Bad news for V remake

[Kegg]

From what I can tell, nothing ever gains audience over time; everything loses audience; and the best you can hope for is that the hemmorhaging won't hit cancellation levels before the story has had a decent chance to play out.

Well, word of mouth and advertising can always increase audience from an initial small viewerbase. The classic example is Cheers, which finished dead last in the ratings in its first year and then went on to be a monster hit. It's the would-be success story the fan of every single cancelled series claims his show would have been with a little time and lovin'.

 

[Candlelight]

I hate it how V is now the name of the aliens (for Visitors).

Who says that it is?

Read it online, various ep guides and pre-reviews, etc.

 

[Archangel]

From what I can tell, nothing ever gains audience over time; everything loses audience; and the best you can hope for is that the hemmorhaging won't hit cancellation levels before the story has had a decent chance to play out.

Well, word of mouth and advertising can always increase audience from an initial small viewerbase. The classic example is Cheers, which finished dead last in the ratings in its first year and then went on to be a monster hit. It's the would-be success story the fan of every single cancelled series claims his show would have been with a little time and lovin'.

The nuBSG miniseries is another unusual example the ratings for part 2 of the mini were higher than part one, that's nearly unheard of.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Seems like hiatuses cost viewers. Out of sight, out of mind.

Yet every single show has them between seasons and the viewers come back year after year.

Every show I watch (except for Dexter, but we can't all be Dexter) has a downward trajectory and the most noticeable drops correspond to the longest hiatuses. And I do pay attention to the ratings like a nervous mother hen for the bubble-y shows I like as though I can will them to go back up.

From what I can tell, nothing ever gains audience over time; everything loses audience; and the best you can hope for is that the hemmorhaging won't hit cancellation levels before the story has had a decent chance to play out. New shows have a high mortality rate and I hate to see something promising not given every possible advantage because so few new shows are even remotely interesting to me.

Maybe I was hasty about the second part of my statement though some shows seem to have a base that stays steady through its run.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

The point being, ratings going up is the exception, rather than the rule. The tactic for V could work ... but it's definitely a long shot. It'd have to be incredibly good for this to even work.

 

[Greg Cox]

I hate it how V is now the name of the aliens (for Visitors).

Who says that it is?

Read it online, various ep guides and pre-reviews, etc.

In the promo, someone refers to the aliens as the "the V's."

 

[Aragorn]

Wasn't Jericho a bit hit for CBS, but after the extra long hiatus it sank like a rock?

One exception to the rule seems to be Burn Notice, but things are probably different for cable.

 

[StarTrek1701]

Wasn't Jericho a bit hit for CBS, but after the extra long hiatus it sank like a rock?

One exception to the rule seems to be Burn Notice, but things are probably different for cable.

Burn Notice is ten times better than any show on non-cable network. However if BN was on any non-cable network it would get 5 times the audience it gets on cable. Similar thing happened with Dexter I believe.

 

[Candlelight]

Who says that it is?

Read it online, various ep guides and pre-reviews, etc.

In the promo, someone refers to the aliens as the "the V's."

The only footage I've seen is the 2'00" preview of the Anna interview with Scott Wolf.

Must check them out.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Though, my guess is that the Zedti cared much more about their own insectoid skin than humanity. They weren't out to subjugate humanity, but they'd have no problem obliterating us if they thought we posed any threat to their future (including the fact that the Visitors were subjugating humanity as part of their war effort). It's almost like how we view insects around our home. We leave them alone, unless they decide to creep inside. Then we use all manner of products to eliminate the pests.

Didn't the Zedti actually kill several humans when they first arrived on Earth? In the process of assuming their human disguises? This would seem to put the lie to the theory that they could ever genuinely be our friends.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Exactly. The Zedti really thought of us as, pretty much, disposable. They'd help us if it'd thwart the Visitors. But if it would be more effective to exterminate us, they'd have no qualms about doing so.

Essentially, the way I saw it, it was never about humanity so much as it was about their own objectives. They simply didn't care for the human race -- beyond the fact that saving us would be a blow to the Visitors and might aid their own ends. I'm not sure they were as imperialistic as the Visitors, so whether or not the Zedti would choose to subjugate us seems irrelevant, to them at least.

 

[FordSVT]

Seems like hiatuses cost viewers. Out of sight, out of mind.

Yet every single show has them between seasons and the viewers come back year after year. And many of those end on a cliffhanger so it's not like there's an inherent issue with leaving a story hanging.

There's a difference between putting an established show on summer hiatus, for example, and showing a couple of episodes for a new show and then taking it off the air for 3-4 months before it even has an audience.

