NBC renews 'Smash' for a second season

Network celebrates major time-period growth thanks to the musical drama

By Daniel Fienberg Thursday, Mar 22, 2012 3:29 PM

Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty of "Smash"

Credit: NBC

Although it's far from a ratings smash, the new musical drama "Smash" has done well enough to earn a second season on NBC.

NBC made the less-than-shocking announcement on Thursday (March 22) afternoon, praising "Smash" for its critical acclaim and also for its dramatic improvements over the network's Monday 10 p.m. averages.

Although "Smash" has been regularly losing heaping chunks of its lead-in audience from "The Voice," the series is averaging 7.7 million viewers, nearly doubling the viewership of such luminaries as "Playboy Club" and "Rock Center" in that hour this season. "Smash" has given NBC an even bigger bump among adults 18-49, with its 2.6 rating in the key demographic, compared to the anemic 1.0 rating for previous occupants.

Probably the most exhaustively promoted new show of the spring, "Smash" premiered on February 6 and, after several weeks of dropping numbers, has leveled off in recent weeks, drawing a respectable-by-NBC-standards 6.7 million viewers and a 2.3 rating among adults 18-49 in its most recent airing opposite new episodes of "Castle" and "Hawaii Five-0."

Created by Theresa Rebeck and featuring an all-star team of producers led by Steven Spielberg, "Smash" stars Debra Messing, Christian Borle, Anjelica Huston, Megan Hilty and Katharine McPhee.

Regarding a potential second season, Rebeck told TV critics in January, "The first season, the plan is to take 'Marilyn' all the way to an out of town tryout, so it’s her first really public presentation. And then the second season will be 'Marilyn' if we’re lucky enough to get there, would be 'Marilyn' comes to Broadway, how does 'Marilyn' fare in New York?"

We'll see if that's still the plan.

Daniel Fienberg
Executive Editor

A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.

Related Searches: NBC, Smash, renewal

Next Article - Hugh Dancy lands NBC's first 'Hannibal' lead
Previous Article - Extra-long '2 Broke Girls,' 'How I Met Your Mother' lead CBS finale dates

Trending Now on HitFix Boards

Topic	Started By	Latest Post	Replies
Game of Thrones, "Second Sons" for book readers	sepinwall	about 4 hours ago	2
Game of Thrones, "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" for book readers	sepinwall	10 days ago	1
Discuss Scripted Dramas on HitFix Message Boards »

John

IMO, Smash's biggest problem is that it's torn between Broadway fairy tale (Karen, Ellis) and something more realistic (everyone else).
March 22, 2012 at 3:55PM EST Reply to Comment
FEW

What are the chances of Parenthood coming back?
March 22, 2012 at 4:00PM EST Reply to Comment
- Solid? Pretty good? I'm guessing 70/30 in favor? Probably higher?
  
  -Daniel
  March 22, 2012 at 4:12PM EST
Jake

It's Alan's fault. This happened soon after he changed his Twitter avatar.
March 22, 2012 at 4:07PM EST Reply to Comment
diane

It`s good that Rebeck isn`t coming back so here`s hoping the next season will eliminate all the soap opera and unnecessary characters (Dev, Ellis, Julia`s family)and re-write main ones since eevryone`s unlikable and one dimensional.
March 22, 2012 at 9:51PM EST Reply to Comment

News From Our Partners

Follow HitFix:

Follow @HitFix

Get Instant Alerts on Breaking News

HitFix.com

Event Calendar

Movies

TV

Music

Videos

Photos

Awards

Riot

In Theaters

New to DVD

On Demand

New Music

NBC renews 'Smash' for a second season

Network celebrates major time-period growth thanks to the musical drama