The most compelling two hours of television in recent memory was Monday from 8 to 10 PM: “Drive” and “Heroes.”
“Drive” literally hit the ground running and didn’t slow down. Incredibly compelling, expertly directed, confidently written, well-acted, Kath and I were immediately pulled in. I mean, sure, the fanboy in me loved the notion that Captain Malcolm Reynolds was married to Winifred Berkel, but there was way more to the series than. WAY more.
By the third episode, I knew. I knew beyond question:
Fox would cancel it.
Why?
Because it’s Fox, the network that wouldn’t recognize a quality show with both hands and a flashlight. If Fox were airing “Heroes,” they would have canceled it by the fourth episode.
After the third episode, I turned to Kath and said, “You realize Fox is going to dump it and we’re never going to find out how any of it ends.”
Sure enough, they just dumped it. One more episode will air next Monday, and two more already in the can will never be broadcast.
They’re idiots. It’s that simple: Idiots.
PAD
• 
Earlier this TV season, my wife started watching Kidnapped. I saw bits of it while recording and editing it, and it seemed well made, well acted, and had a compelling, interesting story to it. Before 6 episodes had aired, it was gone.
This season seems to have been particularly harsh, with a lot of serialized shows not making it past the first few episodes. I’m sure part of the reason why Drive was canned so quickly was because of the high cost. With such low ratings, it never would have been able to charge much for advertising time.
Still, with so much invested in the show, you’d think there’s be some way they could lower the production costs and shoot for a May sweeps ratings boost.
I’m sure starting so late in the season didn’t help. With the weather supposed to warm up, fewer people are going to want to get sucked in to a show that keeps them from the great outdoors.
Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica come to mind. They spend, what, half a million per episode, but make it look really good and make it hard for the network to bother with cancellation.
Alex, IIRC JMS wrote at the time that an episode of B5 cost about 1 million dollars to make and that was ten years ago. I have no idea what BSG costs but if they’re making episodes of a scifi show of that quality for half a million a pop, then everyone with an idea for a scifi series needs throw their (metaphorical) virgins daughters at Ronald Moore or do whatever else it takes for him to divulge the secret of how he makes a show that good with actors that good for that little money.
I have to say, the commercials–as numerous as they were–gave me zero idea of the quality of the series. Quality? I wasn’t even clear on what the show was about. I had no intention of watching it until one day I suddenly said, “Wait a minute…is that Nathan?” The only reason I watched it was because of him.
My experience was exactly the same, except I managed to not see commercials for Drive until about a week before it aired. I wouldn’t have even seen that but for the fact that I’m a recent House convert so I’m recording/watching “live” both new and old episodes in any time-slot they air. I was mostly ignoring an inane looking commercial that seemed to be for Fast and the Furious, the Series, when I saw Nathan. So I said, “Okay, I’ll program the show into my DVR and give it a chance.” But seeing his face was the ONLY reason that I even noticed the commercials.
Re: Sliders. The reason I included Sliders was because FOX ruined that one (changed the show in season 3–more action, less plot, they ran Tracy Torme’, the man behind Sliders, & one of the key actors away). They just didn’t give the show the creative freedom it needed & deserved. Typical FOX.
Re: Wonderfalls. It was definitly NOT like Quantum Leap. Nothing like it (sure she was helping people, sometimes, but she wasn’t traveling through time and the tone of the show was VERY different). If your going to compare it to ANYTHING, then it was more like Joan of Arcadia, expect instead of God it was an unknown force guiding the main character to help people.
AND Wonderfalls was much funnier/quirker then Joan.
Thankfully Wonderfalls was released on DVD and on dvd, it was a very complete package. No cliffhanger at the end. Actually, it had a good place to end there. Very rare..
Anyway, back to Drive, it really sucks that FOX canceled it. But I guess thats FOX for you…
I’ve decided to not give any more new series from FOX a chance (ya, I’ve said that before, but I mean it this time). At least until I know the show is coming back for a second season. I can always catch the first season on DVD (or reruns)!
I’m definitly going to do the same with CBS, if Jericho is canceled (I really, really, really hope not. such a good show).
DF2506
“Earlier this TV season, my wife started watching Kidnapped. I saw bits of it while recording and editing it, and it seemed well made, well acted, and had a compelling, interesting story to it. Before 6 episodes had aired, it was gone.”
Yes, excellent series. Smart.
