Abrams Six Degrees Premieres to Mixed Reviews and So So Ratings

Not only is JJ Abrams prepping a new Star Trek film, but he has three series on broadcast television; Lost, What About Brian and now Six Degrees which launched last night. Both Abrams and fellow Trek producer Bryan Burk are credited as executive producers of Six Degrees with former Voyager writer/producer Ken Biller in as show runner.  Having secured the plush post Grey’s Anatomy slot, the show failed to deliver on high expectations. According to fast national ratings, the premiere of Six Degrees was in third place for its timeslot, delivering with 13.34 million views. It lost a good chunk of the 25 million viewers who watched Grey’s Anatomy the previous hour.


This premiere was a little bit better than JJ’s last series launch, “What About Brian”, which delivered a 8.2/14 (5.8); 12.57M viewers this past April. That series launched out of Desperate Housewives, and did a better job with retention (66% vs. the 53% of Six Degrees). Though the loss is significant, Six Degrees still paced well ahead of last season’s Thursday at 10 PM occupant, Primetime.  In the comparable frame last season (9/22/2005), that program delivered a 5.4 (2.6), 7.54M viewers. It remains to be seen what this means in terms of the shows future.  The viewer figure is good, but the large loss of viewers from half hour to half hour should be a cause for concern. The show averaged 15.32M viewers in the first half hour, before dipping to 11.36M for the second.

Mixed critial opinion
The overall opinion of the show so far seems a bit split fairly evenly. Here are a few thoughts by some critics who have watched the pilot:

“And the romantic sense of yearning that infuses “Six Degrees” is refreshing in a TV schedule full of corpses and cops. You’d be hard-pressed to find a show with its heart more prominently displayed on its sleeves.
Mauren Ryan–Chicago Tribune

"Produced under the auspices of Lost’s J.J. Abrams but created and written by others, Six Degrees is a theoretical construct trying desperately and futilely to become a TV show. Like pinballs, six New Yorkers bounce around the city and off each other in ways clearly meant to convey some deep message about life’s interconnections. What it actually tells you is the writers don’t know the difference between coincidence and fate, and they don’t know nearly enough about the requirements of commercial entertainment.
Robert Bianco–USA Today

Is Abrams spread too thin?
Although the show is being promoted as ‘the new show from JJ Abrams’ one has to wonder how much time and effort Abrams has put into the show. Abrams is currently credited as the producer of three TV shows and has a deal with Warner to create even more shows. Plus Abrams deal at Paramount calls for him to produce Trek XI and a number of smaller films. 

Rosario Tino is a full-time student and part-time ratings junkie, he blogs at Entertainment Now.
 

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The fact that nobody has commented on this just shows that it doesn’t belong here. Get it out of here – who posted this here anyhow?
Shall we break down a criteria of what belongs here and what doesn’t?
Ok…..sounds like a so…so plan:
1. Anything in regard to the viewing times of the Updated Series.
2. Anything in regard to Star Trek 11
3. Cleanup (video) of the old Star Trek Cartoon Series as we all know they
just really rushed into that series plus they spent No Money on it.
4. Well….anything that promotes Star Trek as it is (or was) into a positive
light. (The Inner Light?) Lets best utilize our common resources – Ok?

The future of Trek is all about Abrams…this site will continue to do some coverage of Abrams other projects. Six Degrees shares two producers with Trek XI. Just a warning…will probably do a couple of articles on Lost this season too, and maybe one or two on Transformers (which shares the same writers as Trek XI)

…what this site wont cover are the latest comments from Takei on coming out or what Branson Mo Dinner Theater Garrett Wang is appearing in next. But if either of them say somethig about Trek XI…that we will cover