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“Scream: The TV Series” Dead on Arrival on MTV; Barely Watched By A Million Viewers.

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Tuesday, June 30th was the day a lot of us had been waiting for. It was the day when we’d get to see the first episode of “Scream: The TV Series,” the official, though non-canonical, continuation of the four film franchise from Wes Craven. I knew that fans of Scream would be split going into the premiere episode, especially due to the location change, mask change, and lack of returning characters – but the promotion for the new series on MTV was crazy. Millions had to have been spent making sure the masses new this one was coming out.

And it appears that the masses decided to pass on “Scream: The TV Series.” The pilot episode earned a 0.5 Nielson Rating and was watched by a meager 1,026,000 viewers.  Basically, all the promotional materials failed to pay off and not only did the horror demographic not-so surprisingly pass on the new series, but it looks like the teen target audience skipped on it, too. The numbers are extremely low for a new series debuting in the summer, especially one with a built in fan-base at its disposal. Maybe it was the late airing of 10:00PM that hurt its chances at a solid debut?

Either way, “Scream: The TV Series” will see its second episode airing July 7th on MTV, but I’m fearful that it’s going to be a single season show if the ratings and viewership continue in this direction.

For comparison, here’s series premieres and their current season premiere’s for other MTV shows:

Awkward: Season 1 Premiere – 1,720,000
Awkward: Season 4 Premiere – 1,630,000
Eye Candy: Season 1 Premiere – 590,000
Faking It: Season 1 Premiere – 1,170,000
Faking It: Season 2 Premiere – 1,020,000
Finding Carter: Season 1 Premiere – 1,690,000
Finding Carter: Season 2 Premiere – 1,100,000
The Hard Times of RJ Berger: Season 1 Premiere – 2,600,000
The Hard Times of RJ Berger: Season 2 Premiere – 3,100,000
Teen Wolf: Season 1 Premiere – 2,170,000
Teen Wolf: Season 5 Premiere – 1,530,000

Michael DeFellipo

(Senior Editor)

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