“I’ve decided to not give any more new series from FOX a chance”
One has to wonder how many people made this same resolution after, say, Firefly or Tru Calling was canceled, and thus didn’t tune in for Drive.
First The Black Donnellys in cancelled and now Drive? April certainly is NOT a good tv month for me. At least you can get the black donnelly eps which didnt air but were shot online…as to airing the last eps of Drive remain to be seen
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!
I should’ve known. It’s the old “fool me once…” scenario. Never trust Fox to give a series a true chance to get a audience. Now how do I explain to the 10 people I turned onto this show?
One thing I tend to brag about entirely too much is that I’ve had several conversations with actor Cotter Smith, who played Tru’s father on Tru Calling. I asked him about the “Tru Calling” cancellation, and what he told me really surprised me. He said that Fox had already fully made the deal for a Tru Calling Season Two. So, when they pulled it after only four or five episodes, they had to pay the fee to cancel the contract. In other words, Fox paid a huge amount of money in order to NOT see the second season through to completion.
When he told me that, I just couldn’t believe it. “Idiots” seems pretty on-the-mark.
Hooper wrote:
“Yup, I remember Beans Baxter, Werewolf, Brimstone, and Herman’s Head, for that matter. :)”
…and ‘The Tick’! Don’t forget ‘The Tick’!
“…SPOOON!”
Does anyone out there know if Heroes is returning next season? All the commercials now just say “x more episodes”, and not “of the season”…
Rest asured, a second season of “Heroes” is guaranteed.
The last thing I saw was that Heroes was returning next year. Hopefully the last several episodes will ‘sensibly’ wrap up the main story.
It’s been confirmed also that this season will wrap the major storylines and next season will present a all-new adventure.
I had reservations about this show from the get-go, as soon as the mysteries began cropping up. It brought back too many bad memories of Lost.
“Lost” has become a big cautionary tale. After it, I very much doubt any show will be so ņìggárdlÿ with its secrets and so slow in plot advancement. They’ve crossed the line from mysterious to confusing and people will be slow to forgive them for that.
I’ve read an article about how the guys from “Heroes” and “Jericho” and “Battlestar Galactica” and “Prison Break” all promised their shows will not keep their secrets overlong.
Posted by PAD:
“I have to say, the commercials–as numerous as they were–gave me zero idea of the quality of the series. Quality? I wasn’t even clear on what the show was about. I had no intention of watching it until one day I suddenly said, “Wait a minute…is that Nathan?” The only reason I watched it was because of him.
Quantity of advertising means nothing if the quality isn’t there.”
I didn’t watch Drive for this exact reason, Peter. I definitely considered giving the show a shot for Nathan, but those commercial spots were balls.
Argh!!!!
Like many Firefly fans, I started watching because of Nathan. However, most of the viewing public didn’t know Firefly existed, so I’m not surprised Fox pulled it after a few anemic shows.
At least 24 and Heroes are still on.
I’m rather surprised people are saying the commercials were a problem.
For months I saw commercials that said Drive was about an illegal cross country road race. That’s the primary plot, and every commercial said that.
What makes the show interesting is the reasons that people are in the race. I saw commercial after commercial where Fillion threw a guy onto a table and asked where his kidnapped wife was. I thought it was fairly clear that he forced into the race by people who had kidnapped his wife.
Commercials aren’t an exact science. All I remember about the original commercials for Heroes is that people were getting super powers. If you had showed me both sets of commercials before the shows aired, I’d have had to guess which campaign would work better, because I don’t see any fundamental problems with either.
I find it tremendously disappointing that many shows with interesting, offbeat concepts and serial storytelling are cancelled, and your usual, boring, unoriginal cop/family/doctor/lawyer/detective drama with neat-storyline-nicely-wrapped-up-after-40-minutes will thrive.
But we should blame the public too. Most people just want “more of the same”.
Thanks PAD for saving me some trouble. I coach my daughters softball team and between work and coaching, I have not had time to watch my Tivo episodes of Drive. Now I know that I can avoid heartbreak by just deleting them and never getting hooked. I agree with you on the FOX network whole heartedly.
“Earlier this TV season, my wife started watching Kidnapped. I saw bits of it while recording and editing it, and it seemed well made, well acted, and had a compelling, interesting story to it. Before 6 episodes had aired, it was gone.”
At least with Kidnapped, NBC did put all 13 episodes online and it was a complete story. They wrapped up just about everything there, though they left a clear opening for another series had that been granted.
