UPN is still scheduling Veronica Mars against Lost but has delayed the Mars opener by one week so it no longer will directly compete with the Lost premiere. America’s Next Top Model will air with a two hour episode September 21st; Veronica Mars will air its premiere on the 28th.
Why would they schedule this against LOST? It’s such a boneheaded move. They’re both so unapologetically genre shows, so there’s lots of folks (such as yours truly) that would be interested in both.
–Cliffy
*Lost * and Veronica Mars are the only two shows we got hooked on from last season. Thank goodness for TiVo, but I wish they’d help VM just a little.
I continue to hold out hope that VM will be re-broadcast on Saturday nights the way UPN has previously re-broadcast other Wednesday night fare. Stupid, stupid scheduling move, putting these two shows across from each other.
I need to acknowledge whoever came up with the idea of re-airing some of the episodes on CBS. Heres a show that is good but with bad ratings, and rather than give up, they are actively promoting the show!
I agree that airing VM against Lost is bad idea. I think the idea is to put VM after UPN’s most watched show (America’s Next Top Model)
Brian
They didn’t. Well, not intentionally, anyways. Both Lost and VM moved; Lost from Wednesday at 8pm, and VM from Tuesday at 9pm. When UPN scheduled Veronica into that timeslot they almost certainly didn’t know that Lost was going to be there (last year the ABC show at that timeslot was Alias, I think). Now, because of the order of the upfronts, ABC announced its schedule a few days before UPN did, so they did find out about it before it was their turn to announce their schedule, but they probably didn’t want to shuffle around their line-up at the last minute, without seeing how things played out. Especially since the reason they put VM into that timeslot was to give it the ANTM lead-in, which was the best lead-in they have, meaning that to put VM into a different timeslot they’d have to lead into VM with (what will probably be) a worse rated show, or move ANTM too.
Anyways, while I’m sure it sucks for people who are fans of both Lost and VM, I don’t think it’s that bad from UPN’s perspective. Last year ANTM was UPN’s best rated show (except maybe for WWE Smackdown, I forget, but that doesn’t count) even though it was up against Lost at the time, because it did very well amongst young women viewers, which (I’m no ratings expert, but I’ve been given to understand) is one of the demographics that Lost is weakest in. That’s the demographic that UPN is trying to court as a network and that they’d like VM to do well in, which is perhaps not unreasonable for a show about a teenaged girl, and which has some soapy elements. I don’t think UPN really cares what VM’s actual rating is, as long as it can hold a decent number of the female 12-34 viewers of ANTM. Now whether it can, I don’t know, but for it to stay on the air that’s the kind of viewers its going to have to attract, whether its up against Lost or something else, so the fact that it has the best lead-in amongst those viewers that UPN can give it is a positive. And Lost, for all its buzz, is not a huge competitor with those viewers.
UPN doesn’t have any official scheduling on the weekends; their schedule is 8-10pm est, Monday to Friday (the least of amount of scheduling of any of the networks). However, the affiliates can potentionally re-broastcast shows. I don’t know if the network has to explicitely give them persmission to do that or what, but for VM a lot of the UPN affiliates have been re-broadcasting the show sometime during the weekend this summer, from what I’ve heard. I know my local UPN station has been repeating Wednesday’s night show at 6pm on Saturdays. Whether that will continue during the season, I don’t know, but I figure its a possibility.
But, of course, that’s strictly a local decision, so “check your local listings”, as they say.
Amok, I know all that, but UPN should still have moved VM out from off the tracks. There’s no shame in sidestepping a juggernaut, and VM had such a successful first season that it’s been building a lot of buzz; the show could be much more successful against anything else. I haven’t watched the show myself, but I have read lots of reviews and some blog postings on it, and it seems plain that UPN could do a lot better than maintain the status quo if they counter-program it as a genre show against stiff that isn’t genre. (People who watch genre shows are also the ones most susceptible to buzz, because we tend to be younger and we seek out other nerds and listen to what they say is good TV.)
