Bent did not break in the U.S. Wednesday night. I like the new NBC rom-com, starring Amanda Peet and David Walton, and say so here in my overnight review for theStar.com. NBC seems determined, however, to toss it away, dumping it into Wednesdays at 9 opposite American Idol, Criminal Minds and Modern Family with little promotion. No Canadian network picked it up, never a good sign.
TV By The Numbers says the series premiered to just 2.82 million viewers Wednesday night at 9 and dipped to 2.42 mil. at 9:30–worse than The Paul Reiser Show did last spring. U.S. cable shows like Doomsday Bunkers, Rip the Runway and Storage Wars pulled more viewers in the hour. Yikes.
Another NBC mid-season tryout, Smash, has earned a second season according to today’s announcement from the network. Averaging 7.7 million viewers a week, Smash is NBC’s top-rated scripted series in both total audience and A18 to 49–which should give you some idea of NBC’s overall fortunes.
