Image Credit: TNT
Look out below! TNT’s alien invasion drama Falling Skies just became the most-watched cable series launch of the year.
Sunday’s two-hour premiere delivered 5.9 million viewers, with 2.6 million of those adults 18-49.
That’s the biggest cable debut since TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles (7.6 million) last summer, plus it edges out AMC’s The Walking Dead (5.3 million). As a fan of Jericho and the Terminator franchise, I found Skies a bit too familiar-feeling. I’m curious what the numbers will do next week. What did you think?
I’ve never been so dissapointed by a tv show premier in my life. Its going to have to get a lot better in a big hurry for me to keep watching.
Noah Wylie hasn’t been good in ANYTHING since ER!!!
Why do people think he can be cast a a Jr. version of Indiana Jones or Tom Cruise??
He’s just an inferior irritation (not even good enough to be called an imitation)!!!
The Librarian tv movies he did were pretty good and entertaining. But him in this show was a bit boring. Falling Skies had so much hype which lead to some disappointment. The special effects and aliens look like something from a 1995 tv show. After shows like Leverage which has very high production value and quality I was excited to see this show as I expected the same level, NOT even close. Probably because of Spielberg and the other big names attached that are sucking up all the money…
I always wondered if Noah Wylie was a good actor doing a superb job of playing a guy who was kind of a twit (John Carter) or a not-very-good actor who was ACTUALLY a twit, playing a character who was written to BE a twit because that was all Noah Wylie could play.
I’m starting to think it’s the 2nd thing . . .
i agree.
So far I don’t really care who gets killed, because I don’t KNOW anyone… I think the starting the show AFTER the invasion was a BIG mistake. We don’t know any of the characters before “they came”… So how are we supposed to care about them? I agree, this better get a lot better fast, otherwise it was just a fast (probably not so cheap) different version of Jericho, but at least Jericho had a back story!
Sherryl,
You were reading my mind. No time devoted to let us know what the stakes are. The classic rule of fiction is to help us understand what was lost so we can care. We started “after” the main action so what we got was a lot of boring dialogue, and little feeling. Noah Wylie didn’t give any impression of a father who has lost a son – especially after he was spotted being lead away by the aliens. Even the action scenes and robots seemed to reminiscent of War of the Worlds and not even in a good way. Even my teens tuned out and asked if they could change the channel (I said no because I hoped it would get better — it didn’t).
No dramatic tension, no mystery, no reason to care if they lived or died (we began hoping for the latter just to have something happen.)
Will I tune in to see more? Nope. I have better things to do with my time. Luckily I DVR’d THE KILLING and was able to purge the bad taste of this stinker out of my mind.
The show is filled with stock characters so pigeonholed in that first episode that no conceivable character arc will feel fresh. One imagines the writers know they can’t get away with characters this cliched, and as such, flesh will be added, but starting off with banal cutouts stifles interest in watching the development of those characters. Right now this looks like a show we’ve all seen before and didn’t much care for the first time, e.g. the BBC series Survivors. These are both shows that really have us rooting for the aliens to wipe out their version of humanity.
Noah Wyle struck me as pedestrian, but not offensive, unlike the kid, Maxim Knight and Will Patton, who engage in an epic contest to see who can chew the most scenery. Looking at the IMDB I can see that the kid is actually in more episodes than any other actor. …a Maxim Knight bottle episode, should be the nail in the Falling Skies coffin.
Really boring. Didn’t even make it all the way through the first episode before I changed the channel. Also extremely predictable, and the dialogue was poor.
The second half was much better than the first.
Yeah, but the second hour was written by Graham Yost, who will probably be too busy as showrunner of “Justified” to maintain a prolific writing presence here. It’s more likely the heavy work will fall to Robert Rodat, who strung together an implausible hook with a bunch of two-dimensional characters and emotional cliches when he penned “Saving Private Ryan.” Seems like he’s doing the same thing to aliens that he did to World War II, except this time he doesn’t have a brilliant director and cast to save him.
The commercials made it seem really good ut it was no better than a SYFY channel movie. Disappointing.
Speaking of commercials, it seemed like they stuck one in every 5 minutes.
Ur exactly right a cheap production just like syfy channel
nice to see noah wyle back on tv though
Will they replay the premier?
Yes, check your cable guide. I totally forgot about it… but it’s being replayed a few times this week.
Hope NOT
It’s a good bet it won’ get 5.9 million next week. What a lame excuse for a television program. The multitudes of ads were more interesting than the show.
