“Does this apply to Stargate Universe’s increases also?”

To stretch the metaphor to breaking point, maybe you can think of SGU having only two dollars and change but living in a country where that’s basically the average yearly per person income anyway. Like, IDK, Bangladesh.

While Dollhouse started and increased from abysmally embarrassing numbers, those same numbers constitute an at least moderate success on Syfy. You wouldn’t call Eastwick a magical hit sensation just because it gets numbers comparable to True Blood either, would you?

(I still don’t think they’re terribly relevant admittedly, but you made as good an argument as anyone)

I mean “panicking” up above. Right now I’d just say the nets are “very worried.”

@ Robert
Ah, that explains a bit.

What’s the DVR penetration up to right now? I imagine when it hits the %50 mark is when networks start panicking. Most people I know have DVRs just so they can skip through the commercials. Granted, I’m talking about 6 guys, but still. I’d be the same way if I had a DVR, because I can’t stand watching commercials. I don’t care for the advertising.

Now how the hell do you get around an attitude like that if your a broadcast network?

While I haven’t looked at the trends for show by show DVR viewing for new episodes my memory (always an error source) is that you are correct and the DVR viewing numbers are substantially stable for most shows. But Live viewership for new episodes is substantially stable for most shows after the premiere episodes, so I’m not sure there’s a “DVR viewing is *more* stable than Live viewing” lesson there or not.

One way that they will perhaps increase in relevance to you — as more viewing switches to DVR, the worse it is for the networks as they have trouble cashing in on the DVR viewers. Maybe the data would be more interesting if we posted it as “People Who Watch TV Shows But The Networks Can’t Make Much Money On”, because that’s what it is..

The_Godfather, generally I am with you completely on the value of the % increase lists, however, that’s the only way CW shows and other fan favorites would ever show up, and people are interested in the numbers for such shows.

“I voted for a 15% increase in Program X”

Yeah, jackass, when anyone who took a serious look at the thing said it needed 30 million dollars, and you voted for a $500,000 increase.

Percent increases are meaningless without some hard numbers to back it up. Those DVD charts on Rentrak and Nielsen are quite useless until The-numbers.com publishes its estimate, because then you finally get an idea of what the true sales figures are.

To be honest, I actually ignore the “percent increase by DVR viewing” chart you guys list for that reason. I don’t think it’s really useful. I focus on the Raw Viewer increases as an absolute.

I will say this though, it seems like a DVR audience stays pretty much locked in for a program, regardless of when it’s broadcast or even the season. You guys would know this better than I, but am I correct in assuming that the DVR viewership doesn’t really change during the course of a season?

To me this all seems like a store owner who can’t sell his product so he starts giving it away and then claims that sales are way up because people are taking the product for free.

That said, you’re right about everything else. Dollhouse isn’t going to have a third season. I hope we get to finish the 2nd, at least.

But Whedon was on this scene once before, with a show a lot of people liked, and on caprice they just chopped it up and showed episodes at random. By the time I ‘got around to it’ Firefly was GONE. Seven or is it eight years now have gone by, and we’re all a little sore from the desire to get it back, and want Whedon to score well. He’s told some great stories in the past, and when times get tough and he has to make cuts, the stories tend to get even better.

It has to be MAJOR for me to take time out and see a theatrical release. I just won’t go. Can’t afford it, don’t want to: new movies suck. But I’d do it all for that last season of Angel, at least once. That’s how good the stories are, to people who get involved.

(yeah, Star Trek, having been born only three years after it began, was a reason to go to the movies…)

There’s just a lot of people wishing it goes well. And wouldn’t it be great for it to go well on Fox, so there’s a chance of more? That’s why anyone’s paying attention, who isn’t on the roster. Some people just really care for his creations.

But, it is apparently at least still in danger of being pulled off the air for November sweeps. Was the announcement that all 13 will air (but when?) due to DVR numbers or coincidental with schedule changes that FOX will soon have to alert advertisers to, and just easing fans tensions ahead of those announcements? What FOX does during November sweeps will probably tip us which it was.

I just think James really believes that executives outside of PR put a lot of focus on percentage increases. We exchanged some e-mails about it at least once last season. I didn’t change his opinion and he didn’t change mine. Both of us are stubborn, but only one of us is wrong

Except, it seems, not during sweeps when they have to think about paying the bills.

/run on