In the wild and everything. But here's the thing. Unlike the almost-naked cast of The Beautiful Life which CW publicity couldn't wait to send out in e-mail to everyone on its mailing list, I had to stumble on the Supernatural promo on the Internet (hat tip to Zap2it's Korbi Ghosh) and didn't hear a single peep out of the CW publicity team.
Credit where credit is due though, they at least have the time on Twitter to slurp up Michael Ausiello and promote Smallville a little, but if Smallville fans read through that Twitter stream, I don't think they are going to feel like the show is getting the promo its fans deserve.
On the other hand, you can't complain about getting 9 seasons of a show... No e-mail about that either, but at least it's a little love.
Best show they have, ratings increasing and still no promotion. I hate Dawn.
I love this show and it gets no where near the promotion it deserves. I hope it continues to do well in comparison to Dawn’s favorite shows. After all success is the best form of revenge.
That hasn’t yet been sent to the affiliates…where did it come from?
Yes, Iknow its a very good show, I dont Know why the serie Hasnt the promotion that deserve, In Mexico is worst, the serie almost doesnt have promotion, in fact in Warner Brothers Latinoamerica the serie is at 12:00am on the Monday.
A part of me is glad that this show has been allowed to float under the radar. Free of hype possibly translates into free of network notes and a big reason why Supernatural has been allowed to be quite quietly wonderful–and free of bean counter intervention.
If Dawn really hated Supernatural and Smallville why would she keep renewing them?
Isn’t Smallville the longest running show on the CW? Really shows how much she hates it! NOT!
Bart, I completely agree. But, there is no doubt that the PR team at the CW doesn’t spend much time worrying about Supernatural. And I suppose you could argue “why should they? it will still get 3.x-4.x million and more viewers than Gossip Girl either way”. But let’s face it, they have 20somethings with the time to worry about Twitter, and they do have an e-mail list, spending 5 minutes a week on Supernatural would manage appearances better and perhaps create more goodwill with the Dawn hating fans.
I don’t hate Dawn and am glad for a show now in its fifth season. But by increasing the energy spent on Supernatural by the PR team even very modestly, it would change appearances a lot.
BTW, not a promo spot, but a pretty cool preview vid for S5 of Supernatural:
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b140594_supernatural_season_five.html
i havent really followed the CW network over the years but how come the ratings are so low? Before the WB and UPN merged didnt they have 4-5 million seperatley and now they are lucky to get 2-3 million for a show. And why was 90210 renewed when reaper was getting higher ratings and it was axed? Oh and Dawn does kinda hate Smallville and supernatural. She doesnt prompte either one of them and she is sneding smallvile to friday nights to die.
The problem with the CW is that when the networks merged, they didn’t keep the already existing affiliates in some cases. I don’t know if the affiliates weren’t required to pick up the new channel or what, but I know for certain that the WB had affiliates in more networks than the CW had am I think the CW is still available in less locals. I have read that many people are only able to get the CW if they have digital cable in certain cities. When I lived in southwest Ohio, my cable network included local stations from both Cincinnati and Dayton. All the networks had 2 stations each, except for the CW. They had one from Cincinnati only.
I always thought that when UPN and the WB merged that it was foolish not to continue the WB network and simply incorporate the UPN shows. The WB had the wider coverage and a better established brand name and image.
Add to all this the fact that the ratings are down across the board as people time shift and watch online and that explains why the CW shows are not pulling WB numbers. OTOH, Supernatural has strong sales in foreign countries, and sells well in the DVD market. Those factors are why the CW keeps it.
Well I can’t speak to the last 2 years of UPN and the WB, but for most of its history UPN actually had the largest coverage between the two (now its possible that the WB had more affiliates, but hit less of the nation).
THe single biggest problem the CW has had isn’t Dawn or the ad campaign’s, or its programming (though all are problems), but that the network expected to actually increase coverage with the merger. They never expected to actually lose so many affiliates, they actually had less coverage after the merger then either UPN or the WB had. And its one of the reasons that right out of the gate the shows didn’t meet the ratings that the shows had the previous year (especially when they were hoping a stronger programming slate, which for all its faults it still was, would give them ratings growth) and that killed them right from the get go financially. That killed their ability to create pilots, to get summer programming and to have back up programming when a show fails.
No their are all things the network could have done better (and I am sure we all have many ideas that each of us would have done instead), but this blow was simply out of the companies control and was not at all expected.