On the flipside of this was Vanished from FOX. That was also cancelled quickly, but had a more confusing tangled plot. They ran the remaining episodes online, but with the final episode (#13 again, I think) it seemed they just stopped it without wrapping up anything. The only thing they gave away was who were the main people behind the conspiracy. Everything else felt like they didn’t make any attempt to wrap it up. While Kidnapped was quite worthwhile seeing it to conclusion (and if you haven’t seen it yet, you can also now [or soon] get it on DVD), Vanished was a waste of time.
ABC had a self-contained 13 episode series, Day Break, which they limited to just online after a few episodes. That was great and also well worth trying to see to its conclusion online.
So, im summary, NBC and ABC, even though they cancelled some good shows at least ran them to a worthwhile conclusion online. FOX has failed in this respect and appears to be doing so again in this case.
Neil
By the way, I just check the FOX Drive website at http://www.fox.com/drive/ and it says “final 2 episodes to air this summer stay tuned.” So, at least those episodes may air, but since FOX split it up into 6 episodes and then 7 later, we’ll be stuck with an incomplete story. You can see the scripts of the first four episodes at http://www.timminear.net/archives/drive/000146.html
Note that Tim Minear says that “Beware, though: Due to some changes in the editing suite, some scenes that were written for Episodes 103 and 104 were shifted to later episodes. So there are BIG plot spoilers ahead.” With any luck more of the scripts will appear there and maybe Tim Minear will tell us how he planned to wrap things up in the remaining 7 episodes.
Neil
My most “Why’d Fox cancel that???” show is PROFIT. This was the closest television has ever come to OTHELLO, as James Profit (played with perfect controlled malelovence by Adrian Pasdar, currently playing Nathan Petrelli on HEROES) managed to scheme, manipulate, and maneuver his way in the company Grayson and Grayson. It was twisted and brilliant, and unlike AMERICAN GOTHIC it features a villain who was human and fallible.
Fox canned it so quickly the final episodes never got aired. When I’d gotten my VHS copy, the last eps had French subtitles since they came from Canada. Sigh. At least it’s on DVD now.
Bill Mulligan asked, “PAD, is it possible that we are beginning to see a kind of parallel to the infamous “I’ll wait for the trades”, only now for TV?”
Wouldn’t surprise me, Bill. I wrote a column earlier this year entitled “Are DVDs Changing the Way We Watch TV?”, in which I noted changes in viewing habits, especially my own.
One of the people I interviewed was a university marketing professor who said living patterns have changed, and one pattern that’s become the norm is that of people preferring to watch DVDs over first run shows.
I also interviewed a co-worker who doesn’t watch much TV (mainly because he has young kids), but when he does, more often than not, it’s on DVD. His theory: With the hectic pace of many people’s lives, sitting down at a specific hour to watch a specific show is no longer an option.
In recent years, I also tended to watch more DVDs than first-run shows. In the 2003-2004 TV season, I only watched three first-run shows, but still spent a lot of time in front of my TV. Most of that time I watched DVDs from my home library.
Most of the DVDs I own are of shows I originally watched first-run, like Buffy, Angel and Babylon 5, but not all. I never saw a single frame of Firefly on TV. I bought the DVD set of that series based mostly on the fact that I’d liked Buffy and Angel. Once I saw Serenity, that pretty much clinched the deal, but even before that, I knew I’d buy the Firefly DVD set one day.
Likewise, I bought Neverwhere without having seen an episode. Since I don’t have cable, I never had an opportunity to do so (assuming it was ever on a cable channel in my area). I bought it on the strength of Neil Gaiman’s reputation as a writer.
I’m probably not alone in that respect, either. I’m sure people have bought DVD sets based on either the premise or involvement of particular people (whether behind or in front of the camera), or some other factor(s).
Is this a “wait for the trades” mentality? Obviously not with regard to shows I’d previously watched first-run, but with some current shows, I may be leaning in that direction. I’ve seen perhaps five episodes of 24 this year. Maybe seven. I’m more interested in Heroes, and I know 24 will be out on DVD by what, September? I can rent the series then, and watch several in a row, if I’ve a mind to do so.
True, I could, in theory, tape it and watch it later; but my VCR’s no longer very reliable when it comes to tuning in stations. I found that out awhile back when I tried taping Smallville and Supernatural because I had to be some place that particular Thursday.
