Reception
Category 7 was the top rated network miniseries in 2006. The first part of the miniseries came in number 16 among the top 25 network programs aired in the week of October 31-November 6, and was the second most watched program for that Sunday with 14.7 million viewers. The second part of the film was also the second most watched program for its timeslot on November 13, with 13.85 million viewers.
The film was nominated for multiple awards in 2006, including a Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special." It was nominated for a Saturn Award for "Best Television Presentation", a Cinema Audio Society Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television Movies and Mini-Series", and two Golden Reel Awards for "Best Sound Editing in Television Long Form — Dialogue and Automated Dialogue Replacement" and "Best Sound Editing in Television Long Form — Sound Effects & Foley."
Before Category 7 aired, CBS was criticized for choosing to air the miniseries only months after two devastating hurricanes, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, hitting the United States, and a third, Hurricane Wilma, causing destruction in Florida in the same month the film was slated to première.
The film received mixed reviews from critics, with many critics feeling that the first portion of the film was weak and confusing due to the large number of characters being introduced at once. SciFi.com's Kathie Huddleston considered the film to be "a pretty good disaster movie as disaster movies go", praising the overall acting, particularly the chemistry between Shannen Doherty and Randy Quaid, while criticizing it for having a weak opening, having a large, confusing number of characters, and for the inclusion of too many "silly things that distract", including most of the Fundamentalist plague and kidnapping subplot.
Category 7 holds together better than either of last year's disaster minis, Category 6 or NBC's 10.5. While I'd absolutely love it if the writers didn't feel they had to resort to kidnapped teenagers and poisonous frogs when other storm-related drama would make so much more sense, Category 7 kind of brought me back to the good old days of the Poseidon Adventure and Earthquake. Ah, the memories. Back then they really knew how to make a disaster flick warm the cockles of your heart. —Kathie Huddleston, SciFi.com, On ScreenRead more about this topic: Category 7: The End Of The World
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)