Returning 07-08 shows take a dive in ratings: do people hate TV?

[V]

okay I just picked a title to get attention

but I notice on the SyFyPortal news that Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles has been nosediving in ratings, and now the Pushing Daisies premiere was beat out by Knight Rider of all things. That being said, even KR is doing really bad and didn't even beat the record set by Bionic Woman, as ***ratings are down for TV as a whole


Keep in mind that I considered TSCC and Pushing Daises to be literally the ONLY two good new scifi shows of the Writer's Guild of America vs AMPTP Strike-affected season of 07-08. (Reaper's ok but it needed to be more; if I find out a year from now that their second season takes off like a rocket; good for them, I'll tune back in)


but anyway, this raises several questions:

• Did we learn nothing from the underlying causes of the WGA Strike? "New Media"; the same thing happened to Lost, BSG, and Heroes: "hot megahit shows" actually suffer from their success, because everyone DVR's them or watched them on iTunes (or waits to buy the DVD). Were Pushing Daises and Terminator such hits, that now everyone DVRs them, ironically making them "fail"? Same thing for Battlestar season 3 (before they decided to just end the show, ratings-be-damned, for season 4, which they really did after all the scrambling for ratings in season 3 even though their DVR was up)
• On the other hand.....did the Strike really make people...."find other things to do than TV"? Did people just leave TV that didn't come back? Reading or gardening? Or video games? or Porn? Or perhaps some sort of "Porn-video game"? (It can't be done!)......but really, statistically ratings are down across the board for TV as a whole. Why?
• On the other hand, Fringe is doing pretty well. I didn't "Fall in love with it after one episode" as I did for BSG, and its not one of "my shows", but its a half-decent show which does not insult me by its very existence (unlike Bionic Woman or Knight Rider), and I will continue watching (unlike "Chuck")...so, good for "Fringe", I hope they grow beyond the freshman year's incertainty (all the great shows have a rocky first year.....except BSG, yeah the first season was best in that)
• So, is this a backlash against "returning shows from the Strike season", because its been too long and no one remembers them? Or is it that everyone DVRs them?

I must say, this news of trouble for Pushing Daises and Terminator, coupled with last week the cancellation of Toonami and pretty much all anime from Adult Swim, made September one of the worst "Entertainment news" months in recent memory.

 

[ALF]

Schedules.
People are too busy to watch TV. I know I am.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The long hiatus definitely caused some folks to just forget to tune into the shows they liked last fall, but there are other things afoot:

-Prison Break and Sarah Connor are already running out of steam creatively for Prison Break, it's been the case for a while now.

-And even Pushing Daisies looks to me like it isn't really kickin' it up to the next level. The problem there is that substance-free whimsy only takes you so far, and you really do need a Why Do I Care? element for the audience to hang onto.

-Chuck is another charming but insubstantial show that audiences find easy to dispsense with. The season premiere, as nice as it was, just went for the reset button. Eh.

-Taking this bigger-picture, TV is continuing a long-term trend away from large audiences in which each viewer is worth very little (as a Nielsens eyeball) to smaller niche audiences that cater to viewers who are worth more per person, as consumers of multiple platforms (TV, paid downloads) and buyers of DVD sets. The forefront of this trend is where the viewers are worth the most - premium cable - where a hit show might be getting not much more than one million viewers.

-There will always be the mass market shows - reality TV, police procedurals - but the interesting things will be happening in the niche arena.

"New Media"; the same thing happened to Lost, BSG, and Heroes: "hot megahit shows" actually suffer from their success, because everyone DVR's them or watched them on iTunes (or waits to buy the DVD).

Fringe is doing decently and it's the top DVRed show now. DVR viewing does count - some - because DVR viewers actually watch ads - some - so advertisers know precisely how much they're worth, which they've never known with regular TV viewing, where everyone can be going to the kitchen during commercial breaks anyway.

 

[Mr Light]

I think its a general trend of viewers leaving "live" viewing for all the alternatives. Who wants to arrange your life around when the show is on when you can TiVo it or download it or watch it on DVD? Hell, I use my rickety old VCR to tape shows and watch them later. Of course I work nights

Fringe is the only well performing new genre show, right? It's pilot only hit 9 something million on its own; its the House viewership that seems to be propping it up into the teens. Don't pilots usually lose a third of their audience by the second episode normally? Would Fringe only be getting 6 million on its lonesome self?

 

[roguephoenix]

becasue of global warming, people's brains are a bit fried. less brain cells so they opt for "reality" shows. those seem to be doing well... >_<

lol

anyway... terminator show has been going downhill since it began so it's not like they didn't know it was going down. i do watch it, but i do dvr. i'm never home when shows are airing.

also, maybe people just don't like the directions their shows have taken. and since they've been without them for a long while, they're more likely to just let them go and see what happens later.... and watch "reality" shows in the mean time >_< those stupid things seem to always be on and there's always more and more. bah.

 

[nx1701g]

I know that, at least from where I sit, my problem is I just don't have time to watch TV. I do know that a lot of shows with low ratings [cough]Terminator[/cough] are staying high with DVR at least. It's just a time matter for me.

 

[Hermiod]

At the risk of repeating myself, I'm finding myself watching less and less TV.

Of the new shows this year, only Dollhouse sounds interesting but I imagine I will wait for the DVDs. What I do watch, I download or buy on DVD. Watching TV at a specific time is too old fashioned and inconvenient for me.

