Image Credit: Ken Woroner/ABCThe debut of ABC’s Happy Town — a serialized drama about a small Minnesota town that’s haunted by a series of unsolved kidnappings — wasn’t worth smiling about: It posted ABC’s lowest-rated series premiere of the season, down 43 percent from Eastwick’s debut in the time period last fall. The drama only attracted 5.2 million viewers and a 1.7 rating/5 share among adults 18-49; far lower than what Eastwick earned on Sept. 23 (a 3.0/8, 8.5 million viewers).
With original episodes of The Middle, Modern Family, and Cougar Town as lead-ins, Happy Town still finished second in its time slot against an original of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (it helped that CBS aired a repeat of CSI: NY). ABC still found a cause to celebrate its newest addition to the lineup: Happy Town boosted the time slot average versus the same night last year (when it aired The Unusuals) by 6 percent in total viewers and by 13 percent in adults 18-49. The drama also improved ABC’s averages in the time slot (which was previously filled by now-dead Eastwick and the final episodes of Ugly Betty) by 11 percent in total viewers and by 6 percent in adults 18-49.
In contrast, the news was great for ABC’s Modern Family, which ranked as Wednesday’s No. 1 scripted show among adults 18-49 (it averaged 9.8 million viewers). Overall, the American Idol-fueled Fox won the night in all the key demographics, including adults 18-49 and total viewers.
Very unfortunate. Happy Town has tremendous potential and Sam Neill was positively wicked as the charming and mysterious Merritt Grieves.
I like Sam Neill. He’s deliciously creepy. I also love to see Amy Acker in anything she’s in. I need her to get a successful show soon.
this is punishment for not airing the remaining eastwick episodes
Wasn’t watching Eastwick the real punishment? I tried to like that show, but the cast (primarily the men) were so unlikeable, and the writing was just sloppy. Granted, the writing on Happy Town isn’t much better, but at least the actors don’t make me cringe.
ABC should place LEGEND OF THE SEEKER instead. I commend ABC for trying to put on original programming for the last several years after the dark times when all there was were reality shows, but they need to stop with all of these mystery style shows in an effort to duplicate the success of LOST, I LOVE LOST, but it has to stop. They don’t have to make lame crime procedurals that CBS seems to be only capable of rehashing over and over, but try something new – just no remakes, medical or legal shows PLEASE.
There’s so much crap on television because that’s what people watch. Don’t blame the networks, blame your neighbors and their crappy taste.
What was worse than not airing the remaining episodes of Eastwick was the decision to air the 12th episode without having ever aired the 11th episode, which completely ruined the huge cliffhangers that ended the 10th episode. Honestly, ABC took a dagger to the heart of every fan of Eastwick by making that move. It was bad enough the show was canceled, but then to add an enormous amount of salt to the wound was just terrible. I will never be able to understand why ABC felt it was necessary to do that.
The way ABC treated Eastwick and Ugly Betty (and Eli) is why I’ve chosen not to even try with their shows any longer.
Actually, this is punishment for them replacing Dean Winters with Steven Weber not canceling Eastwick. That was no loss.
I watched – it was pretty bad. The producers have to decide if they are making a campy horror series or a straight-out murder mystery. As it is, I thought the only bright spot was the town’s architecture, and M.C. Gainey’s sheriff.
Yeah, and didn’t they kill off his character?
No.
No, it appears from the previews for next week that he maimed himself.
If you liked the architecture, the downtown scenes were all filmed in Port Hope, Ontario. Come visit us!!
aww. That is such a happy cheerful thing to say! Combined with your smiley face, you really made my day!
Personally I was intrigued by it. Yes some of the dialogue was stupid, but there was some cool parts. Sam Neil and Steven Weber and the Sheriff were good. Also, you gotta love any show that has a guy hammering a nail into someone’s forehead:)
I also like Sam Neil. He still has that coolness. And I was shocked at how much Steve Weber looks like Tim Daly. I hate the Sheriff son and his goody goody family. That always annoys me.
I’m surprised. Happy Town was in Google Trends this morning so I figured it was generating some buzz.
I liked it!! It was nice to see some of the boys from October Road. I would like to see more of the show!!
I thought it was just my imagination–I was watching it thinking, “I thought they cancelled ‘October Road’”!
