quote:

Originally posted by mushu_jj:

quote:

Originally posted by Pam:

quote:

Originally posted by Holly:

They didn't just decide to replace The Unit with BB, The Unit ran out of episodes because of the strike. And they aren't keeping it to slight The Unit. They're keeping it on because it will be over a month before any of the dramas come back.

If that is the case why hasn't CBS asked for new episodes of The Unit like it has other dramas ?
Seems suspicious to me !

Maybe because what I've been saying all along is inching closer to becoming true: the Unit is dead meat here in the next year or so. The show's demos quite frankly stink for a show with so many viewers and Les Moonves is youth nuts. For instance if Boston Legal aired on CBS, it would've been cancelled last year. Now, I do think the Unit will be renewed this year and if Big Brother dips any more will likely return this year with Big Brother getting either moved to another night or shortened. However, BB is likely to only increase in audience in the coming weeks as drama unfolds.

THE UNIT is viable but flat at 11mm 3.0 while NCIS spiked sharply

Ep delay could be due to CBS buying time to assess new shows with strike over

They want to improve 9pm tues if possible and don't want to restart anything now they may cancel

If it's just a TV program then why do you keep on being so hostile. You don't like the show...that's fine, just don't watch it and keep your comments to yourself if you got nothing to say but negative stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by pisher:
Seriously, does anybody REALLY think a better night would help Jericho?

What people keep forgetting when they say things like this is the more favorable the timeslot, the higher the expectations. Networks will put up with crap ratings for a while at least, if the show is in a tough slot, because they have to put something there.

Fact is, CBS made a mistake bringing Jericho back. And probably a mistake putting it on in the first place. Maybe there was the germ of a good show in there somewhere--maybe a miniseries--but there wasn't enough there for a long-running drama.

And I really don't hate the show--but I hate SOS campaigns. So much. It's. Just. A. Television. Program. Send the network an email and forget about it. Life's too short, and there are poor people somewhere who'd love to eat those nuts. Or squirrels.

quote:

Originally posted by mushu_jj:

quote:

Originally posted by Holly:

quote:

Originally posted by Pam:
Sorry for disrecting anyone watching BB .. I guess I am really shocked CBS did not request new episodes of The Unit but that is no reason to get down on BB.. I do not watch it as it doesn't look good to me but I'm not into reality shows !!

I don't like reality shows either, and if CBS decided to drop The Unit and air BB in a non-strike situation, I would agree with you.

I actually think CBS wants the younger Big Brother to remain the lead in for now. BB will likely increase in audience in the coming weeks (no Death Star and more drama in the show itself). I also think Tuesday at 10pm will become Swingtown's timeslot here in April. If not, then I don't know why BB couldn't be moved to 10pm and the Unit relaunched in April at 9pm.

I disagree. BB may be good summer fare, but I don't think it will get significantly higher ratings in the regular season. It's numbers (even the demo) would probably not improve much, if at all, on the numbers The Unit was pulling (around 11 million viewers and a 3.0 in the demo). If it only filled that one slot, I could see the season being shortened.

quote:

Originally posted by Holly:

quote:

Originally posted by mushu_jj:

quote:

Originally posted by Holly:

quote:

Originally posted by Pam:
Sorry for disrecting anyone watching BB .. I guess I am really shocked CBS did not request new episodes of The Unit but that is no reason to get down on BB.. I do not watch it as it doesn't look good to me but I'm not into reality shows !!

I don't like reality shows either, and if CBS decided to drop The Unit and air BB in a non-strike situation, I would agree with you.

I actually think CBS wants the younger Big Brother to remain the lead in for now. BB will likely increase in audience in the coming weeks (no Death Star and more drama in the show itself). I also think Tuesday at 10pm will become Swingtown's timeslot here in April. If not, then I don't know why BB couldn't be moved to 10pm and the Unit relaunched in April at 9pm.

I disagree. BB may be good summer fare, but I don't think it would get significantly higher ratings in the regular season. It's numbers (even the demo) would probably not improve on the numbers The Unit was pulling (around 11 million viewers and a 3.0 in the demo). Nevermind the fact that they would either need to take up 3 hours/week with it or alter the format significantly. I can't see CBS wanting to take up three different time slots with a show that will average less than 9 million/3.0, and I can't see fans sticking around for the altered version. On the other hand, I could see CBS replacing The Unit with another show if they have any pilots they like (it really isn't taking advantage of the NCIS lead-in).

