“I wrote 63 songs this year. They’re all about Jeter.” Just kidding. The game we love, the players we hate, and more.
From Norman Mailer to Wendy Pepper — everything on film, TV, books, music, and snacks (shut up, raisins), plus the Girls’ Bike Club.
Helping public schools, winning prizes, sending a crazy lady in a tomato costume out in public.
Monologues, travelogues, fiction, and fart humor. And hens. Don’t forget the hens.
The Tomato Nation advice column addresses your questions on etiquette, grammar, romance, and pet misbehavior. Ask The Readers about books or fashion today!
It’s kind of insane to me that anyone is trying to pin the slump in TV ratings on Daylight Savings Time, but evidently this is considered a workable theory. The Wurtzel fellow quoted in the second half of the piece says essentially the same thing I told the reporter, but probably cursed a lot less.
I’ve (re-)discovered a few things over the course of the recent Days Of Rage. Some of them are great!
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a lonely girl in possession of a library card must be in want of a twin. The child who spends a lot of time in books also spends …
Dear Sars,
Welcome back! Dear cracking dry hands season, not so much. I’m here to ask you/the readers about a product I could swear I saw mentioned on the Vine ages ago, but I can’t find …
Has anyone tried pinning it on, I don’t know, a drastic decline in overall quality? If my mother makes me sit through Dancing With The Stars one more time, I cannot be held responsible for my actions.
“Strategic decisions to send some popular serial dramas on long hiatuses appeared to backfire. NBC’s “Heroes,” CBS’ “Jericho” and “Lost” lost significant momentum when they returned.”
Why, why, WHY does this surprise anybody? Why?
Can you explain what’s “strategic” about the long-hiatus/multiple-hiatus decisions? Because it seems utterly counter-intuitive to me.
I follow a bunch of shows that have been doing this. Without exception, it’s massively irritating. There are shows that I feel I’m *dedicated* to, and still — give me a 6-week hiatus in the middle, let alone a SIX TO NINE MONTH hiatus, and I, too, drift away, do other things, forget about it, forget when it’s coming back, stop caring enough to find out and tune in, etc. And I’m a *fan*, which means (in theory) that I pay more attention to this stuff than the “average viewer”.
It feels arbitrary. It feels like networks jerk viewers around, and then somehow arrogantly expect that we’re still sitting there with bated breath, waiting to find out when they will resume giving us the thing that we can’t do without. Guess what? We can do without it.
Look, I love “Heroes”. But the multiple artificial cliffhangers don’t do it for me. Give me a month or two without it, and I start to forget what was so compelling that I wanted to tune in next time. I followed BSG regularly, but PLEASE, a *nine month hiatus* between seasons? I’m an SG fan as well, but the thing is — if I only tune in to the SciFi channel for those few shows (and believe me, I don’t watch most of the rest of the crap they show), the likelihood is that I’ll miss their attempt to inform me of when the shows will start airing again. This is happening right now with Eureka, a nice enough show that I’d like to catch again, but I’ve no idea when it’s going to be back on, and my degree to which I cared about it has decreased significantly in the 6 months since its first season ended.
Thank god for TiVo season-passes, (when they don’t screw up), I say. But seriously — what’s going on in the networks’ heads? Because the actual *experience* of everyone I know with regard to incomprehensible airing schedules can’t be what they’re *aiming* for, can it?
Amen and hallelujah to the idea that schedules are dead. I stopped watching TV (except for football) when I got Netflix a few years ago, and now I can’t fathom the idea of watching a show at a set time, with (God forbid) commercials. If on-demand delivery is the wave of the future, it can’t happen fast enough for me.
I think it was more the stupid NCAA tourney screwed things up more than early DST (which, don’t misunderstand, I still loathe with the fury of a thousand suns, but for different reasons). Because all the hiatuses (hiatii?) and reruns during March (I’m assuming because of NCAA), I don’t watch TV at all, so then when I try to get back into it, I have no idea when the new shows actually begin and miss a lot.
The network websites, I’ve found, also don’t do a great job of informing the viewer when new shows begin re-airing. If they did, maybe I wouldn’t get so darned frustrated and flummoxed trying to figure out why the other TWOP forum people know these things but I don’t.