I agree! it is nice to see the boys from october road, and the scenery too! Just wish abc would have kept it and men in trees both !
To me, I thought it was kind of like the CBS show last summer Harpers Island. Limited run etc, at least that is how the promos played
i did stick with harper’s island til the end and i was blown away! awesome show! i hope it returns. happy town promos did play like hi, but the first episode didn’t remind me of hi as much as i would have liked. ht should make up its mind if its going to be a truly suspenseful, supernatural mystery/thriller, or a off-beat comedy masquerading as a suspenseful, supernatural mystery/thriller. i’ll hang around for a few more episodes, hoping that the first episode was merely an aberration…
It reminds me of Twin Peaks a little.
Which is always a good thing.
Yeah i was totally getting a Twin Peaks vibe, which definitely is good. People don’t seem to like strange shows though. Which sucks for me!
Harper’s Island will never ever be returning. When a network takes a show and sticks it in a Saturday night slot with no promotion whatsoever…well.. just be thankful they are airing the remaining episodes.
That being said…I agree, Harper’s Island was actually good.
I watched it and thought it was ok. I will give it a few more episodes. Is anyone else getting Harper’s Island Deja Vu? That one started out slow, was abandoned by most viewers and became what I thought was one of the best shows in years.
I agree it was a bit uneven, but I thought there was some potential there. My curiosity was definitely peaked when that symbol that had been painted all over town…the question mark with the halo…was tattooed onto the new girl’s shoulder. Seeing Robert Knepper in the previews for next week was what really convinced me to come back next week though.
I DVR’ed it but have not yet watched it, was going to view it mostly to see Mr Friendly and hoped that it would be good. I have to find something to fill the void Lost will be leaving – cannot get into Fringe because I cannot stomach Anna, and it feels like V’s and FF’s days may be numbered so sadly I don’t know where I will tune the channel to once Lost ends.
You should give Fringe a chance – best show on TV right now IMHO
Anna Torv is wonderful.
I agree. Ana is fantastic. It’s one of the only shows where the female lead is not inferior in character, acting ability etc….
I agree. In the beginning I thought she was a little wooden, but she is excellent now!
My husband says Anna is the girl in the Muppet Band.
The more new ABC shows that fail the better. There’s still hope for Better Off Ted.
I found the show to be interesting & a little off-beat. Reminded me more of “Twin Peaks” than “Harper’s Island” Mystery, supernatural, murder & off-beat characters. Could be interesting if given time to develop
Personally, I liked it. Kind of had a Twin Peaks feeling to it. (Did I just date myself? LOL) I would like to see more of it.
I dated myself last night.
I got the same vibe and I think “Chloe’s” (I forgot her other name) claims that she is from Snoqualmie, WA was a nod to Twin Peaks, a lot of it was filmed in Snoqualmie.
I will do my best to continue to watch it until it undoubtedly gets canceled. Networks need to air more shows like this.
I don’t know about others, but I was completely turned off by their promos. I feel like they named the show Happy Town just so they could make that stupid joke in the promos. And I couldn’t figure out what genre it was supposed to be – drama? SciFi? Horror? The scathing reviews by critics didn’t help either.
I haven’t actually watched it yet (dvr’d it) but the name “Magic Man” is pretty lame for the bad guy. Plus it was Dale’s new name after he left Rickie Bobby.
Can’t something be drama, SciFi, and Horror? I mean seriously why does everything have to be defined by one particular genre.
It’s not that I’m anti-mixing of the genres. I’m just saying I had a hard time figuring out what the tone of the show was supposed to be from the promos; I guess that’s a better way of putting it. Some of them seemed really dark, then others seemed quirky like Stars Hollow on acid, I didn’t know what the show was going for.
I watched it, I kind of fell upon it by accident though – hadn’t heard anything about it. Although I did flip channels, do laundry and wash the dogs while it was on – so it didn’t totally grab me … I’ll probably end up forgetting about and miss the rest of the episodes.
Wash the dogs? That’s what you call it? Interesting, that may replace flog the dolphin for me.
as in: “Oh, HAPPY TOWN is an OK show, but whenever that Geoff Stults is on, he just makes me start to wash the dogs.