[opendtv] News: Last Year's TV Hits Still Loom Over a Limp Start to the Season
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 08:37:08 -0400
Nielsen tells us that TV viewing is at an all time high. IF this is
true, apparently people are spending less time watching the broadcast
networks as this New York Times story relates.
So who are we to believe?
Regards
Craig
Last Year's TV Hits Still Loom Over a Limp Start to the Season
October 4, 2005 12:00am
Source: New York Times Full Feed
One year ago, after the first two weeks of the new network
television season, all anyone was talking about was ''Lost'' and
''Desperate Housewives.''
A year later, two weeks into the new season, all anyone is talking
about is ''Lost'' and ''Desperate Housewives.''
ABC's two blockbuster hits of last fall, which are back and
overpowering their competition again, may have led network executives
to think that other shows could perform that kind of instant magic
this fall. But early ratings suggest that, far from duplicating that
kind of outsize success, the new television season will offer nothing
even to approach it.
''There are no home runs this season,'' concluded Leslie Moonves,
the chief executive of CBS, who has seen more new seasons than any
other network entertainment executive. He pointed to a number of new
shows that started out with some real promise, like the comedy
''Everybody Hates Chris'' on UPN (which Mr. Moonves oversees), the
comedy ''My Name Is Earl'' on NBC and the drama ''Prison Break'' on
Fox.
Mr. Moonves and other network executives cited a few other new
entries as potential keepers, like ''Commander in Chief'' on ABC,
''Supernatural'' on the WB, ''Bones'' on Fox and ''Criminal Minds''
on CBS.
But as Preston Beckman, the executive vice president of Fox
Entertainment, put it, the season has supplied none of the
spectacular surprises of a year ago. ''This season, it has mostly
been negative surprises,'' he said.
Chief among these is ''The Apprentice: Martha Stewart'' on NBC,
which had widely been expected at least to start strongly, thanks to
all the attention surrounding the star's release from prison. The new
NBC reality series -- mainly another iteration of the Donald Trump
version that exploded on the scene two years ago -- has thus far
achieved results so tepid that Ms. Stewart could not boil pasta with
them.
And the second ''Apprentice'' may be hurting the first: the early
ratings for Mr. Trump's version have skidded in two appearances this
season, though it ticked up a bit in its second outing.
On Friday, NBC announced that ''The Apprentice: Martha Stewart''
would be shifted to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays from 8 p.m., putting it up
against the ''Lost'' juggernaut but away from the reality-show
competition of ''America's Next Top Model'' on UPN. But at least
''Martha'' is still on the air. The Fox network looked at the ratings
for the first two episodes of the drama ''Head Cases'' and
immediately took it out back for a ritual cancellation. A new Fox
comedy, ''Kitchen Confidential,'' was yanked almost as quickly
(though not officially canceled.)
NBC also has had dismal news from a couple of other new dramas: the
Pentagon thriller ''E-Ring'' on Wednesday (which will shift back to 8
p.m. from 9 p.m.) and the almost unnoticed (and unwatched) fertility
clinic series, ''Inconceivable,'' on Friday.
Still, at least in terms of falling short of expectations, ABC may
be the most victimized. ABC had so much momentum coming into the
season that expectations ran high that the network would come up with
new talked-about hits and run away with the network competition this
season. Following the pattern that produced that double-header of
smashing results last September, ABC loaded up its promotion machine
on behalf of two more new series this year.
The early results have been considerably different from what ABC
achieved right off the bat with ''Lost'' and ''Housewives.'' One of
the favored new shows, a sci-fi drama called ''Invasion,'' was handed
ABC's best position on the schedule, 10 p.m. on Wednesdays,
immediately following ''Lost.''
The castaways-on-an-island series, fresh off the Emmy Award for best
drama, has more than held up its end of the bargain, racking up huge
ratings in its first two outings.
But ''Invasion,'' a show about aliens taking over human bodies, has
showed vulnerability from the start. It lost a large part of the
giant ''Lost'' audience in its first week, and then a huge portion --
almost half -- in its second. Both weeks, ''Invasion'' saw its
audience drift away significantly from the first half hour to the
second, usually a sign that viewers are not enjoying what they are
seeing.
ABC's other big new hope for the season is the drama ''Commander in
Chief'' on Tuesday night, with Geena Davis playing the first woman
president. ABC spent much of last week promoting the numbers from the
show's first episode, saying that with more than 16 million viewers,
it was the new season's most-watched new show.
True. But ABC's competitors universally noted that the vast majority
of those viewers were older women (over 50). ABC, perhaps more than
any network, has declared that all that matters in television ratings
are viewers between the ages of 18 and 49. In that category,
''Commander'' finished fourth in its first half hour (well behind
another new entry, ''My Name Is Earl'' from NBC), surely not the
result ABC hoped for after its publicity blitz on behalf of the show.
''Commander'' did pick up in its second half hour, but it was still
skewed heavily toward the over-50 set. ABC is now counting on the
show to grow and to pull in so many viewers that it will edge its way
upward in the 18-49 competition. It may get a boost in that endeavor
next week, because the other classy drama in that hour, ''House,''
which does far better with younger adults, will be off for several
weeks while Fox devotes itself to postseason baseball.
Most prominent on the plus side of the surprises is surely ''My Name
Is Earl,'' the one sign of salvation in what has otherwise been a
scratch-and-claw first couple of weeks for NBC. ''Earl'' won its time
period twice in a row against perhaps the most ferocious competition
on television. It did fall off in its second week, as most new series
do (except the ones that are instant monsters, like those two ABC
year-olds), but any rating near what ''Earl'' has scored so far
provides a glimmer of hope for NBC after a run of grim ratings luck.
NBC is still a bit shell-shocked by the decline of the ''Friends''
spinoff ''Joey,'' which lost in its first week to Chris Rock's new
series about his life as a child in Brooklyn, ''Everybody Hates
Chris,'' on UPN. ''Chris'' came down to earth in its second outing,
sparing ''Joey'' further humiliation. But ''Joey'' also declined in
its second week, and its long-term prospects are now in serious doubt.
With ''Earl'' showing more promise than any other new series, and
that good first week for ''Chris,'' at least one senior network
executive started to talk about seeing the faint glimmerings of a
comeback for the sitcom genre, which has seemed to be doing a slow
dance toward endangerment in recent years. Those outlines may get
fainter after the falloff for ''Chris.'' But comedy has gotten some
tiny bits of further positive results, notably the continued strong
performance on Sundays at 9 by Fox's ''Family Guy,'' which came back
for new episodes only last spring, and some respectable early results
for ''How I Met Your Mother,'' a CBS comedy at 8:30 on Mondays.
Of course, CBS also needs to worry about its new 9:30 Monday comedy,
''Out of Practice,'' which has dropped far too many viewers from its
lead-in show, ''Two and a Half Men.'' The latter comedy is already
showing signs that it won't be a stellar performer like the show it
replaced, ''Everybody Loves Raymond.'' Mr. Moonves says he is
satisfied with the results for his ''Men'' show, knowing ''it is
replacing a classic.''
A few new network entries have yet to have their premieres,
including a couple of ABC comedies and a CBS drama, ''Close to
Home,'' that Mr. Moonves expects to do well. But none are likely to
break the new season trend, which so far might be summarized as
''lost'' opportunities.
<<New York Times Full Feed -- 10/04/05>>
<< Copyright ©2005 The New York Times Company >>
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