This NBC Sci-Fi Show Flopped in 2010—But Stephen King Loved It
Back in 2010, NBC dropped an ambitious sci-fi thriller that barely made a dent with viewers. It was expensive, dense, and canceled after one season. But to Stephen King? It was one of the best things on TV that year.
In his Entertainment Weekly top 10 list, King placed it right after Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and Friday Night Lights, calling it a "clever, suspenseful drama" and praising the performances of Jason Ritter and Laura Innes.
So what exactly was this forgotten series?
It was called The Event, and in classic 2010 network TV fashion, it tried to be Lost, 24, and The X-Files all at once.
What The Event Was Trying to Do
Premiering in fall 2010, The Event centered on Sean Walker (Jason Ritter), a regular guy whose missing-girlfriend plot spirals into a government conspiracy involving secret prisons, extraterrestrials, and the President of the United States. Yes, really.
The hook? The aliens crashed on Earth in 1944 and have been held at a CIA black site in Alaska. Some escaped decades ago and live secretly among us — identical to humans, except they age slower and have slightly different DNA.
The show mixed timelines, perspectives, and mystery-box storytelling, with a high-profile cast that included:
- Jason Ritter as Sean Walker
- Blair Underwood as President Elias Martinez
- Laura Innes as alien leader Sophia Maguire
- Željko Ivanek, Scott Patterson, Clifton Collins Jr., and Sarah Roemer in major roles
The pilot alone juggled three timelines, immediately drawing Lost comparisons — but without the cultural timing or patience from the audience.
Why It Failed (and Why It Might've Thrived Later)
The Event's complex structure wasn't easy to follow week-to-week. And that was a problem in 2010, when shows still lived and died by their live broadcast numbers. Mid-season scheduling delays didn't help. By May 2011, NBC pulled the plug after 22 episodes — leaving plenty of cliffhangers and a ton of unanswered questions.
It wasn't the only one. Around the same time, high-concept one-season wonders like FlashForward and V faced the same fate. Everyone wanted another Lost, but no one could hold that kind of momentum on broadcast TV.
Had The Event premiered on Netflix or Hulu, it likely would've had a shot. The binge model suits dense, serialized sci-fi — just ask Manifest, which was revived after cancellation and went on to finish its run with a massive streaming audience.