Everybody loves The Office but I found out the original pilot only got half the audience of their timeslot

I read an old TV ratings blog from 2005 that said the first episode flopped hard compared to competitors. They barely got renewed after season 1. Anyone else think the hype is overblown for the earlier seasons?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathan_hill6021d ago

I mean, yeah, the pilot numbers were pretty rough from what I remember reading. My buddy actually had a bootleg copy of that first episode on a burned DVD he got from some forum, and we watched it at like 2am one night. It felt awkward even for that era of TV, like the pacing was way off compared to what came later. The whole cast seemed like they were still figuring out their characters, especially Michael Scott who came across more mean than clueless. It's wild to think that show almost got killed off before it found its groove, but I guess that's how a lot of cult classics start out.

jason52421d ago

The first episode actually pulled 11.2 million viewers which was pretty solid for a midseason replacement on NBC back then. The awkwardness you felt was intentional, the whole point of the show was that these were regular people in a boring office, not polished TV characters. If the pilot had been any different it probably wouldn't have set up that uncomfortable tone that made the later seasons work so well.