Nice to see that Fringe is stable even if it should be stable with a little better numbers. They said they don't expect it to grow soo... I am curious to see how Grimm did after those ridicullously good numbers last week.
I started watching Fringe a few days ago, almost done Season 1, so I'm happy about the increase :) As for Supernatural, I don't know if it's in a good place or a bad place..with CW I'm confused. At least it seems stable :)'
...It only matters if you have a Neilson Box. And I think the Neilson People who watch fringe are basically established. Also I think the Neilson people do not frequent this blog. So it basically boils down to this:
If you have a Neilson box them by all means watch Fringe live, or at the very least let it play live while you watch another TV or something. But if you don't have a Neilson box DVR it if you have a DVR. Otherwise do whatever you like.
Wow, Chuck is getting really low ratings. Ouch. Thank God it is the last season. I just hope they don't cut the season short before filming all episodes.
First off you have to go by the network, I would think. Supernatural would be fine for the CW but terrible for Fox. It goes by the number of viewers the network gets and the night it's on. Supernatural was stable last week at .08, but it has gone down this week. I am sure the ending of last week didn't help matters, but those who missed will be disappointed that they had. I also imagine that James Marsters remarks about the boys wanting him back and that Castiel was gone did help matters at all.
Interesting, Supernatural has more or less kept steady and if it's final numbers are put up to 0.8 like last week that would be confirmed.
Grimm is the new unknown on Friday nights now and I am curious to know where the Grimm viewers have come from. Have they transferred from other shows, and if yes, from which ones, or has it attracted completely new viewers?
People who have Nielson boxes are not the only ones who matter! This is a good article on the things you can do as a Fringe fan to gain more attention for the show. http://www.fringetelevision.com/2011/11/fringe-ratings-how-to-overcome-nielsen.html#more They have a lot of great suggestions, but the point is that what people are talking about on the internet MATTERS more and more. So talk about Fringe! Tweet @FringeonFOX how you feel about the show, that you are watching live. Comment on official FOX message boards. Check in on GetGlue EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT! FOX has regularly teamed up with GetGlue promotionally and Fringe reigns as number one over there during new episodes, so don't tell me those numbers don't matter. And as Ricky said, if you have a DVR, make sure you record it and watch it again and let the commercials play. Those ridiculously good DVR numbers might have been highly responsible for there being a season 4.
I was worried Grimm would take a chunk out of Fringe's viewership, being a new show and all. But it's good to see that the two audiences don't really overlap. If Fringe stays where it is (or goes higher), it may just be safe.
Nice Fringe is up to 1.3 again. Next week's episode looks nice so I'm hoping for a 1.4 :) Too bad I can't influence the US viewer counts.. I'm from Germany. :(
Definitely. Where is Fox going to find another Friday show with a loyal core audience like that? Bringing any other show to that timeslot to replace Fringe would just be a risk to them.
Yeah, the mystery of who the Grimm fans are interests me as well. You would think for a show like that to do this well they would have to take away viewers from existing Friday shows. Namely genre shows like Fringe and Supernatural. But those shows stayed rock steady. Clearly more people are willing to watch tv on Fridays; I just wish it was Fringe they were watching.
Apparently the Grimm viewers have not come out of the Supernatural or Fringe viewers. SPN and Fringe numbers are both up from last time they both aired a new episode (3 weeks ago). I am sure there is plenty of overlap in viewers, but it isn't having any negative effect on either of those 2 shows yet, contrary to my dire predictions last month. Fringe and SPN may have a chance to survive yet, though they are both still doing poorly.
The people watching Grimm are likely the people who lost interest in Fringe & SPN in previous seasons (both shows only have about 30% of the viewers they started with).
I am happy that Fringe is getting a bit more ratings and the only solution I see for it to get better ratings is to have a good lead in show that would compliment it. I was hoping for Alcatraz since it is also another JJ Abrams show but it's going to be on Mondays. So I'm really hoping FOX gives Fringe a good companion show if it want's it's ratings to go up.
The only other genre show Fox has coming up is Touch, which isn't coming until Spring. It is always possible that Terra Nova will get pushed to Friday as its numbers drop.
Fox will compare Fringe ratings to other shows on Fox.
As for the DVR thing, only people with Nielsen boxes affect both the live and DVR ratings. If you have a DVR but are not a Nielsen family, it still doesn't matter that you DVR's it. Only exception - if you are sent a paper survey in the mail during sweeps week. Then your viewing will count also. Rooting against Grimm will not help Fringe out at all.
