If you liked Friday’s showing of “Virtuality,” and hoped to see more, we’ve got some bad news this morning.
The two-hour movie/potential pilot by Ron Moore and Michael Taylor barely registered in the ratings Friday evening drawing 1.8 million viewers and an 0.5 adult demo rating. It was the lowest rated show of the night and put Fox into fourth place for the evening.
So, that means we probably won’t see any more of the series.
If you missed it and live in the United States, you can watch a streaming version of the movie on Fox’s web site.
Sam says
Frak the ratings. I just watched the 2hr movie online and it is fantastic. I want more.
Gazerbeam says
I nearly missed it because I had *no clue* that it was going to be on. If not for you wonderful folks, I would have missed out on it completely. (And also, one of the best “WTF?” moments in TV history)
Will says
I agree with both of the above. The tech on this show is pretty solid; the Orion drive has been talked about since the ’60s and, given the Earth’s predicament, it is entirely reasonable for the Phaeton to use it. I like the reality show aspect of the series and I concur with Gazerbeam on the last few minutes being one of the best WTF moments in TV history.
Will says
Michael, can you tell us to whom we can write at Fox to give them better feedback than the Nielsens?
Andrew McDonald says
We tried recording it on Friday night but due to severe storms in the area we ended up with a recording consisting of only the first 2 minutes.
We were able to watch it at fox.com last night. It started a little slow but picked up and by the end it was certainly easy to recognize it as Ron Moore creation.
I would like to see more but am not sure how far they can go with the whole google invasion thing.
As to the science on the show I have a nit to pick. If they are traveling for 5 years “near the speed of light” how long will they be gone in earth time due to relativistic effects? And how do you keep a reality show going when you might only be able to put a complete episode together every few months or years due to updates trickling in from the near-lightspeed ship?
Kikstad says
Poorly handled by the Network. It’s a shame.
TallGrrl says
I don’t know about what anyone else thinks, but I’m sure a LOT of programs had low viewership this weekend because of the specials and coverage on Michael Jackson. (And you can be a hater if you want, but no matter what you thought about Jackson, he was definitely an incredible and ground-breaking talent.)
Fox can’t be THAT dumb to recognize that not only was their show running on the Death Night, but that there also an event that was going to get more coverage that weekend than their show.
What? Oh…yeah. Right. There’s that whole “Firefly” thing with them.
I’m going to catch “Virtuality” online and just pray that they get a decent chance.
Michael Xavier Maelstrom says
Friday night is where Fox programming dept execs send series to die. period.
If you aren’t yet aware of the Fox Exec logic at work, it is this:
“We don’t want to piss Genre fans off, so we can’t outright cancel a genre series, so instead we put it on Friday night (when most people are out partying) that way we can blame the Friday night low-ratings that 8 times out of 2 WILL ensue, instead of taking the blame for canceling the series.”
Please pass this on, so that Fox programming directors can’t get away with this tactic anymore.
Perhaps all is not lost? if 20th Century Fox gets it act together and moves into the 21st Century with the rest of us, if not on Fox Television, why not release new eps on the Fox website?
The writing was quite good, intellectually stimulating, and I’d love to see more.
Wesley says
My wife and I enjoyed Virtuality. Of course, we recorded it and watched it a few days later like we do for everything. It had some interested concepts.
Justathought says
Interesting, but slow-paced. I don’t think there was enough “story”, or cast to keep even one season going. Maybe a mini-series of two or three episodes?
Doesn’t compare to “Firefly” or “Jericho” which were rich in untaped story line potential. People are becoming increasingly reluctant to get invested in TV shows with evolving story lines which can be canceled in the middle of the “story”, like “Surface”, etc.
Pavlina says
didn’t even know about it. Way to go Fox!
Jason says
I can’t believe I didn’t see this, I just watched the pilot on hulu and it was amazing. I’m not just saying that because this from Ronald Moore it was just good. I didn’t think the paceing was slow at all. If you want to see really slow paceing, check out “Sunshine” with Cillian Murphy, thats painfully slow. Anyway I really enjoyed it but I get the feeling the real threat from the crew is going to come in the form of cancellation via Fox and its short sighted executives.
Skiznot says
Per Andrew’s question. “If they are traveling for 5 years “near the speed of light” how long will they be gone in earth time due to relativistic effects?” It all depends on how far they’re going and now “near” the speed of light they get. The show never said exactly how far the destination is. But if they were traveling at .9 the speed of light then 5 years on the ship would be 11.47 years back home and the distance they will have traveled will be 10.323 light years (feel free to check my math but I think I got it worked out.) Now if they were going .99 the speed of light 5 years on the ship would be 35.44406025 years back home and they will have traveled 35.08961965 light years. Whew! You’re right about the TV show. They could continue to show it but the space between episodes would get longer and longer. If it were me though I know that I would eagerly be waiting the next show even if there were months between each episode. Man! You’d have to wait longer and longer the farther and faster they moved. Imagine the dramatic tension!
Melissa says
Cable channels can have backdoor pilots, but networks cannot.
Networks cannot test the waters on a new series during the summer and expect above par ratings. Especially when there is no opportunity for Virtuality to gain buzz because it only airs for one night. The Scifi channel and Usa Network have had success with backdoor pilots because when the have one, its their golden egg. They spend a month or more advertising it, saturating their audience. And considering Fox’s terrible advertising and lack of utter respect for its shows, its no surprise that Virtuality failed to get the ratings Fox wants.
Scott from Kalamazoo says
I didn’t even know it’s on but I do see it’s on Hulu.
But let’s be real here, who expects any kind of ratings on a Friday night in the summer no less? Please. I haven’t watched TV in almost a week the weather has been so nice.
Fox was just burning this off because it was a *failed* pilot. I may watch it later on in the summer but probably won’t bother since I know it’s not going anywhere, unfortunately.
Andrew McDonald says
Skiznot: Thanks. I thought more time would pass than that but someone must have done their math on the show as well.
So it’s possible they could get there and back within the 100 year time frame though they never really specified what would happen then. When they get back and report there is a habitable planet do they load up as many people as they can and fly off?
Skiznot says
Ok so I thought they made up Epsilon Eridani but it’s a real star 10.8 Light years away. So if they wanted to get there in 10 years ship time they would have to go .71 the speed of light. Assuming that they’re talking about the trip there as being the 10 years. Meanwhile a little over 14 years would pass on earth. If the 10 years was there and back again then .9 the speed of light would cover it with some time to spare and almost 23 years would have passed on earth for their 10. I’m hoping if the show ever gets made that they don’t make the mistake of completely forgetting about time dilation effects. Once again if anyone’s an expert feel free to correct me if I worked it out wrong somehow.