To me, the best show to follow NCIS on Tuesdays is the underrated Numb3rs, which usually dominates Fridays. I remember it was huge when it premiered a couple of years ago, and if moved out of Friday, its ratings would bump up, especially if it follows NCIS. Like mushu reminded me, CSI started out modestly on Fridays before it moved to Thursdays following a successful Survivor, and the rest is history. But I don't want to offer CBS any hints to be more successful, so I hope nobody from CBS takes my advice...

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If it's just a TV program then why do you keep on being so hostile.

I think you're confusing 'snarky' with 'hostile'. Or do you think they're the same exact thing?

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You don't like the show...that's fine, just don't watch it and keep your comments to yourself if you got nothing to say but negative stuff.

Okay, you do like the show....that's fine, just watch it, and keep your comments to yourself if you got nothing to say but positive stuff, even when the ratings suck to hell.

The ratings suck to hell. They always will. The show has to die. If you can accept this, we don't have to discuss it. If you're going to keep denying it, we're going to have a discussion. You'll be hostile, I'll be snarky, and one of us will have a lot of fun.

(Hint: It won't be you.)

Even with the strike, it is surprising to see NBC bring back Life next season. Is there any hope for this show? It scored above 3.0 in the demo only for the first two episodes.

quote:

Originally posted by TV-aholic:
Weekly Viewing Trends

 
Week               Viewers              Demo
-----------------------------------------------
09/26/07             9.95 M              4.0
10/03/07             8.68 M              3.0
10/10/07             8.10 M              2.7
10/17/07             7.34 M              2.8
10/24/07             6.87 M              2.5
10/31/07             5.71 M              1.9
11/07/07             6.39 M              2.6
11/14/07             6.90 M              2.5
11/28/07             6.28 M              2.2
12/03/07(S)          6.48 M              2.4
12/05/07             7.63 M              2.5

From Marc's newsletter:

quote:

The Programming Insider

Marc Berman

Prime-Time Metered Market Wednesday Ratings:
Fox in a League of its Own; Big Brother Takes a Hit

Wednesday 2/13/08

Household Rating/Share
Fox: 12.2/19, NBC: 7.0/11, CBS: 4.8/ 8, ABC: 4.5/ 7, CW: 1.1/ 2

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-Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2007)
NBC: +30, Fox: - 2, ABC: -20, CBS: -43, CW: -56

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Note: The fast affiliate results for Wednesday will be posted at PIFeedback by 12 p.m. ET. Go to the website, click on Ratings Box (the first category), then Last Night’s Results, and Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008.

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
American Idol (Fox), The Moment of Truth (Fox)

-Honorable Mention:
Deal or No Deal (NBC), Law & Order (NBC)

-Yesterday’s Losers (Excluding Repeats):
Big Brother: ‘Til Death Do Us Part (CBS), Wife Swap (ABC), America’s Next Top Model Exposed (CW), Cashmere Mafia (ABC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
It was another slam-dunk midweek victory for Fox care of American Idol (14.6 rating/23 share) and the top-rated new series of the season, game show The Moment of Truth (9.7/15). Keep in mind that part of the overnight average for The Moment of Truth included the last few minutes of American Idol. As for Idol, too bad Josiah did not make the final cut. Hopefully, he will find a way to get to the auditions again next year.

NBC held the distant No. 2 spot with its combination of Deal or No Deal (#2, 7.3/12), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (#2, 6.3/10) and Law & Order (#1: 7.5/13). Given the contestant was playing with a record 13 million dollar cases on Deal or Deal last night, can anyone tell me what happened? Between American Idol and CBS’ Big Brother I missed it!

Speaking of Big Brother (themed ‘Til Death Do Us Part), the overnight results were not positive, with a fourth-place 3.4/ 6 at 8 p.m. Although the strength of Big Brother always falls within the young adult demographics, an overnight delivery this low means the results cannot be good. Maybe I missed something, but why was one couple already evicted last night? As for Sheila and Adam, oy!

Also on CBS were repeats of Criminal Minds (#4: 5.4/ 8) and CSI: NY (#2: 5.6/ 9) from 9-11 p.m. Both dramas will be returning with original episodes on April 2.

