Only 20.8% (5) of new dramas on CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX and the CW made it to season 2
23 May 2011
Blue Bloods Cancelled Shows Hawaii 5-0 Nikita SpoilerTV ArticleLast season was a bloodbath of the 24 new dramas on US network TV only five made it to a second season: Harry's Law, Body of Proof, Nikita, Hawaii 5-0 and Blue Bloods will this year fare any better? maybe - but probably not by much.
One each for NBC, ABC and CW, 2 for CBS and none could escape the FOX executioner!
On the comedy side only three survived, Mike and Molly, Happy Endings and Raising Hope. (plus animation Bob's Burger's)
Luckily for me cable was kinder with Lost Girl, Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead amongst groundbreaking freshman shows already renewed.
In loving memory of...more shows than i can list.
SpoilerTV
Wow.
ReplyDeleteThis is because most of the networks promotion and marketing department are shocking at doing a decent job of getting people to watch they're shows!
ReplyDeletei'm happy for H 5-0 season 2! great show
ReplyDeleteGet rid of the outdated Nielsen system and maybe more shows would survive.
ReplyDeleteWhat's even more disturbing is of the shows you mentioned, all but one have either mediocre or poor ratings. Every single show on the list except for Hawaii Five-0 is guaranteed to be a bubble show next season.
ReplyDeleteWOW this is ridiculous!
ReplyDeleteMike and Molly from CBS was new last season and it got a pick up.
ReplyDeletearticle is restricted to dramas only but comedies did no better with only M&M, Raising Hope and Happy Endings
ReplyDeleteNot really suprised! Honestly most shows were not that good anyways and the few exellent ones couldn't find an audience and got cancelled. Next season looks more promising.
ReplyDeleteLet's ditch the Nielsen system!
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what I was thinking! Not only that, two of the dramas (Harry's Law and Body of Proof) were midseason replacements and probably would have done poorly given entire seasons.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Plus those two shows (Harry's Law, Body of Proof) skew to an older demographic which makes them vulnerable to replacement anyway.
ReplyDeleteIt's a nasty business. There's always a few that don't have much chance. But this seems an awfully high number for one season. There's going to be a lot of edgy people with new pilots coming up this fall.
ReplyDeleteAgree completely! I think this year it will be 25%
ReplyDeleteI also agree. This year's crop of new dramas wasn't that great. The only cancelled freshman series that really disappointed me was The Chicago Code. That show was top-notch.
ReplyDeleteI would add Rubicon to the list too....
ReplyDeleteAh, yes. I forgot about Rubicon since it completed its run months ago. It took a few episodes for me to warm up to it but, by the end, I really enjoyed that show.
ReplyDeleteWell Hawaii 5-0 is really bad too, in my opinion. Not worth to be named next to Body of Proof or Blue Bloods - but well tastes are different.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing is that we are already watching Hawaii 5-0 on Austrian TV in the German translation. Yes, already! It's early. Usually it takes years to get a show but they started early with Defenders (unfortuantely cancelled) and Hawaii 5-0. Cant wait to see how long it may take to translate Blue Bloods etc.
I'm so so so SO very sorry if this is a stupid question (maybe telling you that I'm not from the USA makes it less stupid?), but could you - or anyone - briefly explain what the "Nielsen system" is?
ReplyDeleteBasically the Nielsen Media Research company puts boxes in a small number of house across the country. Those boxes monitor what is watched when and send Nielsen the data.
ReplyDeleteThey have a sample of every demographic in the people that are monitored. They say that their science allows them to use only 25,000 houses and get an accurate measure of what the entire country is watching.
The Nielsen ratings numbers are used by the networks to set advertising prices for their commercials. So really the networks care how we watch commercials more than they care which of their shows we watch. Sad.
Here is a nice article that goes into the ratings system in detail
http://splitsider.com/2011/01/why-nielsen-ratings-are-inaccurate-and-why-theyll-stay-that-way/
Thanks for that great article. Also I want to mention that Nielsen boxes are only distributed in the U.S. Right?
ReplyDeleteYep. Good point!
ReplyDeleteWhat's sad is that sometimes shows that were good, or potentially good given time, get the boot in order to make room for these dramas that are bad.
ReplyDeleteWhat to say about Nielsen? We don't like advertisements but we need sponsors for our shows. If cable companies were to take over the task, because they can keep records of what shows are being watched, it's an invasion of privacy and besides, they wouldn't have demographic information. The sample would be larger, though, and therefore more accurate. Or we could do without sponsors, but then we would have to pay, a lot, for the privilege.
It's not an easy problem to solve.
First of all, thanks to darq for the explanation! And while reading it, I noticed that it works the same as it does in Germany. I don't know what this system is called in Germany, but certain selected households also have these boxes and when you start watching TV you have to log in and tell them which family member(s) is(are) watching TV at that moment and then all of the information about your "TV habbits" go to some institute. So it works the same here in Germany. And I have no clue how many households actually have that system here, either.
ReplyDeleteBla. Just thought I'd mention it.
I am not even sure myself if their sample is wrong by any margin worth mentioning.....
ReplyDeleteI just hate the idea of networks not caring about the quality of their shows and instead caring about the number of people that watch commercials during their shows. It frustrates me and leaves us with mediocre series that draw masses of viewers.
What system would be better? every TV being monitored? Privacy issues. Cable companies would basically be the same thing. The problem is not just that Nielsen ratings may or may not be accurate depending on who you talk to or who you believe.... the problem is what do you replace it with and how can the networks make money from it?
It's hard to accept, but networks put TV series on to make advertising money.... not for people to enjoy and definitely not to expose the masses to some artistic masterpiece.