On the other hand, I have no urgent need to go out and buy the current season of 24 on DVD. Renting is fine. So, if I’m waiting for the trade with regard to 24, I’m waiting for it to come to the library, not my local comics shop.
I concluded my column with this statement: “The question remains, will it become commonplace for people to buy a DVD set of a season (or entire series) of a show they never saw, based just on the description and/or word of mouth?
Time will tell.”
And so it will. It’ll be interesting to see what people’s viewing habits are like a decade from now. Will there be more direct-to-DVD TV shows? We already have direct-to-DVD movies? Granted, some are probably very bad and never had a prayer of making it to theaters; but others, like the new Babylon 5 project, The Lost Tales, are marketed for direct DVD release from the get-go. Perhaps a decade from now a show like Drive will go direct to DVD.
If so, expect to see a lot more product placement, if not actual advertisements, included with the series.
Rick
P.S. I never saw a frame of Firefly when it was on the air because I deliberately didn’t watch it. Not because I was waiting for the DVD (I didn’t yet own a DVD player, and didn’t have any thoughts along those lines.) I didn’t watch it because I felt sure I’d like it, and I wanted to cut back on my TV viewing. Which was easier when I didn’t have a DVD library.
I also didn’t watch Drive. The premise didn’t interest me (and doesn’t), but I agree with PAD that FOX seems to cancel shows too quickly. I might still have never watched it, but “TheJohnWilson” has a point. A show about a race is obviously structured to have an end. The network should have agreed to approve the series as a whole, with the caveat that whether it’s a six, 13 or 22-episode series would depend on how well it did in the ratings. If it does well, it goes a whole season. If it does poorly, it becomes a mini-series.
Of course the writers would have had to structure the show in such a way that it could both logically wrap up in six episodes and logically continue for 13 or 22. But I’m sure they could’ve done that.
P.P.S. Amy Acker was in Drive? If I’d known, I might’ve tuned in at least once.
I am the only sci-fi fan in the world who wasn’t impressed with Firefly.
No. But I might be the only sci-fi fan who isn’t impressed with Heroes. I like it how I like McDonald’s: its a guilty pleasure that has no nourishment value.
My feeling is:
1. They’re basically watered-down X-Men.
2. I don’t feel invested in any of the characters. They all feel like rag-dolls without any depth or nuance, propped up with barely-plausible motivations and convenient character traits in order to advance the plot.
I thought Drive had a fun sort of Jerry Bruckenheimer vibe, the disclaimer being that I am an unabashed Browncoat Fillion-supporter. However, Fox is the one paying the bills and it is their prerogative to cut their losses on an investment at their discretion. I do wish that they would take a more patient approach with Drive & Firefly, but such is life…
“But I might be the only sci-fi fan who isn’t impressed with Heroes.”
You mean people are actually IMPRESSED by it? I like your analogy. I watch it, but of all the shows I watch, it’s the least impressive. And that includes American Idol.
For those looking for a (non-sci fi) Fillion fix, his new movie, “Waitress” is going into limited release next week.
Well, I avoided “Drive” because it looked like the Fox version of “Death Race 2000” or “Battle Royale” with cars. But it’s not like Fox is the only network canceling quality shows. Look at what ABC did to Donny Osmond and “The Great American Dream Competition” or whatever it was called; it only got one episode, and we didn’t get to see much of the guy with the chicken theme park. And you will probably be able to count the episodes of the new “Bingo Night America” show on one hand.
Quality programming? The networks can’t even keep schlock on the air any more! With the possible exception of “Desperate Housewives.”
RE: Heroes
Although there are some characters on Heroes who they haven’t developed as well, Hiro and the cheerleader to me are very well developed and likable. I think of it as a show that isn’t trying to payoff every week, only for the whole storyline. I think this show will shine even stronger on DVD when you can watch it straight through. And a special “yay” to Stan Lee and Marvel Productions for supporting the show (with Lee’s guest appearance, and NBC giving the special sneak preview of Spider-Man 3).
Count me as one of the people who has been impressed with Heroes. I think one of the things that has helped it gather ratings is that NBC has been able to build a synergistic relationship with the Sci-Fi Channel since they’re now part of the same parent company. Airing repeast episodes of Heroes on Sci-Fi has proven to be a brilliant move.
I have to say, I missed Drive altogether and I can’t say that I’m surprised Fox axed it. I’m at the point that I don’t even want to bother getting attached to a Fox show because it will die a short death anything. That’s ironic, since they kept the X-Files cash cow going long after Chris Carter had run out of ideas.
