Rotten Tomatoes starts reviewing television shows

[Dream]

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/hub/tv-zone

Over the past 15 years, we've established ourselves as the most trusted source for movie fans to see what critics are saying about their favorite films. The Tomatometer has become the standard measurement of critical reaction, based on aggregated ratings and reviews from hundreds of critics. We're very excited to announce that (for the first time ever) we're applying the Tomatometer to television.

Just like we've done for movies, the Rotten Tomatoes' TV Zone provides Tomatometer ratings for TV seasons - along with episode recaps and detailed show information. Our Tomatometer scores will be based on the aggregated reviews of TV critics from hundreds of sources - including newspapers, websites and magazines.

We'll have more than just reviews though; you can visit the TV Zone to find interviews with TV stars, as well as articles and coverage of key, TV related stories, including the upcoming Emmy Awards on Sept 22.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1928345/news/1928345/

Great! Now we have a convenient place with critics telling us what is good or bad tv, without us needing to watch a single episode! Just like RT is already doing for movies!

 

[Harvey]

Useful, to a point, but Metacritic's television coverage has the same problem that Rotten Tomatoes will have: it has no way to consider the best television criticism on the web (at places like the A.V. Club) which evaluate programs on an episode-by-episode basis, not from a handful of screener episodes early in the season.

Some shows falter early on in a season only to come together as the makers figure out how to get it right; others fall to pieces after early success. By this measure, Rotten Tomatoes (like Metacritic) will declare the former failures and the latter successes. That's about as useful as an aggregate site which uses reviews that only cover the first 30 minutes of a movie.

 

[bigdaddy]

^ Yes, The Neighbors had a horrible pilot, but the rest of the first season was amazing, and reviews don't really get that.

 

[Dream]

^ Yes, The Neighbors had a horrible pilot, but the rest of the first season was amazing, and reviews don't really get that.

What are you talking about? 48% is pretty good!