I seem to remember it broke ITV2's record high(yep, quick search online, it got 2.2m, even outdid Channel 4), then a month later it was down to around 500k.
Did the Brits Dislike Bionic Woman as Much as the Americans?
- Thread starter Ro_Laren
- Start date
Ouch! I guess that answers the OP's question about what British audiences thought of it!
just looking at ITV 2 ratings
http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammes?_s=4
if it did end with 500,000 then yes that is good by ITV 2 standards.
That's interesting... if spring 2009 and spring 2008 are comparable (and probably are), then by the end Bionic Woman would be around 5th to 8th in the ITV2 chart on 500,000, whereas Supernatural is its no.1, on 671,000 (against decent competition, what with Lewis on ITV1, the no1 Ladies Detective Agency on BBC1 and two of BBC3's better rating programmes competing for digital viewers), with another 200,000 watching on ITV2+1 (the 'one hour later variant).
Mind you, repeats of The Sarah Jane Adventures are pulling in 200,000 to 250,000 five days a week on CBBC - that's 'last year' repeats, not 'second chance to see this week's episode' repeats... which is roughly what new episodes of terminator, and repeats of Deep Space Nine, are getting on Virgin1.
And take a look at the ratings for ITV2 and ITV2+1 (that's the 'one hour later' variant). Primeval is nowhere on ITV2, but has got three slots in ITV2+1's top ten, again at about 200,000 for each transmission.
I think I'd better shut up now, or I could spend the whole night boring on about 'interesting' comparisons in those ratings figures!
Part of the problem is that it wasn't a remake at all. Aside from the show title and the lead character's name, it had nothing to do with the original show. They didn't have the rights to any of the concepts from The Six Million Dollar Man, so even the bionics had to be completely different in their origins and function, and the character and the government agency she worked for were radically different as well. It was no more a remake of The Bionic Woman than Jake 2.0 was a remake of 6M$M. Like I said, they should've used new names and admitted that it was a totally separate show, rather than reusing the title and the name Jaime Sommers and creating false expectations.
But... it almost certainly got started, or at least got commissioned, because of someone saying 'Hey, remakes are doing well, and we've got the rights to The Bionic Woman. Anyone know of any writers who'd like to redo it?'
Even if a writer had pitched an original, new concept for a super-powered ordinary woman, they might well have had the legal department saying 'There's some similarities to Bionic Woman - it's only safe to go ahead if we've got the rights to that,' which would inevitably lead to a follow-on suggestion of 'Well, if we're paying for the Bionic Woman rights, let's use them and do a remake...'
Well, yes, I'm sure that's true. I was speaking rhetorically, not literally or legalistically, when I said it wasn't a remake. I meant that they kept so little of the original that it might as well have been a wholly new show. At least when Battlestar Galactica was remade, they changed the approach and the characters, but kept many of the core concepts and situations and began the story in much the same way. In this case, they kept the show's name and the character's name, but threw out everything else that made TBW what it was and that made Jaime Sommers who she was. This woman bearing the name "Jaime Sommers" could not have been more completely unlike the Jaime I grew up with.
Perhaps. But I'm again reminded of Jake 2.0. That show's premise had so much in common with 6M$M that they actually acknowledged the fact by having Lee Majors guest star (though not as Steve Austin). If that was considered distinct enough not to be a remake, I think that BW could've pulled it off too.
On Michelle Ryan: I can certainly understand why some would find her beautiful. I find her almost beautiful, but her features are just a little bit off -- eyes too Meg-Foster creepy, lips too puffed-up -- and somehow those subtle details just create a cognitive dissonance that not only detracts from her beauty but makes it hard for me even to look at her without discomfort. It's like listening to a beautiful piano sonata on a piano that has a few keys out of tune -- the fact that most of it is beautiful just makes those discordant notes all the more jarring. I don't pretend that anyone else should see it the same way, and I envy those of you who only see the beauty, but that's how I react.
^^Isn't that kind of what happened with [shudder] I, Robot?
No -- IIRC, that was a case where the studio already had the rights to I, Robot and decided to combine it with Jeff Vintar's similar concept. A better example would be Star Trek: "Arena." After Gene Coon wrote it, the legal department noted its similarities to Fredric Brown's short story "Fun and Games," and Coon realized he might have been unconsciously influenced by his memory of the story. So they contacted Brown and bought the rights to the story.
IIRC from Michelle Ryan interviews, she mainly blames the downfall of the show to the writer's strike. I have always guessed that she used that excuse because she was too professional to blame it on all the crap going on behind the scenes. I highly doubt she blames the probs with the show on herself.
On the other hand, Katee Sackhoff has said that she would change lots of stuff if she had been given the reigns of the show (not that she was every seeking the reigns), but I have never heard what she would have done differently.
On the other hand, Katee Sackhoff has said that she would change lots of stuff if she had been given the reigns of the show (not that she was every seeking the reigns), but I have never heard what she would have done differently.
I just looked up pics of Meg Foster- she sure does have creepy eyes!!!! I never thought that Michelle's were that blue... they only looked like that in the main promo pics and not on screen.
ahh, ty...
...nitpicker's corner, the Brown story was called "Arena"... "Fun and Games" was the Outer Limits ep based on it.
^Yeah, you're right.
That makes me wish they had just set the shows in Vancouver. Yeah, Hollywood probably feared Americans would avoid a show set in a foreign country, but we're talking about Canada, not the Congo.
On the other hand, I wish more TV shows were set in the Congo.
Also they made the idiotic mistake of trying to pass off Vancouver as San Francisco! Seattle, okay. San Francisco? Ridiculous!The only place that looks like San Francisco is San Francisco. If you can't afford to shoot here, set your show someplace more generic looking.
I'm not sure you realize this, but 99% of the time "San Francisco" is shown on TV, it's really Vancouver. Bionic Woman didn't invent this.
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