More bad news for the ailing sci-fi genre: The heavily hyped return of V only averaged 7.2 million viewers last night and was bested by a rerun of CBS’ The Good Wife (8.07 million), according to fast national ratings provided by ABC. The return of the serialized drama about an alien species did win its timeslot among the all-important adults 18-49 (2.9 rating/8 share) but that number is sure to drop when Julianna Margulies and Co. comes back with original Good Wife episodes next week. That was V’s lowest 18-49 rating for this season and it only retained 73 percent of its Lost lead-in, though the episode is likely to pick up a million or more viewers when the numbers come in for DVR playback.
Overall, ABC had a respectable showing on Tuesday. Thanks to the reality show powerhouse Dancing with the Stars and Lost, ABC averaged 10.4 million viewers last night — enough to earn second place behind Fox and the Death Star that is American Idol (21.3 million).
V was already facing an uphill battle by returning to the schedule after such a long hiatus. Before its three-month break, the show had lost 35 percent of its audience over just four airings last fall (14.3 million to 9.3 million). FlashForward faced similar difficulties when it returned to the schedule two weeks ago.
ABC did it’s best to tout the return of V, a redux of the 1984 series. The network aired multiple promos for the show during last month’s Oscars and risked the ire of Lost fans last night by running a countdown to the premiere in the corner of the screen. Both V and FlashForward have yet to receive second season pickups.
When they decide just what kind of show they want “V” to be, I might be back. Otherwise, I’m done. Last night was awful. Don’t get too attached to this one, folks, it’s gonna get cancelled.
You are correct. I wanted to like it and give it another chance, but I fear it is on it’s way out.
V has been so slow and really boring…5 minutes of action prefaced by 45 of mind numbing dialogue didn’t do it for me…plus that annoying V counter all through lost really pissed me off to say F you V and ABC…
I agree. Last night episode was so slow and boring. My mom missed it so I recap`d it for her today and she was yawning throughout.
I like Elisabeth Mitchell but this show really underuses her. None of characters is compeling. Tyler subplot is a total washroom break.
And is it just me or Anna/Morena got ugly in this ep?
Is this a cop/FBI show? Drama? Soap? Sci-Fi? Hard to believe it’s supposed to be sci-fi. A true disappointment in that regard. The writing is lazy and dramatically self-indulgent. I got tired of watching the Vs standing around on a completely empty ship deck. The one shot they had of anything remotely interesting onboard (lunch scene) looked so cheap and cartoonish that I couldn’t take it seriously. This is another example of what could be a great sci-fi series that has been reduced to a poorly written “cop” show.
Yeah I gotta agree here, and with most other comments that come after yours. It started out week, then felt like it was getting some traction, then went on hiatus. Killer, and I don’t think it will recover. I had a glimmer of emotion for the characters prior to the break, but that was wiped out in the return. Too bad, could have been promising.
And do I even really need to comment on the countdown during LOST? Nobody joins LOST in the middle of the episode. Fading it up and then away would have been tolerable I suppose. Leaving it on the entire time was a waste and a distraction.
V was off for more like 6 months, not 3. Yeah, the countdown clock and bright red “V” during Lost infuriated me.
Nope, just three. They aired a 4-episode arc starting in November.
Actually more like 4, it only premiered again last night and it aired in November so, Dec, Jan, Feb and Mar equals 4
The show took its hiatus in December. December to March is 3 months, give or take. Good grief.
What ABC should have done (and no network outside of cable seems to realize this) is they should have re-aired the first four episodes of the series (as meh as they are). Being it’s been three months (essentially half a year for the ADD viewers), it was far too long to go without an original episode or a refresher. The fact that it ended in such a lame fashion in the fall didn’t help matters either.
They aired a recap episode in the last 2 weeks.
Oh yeah. I was gonna watch this.
But then I didn’t.
Maybe it was the six months since the last episode was shown that led to my indifference.
That bright red V and clock during Lost was unbelievably AWFUL. It would have been sufficient to just show that graphic at the beginning of each segment, following the commercial, and then fade it away. NOTE TO ABC: You made me NOT want to watch V with your choice to disfigure one of the last episodes of Lost!
I felt the exact same way. No WAY was I going to watch V after they ruined Lost with that clock. And not only was the V clock distracting, it was especially ridiculous to have it there on an episode with a lot of subtitles. As a result, the V clock obscured the subtitles!! D A M N you, ABC!!
My wife and I were watching V, but when I had to watch that d@mn RED V through all of LOST – we refused to watch V ever again. Deleted from my DVR. I emailed ABC this too. Trying to ruin the best show on TV – LOST.