As for 24 this season, I’ll say it: Jack Bauer has strapped on the waterskis and Chloe is revving up the powerpoint.
RE: 24
I agree with the waterski’s comment. Although I think for this last partial season they are trying to go in a whole new direction, but there is still that definite taint of the first 16 or so episodes. I have not seen so much rehash of material on a show I liked in a long time. We can be thankful for five glorious seasons before now. How many shows have 5 great seasons. I think they heard the fans groaning for most of the season, and are doing a fixer-upper for the last stretch. Hopefully, they won’t be afraid to have a non-President involved storyline next year. How about bringing back Elisa Cuthbert in a low cut top to star for next year?? I would be watching every week 🙂
Chloe is revving up the powerpoint.
Heh. You can tell I’ve been working in an office too long. I meant to say: “Chloe is revving up the power boat.
KRAD: “FOX isn’t a public service to provide quality programming, FOX is a network that has to make money. They weren’t going to make any with Drive.”
PAD: You know, Keith, for someone who makes his living writing novels based on quality shows that were canceled despite great potential, I would have thought you’d be less myopic.
Conclusion: Fox, despite not making money on the show, should have at least kept it on long enough to leave behind a disenfranchised fan base that would serve as a consumer platform for genre novelists?
I never saw any of the advertisements for Drive. The entire series would have easily come and gone without my knowing it existed, had I not been told about it by my Firefly-loving sister.
MH
“Conclusion: Fox, despite not making money on the show, should have at least kept it on long enough to leave behind a disenfranchised fan base that would serve as a consumer platform for genre novelists?”
Uh, no…Fox should be able to look past short term ratings toward possible long-term gains.
PAD
.Fox should be able to look past short term ratings toward possible long-term gains.
Right! Just because a show costs a lot to make, and then because of lousy ratings means Fox is now in debt to it’s advertisers, and just because it’s shown no hint of improvement, or even the critical praise that can be used to offset it’s bottoming numbers, that’s no reason to dump it.
One has to wonder how many people made this same resolution after, say, Firefly or Tru Calling was canceled, and thus didn’t tune in for Drive.
If there were enough people who felt like that to matter, Firefly and Tru Calling would have had enough ratings to stay on.
The problem with Fox is that the often seem like they’re deliberately trying to kill a show, particularly if it’s one that has a loyal, if small, fan base. They take a show that’s supposed to have a progressive storyarc and show the episodes out of order. They move the show around the schedule seemingly at random. They give it a difficult timeslot. They take it off the air for weeks at a stretch so that they can show American Idol three nights a week.
And then they wonder why the show can’t find an audience.
The heart of this whole debate is that none of us really knows who the Nielson’s are, or what credentials they should have to be considered. In this day and age, don’t they have the technology to get a wider base of viewers by getting the readings from our cable/satellite boxes, so that they get a true pulse of what we’re watching? The whole thing brings to mind the episode of Alf where he rigs the Nielson box so that Polka Party becomes the number one show in America 🙂
Fox should be able to look past short term ratings toward possible long-term gains.
**************
SER: Unfortunately, I don’t think FOX is in the position to do this. For instance, I actually think X-FILES wouldn’t have made it past its first season in the current FOX world because its too high-profile a network now.
FOX has HOUSE and AMERICAN IDOL and THE SIMPSONS and 24 and BONES. Granted, I can understand the thinking that a successful network can afford to take chances that a struggling one can’t, but it seems that it’s more often the case that networks in the latter situation do.
And in fairness, I think that FOX put everything DRIVE (timeslot, promotion).
Networks can force feed people shows until they watch them if they want to. Remember when Family Guy started? Someone at Fox wanted the show to succeed so it was shown many times a week, and after high profile shows. Futurama (what I think was the best of all the animated) did make four seasons, but I never remember hardly ever seeing ads for it. So, yes, if a network exec wants a show to do well, they can engineer it to happen. For those out there who don’t like to change the channel too often 🙂
FOX did a horrible job with Family Guy. They showed a little more patience with it than they have with some shows, but it didn’t get good ratings and they cancelled it.
Then Cartoon Network made it popular. FOX gave up on the show, but CN ran it regularly and promoted it. Then the DVD sales were huge (which I think was largely due to the support of CN) and FOX realised they’d made a mistake and renewed the show.
