The two-hour TV-Movie / Would-be series, Virtuality, aired to the lowest ratings of the night and helped to pull Fox into forth place in ratings for the evening. Despite the dismal ratings, due to Fox's very confusing strategy with the show, Virtuality delivered, at least for me, a better than average sci-fi television show, and something that I would definitely have tuned in for again, at least long enough to see where creator Ronald D. Moore would take it. That's obviously nothing more than a pipe-dream now, and anyone else hoping to see more Virtuality is living in Wonderland.
The TV-Movie was originally a pilot shot for Fox and a contender for a fall series on the network, however last month we learned that the pilot would instead be aired as a two-hour tv-movie this summer. This is never a good sign for a series hopeful, and usually is just a method for the network to recoup some of the expense put into making the pilot. That might have been fine, and made a lot of sense, but then, over the past couple of weeks, the internet has been abuzz with quotes from Moore as well as co-writer Michael Taylor saying not to count the wanna-be series out just yet, and that it may still stand a chance at a midseason replacement. Fox then did a fair job and getting word spread online of the TV-movie event happening this past weekend, however not once did they put forth any real effort on their network, in my opinion, in order to get people watching. The result was quite predictable.
Virtuality pulled in just 1.8 million viewers and an 0.5 adult demographics rating, putting it in a tie with The Goode Family as the lowest-rated program on a major broadcast network Friday night. If you missed Virtuality it can be viewed online, for U.S. viewers, here.
