Depends on what you actually saw, because the original “V” was one of the finest mini-series of the ’80s. Period. Not just of the sci-fi genre either, but any type of mini-series. The show was hugely acclaimed by critics and drew massive ratings. It was well-written, intelligent, provocative, and completely entertaining, managing to work as both an escapist entertainment as well as a commentary on politics and a Nazi parallel. I rewatched it last summer and it holds up every bit as well today as it did then — in fact I think this new show is doing a decent job rechanneling some of what made the original series work (it’s just doing it in a much more frenetic, and less satisfying, pace).

V-THE FINAL BATTLE followed the next year and had a lot of problems, and the weekly series was just cheesy ’80s action fare like “The A-Team” or any other show — by then V had lost its qualities and if you saw that, then yeah, I could see how you would be unimpressed.

But anyone who doesn’t remember, or never saw, Kenneth Johnson’s first V mini-series would be wise to check it out on DVD. It’s really terrific and holds up brilliantly.

2.) The company that owns Madagascar wanted to use the time slot to advertise the related DVDs for Christmas sales, or NBC is affiliated in some way with the profits from Madagascar and wanted prime viewing to promote it.Also consider that NBC may be considering launching a Sat. morning Madagascar cartoonand wanted evidence that it would fly.

3.)To get a younger veiwing audience for BL, as so many children and teens in the US struggle with weight issues. A lot of those young people, (or their mothers who are trying to shed the baby weight)may begin tuning in that otherwise would not. It would help that 12-17 and 18-34 demographic…Besides, not much appropriate for the younger generation between trashy sit-coms and grotesque CSI-type shows.BL is all about persoal strength and making good choices…perfect for children and teens (notice Danny’s 9yr. old said she wanted to start her own journey) This will get them to switch to network from the land of cable kids channels.

Why are people so opposed to actually watching a STORY unfold over time? Personally I ENJOY having questions at the end of an episode of any given show and feeling anticipation and excitment for the next episode because I want to know what will happen next. That’s part of television’s appeal. All of the most acclaimed shows in recent memory have been serialized dramas, not CSI spin offs. Of course those shows will ALWAYS get higher ratings than a serial but that doesn’t mean the serial is “tanking” or “no one is watching”. Of course the self-contained nature of a procedural appeals to more people, because intellectually lazy, unthoughtful people are the majority.

I’ve also seen people commenting that V is anti-liberal…um, I’m the most liberal person I know and I don’t see that. If anything it’s a commentary on America’s position of power in regard to developing nations (you know, like IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN). The show is about how power can be an insidious and corrupting force and it appears in all kinds of forms, not just through outright aggression and violence. The show is meant to make one think about the power dynamics of our current world and about the perceptions people have of those in power and why they give them that power.

Consider the subplot of the woman whose husband’s fighter jet crashed when the V’s arrived, killing him…Gee, I wonder how people in other countries feel when their family members are blown up by wayward missiles during another country’s invasion of them for the purpose of “liberation” and enfranchisement in a greater collective of world powers …That actually doesn’t sound anti-liberal to me.

Also, the concept of deeply entrenched sleeper cells of V’s who have been here for decades sow seeds of conflict and turmoil is actually pretty brilliant and fascinating, and I honestly can’t think of a better explanation for the current state of the world today. Maybe V just hits too close to home for a lot of people and so they lash out and say it sucks, I dunno, but from an educated, objective perspective, it really doesn’t.

I just think the only show that can cut NCIS’s viewers is American Idol.

I think it would be wise for NBC to move AGT to the fall on Tuesday’s to cut NCIS’s viewership.

While CBS’s The Good Wife is in severe danger I don’t think CBS is satisfy to keep a tuesday show with a 2.6 18-49 demo.

Since Alan Tudyk has been resurrected after being supposedly killed in episode one, he’s the one chance they have to get someone with some energy on the show. He was dynamite in the two episodes of Dollhouse he was on. Concentrate on the conflict between him and Elizabeth Mitchell and the show might have something.

The plot elements aren’t too bad – the notion of a bunch of “Visitor traitors” running around isn’t bad. If they push that to the limit, it might work. But in the end, the fundamental problem is exactly as someone stated above: it’s a remake of “lizards invade Earth”. Now if they manage to pull in all the nice conspiracy theories about REAL lizard aliens running around, they might pull it off. Otherwise I don’t see the show surviving more than one season.

As for Fringe vs X-Files, Fringe COULD have been as good as X-Files. But it isn’t at this point. Again, Abrams needs to pick up the pace. Perhaps the Observer oriented episode this Thursday will help.

Having said all that, the hiatus will probably kill the series. Why on Earth they do that to shows is beyond me. Talk about being set up to fail…

Sometimes we just hate some shows and they annoy us, we want them gone! I personally love V. It’s not high art or nothing, but I like it. Some don’t, they want it gone. Fine…What do I care? I happen to wish the same fate on FRINGE. I wish it was off the air like yesterday.

Does anyone care?…Doubt it…Moving on.

Speaking of FRINGE, Carol said…

“I tuned into the first couple episodes of Fringe and in my opinion it was badly cast (Anna Torv is horrible as the lead), horribly written and it’s an insult to compare it to The X-Files which was an outstanding show.”