As for Brand identity, that is one thing that even when the WB performed worse, which was a good part of its run it did have. UPN managed its success primarily off of Star Trek (no WB show, CW show or UPN show ever matched Trek’s peaks), and Wrestling, some marginal success with African American comedies and Top Model. But those shows never seemed to form any brand identity and often had little audience carry over.
Robert
The year that the WB and UPN ended they had shows that had ratings between 1.5 million and a little over 7 million (individual episodes not season averages).
But both networks had a huge problems with half of their schedule pulling in terrible numbers (back in 04 that was hitting 1 million and two million).
And since then as all networks have lost viewership across the board (and significant amounts), it just stands to reason that the CW would as well, when you also factor in that they immediately had less coverage then either UPN or the WB it hurt them, and hurt them bad.
Robert
Actually Reaper didn’t have better ratings then 90210. And that is just in total viewers.
Reaper season average:
2.1 million viewers.
.877 adults 18-49
.875 adults 18-34
.854 adults 25-54
90210 season average
2.548 million viewers
1.3 adults 18-49
1.67 adults 18-34
1.154 adults 25-54
Now in fairness Reaper only aired during the spring and during that period this is how 90210 performed.
1.965 million viewers
1.063 adults 18-49
1.462 adults 18-34
.888 adults 25-54
Now based on this Reaper had a slightly higher viewer total. But the viewer total isn’t what sets ad rates (what pays for the shows), its the demos and on the three primary demo groups, Reaper performed worse. And the two primary demo groups the CW programs for (1st being the 18-34, and then the 18-49) Reaper did significantly worse.
And unlike any of the other shows on the CW, Reaper is produced by a parent company that has no connection to the CW. So even if it did great DVD sales (it didn’t) or had great overseas performance (which it didn’t) none of that revenue would help the CW either directly or indirectly to it’s parent companies.
And do also be fair to 90210, its been shown multiple times almost every week, that typically deflates viewer numbers. So If it aired just once a week it very likely would have had a higher individual episode performance (how much so, we don’t know).
As to hating Supernatural or Smallville, probably not. And Dawn (and the CW) shouldn’t be focusing their ad dollars on either of those shows. Smallville is the CW oldest show and does well, it should be able to stay aloft on its own. With the move to Friday’s though it should get some attention.
As for Supernatural its in a similar boat but since its stable in the lineup it should also get little ad attention.
Generally what should get the most is any new programming (so for this year that means Beautiful life, Vampire Diaries and Melrose place), then it should be programs that are moving (One Tree Hill, Gossip Girls, and Smallville), and then shows that you can cross promo through your target demo and for the CW that means shows that hit the female demo group (or to a lesser degree the male) between 18-34.
And that there is why Supernatural gets little ad attention.
Now that doesn’t mean the CW couldn’t give it a little more love (it could) and actually did last year, but it did that because the show improved across the board in its performance.
Mark, unless you come with some coverage data specifics I don’t put much stock in coverage playing a big role in the ratings drop offs. CW still has over 95% coverage in the US.
P.S. and I know Mark knows this, but to be clear the “Robert” Mark was responding to wrt Reaper ratings wasn’t me, but another Robert who posted a comment
The CW has 95% coverage? wow i thought it would be only 50% or something well it should be doing alot better than it is then. Why is it still on the air? or is it a matter of when it will close down?
YES….DAWN IS NOT A FAN OF BOTH SMALLVILLE AND SUPERNATURAL. SHE NEEDS TO OPEN HER EYES. SHE KEEPS RENEWING THEM BECAUSE THEY HAVE TE MOST HISTORY WITH THE NETWORK AND BECAUSE BOTH SHOWS HAVE AN OK AMOUNT OF VIEWERS. THEY GET THE MOST VIEWERS OUT OF ALL THE OTHER SHOWS ON THE NETWORK.
IF SHE CANCELLED EITHER OF THEM IT WOULD BE LIKE FOX CANCELLING “HOUSE” OR “24″. OR CBS CANCELLING ANY OF THE “CSI’S”, OR “THE MENTALIST”. SHE MIGHT FEEL A LITTLE HEAT FROM FANS IF SHE DID.
SHE NEEDS A DICTIONARY SO SHE CAN LOOK UP “PROMOTION”.