What was the plan behind those extended hiatuses anyway? How was that suppose to work out in the network’s favor? I use to watch Lost just to make fun of it, but after the hiatus and time change, I realized I just didn’t care to waste an hour of my life every week. I should write ABC a thank you note or something.
Daylight savings time my ass. It’s all the crap they are putting out. If it wasn’t for House and Heroes I wouldn’t need a TV.
A-freakin’-men to the schedule issues. I’ve practially given up trying to figure out when the shows I like are airing. I remember when Sunday meant X-Files. Period. Maybe there would be a rerun here or there, but Sunday night = X-Files without fail. This year, it would go like this. Sunday night = X-Files unless, maybe, they’ve stuck in a random “special” airing of the show that runs in the timeslot after X-Files because *that* show has been off the air for so long no one remembers what happened, or maybe this is the month where there’s a reality show in said show’s prior timeslot aughaughaughKILLME.
This is also the first year ever I haven’t had a network drama that I’m absolutely devoted to watching. And I love me some tv, so that’s really saying something. Even the few shows I do watch I watch on DVR because I’m too freakin’ busy and I hate comercials. Maybe if they stopped making so much crap that’s just a rehash of older crap, I’d watch more. I mean, I love Heroes, but every time my husband and I watch it we make fun of the horrible writing. Since when do I consider a show great even with bad writing?!
I can’t keep up with regular broadcast network TV any more, even with Tivo. Between preemptions and hiatuses and life and yadda yadda whatever, I can’t be bothered. So I’ll watch Heroes when it comes out on DVD, and other shows I like I’ll catch up with in reruns– if ever. DST has nothing to do with it.
Yeah, I don’t even know when half the shows I like to watch are ON anymore. I just turn on my DVR and if there’s a new show for me to watch, wooo! if not, whatever. I’m not going to change plans to watch a TV show at a specific time — there is no point.
I was the first of my friends to get a DVR, now I’m one of many. And yes, I sometimes wait more than 24 hours to watch those shows. Well, I’m a woman about to turn 35, so I hardly matter to advertisers, anyway.
Plus, the DVR makes it all SO EASY to get sucked into reruns of shows I adore. Arrested Development on g4, the OC and One Tree Hill on Soapnet, Futurama on Toon, Angel on TNT, Buffy on FX … Scrubs on every channel, etc.
It’s insane that Daylight Savings is listed as a possibility before DVR! Especially considering, as they specifically say in the article:
“This year, for the first time, Nielsen is measuring viewership in the estimated 17 percent of homes with digital video recorders _ but it only counts them in the ratings of a specific show if they watch it within 24 hours of the original air time.”
Nielsen has 17% fewer “live” viewers than previous years. How many people watch DVRd shows within a day? Don’t most wait until the weekend? Wouldn’t this 17% of the Nielsen account for a good portion of the ratings drop? And what difference does it make when someone watches a DVRd show? DVR viewers can ignore commercials, so why even count them, if the only purpose of the Nielsen ratings is to measure advertising value?
I’ve been using my DVR more and more lately, and I’ll catch up on TV shows via DVD as well (just finished S4 of 24). But the overall quality is an issue, too.
When the collective seems to disregard true quality (Friday Night Lights) for cheap revenue sources (Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader), then we’ve got a problem.
I don’t know where I read it – probably on TWoP – and I’m not clever enough to claim it, but someone said “Americans would watch shit float if it were a game show.”
As someone astutely pointed out on the TWOP “House” thread, the network powers put them on a six week hiatus in the MIDDLE OF THE FREAKIN’ SEASON, than brought it back with a great advertising flourish of “new shows for the next six weeks!” As the poster pointed out, they were bragging about giving viewers new shows like it was a special treat they should be grateful for, rather than a basic expectation DURING THE SEASON.
I could not believe BSG has a nine month hiatus. We lost cable for a while during season two and it became more pain than pleasure to try to catch up again, almost like homework. I also dislike the idea (ala Heroes) that I have to run to the website to watch deleted scenes and read online comics to understand what’s going on. I don’t watch TV as a job, people–it’s your job to entertain ME.