Hopefully they'll be smart and re-air the first episodes before the new ones get picked up, and they'll air them in the same damned time slot. If they don't re-broadcast, or they air the "original" episodes in a completely different time slot than the remaining episodes they'll shoot themselves in the foot.

 

[Gatekeeper]

I thought it was an entirely new creative team behind this series?

That poster likes to make a lot of hit and run posts.

Don't you know you aren't cool on the interwebz unless you hate everything?


Also, I tried to read Kenneth Johnson's "V: The Second Generation" novel...I made it about half a chapter in and it was the stupidest thing I have ever read (no exaggeration). It made me pretty much drop to my knees and thank god he isn't allowed anywhere near this incarnation.

I, too, purchased the book and, frankly, it's one of the absolute worst tomes I ever read (yes, I forced myself to read the entire thing). If I ever have to free up space on a bookshelf in my home, you can be guaranteed that Johnson's abomination will be the first to go.

Gatekeeper

 

[Aragorn]

Here's a recent example of senseless scheduling -- The Unit. In their final season, they'd go to winter reruns, but one new episode would appear out of nowhere without any advertising, then there would be more reruns. It was as if CBS was trying to kill it.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

first 8 minutes of the pilot

It's an effective opening, introducing all of the characters and showing us how the aliens come to our planet.
ABC's remake of V starts on November 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf32_KRCfbY&feature=player_embedded
from TV Squad

Nice how the jet CG is done. Not the slow motion Michael Bay long lens style...
Looks like an ABC TV movie not an epic JJ Abrahams Fringe pilot...or the Alias pilot.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

From what I can tell, nothing ever gains audience over time; everything loses audience; and the best you can hope for is that the hemmorhaging won't hit cancellation levels before the story has had a decent chance to play out.

Well, word of mouth and advertising can always increase audience from an initial small viewerbase. The classic example is Cheers, which finished dead last in the ratings in its first year and then went on to be a monster hit. It's the would-be success story the fan of every single cancelled series claims his show would have been with a little time and lovin'.

Cheers was eons ago in TV time. I haven't noticed any shows managing to buck the trends lately - too many cable stations chasing the same eyeballs - the best you can hope for is to premiere big and not suffer too much attrition in the following weeks, while leveling off at a decent level. FlashForward has been able to do this, for instance. Even then, I'm not getting too sanguine about an S2 this early on.

some shows seem to have a base that stays steady through its run.

They're never the ones I like! I heard tell that one of those cop shows I ignore, some NYPDCSI type thing, actually premiered this season above where they left off last season but that does me no good.

The interesting genre shows are the ones whose audience seems to have a brutally short fuse. Frustrate them in the least and you're dead.

 

[Kegg]

Cheers was eons ago in TV time.

Just like my post, but touche.

Naturally, even at the time it was a miracluous fluke of a ratings recovery on the most catastrophic level, but 'tis interesting ne'ertheless.

The interesting genre shows are the ones whose audience seems to have a brutally short fuse. Frustrate them in the least and you're dead.

Well, if by 'interesting' you mean heavily serialised, then yeah. Any series like that isn't one that will gain viewers over time or have people popping in to casually watch a couple of random episodes because they can't follow it. You're sort of dependent here, I guess, on good reviews, buzz, and people catching up on DVDs/reruns to allow for new viewership.

 

[Broccoli]

From what I can tell, nothing ever gains audience over time; everything loses audience; and the best you can hope for is that the hemmorhaging won't hit cancellation levels before the story has had a decent chance to play out.

Well, word of mouth and advertising can always increase audience from an initial small viewerbase. The classic example is Cheers, which finished dead last in the ratings in its first year and then went on to be a monster hit. It's the would-be success story the fan of every single cancelled series claims his show would have been with a little time and lovin'.

Cheers was eons ago in TV time. I haven't noticed any shows managing to buck the trends lately

The Office might qualify as a recent example. It was getting horrible ratings and mixed reviews during it's 6-episode first season. It is a miracle that it came back for more. Now, it is one of the most highly acclaimed and rated comedies today (starting with it's award winning second season).

 

[acs12798]

The Big Bang Theory has shown pretty significant growth. It went from 8.3 million and a bubble show to 10 million average viewers from its first to second season. Now its getting over 13 million(albeit in a better time slot) and the heir apparent to 2.5 men.

However, I think its generally easier for episodic shows to show growth than serialized.

On the topic of V, on the one hand, I just can't see a big break after 4 episodes being good, but I also think ratings during December are generally so bad that may also have hurt the shows chances. I am personally excited to see the show however(although I have never seen any of the original stuff)

 

[darkwing_duck1]

The break has little to do with the Olympics and much to do with the "re-engineering" of the premise to contain less political allegory after it was pointed out that the Visitors' Modus Operandi closely resembled that of a certain real life administration...