So you’ve got to try to ruin some other innocent’s new favorite show by boycotting it and writing them to tell them to eff off, I presume… How terribly noble of you. What would the world do without over-reactive watchdogs like you…
The countdown clock should be used to countdown to something superior to what you are already watching. V is certainly not an upgrade from Lost.
The countdown clock was the main reason I did not watch V. I didn’t see the original episodes that aired earlier and made an actual effort to look for them either on ABC itself or on demand and found nothing. Its almost like ABC did everything they could to guarantee i wouldn’t watch..so i didnt
The only reason I did not watch “V” last night was because of those obnoxious ads during “LOST”.
Don’t know who in ABC’s promo department thought the constant barrage of V promos and that stupid logo during Lost was going to be a benefit. It was so annoying that any interest I had (and having Elizabeth Mitchell in the V cast is a plus) was gone by having the show shoved down my throat.
I really hope that the powers-that-be at ABC become aware that the idiotic decision to run that irritating promo hurt instead of helped, so they don’t try it again.
It’s pretty bad when original programming as heavily-hyped as this was gets stomped in the rating by a RERUN of a show that only geezer watch anyway. Bad news for this show.
I’m sorry, I love these types of shows, and I gave V and FlashForward a shot, but they simply aren’t good. Great concepts, potential, and even some great actors. Really poor execution. In particular, the shows look VERY cheap and cheesy, and the writing is stilted, unbelievable, meandering and childish.
These shows have the production values of syndicated “classics” She Spies or V.I.P. or Mutant X.
Wow I couldn’t have put it better myself. I’m a huge SciFi fan, I don’t like those shows because they just aren’t that good. I thought they would be because of the great premises and casts, but I guess that’s not enough to elevate poor writing.
I watched when it was on before, but did not watch last night for several reasons. (1) Too much time passed from the prior episodes; (2) the annoying clock ticking during Lost and (3) ABC’s constant ads for it during Lost.
“ABC did it’s best to tout the return of V….” Ugh! You mean “ABC did ITS best…” Come on, you’re paid to write, so please proofread more carefully. And this is such a Grammar 101 mistake.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. It’s bad enough when it comes from a commenter, but the people writing the articles are supposed to know their grammar, or at least have proofreaders who do.
The project was doomed since the beginning, just kill it.
Hmmm, I wonder if ABC sees a pattern here with V and FlashForward. These long breaks in programming are simply stupid. If they want to try a new show, put it after the run of a fall show! I don’t recall replacements doing well, either. ABC has made a series of really stupid choices lately – especially this season. The only right decision lately was to renew Castle. Wake up you idiots.
ABC is NOTORIOUS for doing this dumb@ss sort of thing. They did it with Lost about 3 years ago (I think) and it lost alot of viewers. After the writer’s strike they pushed back Pushing Daisies and what happened? They canceled it. They should take a lesson from Fox and Cable. Fox airs 24 in January no repeats no long absence between shows.
Don’t give Fox too much credit yet. They have been doing terrible with their scheduling for House and several other shows.
At least with Lost season 3, the breaks were done to prevent the horrible scheduling of season 2. Not to mention it aired 7 episodes before hiatus in late November, returned in early February (only two weeks after most shows return with new episodes), and then played non-stop. V only played four in November, and came back in late, late March (like two-days-before-April late). ABC should’ve started airing V after the Winter Olympics if they were that concerned with the overlap.
Now you know how some of us feel about the constant LOST promotion (and EW I’m pointing the finger at you too.)
Some people don’t like:
Twilight
Lost
AI (And you can’t spend enough time and ink reminding us how much it sucks?)
And just about everything else you call entertainment at the expense of other projects. There were other TV shows on before LOST and there will be others but you’ll be too busy doing two week and two month after Lost retrospectives to notice.
Who cares what you think? Lost is great, and not overhyped. Far superior to most of the dreck on TV these days and deserving of commentary and articles on EW.com.
Why are those people looking at ew.com then? would you like daily countdowns to 2 1/2 men better, or a psychological/mythological breakdown of Jersey shore?
LOST is not overhyped at all, and its an AMAZING show, so just go away. thanks.
The only reason I watched FF and V for as long as I did was for the amazing actors…both shows have amazing casts. It’s a pleasure seeing Morena Baccarin Elizabeth Mitchell, Joseph Fiennes, etc. on screen every week. But the material simply isn’t worthy of them. I kind of want both shows to get cancelled so they could get better work.
I hope ABC starts airing a countdown for V’s demise.. that I would gladly watch