Reverie

The NBC summer series ‘Reverie’ will not return for a second season.  The series starred Sarah Shahi as Mara Kint, a former hostage negotiator who takes a job attempting to rescue people who have been lost in a virtual reality program, known as ‘Reverie’.  Joining Shahi was an impressive cast that included the All-State insurance guy Dennis Haysbert who is also known for playing President David Palmer on ’24’, and ‘Heroes” Sendhil Ramamurthy.

Shahi was one of the most sought-after actors during the 2017-18 pilot season, so there were high hopes for ‘Reverie’, but NBC ended up holding the show for summer, running from May to August (y’know when no one watches television).  The buzz died and the show was practically dead on arrival, averaging a 0.4 Nielsen rating, which equals roughly 2.1 million viewers.  Adding in three day streaming, the ratings rose slightly to a 0.6 rating, which equals 2.85 million viewers, which is definitely not enough to stay alive.

‘Reverie’ was created by Mickey Fisher, who also created the more successful Nation Geographic show ‘Mars’ and CBS’ ‘Extant‘ which lasted for two seasons in 2014-15.

Out of eight new series from the 2017-18 season, NBC only renewed three– ‘A.P. Bio’, ‘Good Girls’ and ‘Will & Grace’.

Shahi should rebound quickly, as she remains in-demand.  Prior to ‘Reverie’, she most recently starred on ‘Chicago Fire’.  Before that, she starred on ‘Person of Interest‘, ‘Fairly Legal’, ‘Life’, ‘The L Word’, and ‘Alias’.

Haysbert recently appeared in the poorly-received film adaptation of ‘The Dark Tower‘ and the Netflix original ‘Kodachrome’.  He will appear later this month on the Lifetime original movie ‘Christmas Everlasting’ and in next spring’s inspirational drama ‘Breakthrough’.

Prior to ‘Reverie’, Ramamurthy appeared on the Sky 1 series ‘Stan Lee’s Lucky Man’ and recently appeared in the indie film ‘After Everything’.

‘Reverie’ also starred Jessica Lu (MTV’s ‘Awkward’), Kathryn Morris (‘Colony’), Kai Scott (‘Best. Worst. Weekend. Ever.’) and Christopher Redman (‘Workin’ Moms’).

Were you a fan?  Are you sad to see this series go?

Source: The Hollywood Reporter