There have been a lot of movies turned into TV projects over the past few years, tovarying degrees of success. Recently, NBC tried something a little different with its latest adaptation, Taken, choosing to air the show at midseason after The Voice instead of running it amidst all the other TV clutter in the fall. It's a bid that seems to have paid off, as the first episode ofTaken did solid numbers over at the Eye Network.
Reports this week indicate that the premiere episode of Taken did quite well, pulling in 7.4 million total viewers and a 1.6 rating. Per the network, that's actually the #1 new drama premiere since the fall, which seems like a nice fact but not a mind-blowing stat at first glance. Then, when you consider that Taken airs in a rather tough 10 p.m. timeslot, it's a bit more impressive.
Of course, it should be noted that Taken is airing after high performer The Voice on NBC. A good lead-in can help the numbers for a new show considerably, and if The Voice continues to do well, that should bode well for Taken, as well, in the weeks to come. The real testament will be if NBC signs on for a second season of the drama and shuffles it into a new timeslot. At that point, the show will sink or swim, and we'll know whether or not audiences are watching because they trulylove the project rather than because of convenience. Plenty of shows--See Rosewood--have done worse after they've lost a good lead-in. (In that case Empire.)For now, Taken just needs to coast behind new episodes of the long-running singing competition series. That's not a bad place to be.
For right now, Taken is sitting quite pretty in NBC's schedule. It likely helps that The Voice was up tooin the ratings, jumping up 24% from the show's fall finale and nabbing 13 million total viewers. Those numbers tend to drop after the chair-turning portion of any given season of The Voice, but the show does well regardless.
We'll let you know how Taken fares in the coming weeks and whether or not it will do well enough to earn a second season order. In the meantime, NBC has been rather big about early renewals this year, and has already signed on for a new season ofThis is Us, as well as comedies The Good Place and Superstore. If you'd like to take a look at the full list of what has been cancelled and renewed for the 2017-2018 season, take a look at ournetwork rundown. In addition, to see what has still yet to premiere on the major networks, check out our winterTV premiere schedule.
