I remember when they axed Veronica Mars because it was getting ONLY 2.5-3.0 million viewers. These days VM would be cosidered a runaway hit on CW.

http://www.thrfeed.com/2008/12/cbs-picks-up-fi.html

When the numbers for a two year old Jericho rerun are as “good” as a rerun of The Crocodile Hunter….

I’m actually a bit offended by your assumptions that being disabled automatically “sucks,” and that people who like talent contests are automatically brainless! Then again, I can’t stay offended for long at someone who cannot spell the word delusional, yet feels compelled to call everyone else brainless

They knew exactly what they wanted to do with the 2 main characters. However they treated the show like the old Mini-Series from the 80s. They introduced an extremely large cast with their own problems and how they’d deal with the disaster. The problem was they had no idea about the story arcs for many of these characters. When the ratings came out it wasn’t enough to support the show. So they had to start eliminating cast. They threw away story lines and practically just started ignoring certain characters entirely. Ratings dropped and this was also the same time when they started having “problem of the week,” episodes vs “what is happening to everyone,” episodes.

The problem was the show was too ambitious. The extremely large cast was its downfall. By ignoring story lines and killing characters off they alienated the audience they did have.

I also have to get into the fact that as the show continued to go on they asked viewers to buy into more and more absurd situations. EMP weapons that went off for no apparent reason well after the bombs. A city of at least 2,500 people all shopping at some small market in the city? Where is the Wal-Mart? They were designed specifically for cities that size in the middle of no where. A city that size would have more than a main street market. When we’re finally shown a map of the city and the outlying areas the population can’t be more than 800 people. While that map worked for the season finale plot it immediately said “this isn’t a town of 2,500 people” A farming/cattle community that has no food!

Heck the show mentioned NYC survived. Now that would be a city with food problems. A city that couldn’t possibly hold more than 700 people surrounded by farms and cattle ranches is not going to have food issues whether or not the deer ran south.

The “well thought out,” attack. The 23 cities they show have no strategic placement at all. I’ll use one great example: Texas. They bombed Dallas. They left San Antonio and its air force bases in tact. They left Austin and its army base in tact. They left FT. Hood in tact. Heck, in Kansas where JERICHO is based they mention that Topeka was one of the 23 cities at one point. Why didn’t JERICHO see two mushroom clouds then? One from Denver and one from Topeka. I understand that Topeka had to be eliminated otherwise FT Riley would be in tact. If FT Riley was in tact that whole state would have had US Army all over it. Except JERICHO would have seen both mushroom clouds. In the scenario that JERICHO presented, TEXAS would have been left as a major international power (the air forces best toys, army’s best toys, naval bases, naval air field, etc).

It brings back to the old agady of what one person considers dreck is another man’s masterpiece. We have to put up with them; simple as that.

Except Hole in the Wall. I think we can all agree that that is dreck.

I mean I loved Journeyman, Firely, Wonderfallls, Arrested Development, but I also love 24, LOST watched Desperate Housewives for 2 seasons and Greys for one.

So why spend 4 million an episode on something that I and a few will watch when theres a chance that they can spend it and get me and ten million buddies too.

The desire to watch television for “entertainment” isn’t brainless. Many geniuses and people with above average IQs *love* to watch sports on TV. It doesn’t require flexing the cerebral cortex much, but that makes it no less entertaining. The same holds true for the talent contests.

Shows like Idol and DWTS appeal to a wide range of people, with a wide range of brain power. Shows that appeal to a wider audience by nature do better. But a show like American Idol gets more of everything. Sure, it gets more people with below average IQs than most other shows, but it also gets more people with average IQs and above average IQs too.

Just because it doesn’t entertain you (or me) does not mean it is for the brainless masses.

Actually they DO have an idea of what viewers want to watch and they air it – as much as I hate American Idol and shows like that, its what the brainless masses want to watch. NCIS, CSI and other such shows (which Im tired of) at least require some brain power to watch. Those shows have no trouble bagging 10-20 million viewers. Even their reruns do well. NCIS had reruns doing 10 million + this past year.

Also, Fox annoucned another schedule change regarding T:SCC. They’re going back to the orginally schedule.

12/1 Self Made Man
12/8 Alpine Fields
12/15 Earthings Welcome Here (fall finale)

http://www.fox.com/blogs/terminator/2008/12/01/once-more-with-feeling/#comments

I didnt know DH was new last night.

I think that poor ratings performance dooms Jericho…

Any predictions tonight on Terminator? No more DWTS to compete against it, so the question is, will its ratings go up? I’m going to be an extreme optimist and will say they’ll get 6.5 million viewers and a 2.2 or higher in the 18-49 demo. But remember, I am frequently wrong.

Seriously though, it was “Jericho” that brought me to your site, and now I’m hooked on learning about ratings, studying TV trends, advertising trends, and all that fun stuff. Thanks to you, Mr. Seidman, and company for allowing us to even be here!

It’s more than double in total viewers (1.26 vs. 0.59). Not sure how you’d calculate percent change on the rating/share data exactly. Berman’s site noted an “80%” increase over last week.

I’m not holding out too much hope for a miraculous Jericho Season Three based solely on 1.25 million viewers. However, I am looking forward to kicking back Sunday night to watch Jericho Episode 2, then “The Cutting Edge” with D.B. Sweeney .

If there’s any chance you could show us some half-hourly data from 7:00. 7:30, 8:00, and 8:30, that would be cool. That would help me wrap my mind around football overruns. No big deal though, you already provide plenty of good stuff here!

In any event, Jericho is ok as space filler. But anyone still thinking there will be a 3rd Season is nothing short of dillusional. Unless fans make a goofy version like Trek fans did with Star Trek: New Voyages – an internet fan production, that is so hiddious most Trek fans insist it really doesnt exist and is just a figment of people imagination. Fortunately, I doubt Jericho fans have the expertise or money to pull that off.

Earlier this year SCI-FI had Jericho reruns of Season 1 but pulled the plug due, not suprisingly, to low ratings after 15 or 16 episodes and never showed the rest. That pretty much sums up Jericho’s future on CW.