (Danny, the son, for example). Nothing was subtle – and the plot holes just too enormous to get me to view it again. Another missed opportunity – like, as some have said, Terra Nova.
Note to nets… you’re making money hand over fist, your pilots should look like it.
Revolution was embarrassing.
I thought production values looked pretty high, personally. It’s the writing department that should be fired on the spot. Talk about your clunky dialogue… ugh.
You can thank JJ Abrahms, he was the worst writer in the Star Trek series and he continues to pump out crap with a new label.
Orci and Kurtzman wrote Star Trek. And, yes, they have some of the clunkiest dialog ever written with massive amounts of exposition that somehow still can’t fill all the plot holes. But, it sells for people with no attention spans who want a bunch of loosely coupled action set pieces.
Kripke created and wrote the series Supernatural. I consider it a guilty pleasure, but often with more emphasis on the “guilty” component. He can craft some fun characters but they tend to be very one dimensional and the dialog is often weak. I think he has some interesting ideas but I’ve never had any emotional connection to his work.
Which brings me to Abrams, who for me is probably the real problem with this creative team. Every creation of his runs the same way: great promotion of an idea that seems really fresh and exciting, underwhelming first act with a few bright spots, great middle act, terrible conclusion. You could look at a single show or a single story arc or an entire series and say the same thing. He simply has no skill at bringing us into a world or providing us a graceful exit from it.
This is exactly why fox leans so heavily on reality shows. I mean xfactor might be considered a ratings loser, but it is doing heads and tails better than mob doctor. Without reality tv fox would be totally sunk.
I think they rely on reality, because it is a ratings winner for them. Even though, X Factor is doing better than Mob Doctor, it is WAY more expensive then most other shows. Fox could produce a whole season of Mob Doctor based on Britney Spear’s reported 17 million dollars. If ratings stay the same for both, Mob Doctor would get cancelled, while X Factor may get one more season. It certainly wouldn’t be on notice.
not surprised about mob doctor — absurd premise and script was a horrible read. if there’s any justice, this will be the first show cancelled this season. bones is tired and dull — as lovely as emily deschanel is, they should put it out of its misery already.
I wouldn’t say the premise was absurd at all — but selling it to that network was.
There were at least 10 pilots at FOX a million times better than MOB DOCTOR. Who makes these calls at FBC???!!!
OMG they compared it to BIONIC WOMAN. NOT GOOD. HOPEFULLY THIS SHOW HIRES BETTER WRITERS THAN ANYONE WHO WORKED ON BIONIC WOMAN.
REVOLUTION was booorrrrring.
Revolution was lame. I didn’t care about anyone. The whole thing felt fake and looked fake. I was wishing my power would go out while watching that shitburger. Did they really spend a lot on that thing?
Man… I remember being on UPN show back in the day that got 5 million viewers — and it was cancelled. Cuz we were going up against stuff like ER with it’s 30 plus million every Thursday. Now NBC is over the moon for 11 million viewers? CW does somersaults if they get more than 2? Amazing how fast cable and internet have changed the landscape.
NBC’s huge marketing push bought that rating for Revolution. The real test is to come. The show has already gotten very mixed buzz.
REVOLUTION ROCKED! All the haters here don’t know a good thing when they see it! There is always some stiff acting in the first episode, but this one had some great acting. A great story and some really intriguing plot points. I am excited to see where this goes. Yay finally a scify show with some true potential.
I wouldn’t get my hopes up with this show. For one thing, it’s boring. Second, it has some tough competition once CBS & ABC air originals and third, it’s on NBC. That alone should tell you it will fail.
Sorry, but the pilots of every great tv show are consistently among the best of their respective series. This isn’t theater, where the first night is often not the best night as kinks are worked out and the cast becomes more seasoned. This is television, so stiff acting should never be excused. And Revolution was stiff and boring, and looked cheap.
But Mob Doctor is way cheaper than X Factor, Britney Spears salary alone could fund one season of Mob doctor.
Wow Revolution was fun! What a ride! Whew Can’t wait to see the next one!!!!!!!!!!!!
I watched Revolution a few days early thanks to Time Warner Cable’s On Demand service and was pretty disappointed. Far too many characters looking neatly-groomed for a society supposedly without power and far too much vegetation growth (in Chicago, no less) after just 15 years. The lead actress doesn’t seem to have enough screen presence to carry this kind of series and so far, her character doesn’t have the drive to advance the storyline properly.
I agree. It’s hard to find a show with good writing and good acting, but you have to at least have one. Revolution has neither.
When I read the script, I remember thinking that it was an amazing story and a great premise — something really hard to mess up.
Then I watched the pilot. Fifteen minutes was all I could take. I usually like things with Jon Favreau’s fingerprints on them, but this one was a miss…
Yikes…REVOLUTION was horrendously awful. We’ve been enduring the dreadful trailers for months. Now the show has debuted and the it’s far worse than the trailers. Horrible writing,cheesy sets and non-charismatic actors…Oh and where did they EVER get the idea of a young girl running around with a bow and arrow. Hollywood seems devoid of even a single ORIGINAL idea. Sad on all fronts
what a let down.
NBC master plan for the Feminization of America.
phony & mindless show
bye..bye
Well, of course Revolution had impressive numbers–there wasn’t anything else NEW, on to watch last night! New season starts next week, recheck their ratings in two weeks……..