TiVo is great for this. New show starts, looks promising, but maybe a bit offbeat so it’s uncertain whether it’ll last, so let half a dozen episodes stack up unwatched and keep an eye on the ratings. If the show takes off and the buzz is good, catch up quickly, and go from there. If not, delete what’s been saved and cancel the season pass. Easy peasy.
So far this season, I’ve saved hours of involvement on Studio 60, The Nine, and Drive, to name a couple. I’m letting The Riches stack up for the same reason, though that’s looking fairly promising so it’s about time to get to work on it.
Also, in the case of Cheers, what saved it was the critical reception. It may have had low ratings in 1982, but it also almost swept the Emmys. The only comedy series Emmys that didn’t go to Cheers in 1982 were best actor, best supporting actor, and best supporting actress, all of which went to Taxi (Judd Hirsch, Christopher Lloyd, and Carol Kane, respectively) When a show wins awards like that, even if the ratings aren’t hot, that might be enough to keep it for another season to see if they’ll improve.
I have never, ever understood why people think FOX is some sort of new-show-hating empire. NO network has given a chance to more interesting new network programming as FOX.
People have actually complained about FOX cancelling Futurama (which was getting killed in the ratings.) If it wasn’t for FOX, there never would have been a Futurama, there never would have been a Simpsons, there never would have been a Family Guy. You can complain about Arrested Development being cancelled, but no other network would have tried it at all (at least not in the form it was.)
I’ll give Fox demerits for canceling Alien Nation (which was doing OK in the ratings, but the economics were weird*) and killing Firefly (mostly because they had this bizarre idea that 24 might be a hit, so they wouldn’t let Firefly have a two-hour timeslot).
But they’ve stuck with some very low rated shows, too, as you point out. Fox is no different from any other network in that respect. Sometimes a network will go out on a limb for a series. Sometimes that pays off. Other times, it will cut losses.
In this case, the numbers were such that there was no economic reason to keep Drive going, and not enough critical acclaim for them to go out on a limb for it (like they did with Arrested Development. Since the audience was dropping, the show was a lost cause (shows that survive despite low rating usually hold onto their audience, no lose it).
*Fox produced AN. According to the rules at the time, they weren’t allowed to syndicate it. So if the show remained a hit, someone else would benefit from it (syndication is where the money is). Fox evidently figured that it was better to cut its losses than to make money for someone else.
With all due respect, it was getting killed in the ratings because Fox kept scheduling it at a time when they knew sporting events would preempt it over and over and over again, making it very difficult to care about tuning in in time to see the show.
At the risk of ruining my joke by overexplaining it…I was just making a funny based on the description of Murdocks address being in the ninth circle of hell.
I’m curious about this point, though it might be hard to explain well enough for me to understand. If they weren’t allowed to syndicate it, then who else would? Did they still own the basic syndication rights, even if they weren’t able on account of regulation to exercise them themselves??
Well, the alternative explanation is that 24 has been pretty lame for the last few episodes and wasn’t drawing in the viewers for the preceding time slot. I can’t even be bothered to join in the weekly snark threads for 24.
While Fox did promote the heck out of Drive, I don’t think they represented it very well. The promoted it as a cross of Cannonball Run and Fast and Furious and it was maybe more Lost on wheels.
I agree with all of the above, with the caveat that Drive had potential, but was still kind of weak. Thank god we had BlondePartner reminding Tulley that he had to finish the race to get his wife back. Too bad she did it like every fifteen minutes.
As for “24”, any fan who has been watching saw Audrey show up and said, “Ah fuck, not her!”. At least with Kim in a cougar trap we get some Tea and Eh.
Oh, this show? What am I missing? Was this supposed to be one of those “so awful it’s good” things? I saw bits of one episode, found the concept so mind-numbingly stupid, I never watched it again. Do people unironincally like this show?
Basically, at the time, networks couldn’t syndicate content (though, at the time, Fox technically wasn’t a network yet, but wanted to be*). Fox would have had to sell it to someone else to syndicate. The syndicator would then be able to sell it for as long as they wanted. Fox would have the one-time payment, but it may not have been enough to even cover their costs, while the syndicator could rake it in for years.
*A network was defined by the FCC by the hours of programming; Fox didn’t quite have enough.
If they weren’t allowed to syndicate it, then who else would? Did they still own the basic syndication rights, even if they weren’t able on account of regulation to exercise them themselves??