Ok so that’s why I love my husband. he goes to TV.com (or some site) and looks it see if there are any new episodes for the shows we love, and then he goes to some program, and downloads them… legality? not sure, but when the come out on DVD we buy the season, so we don’t feel too bad. (I own all of Buffy, all of, all of, all of, so it’s not like we’re makin’ it up!)
And what about when they pull the crappy stunt where they advertise (ok, at my mom’s house, I haven’t had cable since 1996 then I went to a friends in college, or rented movies, and my husband and I have “made do” with Netflix since summer of 2001) a new show on sunday, and we show up at her house at 8 pm on a sunday and it’s a re-run, only to find out that the new episode is on AFTER the rerun in the “real” time slot.
bastards.
The Nielson ratings don’t take into account the way I, or many people I know, watch TV. I never, ever watch a TV drama when it airs (and I don’t watch any sitcoms since the untimely demise of “Arrested Development”); I record everything and usually watch it days later. And not only does Nielson ignore people who watch a show more than 24 hours after recording it on a DVR, while only 17% of households have DVRs, what about those who use Tivo or similar systems, or download shows from iTunes.
I’m not trying to be a voice of dissent here, as I essentially agree with all of you. But complaining that a network can’t show a new episode every week between September and June is kind of missing the point. If you want your shows to be good, you can’t produce 40 episodes a season– who’s writing that much, doing pre-production on all those episodes? I would say the future holds for us the kind of scheduling that HBO and Showtime already do– they air the new season when it’s ready, with no re-runs during the first-runs. Maybe when we’re all watching on demand, the new season will be available all at once to watch as quickly or slowly as you want, like netflixing a season of Gilmore Girls or something. But we can’t make impossible demands on shows that are already straining to achieve consistent quality for a 22-episode season (which is at least twice as long as most seasons of British TV shows– and they’re so good! Because they don’t have to make as many and they mostly make all the episodes at once). As the culture changes and the availability of different forms of entertainment explodes, we’ve come to want TV to explode with it, something they’re just not set up for and really never will be without the entire definition of TV changing.
Well, I can tell you why I don’t watch nearly as much television as I used to.
It’s because television really kind of sucks.
There are hours of Deal or No Deal, Dancing With the Stars and American Idol on weekly. Survivor refuses to die. I have no interest in game shows (look, you can call it “reality television” all you want, but they’re all game shows or talent shows), so there’s very little for me to watch. And the shows that are left have gotten steadily worse. I still watch House and Cold Case when I remember, but they’re not really worth busting my ass to make sure I watch now.
I don’t have TiVo or anything of the sort. It’d be nice to have because, really, all I watch now are cartoons that come on in the middle of the day, and I’d like to have all of the early Cold Case episodes to hand, as we’re apparently never getting DVDs, but…really? I’m not ever going to be making up my own viewing schedule because there’s so little worth viewing.
(Oh, and FOX, stop screwing Tim Minear over like this. The man’s a genius and is the ONLY THING your network has going for it. I’m still bitter about The Inside. And Wonderfalls. THOSE I did and would watch live. Bastards.)
Who knows if fewer people are actually watching these shows, if you only have Nielsen data to go on?
I never, ever watch anything “live” any more. I TiVo shows, and watch them whenever I get around to it (rarely within 24 hrs). I also download missed episodes and past seasons of shows from iTunes, buy or rent old shows on DVD, and frequently use the free episodes provided on network sites. I caught up on about 9 episodes of “Ugly Betty” on abc.com, for free, earlier this year when I heard it was worth watching.
People have been saying that the Nielsen were outdated and useless for _years_. It’s just more apparent now since so many new ways have popped up to avoid being locked into “must-see tv” prime time viewing.
The tv networks need to demand a new, realistic ratings system, I guess.
MOLLY- Oh Wonderfalls. I shed a little tear every time I hear its name mentioned. I’ll have to go cry into my drink that I’m about to have at a bar where they shot some scenes for The Inside. Damn Fox. Damn them!
