What Are "V"'s Chanches For A Second Season?

[Cmndr J Crichton]

Make a Mini-Season. 6-10 episodes. If it does well, make a complete third season. The problem today with genere sereis is there's so much filler. Smallville is a major victim of that. Imagine if a series' season lasted only about 12-14 episodes, instead of the usual 22-26 episodes? There'd be no time for just boring pointless episodes. Example, if Smallville had that kind of structure, Clark would be Superman by now.

 

[EnsignRicky]

I would have to say, Jack left town.

 

[Aragorn]

Make a Mini-Season. 6-10 episodes. If it does well, make a complete third season. The problem today with genere sereis is there's so much filler. Smallville is a major victim of that. Imagine if a series' season lasted only about 12-14 episodes, instead of the usual 22-26 episodes? There'd be no time for just boring pointless episodes. Example, if Smallville had that kind of structure, Clark would be Superman by now.

No, The CW is still The CW.

 

[auntiehill]

Yeah but watching V after Lost is pretty depressing. The gulf in quality is just too wide.

How true.

Watching V after LOST is downright painful.

I really wanted to like the new V, but it's not happening. It amazes me that a show about super-powerful reptilian aliens that invade Earth, and the resistance group that fights them, could be made so very, very DULL.

 

[RandyS]

Yeah but watching V after Lost is pretty depressing. The gulf in quality is just too wide.

How true.

Watching V after LOST is downright painful.

I really wanted to like the new V, but it's not happening. It amazes me that a show about super-powerful reptilian aliens that invade Earth, and the resistance group that fights them, could be made so very, very DULL.

You forget, most everybody hated the first V too.

 

[BolianAuthor]

Yeah but watching V after Lost is pretty depressing. The gulf in quality is just too wide.

How true.

Watching V after LOST is downright painful.

I really wanted to like the new V, but it's not happening. It amazes me that a show about super-powerful reptilian aliens that invade Earth, and the resistance group that fights them, could be made so very, very DULL.

Not to mention that they jumped into the whole (cliche') resistance arc WAY too soon... I mean, c'mon... the aliens just landed, and already we just happen to "know" that they're evil, and know what agenda they have... please.

If aliens came to earth, things would happen in three stages... maybe four...

First, the entire world would be gripped with euphoria, that finally, we have found our stellar cousins, and they have made contact... we would be wearing rose-colored glasses for quite a while, and embrace the aliens.

Then, we would begin to realize that since they're here, and since they have powers far beyond our own, that they might want to share some of it with us.

Then, when they don't do so, we would accuse them of doing nothing to help humanity's woes, and would begin to feel animosity towards them.

Finally, we would really be irked by their lingering stay, and would begin to want them gone, at which point, they'd either leave, or say "Frak you, you first", and wipe us all off the globe, once and for all.

The thing that bugs ME about almost every single aliens-come-to-Earth story, is how all these aliens just happen to know where every major tourist attraction and landmark is on Earth... as if blowing up Big Ben or the Leaning Tower of Pisa would really fix our wagon good. Yeah, that'll show us... no more Disneyland... If they want to REALLY do some damage, they'd destroy our food and water supplies, if not just us altogether.

 

[Truth_Seeker]

According to my calculations this season's average number of viewers so far is 8.49875 million. So isn't that enough for a network show to be renewed for another season?

Of course the actual rating is determined by some other numbers that mean nothing to me, which makes me feel like Michael Moore in front of the New York Stock Exchange:

"Can anybody explain derivatives to me?"

 

[AviTrek]

Truth Seeker, it's the 18-35 or 25-49 numbers that matter, not the overall numbers. Advertisers just don't pay as much for older viewers. Also, it's the viewers at the end that matters not the average. If a show lost half it's viewers over the course of the season that's a bad thing. Looking at an average makes the number still look like .75x instead of the real .5x. You're making the math more complicated than it is, not less.

 

[FordSVT]

The only hope V has is if ABC decides they need at least one Sci Fi show next year. In that case V probably gets the nod over Flash Forward. But if the shows are all judged on their own then odds are V and Flash Forward are both over.

I expect they will keep one of them around, with probably a half-season order. If I had to guess, it would be V; Flashforward has fallen farther, and the plot arc sort of locks them into more of the same. V, on the other hand, could be retooled pretty easily.

Ah yes, because mid-series retooling always goes well.

If V manages to get beyond this season, it won't be for that much longer. No way this show runs for years.

