Okay, so in the New York Post, Jeff Zucker, president of NBC, complains about The Shield, whose star wan an Emmy over one of NBC’s guys.
Zucker says, “Nobody in America has seen ‘The Shield’,” adding, “Waaaaaaaahhhhh.”
I was laughing at this guy when I realized, “Wait, the network that ran Veronica’s Closet for four viewerless years is complaining about a show nobody watches getting some attention?”
I know some people who like’em some TeeVee. I know people who have multiple VCRs to tape it all. And none of them ever watched Veronica’s Closet.
Or “Just Shoot Me”, another NBC “mega-hit”. Maybe my sample is weirdly skewed, but I don’t know anyone who’s seen more than a couple episodes of this allegedly popular show.
I could be wrong about these two, I admit. But am I? Are there fans of either one out there? Don’t be shy, I’m not here to criticize, I’m just curious.
Also, can anyone else name more of these shows that are on forever but nobody seems to watch?
I think Just Shoot Me is the perfect example of a dishwashing show. It gets high ratings because it’s on between two popular shows (or was, I don’t pretend to keep up with it’s time slot), but I honestly don’t think anyone watches it. It think thats the half-hour that people spend washing dishes from dinner, getting the kids ready for bed, etc., before the next show they actually want to watch is on.
That’s the last frontier of ratings measurement: they have electronic boxes that can keep track of what shows are actually tuned in. Now they just have to figure out a way to determine if anyone’s in the room.
Taking a look at the Prime Time Ratings for last year, “Just Shoot Me” was number 20. That’s pretty healthy ratings. Compare it it to “The Simpsons” (30), “Alias” (60), “24” (76), “Futurama” (114), or “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (124). “Just Shoot Me” has over three times the viewership of Buffy. Granted, some of this has to do with distribution – a big three network show is going to have more affiliates than Fox, UPN, or WB (hell, even “Emeril” had more viewers than “Buffy”) – but definitely more people are watching it. (“The Shield” isn’t listed because it’s on cable.)
I can’t stand it, but obviously there are plenty of people who can.
No shows have stayed on “forever” if people weren’t watching them (well, “60 Minutes” got terrible ratings for years and would have been cancelled if it hadn’t been cheap to make).
Talking to your friends is a small, skewed population.
RealityChuck, you’re forgetting something about NBC. They could put a half hour of dogs peeing on hydrants on after Friends and by sheer inertia it would become a top ten show. NBC recognizes it which is why there’s all those high rated series that only last one season on it. If a show looses a signifigant portion of that Friends lead in it’s dumped fast.
Just because Just Shoot Me is highly rated doesn’t mean it’s really popular. It just means it’s not disliked enough to get people to turn the channel.
That Two Guys, A Girl, And A Pizza Place show was on for three seasons, IIRC, and even went through a name change. Did anyone ever watch it enough to remember any of the character names?
I’m convinced that 48 Hours on CBS has an actual attentive audience in the single digits.
Whatever comes on NBC on Friday nights after Conan O’Brian might qualify. Then again, Carson Daly’s show on the other four nights might qualify as well.