Thanks for the reckoning, Tariq !
ReplyDeleteHere's the list of the 27 new shows (out of 36) that didn't make it to season 2 : Hellcats (22 episodes), The Defenders (18 episodes), Shat My Dad Says (18 episodes), Criminal Minds Suspect Behavior (13 episodes), Mad Love (13 episodes), Chaos (3 episodes), Better with You (22 episodes), No Ordinary Family (20 episodes), Detroit 187 (18 episodes), Off the Map (13 episodes), Mr Sunshine (9 episodes), The Whole Truth (6 episodes), My Generation (3 episodes), The Good Guys (20 episodes), The Chicago Code (13 episodes), Traffic Light (13 episodes), Running Wilde (9 episodes), Lone Star (2 episodes), The Event (22 episodes), LOLA (22 episodes), Outsourced (22 episodes), Chase (18 episodes), Undercovers (11 episodes), Perfect Couples (11 episodes), The Cape (10 episodes), Outlaw (8 episodes) and The Paul Reiser Show (2 episodes) *.
* I refuse to write Breaking In as cancelled, I just won't. There was a
small chance it might get picked up after all and I want to believe the
window for the renewal isn't closed yet.
Only 6 shows with multiple seasons were cancelled this season : Brothers & Sisters (5 seasons), V (2), Life Unexpected (2), Human Target (2), Lie to Me (3) and Medium (7 seasons). Except Brothers and Sisters and Medium, none of these shows existed before 2009 and most of them had unexpected renewals a year ago. So that makes 33 shows cancelled this season.
And here's a list of numbers I collected while watching this fall's schedules on the 5 networks, I thought it was interesting to see how many hours are available for series and how many series there are :
- 77 hours of programming will be available on primetime television 6 days a week, from 8 to 10pm or 8 to 11pm (+ Rules of Engagement on Saturdays and The Cleveland Show at 7:30pm on Sundays).
- 83 different programs will be offered to the viewers from Sundays to Fridays (Rules of Engagement on Saturdays included).
- 69 of these 83 programs will be original series (total duration time : 55h30 a week).
- 11 of these 83 programs will be real TV (total duration time : 16h30 a week).
- 3 of these 83 programs will be information or sport (total duration time : 5 hours a week).
- 44 series will come back for new seasons : 28 returning dramas et 16 returning sitcoms.
- 25 new series will premiere : 14 new dramas et 11 new sitcoms.
(Yeah, that's the kind of things I reckon when I'm bored.)
Great work and very interesting Bunky.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff Tariq for getting this discussion going.
Awesome statistical work and analysis Bunk!
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing to me is that of the 27 cancelled series I won't miss all but 4 or 5 of them. Better With You, Chicago Code, CM: Suspect Behavior, Shit My Dad Says and Rubicon (Which is always excluded in net work lists) all could and should have stayed another season or more.
I will be very interested to see if Suspect Behavior's and Shit My Dad Says's replacements get more than 10 million or 10.5+ million viewers a night like those series did respectively.
I seriously doubt it
Rubicon :((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
ReplyDeleteI still hold out hope that in 24 the movie Jack will go to Chase for help and chase will get drawn back in to CTU (or its replacement) and there will be a new 24 spin-off with Chase as head of Field Ops......
Ok, I hold out delusions to be more accurate....
Also, I believe that another subset (if not the entire sample) are also supposed to fill out hand written questionnaires. Once problem that has been noted about this is that some of the "nielsen families" often forget to complete portions of the written diaries. Also, Nielsen has just started to take into consideration the delayed viewing habits of the public. I believe it has just been about 2yrs or so since they started looking at DVR stats. As a matter of fact recently read an article (though can't remember where/when) that a couple of so-called "fringe" shows gained between 7% and 15% increase in their ratings once the +7 data was considered (Nielsen now reports live viewing as well as +7 viewing - that is whether or not a show is watched within 7 days of its original airing). However, due to the fact that people are now consuming TV in non-traditional ways (by computer or mobile phone viewing) it is becoming more difficult to accurately calculate what shows are being watched and by whom.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, as darq mentioned not only is this viewer data used to see how popular a show, but it then also is used to inform how much a network can charge advertisers for a 15/30-second advertising slot during a particular TV show. that's why the super bowl ads are so expensive - you have a gizzillon captive eyeballs watching.
Isn't capitalism wonderful... not!
The only alternative I can think of is one that I don't advocate, and that would be for TV to go public. Our public broadcasting system puts on quality shows that are generally beneficial as well as entertaining. That's nice but truthfully, I hardly watch it, so there you go, and I detest pledge weeks. So I'm not in favor of all TV going public and will take sponsored TV over that. I guess if we really like a show we need to make noise. I do believe fans saved Fringe.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if TV execs read Spoiler TV?
Dang I knew a lot didn't make it but this article really puts it into perspective. I hope a lot more make it next year.
ReplyDeleteBluebloods made it!! That's all I care about :D
ReplyDeleteAgree on that. Plus Nikita too...
ReplyDeleteI am thrilled that Nikita was one of the 5. It makes my heart race and I am looking forward to seeing Nikita and Alex square off. Personally, I hope Nikita kicks Alex's butt from here until Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteSuper happy about Nikita. It's a shame about some of the other shows though.
ReplyDeleteMe too! It seems like whenever I like a show as much as I like this one, it will get canceled in a season or less. Glad my tv curse was broken! :-D I have to admit, I'm still not sure how I feel about the season 1 finale, but I'm still looking forward to seeing how the writers get everyone out of the mess they put them in.
ReplyDelete