Comments on: TV by the Numbers "Fan Excuse" Bingo Cards Are Here!

By: J.R. Herbaugh

J.R. Herbaugh — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:44:08 +0000

I also love this one from two weeks ago: “All of these ratings are irrelevant because the majority of Conan’s audience doesn’t watch TV.”

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:48:24 +0000

Ahhhhh. that makes more sense. That and stuff like “but it has more mentions than NCIS on Twitter!” need to make the next gen of the cards.

By: J.R. Herbaugh

J.R. Herbaugh — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:45:25 +0000

Robert, I hate to correct you, but he's talking about star ratings on zap2it.com, which makes it really funny.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:14:43 +0000

J.R. we don’t deliberately confuse fans with household ratings like some sites! Just kidding, I actually do include them in the weekly broadcast top 25 lists. But with different ratings metrics for different measurements, confusion is inevitable. I don’t see that changing.

Julia, you’ve twisted my words! And made them into a much better t-shirt

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:08:38 +0000

I like the coaster set idea Bill had a while back. And I think t-shirts with mottos like this one would sell.

“Your show’s ratings suck
Your show sucks
You suck”

(Also, don’t use CafePress. Use Zazzle.)

By: J.R. Herbaugh

J.R. Herbaugh — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:05:32 +0000

I read a new one today: "HOLD on a second! Canceling Eastwick is crap because hundreds of random people rated the following shows, and these ratings (1 to 5) are HIGH: Middle 3.7, Cougar Town 4.2, EASTWICK 4.3, Flash Forward 4.7. I’ve seen other ratings people give on zap2it.com and these are high ratings."

By: shelly

shelly — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:52:49 +0000

People probably wouldn’t be as enthusiastic about *general* TBTN merchandise, Rob (no offense, I love you guys and this site). But I’d bet they’d jump at the chance to own merchandising with the Fan Excuse Bingo card imprinted on it.

Maybe you could do a poll here to ask if anyone would be interested in buying those?

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:46:09 +0000

You’re not the first person to ask for merchandise, but the phone lines haven’t been lit up asking for mugs and t-shirts.

Perhaps one day over the slow holiday period Mr. Gorman will be inspired to visit Cafepress.com and create some TVbytheNumbers merchandising. I’ll likely be too busy watching TV

By: shelly

shelly — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:38:22 +0000

Forget the cards, I really want a Fan Excuse Bingo mug or t-shirt! Or would merchandising not be possible since technically many people contributed to making the cards and it would be iffy who the money would go to?

Bill? Rob?

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:20:20 +0000

I think some posters are taking this a bit too seriously, it’s just a bit of fun because the comments are true! Bill and Robert don’t cancel shows with internetty powers but because not enough people watched it and having been on this site for two years, I have read enough comments that match the bingo cards.

By: battye

battye — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:57:19 +0000

Do one more card devoted entirely to NBC! You could put in things like “It wasn’t made by the creators of The Office”, “Tina Fey isn’t in it” and “It’s on NBC”.

By: RayJay

RayJay — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:45:14 +0000

Hey, if you don’t like this site, don’t go to it. Simple as that. Not that hard to do. Go find or make your own website.

It’s not their problems that some shows suck ass in viewers.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:01:39 +0000

AC, did we hurt your feelings predicting one of your favorite shows would be canceled?

If you’d like only sunshine and roses about your shows until you suddenly hear they were canceled there are plenty of sites out there that will feed you exactly that.

By: AC

AC — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:47:48 +0000

And I already know the standard defensive response from you guys. You give it all the time no matter who I have as my ID and call you out on your egotism. What exactly are your guys real jobs that make you such experts on the TV industry??? I would love to know.

By: AC

AC — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:46:03 +0000

It’s funny how much time this site spends on making fun of people for liking shows and looking down on people for having hope. If you guys could back up your snark more with accurate predictions this would be a much better site.

By: Holly

Holly — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:07:17 +0000

Oh, I have a new one (well, one I don’t think was mentioned…)

“There are already too many crime/hospital shows on. We need to keep Show X because it’s unique.”

Actually, that could be two.

By: Eternal Density

Eternal Density — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:42:15 +0000

“Kanye West interrupted it.”

By: William Hughes

William Hughes — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:38:39 +0000

“The President kept pre-empting it with his Speeches!”

“More people saw it after it became available on DVD”

“A Group threated to do Boycotts of all who Sponsored it.”

By: veritas

veritas — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:04:56 +0000

Great stuff but I still think it’s missing some of the best excuses. Check any thread about Battlestar Galactica.

By: Anna

Anna — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:41:58 +0000

This is funny haha but i dont really see them as “excuses” because most of them are generally true about how shows get cancelled.

By: Richard Steven Hack

Richard Steven Hack — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:50:14 +0000

Do you have one that says “The psychologist on the focus group panel said the lead character’s micro-reactions are wrong”?

