It’s an interesting time to be a TV executive, things sure have changed, at an age of cheap reality shows, online watching, DVR and piracy, how do we keep the good shows in the air?
That doesn’t seem to be a question on ABC’s mind, when something goes wrong, they just cancel without any regards to the the fans, as we’ve seen in the case of Eli Stone, Pushing Daises, Dirty Sexy Money and Life On Mars. Yes, Life On Mars too, since even though the show got a proper ending, it wasn’t because of the network, it was because of the producers, who shown great respect to the fans and approached the network asking permission to shoot a season finale and a series finale. ABC answered after a three-minute meeting (seems like they really struggled whether or not to give the show a shot at another season), saying they would let them shoot the series finale but not the season finale.
Personally, after Lost is done, I’m never watching an ABC show again, while other networks are taking steps towards modernization, I feel like the alphabet network always goes against the current. CBS, after taking into consideration the fan reaction to the cancelation of Jericho, gave the show another chance, didn’t work, but the show had a series finale and everybody recognizes the network’s effort to try and make it work. There are many other cases of shows changing time-slots and trying different solutions before coming to the decision of cancelling. On the other hand, Life of Mars, for example, had an average rating of 8 million viewers on Thursday night, then ABC decided to give the show a break of almost two months, and when it came back it was moved to a different night, no wonder nobody knew it was still on the air. When it comes to Eli, Daisies and Money, there was not also a single attempt to save these shows, and only last week, after a lot of negative reaction to the way they were doing things, they announced that the remaining episodes (which were shot months ago) will air from June to August. Simple translation, they just couldn’t care less for their viewers, and fans of their shows.
First thing that needs to change is the “box office” mentality that the networks have when it comes to TV. Shows are being canceled after only one season, sometimes even after only a few episodes. Scripted shows sometimes need time to mature are find their audience, this happened to Seinfeld, which was terrible in it’s beginning and later became a success, imagine if it was canceled after only 13 episodes.
Another factor to consider is that people are not watching TV like they used to anymore. Life on Mars producers said in an interview a few weeks ago that, at an event (NY comic con, I think), when asking an audience of 300 hardcore fans of the show, how many watch the show live, nobody raised their hands! I, for instance only watch shows on line, I live in Brazil, I pay for cable (most American shows are on cable here), but the episodes of all the shows take 6 weeks to be get here, besides that, most days I can’t watch the shows I like when they are on, so why should I wait 6 weeks when I can download it on the same day, or watch it only when it’s on if I can just watch it whenever I want?
NBC and FOX have shown alternatives to keep their shows running. NBC struck a deal with DirecTV last year that gave us an amazing third season of Friday Night Lights, now they’ve done it again, renewing the show for two more seasons! Think about it, why can FNL, with poor ratings, can get an early two season pickup and others with 6 or 7 million viewers weekly in next day ratings are getting canceled?
Other solutions shown by NBC involve the partnership with Ford to bring Knight Rider to life, unfortunately the show sucks, but if it didn’t, they would be able to keep it going without having to rely solely on ratings. Fox did something interesting with Terminator also, when Dodge sponsored one episode, making it longer, with less commercial breaks. Why not use that to save great shows, with good fan base like Terminator, Dollhouse, Chuck, and the late Jericho, Life on Mars, Eli Stone and Pushing Daises.
Take Terminator and Dollhouse for example, I just wanted to know who was the genius that decided to put two sci-fi shows on a Friday night?! Of course ratings suck, young people are the ones who like those shows, and on Friday night they are out partying, not at home watching TV!
Networks need to realize that and start finding ways to make money out of DVR and online viewing, and start to consider those numbers, alongside iTunes and DVD sales when making decisions. Terminator, for example, doesn’t do well on Next-day Nielsen ratings, but is huge on DVR, iTunes and even Torrent sites, so it’s not a matter of “nobody is watching”, people are watching, the networks just needs to find a way to turn that into dollars.
Follow truTV on Twitter!!!
1 comments:
Networks are dinosaurs.
As the web/tv connection becomes easier the reasons for networks will disappear as production companies link up directly with ad agencies, or even do deals directly with advertisers. This cutting out of the middleman will make shows profitable even with just 2 or 3 million viewers, so shows catering to niche audiences will be practical. These niche audiences will also be appealing to advertisers because a sci-fi show aimed at urban 20 somethings without cars will offer great targeting to specific advertisers.
In a distribution system like this Firefly, Dollhouse, Terminator, and The Dresden Files could do just fine and they could craft their shows for a smaller more specific audience.
Post a Comment