–Cliffy
Well, I don’t know that Lost is necessarily a juggernaut. It was a top 20 show, sure, but it wasn’t CSI either. House, which VM was up against last year, caught fire in the second half of the season (with American Idol as a lead-in) and I think was pulling in similar ratings to Lost by the end of the year (finding historical ratings data online is a pain in the ass, so I wasn’t able to confirm that, but it’s what I remember). And VM was facing not only that, but The Amazing Race and Scrubs too. This year it’s going to be Lost and four new dramas (at least to start with), and as long as none of the new shows turn into break out hits, I think the situation could be better than last, unless Lost really does appeal that much to VM’s potential viewers (personally I have zero interest in watching Lost, but I may be atypical in that respect). And while it wasn’t intentional, I suspect UPN is now looking at VM vs Lost as counter-programming, demographics-wise.
Anyways, once the season starts, if VM isn’t pulling in the numbers UPN wants, and they think its because of Lost, I wouldn’t be suprised to see a timeslot change, for what its worth. I guess we’ll find out.
Oh, and you’re a big Buffy fan, right? I’m pretty sure I remember you from threads on it. You can never know if someone is gonna like a show, but I’d recommend giving VM a try, there’s some definite similarities between them.
I would love to give Veronica Mars a try. But I can’t – it’s on opposite LOST.
–Cliffy
Well, it’s not quite the same, but there’s always DVDs eventually. I think VM’s first season is going to be out sometime in October
I’m still upset about it being opposite “Lost,” though if forced to choose I’m going with Veronica.
Last season, I was choosing between Veronica and The Amazing Race, and Veronica won that, too.
There’s a chance it’s not a bad move. I think Veronica fans might be obsessive enough (though small in number) to stick with it, and Lost is the type of show that might really have a tough time sustaining quality for a second season. Already, I found myself frustrated with the show. Dunno.
Unfortunately, there’s also some very bad Veronica Marsnews - while the network has renewed it, UPN executives also announced they were going to “improve” the series. So don’t be too surprised if the the first episode of the new season features Weavil jumping his motorcycle over a shark tank.
Veronica Mars casting spoiler below.
Bringing Charisma Carpenter on the show is quite a lot of improvement already. 
It’s true that LOST declined in quality over the second half of the season, so it’s certainly possible I’ll drop it before the season is over, but it was well good enough to get a chance for S2, and by the time I let go (if I do), I’ll be well past any place to jump on VM.
grumble grumble
–Cliffy
Rob Thomas (the show’s creator, not the guy from Matchbox20) commented awhile back on rumors that were being reported online about network interference or what not. The network had suggested various things, some of which the show will be able to incorporate, some of which they won’t. The whole thing seemed like a tempest in a teapot. Networks are always giving “notes” on what they do or don’t want to see. They certainly did that the first season, which turned out well. But, of course, the proof will be in the pudding.
Also, I thought some of you might enjoy this link:
Joss Luvs Veronica
LOST may have a few troubles this year. The show seems to yanking its viewers around by just piling mystery upon mystery without resolution. VM on the other hand came clean with it’s main mysteries in the season finale, but left enough issues unresolved to keep people coming back.
LOST also may suffer from what seems like several clones of the show coming out next season (like Invasion).
We just finished watching Season 1 of *Lost * last night and we don’t feel jerked around, just really excited about seeing what happens next. Maybe it helps to watch the episodes all in a row (like people can do when the DVDs come out in a few weeks) rather than having to wait through long breaks for reruns, etc.
I think that would definitely help.
There were times when I think there was a month long gap between episodes, and the new episode didn’t necessarily refer to the most recent past one either. The story skips around quite a bit, which was frustrating for this casual viewer.
Thomas is currently working for these same people and trying to keep his series on the air. What else is he going to say except that he thinks their ideas have all been good and that the show is as great as ever?
Can nobody be bothered to work a video recorder?