ABC had a typically mundane Wednesday, with the one bright spot remaining Supernanny, which built by a hefty 64 percent in the overnights out of Wife Swap. Take a look:

Wednesday/ABC
8:00 p.m. Wife Swap: 3.6/ 6 (#3)
9:00 p.m. Supernanny: 5.9/ 9 (#3)
10:00 p.m. Cashmere Mafia: 3.9/ 6 (#3)

Last, and very least, was the CW with part two of clips show America’s Next Top Model Exposed (1.3/ 2) and a repeat of One Tree Hill (1.0/ 2). The sad reality of the 8 p.m. hour last night, by the way, was every show of a non-scripted nature.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

quote:

Originally posted by Holly:

quote:

Originally posted by mushu_jj:

quote:

Originally posted by Holly:

quote:

Originally posted by Pam:
Sorry for disrecting anyone watching BB .. I guess I am really shocked CBS did not request new episodes of The Unit but that is no reason to get down on BB.. I do not watch it as it doesn't look good to me but I'm not into reality shows !!

I don't like reality shows either, and if CBS decided to drop The Unit and air BB in a non-strike situation, I would agree with you.

I actually think CBS wants the younger Big Brother to remain the lead in for now. BB will likely increase in audience in the coming weeks (no Death Star and more drama in the show itself). I also think Tuesday at 10pm will become Swingtown's timeslot here in April. If not, then I don't know why BB couldn't be moved to 10pm and the Unit relaunched in April at 9pm.

I disagree. BB may be good summer fare, but I don't think it will get significantly higher ratings in the regular season. It's numbers (even the demo) would probably not improve much, if at all, on the numbers The Unit was pulling (around 11 million viewers and a 3.0 in the demo). If it only filled that one slot, I could see the season being shortened.

But for right now Big Brother is at least a solid filler because I can guarantee you there's no way the Unit's repeats would be pulling a 2.5 in the demo and the demo is what has hurt the most this strike season for CBS.

quote:

All good points. ABC had considered miniseries resolutions for both Invasion and Commander-in-chief, its two breakout "hits" that season that both fizzled in the end (in the case of the former, definitely due to ABC's misteps and misscheduling).

But in the end, I don't think either show was destined to be around for a long time, no matter how ABC handled it. Yeah, 20/20 hindsight, but c'mon--both were basically high concept shows created and run by two talented producers who have a history of coming up with interesting shows that never quite catch on.

I mean, here's the thing--people keep saying "This show was so great, the network mishandled it, that's why it failed." Okay, that does happen. But how does it happen that networks are so good at coming up with great shows, and so bad at keeping them on the air? Going by what people say here, you'd think that 1)Almost everything on TV is crap and should be canceled and 2)Almost everything on TV is great and should run forever. Because we simply don't agree which shows are great, and which shows should be canceled.

Some of us even think that some shows we think are great also should be canceled.

At some point in time, you do have to consider the possibility that the problem at least partly lies in the shows themselves. That people either would never like them, or that they'd like them for a short while, then get tired of them, or interested in something else. Some shows grab onto an audience and hang onto it--others are just flashes in the pan. Durable hits are rare. That's why when the networks get one, they try to clone it. And usually fail, of course.

Anyway, not all shows have to be durable hits. But when a show is clearly not going to be a durable hit, or even a longterm moderate success, the network has to cut it loose, so they can try again. That's the only way they can free up the timeslots and resources necessary to create new shows. And if they never did that, none of the current shows people are defending here would exist, because there never would have been room for them on the schedule. Shows dying young is just a normal part of the TV biz. It's the circle of life or something.

quote:

Even with all your points accounted for, I think a 3-day miniseries (ala Stephen King's The Stand) would be good tv, and I think many sci-fi fans would commit to it, knowing there'd be some kind of resolution.

I think it would get decent ratings for the SciFi Channel, but would be a failure on ABC. Too much time has passed. Frankly, I doubt it would have gotten good ratings if they'd gotten it out right away.

It doesn't make good economic OR creative sense. The whole feel of it would be different--like when I heard that Alien Nation would return as a series of TV movies to finish the story, I was glad--then I saw the first movie, and it just wasn't Alien Nation anymore. It didn't feel right. It didn't look right. There was nothing I could put my finger on. Certain intangibles had changed. I didn't like it anymore.

