Hunter I couldn't agree with you more. As for OTH, I don't think the OC will hurt it that much. Most people still will be confused as to where it is on this week.
Your probably right Marc but the ratings can still be better than they are now. I think that an 8pm Thursday time slot from the get go would have resulted in around 5 million viewers yet instead of 3 million.
Not to mention, better promotional support from Fox. Considering the fact that their new shows have all tanked as well, the network should try to salvage another season of the OC.
I don't think that Fox will yank it. At the very least they will let it die on Thursdays this year, and yes, this is likely the last season. I think the key is that the show only has 16 episodes. It will be over by mid-March and then Fox can try something new on Thursday. The network's likelihood of developing something new on Thursday at 9pm this season is slim to none.
When a show is a veteran, Fox usually gives it better treatment than they do new shows. Last season both Bernie Mac and Malcolm in the Middle were only averaging 3 million viewers but the network stuck with them for their final seasons. I think Fox will do the same for the OC and they have promised Josh Schwartz that he will be notified of a cancellation and allowed to wrap up the storyline.
I think part of the problem with the OC this season is the episodes airing on My Space. TiVo can only handle 2 shows at once and with Grey's Anatomy and CSI, I'm watching the OC online this year.
The things about the myspace broadcasts is I think they may be done after the second episode. The original press release only mentions episodes one and two as being aired online but I'm guessing that this may end up being a long term solution.
Marc, what do you think OTH and OC will do this Wednesday against eachother?
I think it could be close considering OC doesnt have much time for its move to get promoted while OTH has had the wednesday time period all year and people are already adjusted to it. Plus, it hit 3.7 million before the repeat last week so that couldve gave it some momentum to do good this upcoming week. I dont think OTH will be hurt too much.
Originally posted by The Shadow: do you think the fact that episodes on most of the major networks are now available to stream for free either weeks ahead of, or days after, would affect the show's ratings?
I don't think it has yet an effect on the TV ratings. Although there's a growing audience of people watching TV shows on the web (and I certainly like it), it's still a very small minority of the TV audience that does go to the net and watch.
So many viewers are so used to (and more comfortable) watching shows on their TVs. I think when digital cable companies offer these over-the-air TV shows for free on demand (which has already started with my company Cablevision with USA and SciFi Networks), that might take some chunk of the ratings eventually.
