Is Primeval New World worth watching?

[DWF]

P:NW's numbers are just under what the Monday scripted shows got. Which is surprising given the Sat timeslot. But those Saturday night movies typically get close to 2 million viewers. It's a wonder the network left both shows there as long as they did.

And there you have the real problem. People are always blaming the networks for cancelling the good shows and airing the schlock, but the fact is, the schlock gets a much huger audience than the good stuff. Mindlessness is what the majority of television viewers want. And any network dependent on ratings and ad revenues to stay in business is trapped by that.

But the ratings on Syfy have nothing to do with whether or not R:NW or Sinbad got renewed or cancelled either for that matter. Syfy has both series now and can air them as they like as long as they have the rights to the shows, they seem to have brought some older shows recently in marathons like Highlander.

 

[cylkoth]

^^As both shows were imports and not originated by Syfy, the main issue was the network leaving both on, as opposed to yanking them at the first sign of trouble (compared to the succes they had with their movies that the series displaced).

An import, one that doesn't cost as much to acquire than an original, would be more vulnerable to weaker performance than say, the more expensive Defiance, which would be left on for it's full run-unless it's numbers tanked so badly, they'd have no choice but move it off or to another day and time.. .

 

[DimesDan]

I'm surprised that both these shows failed to find viewers.

I'm not, they were both shite.

 

[Christopher]

^^As both shows were imports and not originated by Syfy, the main issue was the network leaving both on, as opposed to yanking them at the first sign of trouble (compared to the succes they had with their movies that the series displaced).

An import, one that doesn't cost as much to acquire than an original, would be more vulnerable to weaker performance than say, the more expensive Defiance, which would be left on for it's full run-unless it's numbers tanked so badly, they'd have no choice but move it off or to another day and time.. .

To the best of my knowledge, Syfy/SciFi has never pulled an original series off the air during its run. I believe that, as with syndicated shows, they're contractually obligated to air the whole season in the scheduled time slot (or at least on the scheduled night). It's only their imports that they pull midseason when they underperform.

 

[Sindatur]

^^As both shows were imports and not originated by Syfy, the main issue was the network leaving both on, as opposed to yanking them at the first sign of trouble (compared to the succes they had with their movies that the series displaced).

An import, one that doesn't cost as much to acquire than an original, would be more vulnerable to weaker performance than say, the more expensive Defiance, which would be left on for it's full run-unless it's numbers tanked so badly, they'd have no choice but move it off or to another day and time.. .

To the best of my knowledge, Syfy/SciFi has never pulled an original series off the air during its run. I believe that, as with syndicated shows, they're contractually obligated to air the whole season in the scheduled time slot (or at least on the scheduled night). It's only their imports that they pull midseason when they underperform.

Caprica only aired a couple/few episodes of the second half of S1, then pulled it for a few months and burned it all off on a single night, shortly after new Years. But, yea, for the most part, if they paid to produce it, they generally run it weekly until it's done.

Odyssey 5, not an import, but, a rerun purchase from a Pay channel (Showtime?) only ran 2 or 3 (maybe 4?) episodes and then burned the rest off in the middle of the night (Though, I believe that was weekly, so, technically, they just gave it a new time slot, a really, really, crappy one)

 

[DWF]

^^As both shows were imports and not originated by Syfy, the main issue was the network leaving both on, as opposed to yanking them at the first sign of trouble (compared to the succes they had with their movies that the series displaced).

An import, one that doesn't cost as much to acquire than an original, would be more vulnerable to weaker performance than say, the more expensive Defiance, which would be left on for it's full run-unless it's numbers tanked so badly, they'd have no choice but move it off or to another day and time.. .

To the best of my knowledge, Syfy/SciFi has never pulled an original series off the air during its run. I believe that, as with syndicated shows, they're contractually obligated to air the whole season in the scheduled time slot (or at least on the scheduled night). It's only their imports that they pull midseason when they underperform.

Tremors I think was the first series Syfy took off the air early.

 

[JD]

I lost track of P:NW after the first episode...

As I and others have said, it gets better a few episodes in.

but I've been watching Sinbad from the start, and I've been really enjoying it. It's the first fantasy show like this that I've come across that goes for this kind of a more middle eastern flavor. Maybe that was what scared people off?

If so, that's a shame. I found it refreshing that for the first time, we got an American Sinbad production that didn't have a white Sinbad. Granted, he was Afro-British rather than Arab, but it was something. And the show had a pretty diverse cast overall, which is plausible given the cosmopolitanism and multiethnic makeup of the historical Abbasid Caliphate. I also loved how it showed Basra as a center of science and learning, a progressive society, rather than the old movie portrayal of a barbaric land of mysticism and Orientalist stereotypes. Though really it's been about the conflict between progressive and traditionalist elements, with Taryn representing the old ways of darkness and superstition. Which makes it kind of a metaphor for the societal conflict in the modern Middle East between progressivism and fundamentalism. Funny, I never thought of that until just now.