I feel the same way about Dead Like Me returning as TV movies--it isn't going to work. And while I was bothered that the promised Deadwood TV movies never happened, in retrospect I'm glad. They'd never recapture the magic of the first two seasons--even the third was showing signs of creative confusion.

Most of the time, the people making TV shows only have a half-formed idea of where they're going to go with them over the long term. At best. People talk like a show is a novel, but that never works, unless they make the whole show at once. Maybe a season can be a sort of novel. It sucks when a network cuts a serialized story short in mid-season. Sometimes that has to happen too. But the notion that there was this perfectly formed story that had to be finished--well, even a show like Twin Peaks, that I think was as close to real greatness as TV can get--they were just making it up as they went along. Lynch had the vision, but he didn't have the focus. Frost has the focus, but not the vision. And yeah, they did a movie to wrap it up, and it just made people more confused. Geez, what were they expecting from David Lynch?

Shows take on a life of their own--but once the show ends, you can never bring it back. Not really. Partial exception for animated shows, because they have more control over the finished product, and the characters don't age.

So anyway, do we have the ratings for last night yet?

quote:

Originally posted by mushu_jj:
But for right now Big Brother is at least a solid filler because I can guarantee you there's no way the Unit's repeats would be pulling a 2.5 in the demo and the demo is what has hurt the most this strike season for CBS.

Oh, I wasn't talking about right now, I was talking about either a non-strike situation or later this season when they could have new episodes of The Unit.

You responded to my comment about a "non-strike" situation, so I was working on that basis.

For now, yes, BB is good strike filler and will most likely perform better than Unit repeats.

Sorry for the confusion.

quote:

Originally posted by Zitrone:
Even with the strike, it is surprising to see NBC bring back Life next season. Is there any hope for this show? It scored above 3.0 in the demo only for the first two episodes.

True, but it was starting to get some real buzz and rebuild an audience. I'm not sure it was a great pick-up, but it depends on what NBC is going to do to relauch it and what else they have in development...

quote:

Originally posted by Holly:

quote:

Originally posted by mushu_jj:
But for right now Big Brother is at least a solid filler because I can guarantee you there's no way the Unit's repeats would be pulling a 2.5 in the demo and the demo is what has hurt the most this strike season for CBS.

Oh, I wasn't talking about right now, I was talking about either a non-strike situation or later this season when they could have new episodes of The Unit.

You responded to my comment about a "non-strike" situation, so I was working on that basis.

For now, yes, BB is good strike filler and will most likely perform better than Unit repeats.

Sorry for the confusion.

Oh its okay and I agree that the Unit should get back on the air this spring. I just think that CBS has had so much trouble with this timeslot that they felt they were just as good with Big Brother as the lead in.

quote:

Even with the strike, it is surprising to see NBC bring back Life next season. Is there any hope for this show? It scored above 3.0 in the demo only for the first two episodes.

Like the majority of the other shows being picked up after the strike, it's just a case of the network giving them a fair chance to find an audience--and more importantly, making sure they have programming ready for next fall, after the strike. Life is one of many shows that has temporarily evaded the axe because of the strike.

Strike's over. The axe will be back.

CM in 4th place...is that a first? even for a repeat?

quote:

Also on CBS were repeats of Criminal Minds (#4: 5.4/ 8) and CSI: NY (#2: 5.6/ 9) from 9-11 p.m. Both dramas will be returning with original episodes on April 2.

quote:

Like the majority of the other shows being picked up after the strike, it's just a case of the network giving them a fair chance to find an audience--and more importantly, making sure they have programming ready for next fall, after the strike. Life is one of many shows that has temporarily evaded the axe because of the strike.

Strike's over. The axe will be back.

NBC's axe will be quite dull because of their desperate situation. I can see they need to fill in at least 6.5 hours of programming next season and they chose Life and Chuck to fill in two of them. If they were smart, they would "harumph. Make a Deal." as Adam Schiff would say, to Dick Wolf to have both L&O:CI and L&O:Mothership available to fill in like they did this past season.

But NBC is desperate, they had no break-out scripted hits this season (especially Bionic Woman) and we'll see sophmore seasons of Chuck and Life because of it.