It’s almost unconscionable that this misfit of a pilot got picked up for a season, but it looks like Knight Rider is actually coming to Wednesday nights on NBC (8PM for those of you with masochistic tendencies). It joins such gems as Robinson Crusoe, Deal or No Deal, and a new show called Merlin. What is unknown is whether Val Kilmer will reprise his overpriced role as the voice of Kitt, or whether the show will actually feature any believable plots (or perhaps avoid any more gratuitous three-way sex scenes and lesbian love affairs). I personally wonder how long it will take even Ford fanatics to realize the entire show is one big rolling advertisement for the motor company and NCLR and that they are being exploited for NBC’s monetary gain. Of course, this will only work until the show gets canceled once the first suite of ratings pile in. Please, if anyone disagrees with me feel free to chime in here, but here are the results from the pilot according to Neilsen and various sources:

“Although ratings for the movie were high, with Nielsen Ratings reporting 10.0 million viewers watching NBC with 4.0/10 households tuning in. Knight Rider was generally received poorly by media outlets. IGN gave the movie a rating of 5 out of 10 saying, “No one expects Knight Rider to be particularly thought-provoking or deep, but something a bit more enjoyable would certainly be appreciated next time.” Variety stated, “unfortunately, even at 200 miles an hour the times appear to have passed the concept by, and making “Knight Rider” road-worthy for further adventures will require more than just a tune-up.” The Los Angeles Times stated, “The two-hour (!) movie/pilot/extended Ford commercial crept by Sunday night like a glacier with turbo-revving sound effects. (No advance screeners were available, never a good sign.)” Even with poor reviews, NBC captured first place within the 18-49 demographic. The movie averaged a viewership of 12.8 million viewers.

The reason the ratings were even this high is that tons of people wanted to tune in and hope that the show would come off at least moderately well. I think that after seeing the train wreck that was Knight Rider, those people will not be snuck up on again.

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