TV Ratings (Monday 21st October) + Sunday w. Cable
- Thread starter Jax
- Start date
I stopped watching Terra Nova a few weeks ago.
Poor Terra Nova. 90's style SF is best forgotten.
Hopefully that will be the lesson learned - the market for family-friendly sci fi pablum has vanished (for non-sci-fi stuff, it might still exist) - not that "people don't like sci fi."
Looking at the data, what we learn primarily is that reality TV like Dancing with the Stars is much better than most scripted shows, closely seconded by the superior appeal of CBS comedies. This is doublyodd. First, since young people have superior taste and discrimination and surely cannot be enticed by family friendly pablum like DWTS. Also, since it is unversally regarded by real people (as opposed to the old farts who watch CBS shows) that CBS is the incarnation of badness.
The real popularity of Terranova is showed by the Live+7, not its inability to dent DWTS and the CBS powerhouse comedy bloc on Monday nights.
I've quite Terranova too but I don't confuse my prejudices with ratings analysis. Nor do I assume popularity confirms my tastes. All you can assume from popularity is that their is that something is being efficiently satisfied. That something may or may not be a desire for quality.
The real popularity of Terranova is showed by the Live+7, not its inability to dent DWTS and the CBS powerhouse comedy bloc on Monday nights.
I've quite Terranova too but I don't confuse my prejudices with ratings analysis. Nor do I assume popularity confirms my tastes. All you can assume from popularity is that their is that something is being efficiently satisfied. That something may or may not be a desire for quality.
Terra Nova always had a uphill battle, the writing was on the wall when it was delayed and rumors surfaced on in house battles in the writers/producers department. Sci Fi is very hard to find mass appeal and simply put the concept probably put people off too. Terra Nova needed a really strong lead in, which surprised me that FOX didn't use X Factor or American Idol in midseason to help the show since it was targeted at the same family audience.
The casual viewer would of heard dinosaurs + Time Travel and gone
The casual viewer would of heard dinosaurs + Time Travel and gone
Advertisers don't care about Live+7. Ads are like milk, they expire quickly. Ads for movies that run on Thursday are aimed at influencing weekend movie going behavior, for instance, and are worthless by Monday. Advertisers reportedly do care some about Live+3 - in that time frame, ads generally don't expire.
And it's beating Terra Nova in the demo, too.The Walking Dead is still doing great!
That just goes to show that there is a strong market for sci fi, but you can't try to pass off "family friendly" drivel. Everyone who has AMC also has FOX, so every one of those Walking Dead viewers could have been watching it on a broadcast network (assuming it was toned down - in theory, you could have an excellent zombie show within the FCC's tolerance levels for violence and gore.) Or, you could have a time travelling dinosaur show with the same quality in writing and acting as TWD.The broadcast networks are still struggling to figure out how to compete with cable by tackling niche topics. ABC's doing it with Once Upon a Time. Are fairy tales and zombies inherently more interesting or relatable than dinosaurs? I don't see why they would be. The networks need to realize that the lowest-common-denomenator approach won't work when they are trying to do cable-type shows, and any genre show is going to have to follow cable rules.
The real popularity of Terranova is measured by the Live+7, and that is a significantly larger figure than the live ratings. Which means the crowing about how "family-friendly pablum" isn't popular is wrong. As to what the advertisers want, income demographics are proprietary and the picture of what they want is therefore hidden from us. Since no one really has powers of (mass!) telepathy, notions of what advertisers think is based on business press. Business press assured us once upon a time that collateralized debt obligations were a brilliant financial instrument that added to the magic of the market. The real rationale for all this is the unpoken belief that businessmen, having money, are plainly smarter than the rest of us.
Cable rules are more bad language and more skin and more gore. This isn't much of an advance in Art to tout so vociferously. It's into sensationalism, not esthetic creativity.
Cable rules are more bad language and more skin and more gore. This isn't much of an advance in Art to tout so vociferously. It's into sensationalism, not esthetic creativity.
Oh come on, there's no reason to believe Terra Nova gets an income premium like, say, Mad Men.
When Terra Nova gets cancelled, then we'll know for sure whether it gave advertisers what they want. In three... two...
You are truly the Evel Knievel of logical leaps.
So? You could argue that all of TV is a moronic wasteland and we should all go read a book. That won't change which shows get axed.
And don't badmouth sensationalism, it works beautifully for American Horror Story. Best new show this season!
The Walking Dead is pretty terrible.
Okay that's cute.
But if TWD were all zombie attacks all the time, then it would get slammed for being mindless. The fact that they're breaking cable records proves that they're giving a sizable audience what they want.
http://www.letsbefriendsagain.com/2011/11/14/bored-to-death/
Reading some of the comments there, I'm guessing the only way some people will be happy if everyone on the show died except for the awesome Daryl.
Reading some of the comments there, I'm guessing the only way some people will be happy if everyone on the show died except for the awesome Daryl.
Dancing with the Stars is family friendly pabulum if ever there was any and it has huge ratings, as does the CBS comedy bloc on Monday nights, also family friendly pabulum by virtue of being CBS. Lastly, the real popularity of Terranova is best measured by Live+7. Regurgitating business press bromides about the advertisers tells us nothing about the popularity of Terranova's family friendly pabulum. The idea that Terranova's inability to wallop such powerful competition as DWTS and the CBS Monday night comedies has nothing to do with the failure of family friendly pabulum and the whole idea was just ridiculous from the start.
Speaking as someone who has seen every episode of True Blood, I assure you it is not quality television but a shameless trash wallow. As far as cable SF goes, the number one example is Stargate SG-1. Many of the people so hot for the esthetic creativity of cable conveniently overlook this.
Speaking as someone who has seen every episode of True Blood, I assure you it is not quality television but a shameless trash wallow. As far as cable SF goes, the number one example is Stargate SG-1. Many of the people so hot for the esthetic creativity of cable conveniently overlook this.
Well, it's an HBO show, they are probably contractually obligated to have something like that in every series.Not to be contrary, but mentioning Game of Thrones as an example of how cable shows AREN'T all reveling in gore and skin is probably a bad example.There were two girls eating each other out just as background to exposition!
Yeah, HBO shows probably aren't a very good example.So far, almost every female character on Boardwalk Empire got naked at one point or another. The latest example is the new investigator who sits in Van Alden's office.
Edit: But still, even with all the boobs and gore, those two HBO shows are still damn good dramas. BE is great this season, much better than the first.
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