Live episodes of TV programs are not new ideas, but airing a live television episode during a primary debate is certainly a different idea for a live episode. Tuesday’s airing of The Conners happened concurrently with the New Hampshire primary, so the show opted to do an episode in which the series incorporated events from the primary while giving us a regular Conners-typical episode, as well. But was it a success?
We took to the interwebs to see how people were feeling about The Conners going live and honestly were a little surprised by the results. Some seemed to really love the episode format and others were not as interested in it. In particular, however, people who enjoyed the live episode really seemed gung-ho about it:
Others thought trying a live episode of this ilk was a really interesting format even if every little piece of it didn’t work.
Of course, some people were not super interested in the episode, and I found this one to be one of the sickest burns related to the dislike for the episode (no offense to Allison Williams.)
Many of those who didn’t like the episodes griped about the politics in said episode, which was always to be expected with this sort of gimmick that relied heavily on “live during the primary” for its advertising ahead of airing. While the comment below is a pretty good example of that mentality, others called the episode “preachy” and “disappointing."
Some, however, didn’t care about the politics and were simply shocked that The Conners was delivering real live news related to the New Hampshire primary during the sitcom’s run.
Of course, the primary wasn’t the main component of the episode and if you’d like a full rundown of what happened, we have you covered as well.
Whatever you personally thought of the live episode of The Conners it was a gambit that worked. The ratings are in for Tuesday’s episode and the 10 p.m. airing nabbed a 1.10 overnight rating in the 18-49 demographic and 6.3 million total viewers. That’s up 22% in the demo and 19% in total viewers from the show’s prior outing, so at least some additional viewers were interested to see how it turned out. Whether or not they liked what they saw is another matter, though.
The Conners currently airs on ABC on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET. It hasn't been renewed yet, but it's ratings are strong enough without trying things like live episodes to presume we'll eventually get a Season 3. We'll keep you updated no matter how another season shakes out.
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