"The Playboy Club" premiered on Monday, September 19. The rating came in at 1.6 for adults 18-49 (live plus same day). Rather dissapointing for NBC in the 10-11pm time slot. And I can understand why such low ratings. As a viewer, or at least a student assigned to watch this program, I was excited for the premiere episode and all of the retro fashion and the "throw back" to a time that was. The episode began and introduced all of the characters that will be playing a part in this series. Of course you have the love story between main man Nick Dalton (Cibrian) and head bunny Carol-Lynne (Benanti) with the added implied mistress and most envied bunny Maureen (Heard). Dalton and bunny Maureen get themselves involved with each other and also possible trouble with the mafia in the first 15 minutes of the show. We learn the club dynamics, who's who and see that other bunnies have secrets they are keeping (one bunny and her husband are secretly gay and hold meetings in their home for the Chicago chapter of the Mattachine Society, an underground gay-rights group from the ’50s and ’60s). I have to admit that even with all of these pieces and of course the tension between bunnies, I was bored. I did not feel like the show went anywhere. It did not make me want to tune back in the following week to see where everything ended up or how it would pan out. The show seems predictable and I think predictable means a lack of creativity. And I was not alone in questioning tuning in for week 2. According to Reuters.com, ratings for the second episode dropped 19 percent with a rating of 1.3. The outlook is bleak that the show will make it to midseason. Any news published about the show is not good news. And NBC is mum about the life of the show. No official statement has been made and no one has come out in defense of the program. Probably not a good sign.
I can't see this showing lasting two more episodes.
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