I’m really happy someone finally said something about Fringe being compared to The X-Files. I find that annoying and a joke. You just cannot compare them because one is great, fantastic, outstanding and a legendary TV program and the other is FRINGE….

Just sick of the “Fringe is like The X Files” talk…

Have a great night! Kiss Kiss

Let’s see – Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror I (ganked from the Twilight Zone), The Producers…

…that’s more than enough, unless you want to listen to Slim Whitman, and see what effect he had on Martians

I’m hoping the big production shutdown they had a few weeks ago sorted out the problems. The show could be really good, but if the quality stays where it’s at, it’ll probably get the back nine, then not get renewed.

…or else they went intersect to the full, and got five, five dollar, five dollar footlong – thus delaying the Index entries…

…better excuse than Nielsen had Sunday night

90210–7.5/10
Melrose Place–9/10
V–8/10
The Forgotten–6/10

I hope Melrose Place gets a second season, everyone should really give it another chance. Its turning out to be a great show.

I’m sad to see V continue to fall, I think it is still a good show and hope it gets a second season renew.

I have a feeling this will come back in March, greeted by an audience in the mid 5 million range, at best. Unless the midseason finale is epic, the return will be DOA.

There are different types of procedurals.
There are CSI, NCIS where there is development, but it’s extremely slow.
1-2 episodes a season where something happens.
X-files was procedural type show, it was one of the best shows ever. It only had about 6 episodes a season where there was development.

About Melrose Place, they originally wanted Heather Locklear to be the one that got murdered. She turned it down.

As far as the Negative Nancys around here, I think it just depends on the show. For some reason the shows that are on the verge of cancellation seem to get more support (Castle, Fringe, Chuck, etc), while the mega-successful shows get endlessly lambasted. Kinda strange.

I think it might be doing better if the pilot had been handled better. Even I, who wanted to like it, was underwhelmed by the pilot– my first impression after watching it was “this show’s going to suck”, and I only tuned in the next week out of boredom. But the two following episodes were really good. I was really pleasantly surprised.

It’s the best new drama of the season hands down.

You bet I do! And it has nothing to do with just ‘being negative’.
It’s known as customer discrimination and it happens with all products & services people use, not just your favorite TV shows.

It isn’t because of some socio-political nonsense some Brainiacs toss around to blanket cover anyone with a differing view.
It isn’t because I hate people and want to see them unemployed.
It isn’t because of any joy derived from knowing that fans of the show are going to be disappointed.

It’s really super simple. The sooner a show that I don’t like gets canceled, the sooner a replacement can be aired, which could turn out to be a better program. It’s called Capitalism. If your company is putting out an inferior product, you need to go away so that something better has room to grow.

Holding on to low-rated programs are how networks can bankrupt themselves. And if that happens, ALL of those network’s shows are going to suffer or disappear entirely. I’d rather see a couple stinkers get dragged off than lose everything in one massive collapse.

V is not going to get cancelled. Episode 4, which airs next week, is the fall finale. They already have plans to resume production on episode 5-13 in January.

Where on earth did they get 4 million viewers in the summer????????

ION or USA

Modern Family 3.5
Glee 3.4 (up)
NCIS2 3.4 (down)
Cleveland 3.3
V 3.1
Cougar Town 2.8
Flash Forward 2.6
Good Wife 2.6
Vampire Diaries 1.9 (3.1 in W18-34)

Hmm. I have a feeling Fox will be the happiest with its new shows by the end of May. And they still have Past Life & Human Target which I believe are to be aired with the best lead-in in TV, the show that will likely this season break the record for most seasons at #1 out of its current tie with Cosby & All in the Family (ABC has never had a single show be #1 for multiple seasons.)…Life Unexpected & Parenthood might do well by their struggling networks.

The last five nights of Leno had the following ratings in A1849 (I’ve averaged where ratings were reported in :30 increments):

Weds 1.4
Thurs 1.55
Fri 1.2
Mon 1.4
Tues 1.95

average: 1.5

This averages to, yes, exactly the magical 1.5 that NBC touted was necessary for the show to be profitable. What’s interesting is how much the average depends on a strong Tuesday showing. Since Jay doesn’t do anything particularly different on Tuesdays, his increase in viewership that night must be thanks to a strong lead-in (from The Biggest Loser, NBC’s second strongest series after The Office) and relatively poor competition in the time slot.

Will this hold? We’ll have to wait and see.

But, I do think ratings drop after initial high numbers because people nowadays have such short attention spans and want instant gratification right away. When shows like FlashForward have such great debut numbers and the storytelling starts to slow down, people will start to tune out and since we are in the age of the internet, people will surf the net instead while the TV is on.

I enjoyed MP last night. Heather’s appearances were small because it was a re-introduction to her character. But, I have to agree with an earlier comment, they made absolutely no reference to what happened with her and Peter and how the show left off and that was a little disappointing.

Part I- 25.4 rating/40 share
Part II: 27.1/40

And this was for The Final Battle. its avergae was lower than the first mini, but Pat III did score higher than the original’s highest.

Part I: 20.7/32 (#5 for the week; aired on a Sunday)
Part II: 25.8/43 (No. 2 for the week)
Part III: 28.9/42 (No. 1 for the week)