Futurama wasn’t handled well, either. It got constantly preempted by football in parts of the country, and the fans didn’t consistenly know when it was going to be on. Matt Goening felt abandonded by FOX, saying that it was hard to promote a show that airs at 7 when FOX is pushing the slogan, “The fun begins at 8.” Again, it took Cartoon Network to prove that the show could be successful if it was just promoted right and broadcast regularly.
and what of “King of the Hill” who was watching that thing to keep it on soo many seasons? Those dámņ Nielson boxes again…
There is some blame to go around. Once again, not enough of the American public tuned in to a creative program. The advertising didn’t make the show seem overly intellectual, but it apparently didn’t make it seem dumb enough for the “reality” show/junk TV crowd that seems to control most of the TV ratings and much of the box office these days.
But Fox’s scheduling was highly questionable. What kind of ratings did they expect for a show which they were debuting with a short run in April? And the debuting three episodes within two days ploy seemed kind of odd with an established success like 24; premiering Drive this way was just strange, and probably a bad idea.
But, the most dámņìņg thing is – they canceled it after THREE WEEKS. Yeah, there’s no chance it could ever possibly grow after such a long, substantial history of soft ratings… If they’re making a significant financial investment in the show, why go at it so half-assed? At the very least, why not at least wait until after the planned initial six-episode run to make their determination? Never mind allowing a series to grow – by announcing the cancellation when they still have episodes to air just guarantees that they’ll make less money on those programs. And three weeks, in a tough time slot (and with no lead-in), is in no way a large-enough sample for making this decision.
Speaking of Nielson boxes… Anyone know how to apply for one?
Maybe we should all sign up and get to keep the shows we want.
Futurama, Family Guy, Firefly, Titus, The Tick, The Lone Gunmen, Arrested Development and now Drive.
Son of a bìŧçh.
As I asked in my e-mail to Fox after Firefly got the hook, why should I give any new show on their network a chance? Obviously, if it appeals to me and it’s on Fox, it’s doomed.
Fox, for me, effectively doesn’t exist except on Sunday nights. I’ve watched House a couple of times, but it’s not an appointment show for me. No Idol for me, thanks, and I already know I’m smarter than a fifth-grader. I’ve never wanted to make the commitment to 24 or Prison Break.
Heroes, I’m digging a lot.
Well it could be worse. Fox could be like HBO and cancel a successful series like Deadwood before the third season even began airing. Like HBO did a year ago. Timing seemed very curious to say the least.
Snurched from my own comments on KRAD’s blog….
FOX did a pretty good job promoting the show so you cannot fault them for it. What I WILL fault them for is timing.
They premiered the show weeks before the May sweeps period so they in turn gave the show the shortest leash imaginable. The ratings forced them to cancel the show before sweeps – rerunning House is more reliable and cheaper during this period. (And actually Drive was going to end for the season on May 7th anyway).
I would have had them premiere the show at the beginning of the fall season, in the summer in a time slot of a established hit like 24 or House. That way least they could have more time to let the show sink in. Monday at 8pm was a dead zone (Prison Break was dropping big time the ratings when it left).
Given the promotion of course FOX wanted Drive to succeed. But this time they instead of being impatient they shot themselves in the foot.
And if I was Tim Minear, I would have wished he could have held out for a 13 week commitment like he had for Firefly, Wonderfalls and The Inside (they only filmed 6 eps). At least this way they could have been a DVD Box set that could have taken a substantial story arc and made a mini-series out of it.
>Hopefully the last several episodes will ‘sensibly’ wrap up the main story.
HEROES is designed to complete its main storyline this season, starting off next season with a new villain, new plot line and [partly] new characters.
> The problem with Fox is that the often seem like they’re deliberately trying to kill a show
And, sometimes, movie franchises. Look at how they screwed around with X-MEN 3, driving the previous (and successful) director off the project, and giving his replacement a ridiculously short time to complete it.
>Wonderfalls. It was definitly NOT like Quantum Leap. Nothing like it (sure she was helping people, sometimes, but she wasn’t traveling through time and the tone of the show was VERY different)
Close enough. Haven’t seen Joan to compare, but both WONDER and QUANTUM dealt with individuals forced into circumstances beyond their control, and having to deal with peoples’ problems due to some outside force interfering with their lives. The time travel element in LEAP was a gimmick which generally didn’t change much about the basic plot, other than showing how things were back then as a contrast.
