Giant Freakin Robot

If you spend much time perusing the wares here at GFR, you probably already know, or at least guessed, that we were pretty big fans of Neil deGrasse Tyson and Seth McFarlane’s (yes, that Seth McFarlane) updated version of Carl Sagan’s classic science show Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Surprising that we might be way into a program like this that explores the bigger questions of science and the universe, isn’t it? We also suspect that many of you out there in Internet land enjoyed Cosmos as well, but we aren’t the only ones, as the series drew the biggest worldwide audience the National Geographic Channel has ever wrangled.

Last spring, Fox debuted the revamped series in over 180 countries. In an unusual cross-platform release, Cosmos aired on 90 National Geographic channels, as well as more than 120-Fox-branded stations across the world. If that sounds like a lot, it is. We’re talking about the largest single global TV launch in history. Just in the U.S., on ten outlets, including Fox, National Geographic, FX, FXX, FXM, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo, and Fox Life.

Last night Neil deGrasse Tyson and Seth MacFarlane’s Cosmos resurrection unspooled its final episode, having brought a sense of wonder back to the TV landscape — and to the Fox lineup, no less! For 13 episodes beginning this past March, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey invited viewers to ponder bigger questions than who would win American Idol this season, and perhaps even more importantly, to embrace the idea that not having all the answers is okay, so long as we keep searching. Honestly, it’s still hard to believe that we even got one new season of Cosmos in our current society, where science is all too often given false equivalency with misinformation, urban legends, and outright superstition. Dare we hope that we might have more Cosmos in our future?

Last night’s season finale pulled in 3.52 million viewers, which put it behind both NBC’s Believe and a repeat of CBS’ The Good Wife in terms of total viewers. That sounds a bit depressing, but the good news is that it beat those shows in the coveted 18-49 demographic. It has consistently pulled in over 3 million viewers during its Sunday-night airings, and even though those numbers aren’t huge — the first episode of Fox’s 24: Live Another Day back at the beginning of May, for instance, pulled in around 8 million viewers total — it’s worth noting that Sunday nights have had no shortage of competition, most notably HBO’s mega-hit Game of Thrones and the NHL playoffs.

If you didn’t watch last week’s premiere of Cosmos, you’re missing out. I was nervous about whether the show could pull off its ambitious agenda, especially following in the footsteps of Carl Sagan. So far, the reboot is everything I wished for, despite lower-than-projected ratings, which may have more to do with its time slot and/or its airing on Fox. Or it may have to do with the lack of interest in science that host Neil deGrasse Tyson has made a career of fighting. Then again, maybe the anti-creationist and anti-religious insinuations of the show pissed people off. Some groups were put off by Tyson’s mention of evolution, even though it was brief. In fact, viewers who tuned into to Oklahoma City’s KOKH-TV didn’t see the 15 or so seconds addressing evolution at all, as it was cut completely and replaced by a promo for the nightly news.

This. This is why we can’t have nice things, people. Last night Neil deGrasse Tyson hosted the return of Carl Sagan’s groundbreaking PBS science series, Cosmos. Thanks to the Hollywood cachet of executive producer Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy), the new Cosmos premiered simultaneously on 10 different Fox networks, including the core Fox channel, National Geographic, and FX. In spite of all of that, not to mention an aggressive promotional campaign in the weeks leading up to it, Cosmos’ first new episode didn’t live up to Fox’s expectations when it came to the ratings.

THR says the premiere drew 8.5 million viewers across the 10 networks, with 5.8 million of those coming via the main Fox network. Unfortunately, that only landed Cosmos in third place in its time slot, falling behind the premiere of ABC’s sort-of-zombie drama Resurrection, which dug up 13.3 million viewers. In the coveted 18 – 49 demographic, it pulled in a 2.9 share. THR says Fox execs were hoping for 40 million viewers for Cosmos’ first week.

Primetime network television rarely dips into interesting real world affairs, and when it does, it’s usually true crime or whatever things happen on 60 Minutes. I’m obviously not talking about “reality television,” as no one is learning anything from that. Enter Seth MacFarlane, who has built an empire out of referencing the 1980s in filthy ways through talking teddy bears and Sunday nights on Fox. He gets all the credit in the world from us here at GFR for spearheading a revival of Carl Sagan’s landmark science series Cosmos. But it was a monumental challenge, for audiences today have more insight into our universe than any single generation in the past, all thanks to the Internet. Keeping things fresh and interesting was only as difficult as hiring astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson as the presenter and compiling a retina-popping collection of space photography and CGI eye candy. The final product, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, is a bite-sized lesson on the universe that grows exponentially each time you chew on the information given.

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (Fox, 9/8c)
Tonight is a big night for resurrections. The most exciting of them is Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a new incarnation of the beloved science program co-created and hosted by the late Carl Sagan three decades ago. This new version is hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, an eloquent defender and champion of science who is as close to a successor for Sagan as we have right now. The show is also executive produced by Seth MacFarlane and Sagan’s widow, Ann Druyan. Seeing MacFarlane’s name in the credits might not be something you’d expect, but this isn’t the first time he’s used his Hollywood clout to help preserve and empower Sagan’s legacy.

When MacFarlane first began talking about resurrecting Cosmos with Druyan and Tyson, the Family Guy creator told Tyson, “I’m at a point in my career where I have some disposable income…and I’d like to spend it on something worthwhile.” And without him championing it, it seems unlikely that Fox would have greenlit Cosmos in this age of vapid, idiotic reality shows, much less decided to premiere the science program on 10 Fox Networks simultaneously, including Fox, Fox Sports 1 and 2, and the National Geographic Channel.