All summer long we heard about “The Event.”
The promotion paid off Monday night when the show debuted. The series premiere was the highest rated drama debut for NBC in three years and delivered a solid audience in a competitive 9 p.m. hour. That was good news for NBC.
Even better news was the show’s ratings increased during the final half hour.
Now NBC is looking at how to continue growing the show and not lose the momentum. One factor working against the show is its heavily serialized nature. In the past several years, serialized shows have had a solid debut only to see ratings trail off quickly (see “Flash Forward” last year).
But NBC isn’t planning to let that happen. They plan to make sure audiences are aware of the show. That includes plans to replay the pilot Saturday night and to have a special West Coast showing Sunday night after Sunday Night Football.
NBC’s entertainment president Angela Bromstad said the network’s heavy marketing of the show will likewise continue — advertisements, booking the show’s talent on morning and late-night shows and sending additional episodes to critics. Industry insiders estimate NBC has spent about $15 million to market the show, not including its own valuable on-air exposure on programs such as “Sunday Night Football.”
“We’re still in launch mode,” Bromstad said.
As producers have pledged, the creative on the show will emphasize keeping the drama from frustrating viewers with too many mysteries.
“We want to have the show to be a thriller where you’re getting answers that resolve mysteries in each episode, that keep up a level of tension rather without being frustrating,” Bromstad said.
The stakes are high. NBC has sold the show to 200 countries — meaning the company stands to make a fortune if the series can survive.
A rival network executive gave NBC props for the show’s initial ratings, but added, “‘The Event’ is all about Week 3.”
“It was a solid opening for them, but several similar shows shows have opened well and faded quickly,” the executive said. “It’s ultimately not how many you get, it’s how many you can keep.”
They need to have the social sites linked in including twitters from mystery people that would reveal certain details/clues about the event or some characters. They need to do webisodes that enhance the mystery and keep people talking about it and theorizing.
If they can even do any viewer participation where a viewer submitted idea gets written in the script; they could hold a contest for some show bling as a prize.
But they need to have a definite story arc, not the meandering crap that cursed Heros.
The problem with doing all the things that you suggest is that the vast majority of people (myself included) are lazy bums who don’t want a ton of extra-curriculars necessary to understand what’s going on in a TV show that we already have to make time for.
@Gazerbeam: Agreed. It’s fun to have the extras like Webisodes and stuff but it should be possible to follow the show without those extras.
My DVR is set up to record these shows so I don’t have to worry about it and can watch them when I want. I don’t want to have to keep track of other pieces to keep up.
I wasn’t all that impressed with The Event. I’ll give it a little bit longer to see if it improves. I preferred Undercovers.