HA! I wrote a similar blog about Supernatural in October. However, that still doesn't change the fact that watching live or even DVR-ing Fringe does not help its ratings unless you are a Nielsen family. I agree that it is more fun to watch live and DVR because then you can talk about your passion with fans right away and you can rewatch all you want. It just won't help the ratings. The other suggestions are where genre shows like Fringe and Superantural might have some power. Letting advertisers know you are buying their products because they support your show is better than sending useless items to the networks. TV like every other business comes down to the money.
I suppose you would have to total up the overall viewers from last week and compare with this week's total to see any new viewer numbers. However I'm happy SPN is holding up although it deserves more of an audience than what it has!
The CW will be in a quandary if the ratings continue as they are. Typically the CW launches around 3 new shows a year plus a couple reality shows. Unless the CW dumps reality, which I don't see happening because it is so cheap to buy, they will probably need to ax 3 current shows. One Tree Hill will end this year, leaving them to make a decision about the other 2. Unless things change ratings wise I think Nikita is done but except for Vampire Diaries, all their other shows have very similar ratings which means other factors might come into play. Supernatural has the advantage of being on Friday nights where ratings are expected to be lower (although I don't think this will save Nikita). They also know Supernatural fans bring press to the network, like with the TV Guide cover. Still right now it looks like a toss-up on who stays and who goes. It may come down to which shows are more expensive to purchase. Either way, if One Tree Hill is successful with it's last season billing the way that Smallville was, you can expect an announcement that something will be in its final season next year at Upfronts in May.
These are just the preliminary numbers. Supernatural has been getting a 0.7 demo in prelims for weeks. Except for last week when it stayed a 0.7, they tend to bump up to a 0.8 in the final ratings. That is a trend I would love to continue.
Yikes, put Terra Nova on Friday night too and my head might explode. Already I juggle more on that night than any other day of the week and that's supposed to be a TV dead zone.
Unless he's been holding out on us for a year, Wilson sadly does not have a Nielsen box either. I do however know a person online who knows a person who had a Nielsen box and let them house sit one weekend. Before then, I put Nielsen viewers in the category of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster - people talk about them but there hasn't been actual proof.
The internet may only count as a fraction of what Nielsen ratings do, but they still matter, they're still looked at, especially a sci-fi show with a fan base like Fringe. I've seen the EP's and actors say multiple times that the campaign to send Red Vines into FOX helped us get a fourth season. Perhaps they don't know what they're talking about but I think fan campaigns can make a difference just by bringing attention to the show. Of course it all comes down to money, but the people spending the money don't only care about Nielsen ratings, they also care that there are other ways to document the way people watch television today. They understand that the people watching live on Friday nights with Nielsen boxes aren't the only people exposed to their ads.
My guess is that Red Vines had less to do with it than the fact that it was in the WB's best interest to sell Fringe at a discount to Fox in order to get to the magical 88 episodes needed to syndicate it. However I can't prove that. I'm not sure any send-in campaign has been successful since Jericho's ratings tanked after theirs. More successful by far was the Chuck Subway campaign. The fans encouraged Subway to be Chuck's sponsor and Chuck was renewed despite poor ratings. I honestly think that the best thing a non-Nielsen fan can do is show advertisers that they are watching the commercials and buying their products. That way the advertisers, who in the end determine what shows are renewed and which aren't, know theirs ads have been successful despite the ratings. That's a powerful testament to a show's bottom line.
I agree that the internet is getting more attention now at least by the TV creation side of Hollywood. It still has a long way to go before they have a working model to make it profitable to advertisers and convince those advertisers it is worth the thousands to millions of dollars they spend during a one hour TV show. I also agree that getting a show attention can only help. Fringe has a great supporter in Entertainment Weekly. I would expect fans to capitalize on that opportunity as much as possible.
No, I don't have a box. I was just pointing out that demanding people that they watch the show to increase ratings doesn't work if they don't have the box.
Arguably SPN is NOT doing poorly, when compared to other CW shows AND for what night it is on. Fringe however remains a weekly source of stress for me.
I always wonder what Fringe's Friday ratings would be if it's lead in wasn't a cooking show. I happen to like Kitchen Nightmares but the programming of those two together completely confuses me. I would love to know the rationale for it. As for Grimm, I tried watching it and I didn't like it to be honest. I DO like Once Upon A Time which is 'similar' but not really so it's not a genre/fable thing. It just seemed to corny to me and I couldn't get through it.
There are plenty of dead things on Friday nights, but the schedule no longer is one of those things. Ever since SPN switched over, it seems like everyone's jumping on that bandwagon (usually with the "Oh this is where the X Files was, so let's throw Grimm/Fringe/Chuck, etc. on Friday as well!)
I figured. :-) I think the best solution is that we get our very own Nielsen box. Surely it would be a boon to the economy considering how many more employees they would need. I propose some senator put that in the nation's economic recovery plan. :-P
- Nice second showing for Grimm. It had a slight drop but it won the hour and was second in the demo, behind only Blue Bloods for the entire night.