Bascha- My hubby does the same thing. ;-)
Wonderfalls. ::sob::
*nods* I don’t know what Tim Minear has done to become bound in servitude to Fox, but he should really try to ditch the shackles and shop his next series (whatever it is) somewhere else. Drive wasn’t that enticing, but it wasn’t as crappy as (say) 24 has been all season long. It didn’t deserve to be yanked off the air the way it did.
As for Wonderfalls, I still watch season 1 on DVD and wonder why in the hell Fox showed the episodes out of order, and hoped not to lead the show to doom that way. :/
I think Kelly’s right — it’s just not possible for networks to give us nothing but new episodes during a traditional September-May season. A show like “24” is smart to hold out until they can show all of the season’s episodes without repeats or breaks, but then we get the dreaded six-month hiatus in between. Multiple short hiatuses, one long hiatus, repeats … pick your poison.
I’m kind of puzzled about why the networks have abandoned reruns. I’m willing to bet that at least part of the drop-off in “Heroes” viewership was due to the fact that NBC replaced it with “Deal or No Deal” (pardon me while I barf … OK, thanks) for six whole weeks, and people who don’t follow the scheduling dance closely got confused or forgot about it altogether. At least with reruns a casual fan still sees the show on the schedule every week, and maybe those last few folks who don’t have DVRs or cable modems can catch up on what they’ve missed. But if the show just disappears and is replaced by a crappy game show, I could forgive someone for thinking it had been cancelled or that the season was already over.
Molly, I, too, get angry at the continued flogging of the reality shows. I do not believe that the fan base of American Idol really cares that it is now on nearly every damn night of the week-Simon’s got a short shelf life before he gets incredibly annoying. VH1, I believe, must be the worst of them all-if I have to see the Flavor-Flav induced treacle of Charm School or, God forbid, I Love New York one more time… People desire variety-and when networks continue to bring out the same shows every single night of the week, we stop tuning in.
Aw, so many Wonderfalls fans. I still don’t get how the show could’ve been cancelled – I seriously have never seen a more dedicated fanbase since Roswell back in the day.
I hope we get Drive DVDs. Stupid FOX.
And I actually miss reruns. As I said, I don’t have TiVo, so if I miss an episode “live,” I’m basically screwed until it’s repeated. Nowadays I’m lucky if an episode IS repeated. Or if the show makes it past episode five.
If VH1 is going to air the same old crap over and over, how about more I Love Whatever countdowns? Those are actually pretty fun. And…is ANYONE watching I Love New York? Seriously, is anyone?
I have to support Kelly and MCB in what they say. I too get annoyed by long hiatuses midseason, but they are a response to the real-life situation that it takes more time to put an hourlong episode together than a week. So: either you have lots of little unpredictable interruptions (generally filled with reruns) during a season (which pretty much everybody dislikes; or you have one big interruption midseason; or you have a longer wait between airing your seasons, so you can get caught up in advance and air everything on a weekly basis. Or, I guess, have just 6 or 7 episodes a season, on the British plan. Which one of those shall it be?
Even though a long wait in the middle of a season irritates me too, I know why they need to do it. It’s an unsolved problem.
Maybe it’s time to redefine what a “season” is – how about having a season from, say, September to February and another from March to June/July? Run straight through, no hiatus, the way 24 apparently did the last couple years, although I stopped watching at some point since the quality plummeted.
Although, as Stephanie said, the point of the ratings is to set commercial rates, and really, when I DVR a show, I ususally FF through the commercials, so they probably shouldn’t be counting me, or the others who do the same. The only show I watch live is “Heroes,” because I talk about it the next day with people. Anything else I record and watch over the weekend.
Did anybody else find this kind of insidious??
“We let them get out of the habit of watching television a little bit, and it’s going to take some time to get these people back in front of their television sets,” said David Poltrack, chief researcher for CBS (owned by CBS Corp.).
I mean, who does Mr. Poltrack think he is, Big Brother?
Jenn- I thought the exact same thing! “We must get the viewers off the golf courses, or the hiking trails, or whatever, and back in front of their mind control boxes!” ::shudder:: Just. Scary.
“Maybe it’s time to redefine what a “season” is – how about having a season from, say, September to February and another from March to June/July?”
