Years of Living Dangerously Limps to an Unnoticed Finish

As we’ve noted before, Americans rank climate change low on their list of policy priorities. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that Years of Living Dangerously, the 9-part Showtime docu-drama on the need to “do something” about global warming, ranks embarrassingly low on Americans’ TV viewing preferences.

“Years” joins ranks of all-time terrible television ideas

After debuting on April 13th, the show suffered “dismal” viewing metrics. Episodes 2, 3, and 4 averaged an anemic .04 Nielsen rating. Consequently, on May 12th, the show was demoted from Sunday night to Monday night;  presumably, its audience is now even smaller. In fact, the Sunday-to-Monday downgrade is the second ignominy endured by the show in recent weeks. The plot of episode 3, which aired April 27th, centered on Rep. Michael Grimm’s (R-NY) conversion from global warming “skeptic” to “alarmist”; the day after the show aired, Rep. Grimm was indicted by the Justice Department. Needless to say, his credibility—and, by extension, that of the show—was shattered.