Comments on: Nielsen Ratings Friday, August 1: Few Watched Swingtown Or Anything Else

By: taz

taz — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:50:34 +0000

I was dissapointed at first, it was not sleazy enough.Now I don’t care, I am just starting to get into the personalitys. I really hope it stays for at least one more season.

By: maureen

maureen — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 03:26:05 +0000

maybe swingtown lost viewers because it changed from thursday to friday without noticed and was preempted by sports. it is a great show !!! bring it back !!!!

By: Cla

Cla — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:30:19 +0000

Right on!!!!!

By: Cla

Cla — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:30:19 +0000

Right on!!!!!

By: Linda

Linda — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:30:49 +0000

I LOVE Swingtown…too bad it didn't have a better time slot. Hate to see it go.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:55:18 +0000

You Are right swingtown should be kept on the air. I don't belive ratings I never watch a show the time it is on . DVR everything and watch when I have time

By: ancientchild

ancientchild — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:10:22 +0000

Event Horizon, I agree that it is CREEPY…. for any show to be popular based on Swinging….
Not going to make any more of a comment…
and they had the nerve to bash and cancel a “character driven drama about love and truth” (quoted from another source) that just happened to have a vampire as the main character?
Moonlight had a steady fan base and won it's time slot… every time it was on and the 18-49 demographic was won. I am part of that demo/fan base and I am a professional woman. Now vampires are popular… wow. Looks like mistakes were made…wait.. what was that? Did I just hear the word Twilight?

By: Event Horizon

Event Horizon — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:56:03 +0000

Chris Merrill mentioned moving a show to Fridays is like putting it up against American Idol. Not really – some shows do very well opposite AI – NCIS is the best example. Alot of Jericho fans blamed Jerichos Season 1 (2nd half) low rating on being opposite American Idol (I too agreed back then) but after seeing NCIS do so well against Idol, I changed my views on that. If a show is interesting enough and of high quality it can do well.

By: Event Horizon

Event Horizon — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:52:14 +0000

When CBS (thankfully) exiled the sleazy Swingtown to Friday night they were basically throwing in the towel. It managed to hang on until the bitter end – unlike last Seasons Pirate Master. Swingtown is the kind of show that belongs on Showtime or HBO after midnight – then they could get really sleazy showing everything. Its not suprising the suits at CBS in Hollyweird thought this show could be a hit – 90% of them are liberals. I guess they thought because Desperate Housewives was successful so would Swingtown. They just dont get that while infidelity is rampant in todays society, group sex and wife swapping isnt – its just plain creepy.

By: Steinmiller

Steinmiller — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:41:00 +0000

I can’t believe I’m saying this but I will miss SWINGTOWN – it tried to be a show that rarely focused on its subject matter and thats what was so appealing about it. I’m looking forward to FLASHPOINT getting axed – what a boring show this has been, Enrico Colantoni is being wasted on it.

By: Steinmiller

Steinmiller — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:41:00 +0000

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:47:00 +0000

@Em, my ignorance on the development end of the business may surpass your own. My limited experience with it is that sometimes networks themselves commission a pilot, and other times studios create the pilots on their own and pitch them to anyone who’ll listen. My guess is that it is rare where a cable net passes on something that a broadcast network picks up.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:47:00 +0000

By: Chris Merrill

Chris Merrill — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:41:00 +0000

If they moved a show to Friday night in the summer, CBS is trying to help it along to it’s grave. Its almost the equivalent of running something opposite American Idol. You just don’t do it if you want the show around.
And Nielsen ratings do take into account the people who record and watch shows within a certain number of days (I forget what it is…I’m pretty sure its either 3 or 7). I’m not sure if this site publishes that data, but it is collected and factored into viewership.
Shows die. It happens. Picking the shows that audiences will respond to is next to impossible. The best promoted shows can fail, and the ones that the execs grudgingly accept (ie Survivor) can be monster hits. Maybe cable picks it up, maybe not. It all comes down to whether or not it will be profitable

By: Chris Merrill

Chris Merrill — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:41:00 +0000

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:14:00 +0000

I was commenting on the NUMBERS, not the quality (this is a site about ratings after all). I didn’t comment on the premise, writing, or acting of the show. I didn’t insult the people who watch it or question the intelligence of people who don’t like the shows I do.