Dig at Nick C there…:-)

By: Liban A

Liban A — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:20:52 +0000

I think you should do a test run, and make post titled ‘Dollhouse CANCELED.’

By: J.R. Herbaugh

J.R. Herbaugh — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:07:50 +0000

cammy, that was actually one of the great Andy Barker quotes: “This show was weak as water from the second episode on. Everything that was unique and creative was crushed in favor of standard, traditional and obvious sitcom nonsense.”

By: Nightstar

Nightstar — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:59:57 +0000

I’m now waiting for someone to wander onto this site into a long, wild discussion about a show that has been canceled and ask “What are all these ‘Bingo!” posts about.

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:49:39 +0000

Oooh! How many bingos will we be able to get tomorrow, when we see just how much better a House repeat does compared to Dollhouse?

By: Nightstar

Nightstar — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:45:44 +0000

Internet connection with DSL and local phone package — $79.

26″ HDTV television with DVD — $400.

Middling computer system with keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, and a few extras — $499.

Chips, popcorn, 2-Liter bottle Coca-cola, and a bag of fun-sized Halloween special Snickers bars — $12.

TVBTN Bingo! Cards for a night of entertainment — Priceless.

Nice work! Love it

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:31:41 +0000

Update: 5 new re-randomized cards now available, with fewer typos!

By: cammy

cammy — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:22:53 +0000

That is FABULOUS! I’m a bit surprised no one suggested “Network interference killed the creative vision.” Perhaps blaming network execs or saying the network wanted it to fail gets at the same point in a roundabout way. The rest are all very, very familiar.

I noticed the same things as the grammar Nazis above (I think MichyGeary caught most of them). The apostrophe and to/too mistakes are a bit distracting. But you did spell Nielsen correctly.

A great laugh. Thanks for sharing!

By: Mega64

Mega64 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:44:30 +0000

This is why I love this site.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:37:41 +0000

These are hysterical! I just made my own versions, to swap in some excuses I preferred and get rid of the typos. I’m going to go to a forum I just saw where people are complaining that Trauma got cancelled and see how long it takes me to get a Bingo.

By: Ike

Ike — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:34:04 +0000

These are AWESOME!

BTW, I’m so glad that the other grammar nuts got here first. I don’t want to feel like I’m the only one who is obsessive about apostrophe use!

By: J.R. Herbaugh

J.R. Herbaugh — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:06:17 +0000

It helps that the show has fans. I didn’t get very far with Trauma.

By: Holly

Holly — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:35:35 +0000

In that case, you spelled Neilson wrong

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:33:37 +0000

Think of them as having authentic fan typos!

But I may fix them given time later.

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:55:39 +0000

I’ll be playing when the next big show gets cancelled (Dollhouse).

By: Cal

Cal — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:35:52 +0000

Ha ha, too funny. But you should add “Pre-empted by sports too often” or “Didn’t stand a chance against {insert sporting event}.” Also, “Organizing a mail-in campaign. Send nuts/tabasco sauce/plastic fangs to…”

Agree about the typos; so distracting to language nerds.

By: nkinsey

nkinsey — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:29:59 +0000

Awesome to see some of my comments in there! Priceless cards, guys!

By: MichyGeary

MichyGeary — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:25:05 +0000

I sure hope you plan to correct those typos.

“Reaity crap.”
“It’s night is too competitive”
“It’s lead-in is dragging it down.”
“People are expected it to get canceled.”
“It’s to procedural.”

By: johnthemon

johnthemon — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:12:39 +0000

Great stuff!

I tried to make one but I didn’t have the patience.

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:12:24 +0000

“It is to serialized” should be “It is too serialized.”

By: erica

erica — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:06:23 +0000

Ah ahahahahahaahhahaahahaa!
That’s great.

By: David

David — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:05:29 +0000

“It’s to procedural” should be “It’s too procedural”

By: mark-allen

mark-allen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:04:29 +0000

great fun…thanks

By: J.R. Herbaugh

J.R. Herbaugh — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:01:00 +0000

Thanks, Robert. Here’s a blank one, to save some time:
http://dosomethingelse.tumblr.com/post/228105288/

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:57:19 +0000

Got mine all ready to go!

By: andrew

andrew — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:56:50 +0000

I love how tongue-in-cheek this is, guys. Glad to see you can find humor in what you do

By: thirdsaint

thirdsaint — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:51:32 +0000

The middle should be ‘Firefly!’ or ‘Joss Whedon!’

By: Michael J

Michael J — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:50:06 +0000

I’ll be playing next week when the latest Renew/Cancel index comes out!

By: Holly

Holly — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:46:37 +0000

I’m going to be grammar nazi: First card, first row, fourth column–Its night is too competitive… no apostrophy

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:45:12 +0000

I nominate J.R. as bingo card designer!