 

[Truth_Seeker]

Truth Seeker, it's the 18-35 or 25-49 numbers that matter, not the overall numbers. Advertisers just don't pay as much for older viewers. Also, it's the viewers at the end that matters not the average. If a show lost half it's viewers over the course of the season that's a bad thing. Looking at an average makes the number still look like .75x instead of the real .5x. You're making the math more complicated than it is, not less.

I see! So the average doesn't matter! That's pretty dumb, if you ask me!

It means that instead of helping it the show's early high ratings are actually working against it now.

 

[AviTrek]

Well working against it may be too harsh. But the recent ratings are all that really matters, with maybe some weight given to the overall trend. When a network decides to renew a show they are making a prediction of the ratings they expect for the next season.

The best indicator of those ratings are the current ratings. On top of that if a show is trending downwards then the assumption is the trend down will continue. If a show is trending upwards(very rare these days) then the network may assume the ratings will continue to increase.

 

[Snaploud]

Truth Seeker, it's the 18-35 or 25-49 numbers that matter, not the overall numbers. Advertisers just don't pay as much for older viewers. Also, it's the viewers at the end that matters not the average. If a show lost half it's viewers over the course of the season that's a bad thing. Looking at an average makes the number still look like .75x instead of the real .5x. You're making the math more complicated than it is, not less.

There is also the added factor of cost. V requires a good degree of special effects as well as a rather large cast. You can't just reuse old tv show sets for everything.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Sure you can.

As long as your audience are drunks, morons and/or children.

V isn't clever enough to marketed towards clever people who have no fetish for science fiction, so why pander towards an inaccessible demographic? Dumbing the show down to the point the budget is halved would almost guarantee a second season...

It worked for Charmed: YEAR AFTER YEAR.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Truth Seeker, it's the 18-35 or 25-49 numbers that matter, not the overall numbers. Advertisers just don't pay as much for older viewers. Also, it's the viewers at the end that matters not the average. If a show lost half it's viewers over the course of the season that's a bad thing. Looking at an average makes the number still look like .75x instead of the real .5x. You're making the math more complicated than it is, not less.

I see! So the average doesn't matter! That's pretty dumb, if you ask me!

It means that instead of helping it the show's early high ratings are actually working against it now.

It's not dumb because a trend downwards - badly downwards - doesn't pull back up. I follow a lot of shows' ratings, and it's rare anymore for a downward trend to level out or even go back up. Caprica did that, and it floored me! So Caprica will most likely survive, but V, probably not.

The high early ratings aren't working against it. They just don't mean anything. Those viewers are gone forever.

 

[Dream]

The Firefly curse strikes again?

 

[bigdaddy]

The only hope V has is if ABC decides they need at least one Sci Fi show next year. In that case V probably gets the nod over Flash Forward. But if the shows are all judged on their own then odds are V and Flash Forward are both over.

That is actually the rumour. ABC wants V or FF and FF seems completely dead so V might have a chance.

If I were ABC I would order 13 more episodes of V and a miniseries for FF and be done with them both.

 

[Guy Gardener]

It was probably because that Alessandra Torresani did a hilarious Cylon themed skit on the Soup with Joel McChale which had to have tippled the awareness for the potential nonscifi audience that such a thing existed.

The Soup makes me happy.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The Firefly curse strikes again?

I came to the conclusion yesterday that if Joss had just called Firefly 'Firefox" instead of Firefly, then vanity being what it is, FOX would never have cancelled them, and hells, Mozilla would have come hat in hand asking to advertise their firefox browser in the advertising blockspace.

 

[StarTrek1701]

I knew[/b[ it! V had the slimmest chance of ever getting good ratings because A. it is getting stupid boring and B. Morena Baccarin is in it! Now of course she is the HOTNESS but did anyone truly think any show would do good with the cursed Firefly actress in it? I mean every actress on Firefly had a chance at a great show but they ALL got cancelled without making it truly big.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Here are the demo ratings since it returned:

03.30.10 - 2.8/8
04.06.10 - 2.4/7
04.13.10 - 2.2/6
04.20.10 - 2.3/7

Yknow what? Could be worse. Like Chuck and Heroes (both rumored to be returning next fall, yes you read that right), a lot rides on what else the network has cookin' to replace V. Their most promising sf/f pilot is No Ordinary Family, and the buzz for it is good.

I figure that the failure of the pilot for The Cape is what granted Heroes a stay of execution. So V may be in a similar situation on ABC. If No Ordinary Family turns out well, that might mean curtains for V.

Or, maybe ABC is liberal minded enough to allow both on their fall schedule? They seem unusually sf/f friendly among the major nets. And there's also Happy Town - definitely horror, possibly sf/f, launching in a week or two. If that is a hit, it could be a bad sign for V. The teasers for it look good but the critics are slamming it hard.