The fact is, the numbers for Swingtown are horrible. The ratings a show gets often have little to do with how well written it may be or how much the fans like it, but they have a LOT to do with whether it will be renewed. Personally, I think American Idol is stupid and unwatchable, but it gets incredible numbers, so its going to get renewed and renewed until it stops getting those numbers. I think CBS was absolutely right to cancel Moonlight, but it had a much better chance of building an audience than Swingtown does. Swingtown’s numbers have been falling since the premiere, and there is absolutely no reason to think that will change.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:14:00 +0000

By: xerxes

xerxes — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:09:00 +0000

Holly — the viewers “rejected the show”, “hemoraging viewers”, “proven ratings disaster” — and your not slamming my show? You are, and I don’t appreciate it. In case you haven’t noticed, it got moved to Friday and this is summer. People have a life. Especially people who watch Swingtown, because that typically is when they go out — the weekend. Watch TV, or go out — easy choice for me and for a lot of other people. Fortunately, these people know how to record and watch later, something the ratings don’t take into consideration because network TV is still living in the dark ages technologically speaking. Maybe a miracle will happen and CBS will get a clue – I don’t know. But I know that people like you don’t watch the show, so your opinions are less than worthy of my time, except when non-fans think I’m okay with them using my entertainment for a verbal punching bag. I think that’s called, being a fan.

By: xerxes

xerxes — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:09:00 +0000

By: xerxes

xerxes — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:01:00 +0000

Holly, do you actually READ what you write? What’s it like in Holly-world?

By: xerxes

xerxes — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:01:00 +0000

Holly, do you actually READ what you write? What’s it like in Holly-world?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 12:58:00 +0000

xerxes,
It seems to me that the only one here “slamming” anyone’s entertainment is you.

By: Em

Em — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 04:50:39 +0000

Hi Robert, excuse my ignorance, as a newbie here, but is it unusual for the cable nets to pass on a show and then have it picked up by one of the big 5?

By: xerxes

xerxes — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 04:37:00 +0000

Interesting people are slamming my entertainment, Swingtown, without indicating what they watch. Probably Barney the Purple Dinosaur, because that is how far the dumbing down of television has gone when a quality show like Swingtown can’t attract viewers. It was too good. People actually had to watch, rather than have the option of watching and texting at the same time like everything else they are watching because it is so predictable and ridiculous in both the acting and content that it only requires that they stay marginally attentive. But put on a show like Swingtown, where they actually have to pay attention, boo hoo — my brain hurts. Give me back a cop show or some fantasy baloney that is just pure escapism and will never challenge me. It was a fluke I found Swingtown. I had already given up on 95 percent of television out there and was finding much better entertainment using other media. I’m glad I found it because regardless of its future, I’ll always have this great memory of the summer of ’08. To the rest of you Swingtown haters and fence sitters, you got nothing.

By: xerxes

xerxes — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 04:37:00 +0000

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 03:41:00 +0000

As I understand it, the cable nets turned down Swingtown before CBS got it. Now it’s a proven ratings disaster. There is no way anyone is picking it up.

As for giving it time to find viewers: if it were maintaining even a low level of viewers, you might have a point. Swingtown’s problem isn’t that it hasn’t had time to find viewers, it’s problem is that the majority of the viewers that did find it rejected it. Unfortunately for those involved, the show is hemorrhaging viewers. It has lost half of its viewers (both overall and in the demo). The move isn’t entirely to blame for that either, it was loosing viewers every week even before it was moved.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 03:41:00 +0000

As I understand it, the cable nets turned down Swingtown before CBS got it. Now it’s a proven ratings disaster. There is no way anyone is picking it up.

By: Marce

Marce — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:04:00 +0000

It saddens me that Swingtown may be off the air. It is such a great show and I can only hope one of the other cable outlets will pick it up. I look forward to the show every week and to hear it may be off the air, well, it annoys me. These producers don’t give shows enough time to get viewers and interest in them. We need to keep swinging alive!!!

By: Marce

Marce — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:04:00 +0000

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:44:00 +0000

Last Friday (week before yesterday) Monk had 5.06 million and Psych had 4.48 million. On a guess the 18-49 demo ratings for both were pretty good, but it’s just a guess since I didn’t see those numbers. For the week ending 7/27, Monk was the fourth most viewed program on cable. Those numbers would have made it the 42nd most-watched program on broadcast network television for the week.

By: mabirdy

mabirdy — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:30:45 +0000

So how do “Monk” and “Psych” compare since they are new programming and already have a following.

By: Amy

Amy — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:52:00 +0000

There’s only 3 eps left of Swingtown anyway. I expect it to finish its run of 12 eps and be gone for good. I can’t believe anyone thought there’d be some rare chance of this being a smash hit CBS would want to bring back next year. All the losers writing to the FCC about this show were wasting their time.

By: Amy

Amy — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:52:00 +0000