The ratings were lackluster again for ALIAS this past sunday. First they can’t get it on during primetime on the east coast after the Superbowl, then the episode after the Superbowl episode is probably the worst in the history of the show. Then on the opening of weekend for Daredevil (1 day after Jennifer Garner hosts SNL) they preempt ALIAS for The Music Man starring Matthew Broderick…but luckily they bring a new episode in just in time to compete with the Grammys.
Not to mention that the normal lead in is the Disney movie…wonderful lead in for an espionage show. Then this past week they give it a leadin of “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!!!” A horrible show that makes horrible ratings.
It just doesn’t seem to me that they know what to do with a great show when they’ve got one. Look what they’ve done to the Practice, moving it to Mondays has practically killed it. Why didn’t they just move it to 9pm on Sundays, thereby giving ALIAS an appropriate lead in.
I guess it’s just idle bitching, and maybe ALIAS wouldn’t do well in the ratings even if all of the circumstances were perfect, but damn…at least ONE wise decision when handling the show.
I know just how you feel. (Almost started a Pit thread about ABC’s inability to program their way out of a wet paper bag.) If they ran any commercials or print ads for the show, they could easily pick up a couple of ratings points right now.
The scheduling last week was absolutely awful. Let’s see: star of the #3 show on the network is in a blockbuster movie opening that weekend, as well as hosting SNL. Sounds like the perfect time to trot out three hours of crap masquerading as “entertainment.”
J.J. Abrams and My Beautiful and Beloved (Jennifer Garner) should be raising hell about this.
Agree with you on everything but the post Superbowl episode–I thought is was the best since the original. Honestly, how many of us thought that bringing down the Alliance would be like the One-Armed Man or Mulder’s Sister*–not accomplished until the last episode of the show? Then–Pow!–half way through season two they totally change direction on us. The next episode, however…
*–Yes, I realize that the X-files ended up getting so muddled that we couldn’t even figure out whether Mulder discovered what happened to his sister or not, much less when it happened. So at least Alias didn’t go down that road.
My apologies - I actually meant the Ethan Hawke episode. They went from the post-superbowl episode, held quite a few viewers to the next week then aired CRAP! And they lost those viewers because of it.
In defense of the Ethan Hawke episode, it was originally the post-Super Bowl episode. ABC decided that it wanted “Phase One” to run after the game instead of “A Double Agent,” and so J.J. was forced to re-edit the two episodes to make it work. The Will/Francie stuff from “Phase One” was originally part of “Double Agent” and, in fact, the “Phase One” edits were still being finished during the game Super Bowl Sunday.
The fault is once again ABC’s.
That said, I loved “Phase One” because of two things: