"Knight Rider" Ratings In
I've been waiting to post something on the new "Knight Rider". To be honest, I had really low expectations. After watching it, (and getting my rant out over the fact that it was a two-hour long car commercial), it turns out that I really didn't hate it. Sure, it wasn't great, but I have to agree with Vic over at Screen Rant - it wasn't "as awful as I had anticipated."
Vic hit most of the points that I would have noted in one of my "Impressions of the Show" posts. There were a lot of "why the heck are they doing that?" moments, but the car *was* pretty cool and the characters were alright. I actually liked the "K.I.T.T. & Mike" Ford commercials that were interspersed within the movie. They had a light, amusing tone and an actual chemistry between Mike and K.I.T.T, which was not really that apparent in the movie.
So, I really wanted to see what the ratings were going to be. It was widely known that the "Knight Rider" movie was a back door pilot - in other words, if it did well, it would very likely become a regular series.
I figured it did well. But - wow - I didn't expect the actual news. According to various sources, the movie "delivered the highest 18-49 rating for any made-for-television movie, multiple-part movie or theatrical film on any network since March 6, 2005 ("Their Eyes Were Watching God" on ABC)". Wow. WOW. It kinda goes without saying that it won the time slot.
So, if the now-almost-set-in-stone "Knight Rider" series can capture a little of the banter of the commercials, I think it might be OK. It will never be a "Lost" or a "Battlestar Galactica", but with a little improvement, it might hit the "guilty pleasure" level.