Doing that would also require networks to commit to producing and paying for an entire season in advance. One of the reasons we end up with long breaks is that networks order 8 or 10 or 13 episodes at a time — by the time they decide to order more, there’s no way production can keep up, so they have to break to get the rest of the episodes ready. If we’re going to have a 20-episode run from September to January, you have to make a firm commitment to producing those episodes way in advance. (But I agree, if networks could do this, it would be far better than mid-season breaks. Although people would still complain that they had to wait 6 months for a new season.)
And I think the reason they don’t show repeats anymore is that nobody watches them. We have too many other options now to watch something we already saw. And with a serial drama, a huge part of the attraction is learning the plot and resolving the mystery (except for Lost), so nobody really cares to watch it again.
DVR’s RULE!!! My husband and I are home during ‘prime time’ maybe twice a week. We pick the shows we like and set up season passes. And for the Simon bashers out there, even American Idol is watchable without the commercials…it becomes about as long as the old Gong Show.
For those who said quiality is an issue, here here! We usually use the two nights at home to watch the History Channel or Sars’ friend Adam on Discovery (Mythbusters).
If TV didn’t suck so bad, and I didn’t have a raft of hobbies, I’d maybe watch some TV. But all that’s on are all those cop-lawyer-detective-doctor shows, reality shows, and crappy sitcoms. Bleh.
I like some cartoons, some Sci-Fi, and I’m not willing to pay for cable to get those two stations, so I say “to hell with TV” ’cause stuff that’s on the regular broadcast is so lousy.
Ah, the good old days when, as FloridaErin said, Sunday night = X-Files. How I miss those days. Now *that* was a show.
All this schedule crap is one reason why I love my cable DVR. I set up a series recording by the name of the show, and DVR finds it no matter when the network feels like showing it.
While some TV has gotten much better (Lost, Sopranos, The Office, Dexter) the rest of it has gotten much worse. We watch what Tivo has recorded and otherwise we watch movies.
People who say there is nothing good on TV and there is only crappy reality shows aren’t really looking hard enough. As far as PVR’s go were VCRs really that hard to use that people didn’t record their favorite shows until PVR’s came out. I have recorded shows on my VCR for years, and still do. I am sure PVR recording is easier, but it is not like it takes a genuis to program a VCR.
I don’t expect nothing but new episodes, and I agree that it takes time to write, shoot, edit and air an hour of quality television (especially something with a big cast and lots of special effects like Heroes.) But I really resent suddenly being yanked out of a story arc in the middle of everything because the network wants to clear the decks for Deal or No Deal or give yet another “special favor” to American Idol. It’s bad enough they constantly let that show run over its allotted time. It’s one thing for one or two weeks to go by and they rerun an earlier episode that people might have missed, or they have one of those viewer’s choice marathons, but this hijacking of an audience to shove your latest crappy game show in my face really bites. It’s not even as if they want to try out a new drama in a similar vein with an audience that presumably wants something along that line (like when they were trying The Black Donnellys after Heroes.) It’s just a blatant swipe to try to grab numbers for a program that has not the slightest thing in common with the show that was scheduled for that slot.
On my own little tv set in Melbourne, I pay for ‘cable’ tv called Foxtel and last night one of the Australian interactive news channels had an article about this (you can scroll through and read these articles on your tv, just like a real newspaper – its handy to catch up on our own current events without having to watch the American news channels like Fox, although that’s also fun for reasons of yelling at Shephard Smith and Bill O’Reilly) and I just about fell off my bed when they quoted co-creator of Television Without Pity, Sarah Bunting. Welcome to Oz, Sars! You can stay on the couch, put your feet up and make yourself at home!
I’ve never been a big TV watcher, but the stuff that’s out there now just doesn’t grab me. I have always, ALWAYS loathed commercials…Netflix is my new best friend, and the only way I will watch TV shows. I watch the shows I want, when I want, with no commercials. That’s it. No middle ground.
Networks…and even cable companies, to some extent…are slow on the uptake when it comes to dealing with changes in how consumers act. Their thinking is way behind the times. People don’t wait for shows to come back from hiatus. There are way more options now, and people usually go find something else to watch or do.