>Commercials aren’t an exact science.
But some people are clearly better at it than others. Remember the terrific, Rube Goldbergian Honda Accord ad? Of the delightful TIME MACHINE teaser which started off as though it were a car commercial?
Actually from what I can tell from some of the trades, its not that the show tanked in the ratings, its how MUCH it tanked.
As I understand it, the show was sold to advertisers as a midseason replacement with expectations in the 5 peak ratings range. Usually (and I don’t have any actual knowledge of the details for this show), advertisers are given a certain floor value, based on a 5 peak, the floor value is probably 3.5 ish.
If the ratings go below that value, the network usually has to give back to the advertisers, either in the form of cash, or free time on another show to make the viewership numbers, either way its less income.
This can be the difference when it comes to series with a rough start. As long as ratings stay above that floor, whatever it may be, the network can ‘take a chance’ and see where it goes, as they have their money made or at least are breaking even. As soon as it goes below that floor, thats where the problems start, because they are losing money immediately. When I heard that Drive was beaten by 2 sitcome re-runs, I knew we had a potential sub-floor situation.
As far as running it on FX, the cost per episode is probably too high to make it a value based on cable ad rates, although its POSSIBLE showing on both networks could have gotten the numbers up.
Also, someone mentioned DVR viewings don’t count? Nielsens and Tivo at least have a partnership where shows viewed at least a given percentage within a certain time fram (1 week I think) do count to the ratings.
We could also go into a debate about self-fufilling prophecies but that dead horse was beaten over on Keith’s blog.
Uh, no…Fox should be able to look past short term ratings toward possible long-term gains.
Peter, you are talking about throwing good money after bad by continuing to broadcast the show. The opportunity costs Fox was looking at were what made it untenable to continue with broadcasting the program. If the ratings weren’t there, new viewers aren’t going to suddenly be manufactured and the financial picture improve.
Fox did the right thing. Yeah, they have a habit of pulling the trigger quickly, but let’s not forget that television is a business. Losing money hand over fist is a good way to lose that business. Fox did the right thing.
The heart of this whole debate is that none of us really knows who the Nielson’s are, or what credentials they should have to be considered. In this day and age, don’t they have the technology to get a wider base of viewers by getting the readings from our cable/satellite boxes, so that they get a true pulse of what we’re watching?
Don’t you think people would freak out if they knew the corporations could actually know what we are watching at any time? Wouldn’t bug me–if they used my TV as a guide they would come to the inescapable conclusion that what the world needs now is MORE ZOMBIES! And that would be a good thing. But for those who tend to switch back and forth between Cinemax 10 (Marilyn Chambers Secret Fantasies 4: Electric Buggaloo) and Cinemax 12 (Taxi Cab Confessions 8: Nerds in Paradise) such oversight might be intimidating.
Honestly, I think this has a lot more to do with consumer tastes than has been previously mentioned here.
People love American Idol, though it’s mind-numbingly cheesey.
People love Grey’s Anatomy because it’s accessible and zings out snappy one-liners. Even though medical dramas have been done before and they’re already running out of plot-lines (how many times can you put a cast member or close-relation-to-a-cast-member in a life-or-death situation?)
People love Dancing with the Stars because…well I’m not sure why. I think it’s because the stars have pre-existing fan bases and OK, i’ll admit it; the dancers are pretty smoking-hot, wear skimpy outfits and sweat profusely.
Any given show’s merits (as broad and subjective as that is) doesn’t have nearly the correlation with success that many of us might wish for. The way to succeed, I think, really is to try and find and milk the lowest common denominator amongst viewing audiences.
Christine: You can’t apply for a Nielsen box. They choose households at random and ask if they’re interested in participating. If you were to contact A.C. Nielsen & Co. and ask to participate, I’m guessing you’d be put on a list meant to ensure that you were never approached.
I have a friend who worked at Arbitron for about six years, and when I told him my family had received Arbitron radio surveys in the mail, he said we shouldn’t have been sent them because I knew (and had worked for two years with, for a different employer) an Arbitron employee. The ratings companies really don’t want the sampling tainted or manipulated in any way, and if someone contacts them asking to participate in their surveys, they have to assume that person has an ulterior motive of some sort.
It’s also worth mentioning on the “where shows go to die”.
If Fox hadn’t been willing to try them out, the shows never would have lived in the first place.
Just testing, to see if my posts go through. Been having trouble lately.
Rick