I thought it had interesting characters, a unique setting, and some cool stories. I'm very curious where the last few episodes take things

Spoiler: last episode to air on syfy

now that Akbari is dead, and Sinbad's curse is broken.

It's startling that episode 7 was a season finale-level story. At least if viewers miss the marathon, they'll still have gotten a fairly complete story arc. But I do wonder what comes next in the final 5 episodes.

I skimmed through a little bit of the episode guide entries for the last few episodes on wikipedia, and Ep 9 introduces a new arc that runs through those last few episodes.

 

[Christopher]

^Oops -- I goofed by calling Sinbad an American production. It is, of course, a British show. Maybe I should've said "a Western Sinbad production."

 

[cylkoth]

P:NW's numbers are just under what the Monday scripted shows got. Which is surprising given the Sat timeslot. But those Saturday night movies typically get close to 2 million viewers. It's a wonder the network left both shows there as long as they did.

And there you have the real problem. People are always blaming the networks for cancelling the good shows and airing the schlock, but the fact is, the schlock gets a much huger audience than the good stuff. Mindlessness is what the majority of television viewers want. And any network dependent on ratings and ad revenues to stay in business is trapped by that.

And the numbers are in...the third airing of Sharknado-back on the B-movie's regular Saturday time period, chomped down 2.1 million viewers...a new network record.
http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/07/30/wow-sharknado-ratings-record-repeat/

Sigh. Perhaps P:NW should've had sharks pouring thru the anomalies from a shark infested shark world, with Sinbad chased by sharks in his adventures..

 

[Sindatur]

P:NW's numbers are just under what the Monday scripted shows got. Which is surprising given the Sat timeslot. But those Saturday night movies typically get close to 2 million viewers. It's a wonder the network left both shows there as long as they did.

And there you have the real problem. People are always blaming the networks for cancelling the good shows and airing the schlock, but the fact is, the schlock gets a much huger audience than the good stuff. Mindlessness is what the majority of television viewers want. And any network dependent on ratings and ad revenues to stay in business is trapped by that.

And the numbers are in...the third airing of Sharknado-back on the B-movie's regular Saturday time period, chomped down 2.1 million viewers...a new network record.
http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/07/30/wow-sharknado-ratings-record-repeat/

Sigh. Perhaps P:NW should've had sharks pouring thru the anomalies from a shark infested shark world, with Sinbad chased by sharks in his adventures..

But, there was a BugNado episode.....

 

[Christopher]

As someone said before, they picked the wrong time slot. The audience that comes to Syfy on Saturday nights isn't expecting the kind of scripted dramas that Syfy offers on Monday nights or on Fridays at 10.

 

[Vendikarr]

As someone said before, they picked the wrong time slot. The audience that comes to Syfy on Saturday nights isn't expecting the kind of scripted dramas that Syfy offers on Monday nights or on Fridays at 10.

I got the impression that since the shows had been cancelled in their mother countries before Syfy aired them, that the Saturday scheduling was a burn off itself. And perhaps they were experimenting with adding scripted series on Saturdays, but it failed.

I think they would have better luck airing on Sundays, with the understanding that they won't get stellar ratings when the broadcast networks start airing original content.

 

[JD]

I had the same thought about it being on Sat. nights. I was kind of hoping maybe they would pair one of them up with Continuum, but instead they just show repeats of stuff from earlier in the week.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Surely if you have a ratings box, they give you a dvr, or there's a dvr built into the ratings box.

"No sorry, no dvr for you, you sir are representative of the demographic who still think it's 1987."

Meanwhile, Showcase is an on demand service, subscribers need to pay monthly for the privilege of a decoder box to view, which means they get REAL numbers, rather than proportionally represented guestimates what like the Nielson Families hands out.

I believe that a show gets full marks if you watch it as it airs and half marks if you watch it time shifted, so really in any case it still doesn't matter when they air a show if the decoder box is robotically recording the show, or you can request a viewing from demand at any point.

I also hear that some cable companies can "feel" if you've wired a DVR into your TV and you have to pay an extra fee to make sure that it doesn't cock up when you could be stealing their media... Methinks a classic VCR would slide under the radar.

 

[JD]

I don't have DVR. I watch stuff either live, online, or on DVD.

 

[Guy Gardener]

When I worked nights in the 1990s, I used to have 2 vcrs running at the same time, so that I could record 12 hours of TV on any two tv stations at the same time until I got home.

Fast forwarding through the ads at first, was orgasmic.

I don't own a dvr.

Hell, you need 200 dollars worth of cable box decoder to watch regular free tv now, because Bunny ears are no longer smart enough to figure out TV.

And I don't have one of those either.

TV has turned against me.

It's a good thing I'm not your eye for an eye sort of person.