Wonder what the ratings were for the 1st half and the 2nd half of Fail-ing Skies premiere? Bet there were more viewers who turned off Fail-ing Skies than there were viewers who called friends to turn the show on.
I watched it…but started to feel bored/restless near the end….I don’t feel a need to have it on my DVR….such a pity…had high hopes from the trailers….will have to wait on The Walking Dead….I cared about the characters in WDead…much more quickly then Noah & Co…..
It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t must-see TV either. However, I don’t have HBO and there is nothing else on Sunday nights, so if I find myself still awake at 10PM Sunday, I would probably watch it again. I’m just not going to go out of my way to watch it.
This premiere was great. I’ll definitely be tuning in next week.
U must b 8years old!!! enjoy Syfy fan not,sci fi fan
Agree I was quite disappointed at the slow pace and lack of any real storyline. Unlike Walking Dead which had me from the start I almost fell asleep during the first hour. Nice to see Noah Wyle again but after waiting for so long it was just a huge snore. I’ll give it another week but it wasn’t worth DVR’ing Game of Thrones for I can tell you that…if it’s going to run opposite True Blood forget it.
It smacks of “V”, “JERICO,” and every other show/film about earth and humans vs. the aliens. Nothing new under the sun. The same premise…different venue.
What the hell? “Jericho” was never about aliens. You clearly never watched that show at all.
it was about the end of the world, get a clue
its very frustrating to see TSCC…firefly…jericho…get the boot, especially jericho which is a great comparison….sad thing is, jericho was actually good
falling skies will fail and people will say its sci fi, and that we dont stick with our shows…fact is, you dont give us a chance to finish shows we DO attack ourselves to, and this show…well its just the most overhyped POS ive seen
4400 makes this look SO WEAK
I think the point is that Jericho was “post apocalyptic” and this was trying to capture the same feeling. It was an epic fail on all accounts. The Steven Spielberg name seemed tacked on as this had none of the magic or “must see” of his other works.
the story was pretty lame, acting was average nothing special, seems like I have seen it played out before, not impressed. I will be fair and give it another week then if it does not pick up the pace and the story does not get any better I will axe it from my schedule…
Agreed, lame.. too hyped, show took forever… Inconstant, too many extras running around giving me an actual headache, they need to kill off at least 90% of the 300 population for being stupid like 300 warm blooded people in the middle of the night don’t show up on heat sensors when standing in a group. Show is that bad that I’d actually welcome carnage And I dislike that kinda thing
No time scales to say invasion was weeks months years ago? At whatever stage this resistance movement is at everyone except kids that can’t hold guns should be “fighters”. Bad (cheap)intro. Even Earth 2 from 1995 had a good into of 2 episodes and better effects than this POS. This is more of a drama than sci-fi
What killed it for me was the network itself. At the start they said ‘brought to you with limited commercial interruptions’. First commercial, 9:13. And the first 30 seconds of that commercial cycle was a commercial for the program we were already watching! Second commercial, 9:23, third, 9:31. And ALL of them started with a commercial about the show itself. I changed the station and never went back……
Yes – WAAAYYYYY too many commercials.. it almost seemed like a one hour (43 minute) tw show stretched in to two hours with commercials.
Agreed. TNT really messed up with all the commercials. I DVRed after about 30 minutes because it was too much for me. The whole “Limited Commercials” was joke.
Commercials are for people that do not know how to use the DVR. What? No DVR? I guess you could “tape” it instead.
I felt the same way. Too many commercials especially after it was advertised as limited interuptions. It was hard to get into a brand new story line and new characters with all the commercials. I am a SiFi fan and I can see the potential but the show definitly needs to pick up the pace.
It reminded me of ‘The Walking Dead’ with aliens instead of zombies……
I guess I watched a different show than the rest of the people commenting here. I exceedingly enjoyed the premiere. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I hated when it would go to a commercial because I would have to pace back and forth in my TV Room until it came back on. I must admit I am a science fiction fan and this show was right up my alley.
You must have got a lot of exercise then because the commercials were constant. I admire you for sticking it out. I DVRed so it wasn’t so bad, but the pace was ruined.
I, like you, am a big sci-fi fan and thought it was intense and had my on edge too!
I totally agree with you, its nice to see something different, with all these stupid drama cop shows and stuff …I loved it!!!
I thought it was great. I cant wait til next week and really hope this show lasts !