Part of the problem for commercial television is the commercials. They suffer from really poor writing, just the way the shows themselves so often do.
I’ve lost track of the number of commercials I’ve seen in which I can’t quite figure out what it is the sponsor wants me to buy. This matters, oh sponsors. My dad wrote ads, print and television, for a living; I grew up in a home where good commercial writing was a topic of interest and enthusiastic discussion. If people don’t know what you’re selling, the ad is not a success. And if you alienate your target crowd – or, better yet, make it clear to a large population that you’re not interested in their patronage – that, too, will result in fewer sales. It is true that most people will skip TV ads if they can. Why do they do this? They skip the ads because they’re not interested. Either you’re not offering a product people want, or you’re not providing information about the product in a way which is useful. There are plenty of people who will watch commercials, if the product is something they need, or might need, or might be interested in. There are people who voluntarily watch half-hour product placement shows. It’s not because those people are stupid; it’s because they’re interested in the product. People will watch a thirty-minute commercial, voluntarily, if the product is one they need, and it’s presented in a manner that is not offensive to them.
Any sponsors out there reading this: Go up a few posts. You see that nice lady who’s 34-going-on-35? She has money to spend, even if she’s not a male aged 18 to 35. Why does she think you’re not interested in her money? Because that’s how you’ve treated her. In the end, even if we’re lucky, and the writing for television shows improves, sponsors will still complain, and good shows may die, because consumers aren’t buying the sponsors’ products. Sponsors: If your commercials are poorly written, uninformative or offensive, we won’t buy your products. No matter how good the TV shows are, we won’t buy your products. The onus is on you as well the networks to pay attention to the writing. If your commercial is written well, it’s unlikely to be skipped. That’s something you should keep in mind.
Re: Minear. What I wish is that he’d just admit that he’s a niche producer, and go direct-to-video with his next project. Seriously, people, “Firefly” got a freakin’ MOVIE because of its DVD sales. There’s a market! People will buy the product! You don’t NEED broadcast television to sell your show!
GT: “As far as PVR’s go were VCRs really that hard to use that people didn’t record their favorite shows until PVR’s came out. I have recorded shows on my VCR for years, and still do. I am sure PVR recording is easier, but it is not like it takes a genuis to program a VCR.”
It strays into Big Brother territory a little, but cable companies and networks can’t track what’s on your VCR. If counting the numbers of DVR, time-delay, and online viewing help to keep good shows on the air, I’m all for it.
There’s also the issue of picture quality. I’ve only had my DVR for 5 months, and it replaced my 3 VCRs. The DVR was an upgrade of the cable box, after I made the jump to HDTV. I taped a few things and watched it back on the new TV, and it looked awful.
DVRs can limit how much you watch. My DVR will only record 2 shows at once, so may be a little more limited in what I can (or will) watch in the fall, when all of the new shows premiere. But by November sweeps, most of the dead weight will be gone, and that shouldn’t be an issue. If I miss a show that takes off, I can always catch up online on On Demand if I really need to.
Time and ease factor in, lastly. I could program the VCRs at the beginning of the week, and then have to go back and adjust for lengths and scheduling changes as the week went on…or I could just tell Comcast to record Veronica Mars for me whenever, and be sure to get it at 2am on a Friday after it gets bumped for a baseball game. I can also wait a little longer to watch shows, since I don’t have to rewind and tape over anything.
I’ve noticed in this entire discussion no one has mentioned downloading torrents of TV shows. I generally watch TV shows recorded to my TiFaux (wish I’d come up with that one), but if I want to hold onto them for any length of time, I delete them off my TiFaux, download them from Bit Torrent, and burn them off onto DVD. (I even have a DVD player that will play straight AVI files, so I can get eight eps of a TV show onto one DVD.)
If I forget to program the TiFaux, if I space watching it and it gets erased for yet another ep of Lost, or if I’m just a really big geek and can’t wait for SciFi to get off their hiney and buy the next series of Doctor Who… I get it semi-instantly online.
I try to balance this by putting my money where my viewing interests are; buying the DVDs as they become available (even though I have pretty-good quality off-air DVDs already).