First, Malcolm gets the “death slot”, Sundays at 7:30. For at least the past 4 weeks, the 4pm football game has bumped into this timeslot. The broadcast game ends, FOX takes you to the end of another game, back to the studio for 10 mintes of postgame, then to Malcolm already in progress.
I just watched the end of the Detroit-Greenbay game, and FOX cut to the Arizona-San Fran game in overtime. That’s right, OT between a 4 and 8 and a 1 and 11 team.
Now, I’am as big a football fan as the next guy (EAGLES!), but this is just dreadful.
Tonights Malcolm (a new episode, by the way) has been bumped entirely.
When Malcolm’s ratings inevitably drop, will it be held against them? This is exactly what killed Futurama. I’m so pissed.
Yeah that pissed me off. Why the hell do I want to watch the end of a game that I wasn’t watching to begin with? If the GB Det. game only when five minutes over why not just cut five minutes of Malcolm?
I think the show’s losing its appeal more due to the aging of the boys than to getting bumped by football. BTW, what happened to the eldest brother? I don’t think I’ve seen him yet this season.
The answer would seem to be simple: They’re protecting Arrested Development. The show won an Emmy (was it their first?), but has had low ratings. They want the ratings to build upon that, and keeping it in its regular time slot helps. There’s a further squeeze since Desparate Housewives is such a big hit. If AD gets pushed back, then there’s a conflict, which would be bad for ratings.
Early on, they pushed their entire schedule back when this happened, but since then, they’ve been cutting Malcolm.
In addition, the show had jumped the shark several years ago.
Arrested is in its second season; it was the surprise winner of the Best Comedy Emmy last year, but was still in trouble due to low ratings. FOX decided they should get the word out about the show. So they’re really supporting it now, which I think is great- it may be the funniest show on TV.
My question is, what is King and Malcolm’s liability? Will FOX tell them their ratings are low, so they’re getting canceled, knowing full well the network actively killed these shows (which, again, is exactly what they did to Futurama)? Or do they get a pass hoping a better time slot opens up?
For the record, I don’t think Malcolm jumped the shark. Kids aging isn’t necessarily a bad thing and I think this show is handling it well.
That’s FOX, I’m afraid. They’ve killed most shows that have been a success for them:
[ul]
[li]Titus[/li][li]Malcolm In The Middle[/li][li]Family Guy[/li][li]Undeclared[/li][li]Andy Richter is the Centre of The Universe[/li][li]Firefly[/li][li]Futurama[/li][/ul]
The only reason The Simpson’s has remained immune from this trail of death & destruction is because FOX isn’t allowed the control over it like they are their other shows.
I think the show “jumped the shark” when they introduced a new baby. That’s usually a sign that the writers are running out of things. Especially since the show tried to lure people in by the premise of seeing if we would be told the baby’s gender.
I wonder if in a season or so (if they’re still around) they’ll jump forward in time and make Jamie about five years of age or so, like “Family Ties” did with Andy.
This is exactly why I no longer watch FOX for anything.
I’ve switched to cartoon network for my Futurama and Family Guy fix. And they’re even bringing back new episodes of Family guy in the summer of 2005.
I love watching some sports, namely football. But I can’t stand when they have it cut into other shows, specially when it’s a new episode or possibly a special feature, that isn’t likely to be replayed in the near future. :smack:
But to be honest, since about it’s second season Malcolm has been really hit or miss. I mean quite frankly the mom has pretty much turned into a near unbearable harpy and most of the situations aren’t as funny. I mean some episodes are still keepers but overall I don’t get upset if i miss one.
But the new episodes are going to be on Fox, are they not?
I want to know why we can’t get more Futurama! Fox has seen the DVD sales (almost as good as Family Guy’s), the ratingson CN ARE as good as Family Guy, since they air back to back, so why are us fans of the BETTER show shafted?
Plus, even though they won’t pay for new eps, the also refuse to let someone else pahy for new ones! I’m sure the Turner networks would love to have new episodes, but Fox won’t sell the rights to anyone! Bastards!
Our Pittsburgh Fox affiliate (WPGH) didn’t even show the Green Bay game, because it was on against the Steelers on CBS. So, at 7:00pm, the Steelers game safely over, I turned to this Fox affiliate hoping to see an episode of King of the Hill, even a repeat. Instead I get JB saying thanks for tuning in to see our 7:00 lineup which will start after this “Bonus” coverage of the NFL and on comes the Arizona game. Bastards!
Well it’s Football Sunday. They’ll get more viewers than with the shows they have. So anything that gets 7 or 7:30 time slot on Sunday is doomed. Frankly I’d rather watch the OT of the Arizona-San Fran game. That was an entertaining finish.