As far as British television goes, making a show that appeals to the Male 18-35 demographic is almost treated as sacrilege these days. If they do, it'll be some dumbed down "laddish" show. British TV treats men like dirt, quite frankly.

 

[FalTorPan]

I haven't watched a TV series on a regular basis in nearly ten years. Very few shows have been good enough for me to bother taking time out of my schedule on even a semi-regular basis in order to watch.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

There is something intangible in the air. I watched Heroes every week, but I didn't tune in at first airing either week, I watched them later. I still haven't seen the last two Offices but, I will watch them online or download them later.

The urgency isn't there.

however, one would argue, i think Lost will be fine because it's a show that demands viewership, as opposed to a show like Heroes which is fun when watching it but i forget what happens 2 minutes after its over.

 

[Ghel]

I tend to work evenings, so for me, watching live TV doesn't work.

About the only thing I watch live is football on Sundays, and even then, only when I don't have any other activities to engage in.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

however, one would argue, i think Lost will be fine because it's a show that demands viewership, as opposed to a show like Heroes which is fun when watching it but i forget what happens 2 minutes after its over.

Both shows have dropped considerably over their runs; Lost started out at a higher viewership so it's not as close to the danger zone. Lost's ratings have stabilized around a hard core of 11M-13M viewers now. I think Heroes may have hit its hard core of 9-9.5M.

My interpretation of all this is that people are having their niche tastes catered to, and are learning to be ever-more picky. If things don't hit their tastes precisely, or evolve away from their tastes, they drop a show quickly. The way to survive is to cater to a taste that has a big enough representation in the population that it won't sink you; looks like 7M or so is the cut-off point for NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox; considerably less for CW and cable.

Or you can be one of those shows that cater to people with no taste at all.

And to counter the doom & gloom about TV being bad, check out what I just found out about AMC - three interesting projects in the works, including Red Mars!!!

Plus with Dexter and Lost both on TV, how bad can things be, really?

 

[wamdue]

not to drag this too far off topic, but was reading on DHD last night, that SGA are considering putting a vote for memebers about a strike, ratings are down this year across the board last thing TV needs right now is a repeat of last season.

 

[Chris227]

I think "Doctor Who" dipped in the ratings as well, except for the last few episodes with the Daleks/Rose. Could be due to the ambivalence among fans about Catherine Tate.

However, it's going on hiatus anyway (Due to David Tennant's schedule and a producer turnover, not because of the ratings).

 

[ATimson]

I think "Doctor Who" dipped in the ratings as well, except for the last few episodes with the Daleks/Rose. Could be due to the ambivalence among fans about Catherine Tate.

Or it could be due to the fact at the first five or six episodes were in ever-shifting timeslots, whereas they had a fairly stable schedule for the back half.

However, it's going on hiatus anyway (Due to David Tennant's schedule and a producer turnover, not because of the ratings).

Wrong and wrong--the hiatus was scheduled before David was offered the RSC role, and the producer turnover won't be until after the four specials (Christmas 2008, which is already shot, plus three others to be shot starting January 2009) are produced.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I think "Doctor Who" dipped in the ratings as well, except for the last few episodes with the Daleks/Rose. Could be due to the ambivalence among fans about Catherine Tate.

Or it could be due to the fact at the first five or six episodes were in ever-shifting timeslots, whereas they had a fairly stable schedule for the back half.

However, it's going on hiatus anyway (Due to David Tennant's schedule and a producer turnover, not because of the ratings).

Wrong and wrong--the hiatus was scheduled before David was offered the RSC role, and the producer turnover won't be until after the four specials (Christmas 2008, which is already shot, plus three others to be shot starting January 2009) are produced.

I believe Doctor Who's average rating has increased year on year, too. At least that's what RTD said in one interview I read.

 

[Captain Shaw]

I just finding my self board with TV everything seems to have been done before a million times.
The only show i really watch is top gear. For a lot of TV shows i use i player or what ever the ch4 version is called or tape it.
And what doesn't help is that there northing on all week then there are 3 tvs shows on at the same time that i want to watch.
Like to night at 9pm there are 3 shows i want to watch on bbc1,2 and ch4 so i will be watching a lot of my tv on line tomorrow.

 

[Caretaker]

Schedules.
People are too busy to watch TV. I know I am.

I use a TiVo. I work two jobs, and many days don't get home from work until nearly 10 pm (eastern). DVRing is the only way I get to watch weekday shows. But that's my situation. I can't speak for others.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I just finding my self board with TV everything seems to have been done before a million times.

That's why I was so jazzed to hear about Red Mars. A sci-fi show that isn't warmed-over X-Files! What a concept.

And why does anyone need to produce any show involving cops, ever again? How about a moratorium on all cop shows for, say, the next two decades?

Every so often we get something far more original than the norm, like Pushing Daisies or Lost, but it's frustratingly rare.

 

[Hermiod]

And why does anyone need to produce any show involving cops, ever again? How about a moratorium on all cop shows for, say, the next two decades?

I want a show about a policeman who solves crimes in his spare time.

THAT'S BECAUSE HE GETS RESULTS, YOU STUPID CHIEF!

 

[nx1701g]

Good article on it:

Why are Monday Night Series Slipping in the Ratings?