When SUPERNATURAL premiered on The WB it had like 5 to 6 million viewers? Yes the ratings are now but for me the show is still really doing well until now despite being on a low-rated network, on a competitive time slot. It has maintained good reviews from fans and critics. SO kudos to this show. I don’t see this show getting canned anytime soon since well what show could the CW put on a 9pm Thursday slot that could thrive? As for Smallville, I think it was actually a good call to bring it on Friday night just to see if could still gain the ratings it had (which I think it will) what sucks is that the post Smallville time slot is wasted for an ANTM repeat. I hope if Smallville will perform well there, they could pull an actual show there.
Robert the data on coverage (at the time) I had seen I no longer had, I wasn’t following ratings much at the time.
But there was a write up about it (at one time). I wish I kept the article, but it discussed the drop in coverage and how even the areas that were technically covered, in some cases weren’t truly covered.
For example, the area I lived in when the CW started was considered covered, I went from a local UPN affilate to no affiliate, but we were considered covered because a local NBC channel broadcast a secondary HD signal that showed the CW.
Well the only problem with that is that you needed an HDTV and HD receiver (if your tv which some HDTV didn’t come with when they first came out). The year that happened I believe HD TV were in less then 7% of homes.
So in a city were this happened you are not reaching 100% of the homes in that area you are hitting less then 7%, yet its part of your coverage.
Now of course in many areas, you also get coverage off of cable, as opposed to over the air broadcast. Now that also doesn’t reach all homes (though it is still less then broadcast coverage).
But again if you went from a place that had over a broadcast affiliate to a location that is now only served by cable you are not getting full coverage (ie not every home as Cable). While the percentage is good it still isn’t full coverage.
And while I don’t think its a huge lose (and didn’t mean to imply it was), when they merged Warners and Viacom intended to actually gain affiliates (they had no idea that so many would choose not to be affiliate, or that Fox would form My Network TV). It was still a decrease and not an increase. When you factor that in with the general decline each year of normal tv viewership, and factor in people having to discover that the CW exists (and where to find it), those events lead to larger then normal drops, that translates to poor press, decreased revenue, and those factors tend to grow.
Now of course better marketing, better management, synergy between CBS, and actually spending more money (either in development or marketing) could have helped minimize those issues. But you can read Berman’s site to see the immediate reaction to lower ratings and how that played out week over week on shows that didn’t chance timeslot, or style, or format.
Mark Wood do you work for the CW? Just wondering….
I would disagree with you saying that showing reruns hurts a show *cough* USA Network. USA shoves their shows down peoples throat via reruns and promotions. Such an approach obviously works because they have more viewers per new episode than any show on the CW (although I am unaware of In Plain Sight or Law and Order CI numbers, I will hazard to say they are higher). Of course it helps that USA’s shows mostly run in the summer and winter hiatus, but it does not negate the fact that they tend to have millions of more viewers than the CW shows.
As for me, I fit the CW targeted demo in spades, but I only watch SN. In fact, it is the only show I make of point of watching live or watching at all. I am one of those kind of people who watches a few episodes of a show and then lose interest and only watch it occasionally or not at all. In contrast to my general outlook on shows, my interest in Supernatural has increased over the years.
I agree with those who said that the CW (and Dawn) cannot afford to hate Supernatural. However, I do think that they are very negligent in promoting the show. It had nothing to do with the CW that SN’s ratings increased last year, but the fans promoting the show and perhaps some good press. The latter I would argue happened, again, not because of the CW, but the (rabid) fanbase, and the fact that critics etc. are starting to watch it themselves (such as Robert Seidman, by the way I love how are you an SN fan
) . The CW should have taken better advantage of the momentum last fall, in my opinion. But they are too busy coddling and promoting GG and 90210 to really think outside the box.
Of course to be fair one could argue that the CW is now ignoring SN because season 5 is the last year. However, this assessment is suspect considering all of the hints and rumors that there will be a sixth season which are already being floated around by the CW and Eric Kripke… But we shall see what the ratings are this year. That will will be the indicator if there is another season or not.
Regina, I’m pretty sure Mark doesn’t work for the CW, and is just someone who has thought about the plight of the network since UPN/WB merged.
The USA network (or any cable network, for that matter) comparison doesn’t really fly though. USA gets to program its network nationally 24×7. CW only programs nationally during primetime. It doesn’t get to run Supernatural marathons during the day. I’d agree it works wonderfully for USA though!