- Nikita and Supernatural were steady, like always.
- Fringe inched up a little, thankfully.
- Chuck was even more dismal than last week. I don't care if this is Chuck's final season or not, if the ratings don't improve NBC should pull it. They could get much better ratings showing a repeat of almost anything.
That's an interesting point about the new viewers for Grimm. More people spending time home on Friday night maybe? In Canada, there's only one of me and I had to watch Grimm and taped Fringe. Will see how that affects ratings later in the week.
SPN is doing poorly no matter how badly everything else on CW is doing. Though yes, SPN doing better than some other CW shows does help its chances of survival.
2 weeks ago, NBC ran reruns of The Office (.6) and Parks & Recreation (.6), so they can easily do worse than Chuck's .8, though I do agree that is awful for a first run episode.
Trust me I'm doing all I can, but watching live doesn't quite do it. Unless you have a Neilson box, that's all I mean. Unless of course you go buy all the products that are advertised.
Something that close is still beneficial by comparison.
It's better for NBC financially to run a repeat (a show they've already paid to make) with roughly the same ratings as it would be to continue to produce a brand new show that performs similarly. They get the same results without all of the added cost.
I have to admit, I still watch SPN and Fringe but sporadically and almost never on the night it airs. I'll usually DVR or watch it at Fox/CW online later in the week. I have, however, watched both episodes of Grimm when it aired and will continue to do so. I like it!
I don't know it for a fact. It's simply speculation and a popular theory on different ratings sites, including TVbtN. However, last year's ratings alone did not rate another season, especially after seeing how relatively little an ad costs during Fringe compared to most other Fox shows. It's not on the air because Fox is making a lot of money from it.
Fringe has a deep cast and is in its 4th season which automatically means higher costs salary wise. Add in 2 different universes and a lot of special effects and Fringe is not cheap to make. They've got product placement going for it but my guess is that WB is making its most money through DVD sales and foreign markets. If they can get a syndication deal that ups the take substantially and opens Fringe up to a whole new market. In short, if they get a syndication deal they would make up for any discount they could offer Fox relatively quickly. However, syndication can really only happen if you have enough episodes in the can and you can't have episodes without a network to air it on. Therefore, WB needs Fox too if they want syndication to happen. This season will put Fringe past the new 88 episode level that tends to lead to syndication deals. If they get a season next year, they will have the tradition 100 episodes. There was a lot of incentive for WB to make Fox a good offer for this season. I don't know that they did but it certainly makes a lot more sense to me than Red Vines and DVRs.
I don't watch SoA so I'm not sure what Sutter did, but I absolutely believe that fans influence TV shows far more than ever before. A vocal, motivated, and persistent part of a fandom can force show producers to change course, drop plot lines, and yes, even bring fired people back. As far as show content goes they are very powerful, sometimes to the detriment of the series. Supernatural is a perfect example of fans that almost have too much say in what happens on their show. As far as the creative side of a show goes, fans are king. It's the business side of Hollywood where I think they have less influence.
I'd be doing my happy dance all week if Supernatural got back to a 1.0 demo, but I am resigned that it won't happen. The only good thing is that ratings are down all over the CW so the only show getting a 1.0 or above is the Vampire Diaries. Supernatural doesn't have to be the top show (although I wish it was). It just has to do better than enough shows to stay in the game.
Ok. I though it was in print somewhere (as in quoted) that they were selling it to them at a discounted rate. I've worked in syndi for a long time and know how it works, but there are a lot of back end deals that need to be taken into account for this show. And it's expensive - just like any show on TV right now - but helluva lot cheaper than many think. Fringe, SPN, Secret Circle and Once Upon A Time get HUGE, (HUGE!) tax breaks in Van. From crew, to VFX, to on-location in outlying city tax credits, it's why everything is shot there that is Sci-Fi or effect heavy. (Meaning they have so many individual tax credits, not just one flat one) And that's why those shows continually have the same production quality too, they don't have to 'cut' anything out for budget slashing. (And I'd take the snarky writing on TVBTN like a grain of salt. Some of the 'writing' there has a lot to be desired on how they report their facts.) And still, the rate that they can charge for a Friday night show at 9pm on FOX is still pretty good. I'm not sure why so many are seeing that number from Ad Age as a bad thing. That's just ONE source of income for the show. And it's the price of a show that runs at 9pm on a Friday. It's comparable to the other networks and the rates they are charging for the same time period. In fact, it's more than some of the other networks for that time slot.
I think NBC knew they were going to be taking a loss on Chuck and that's why they scheduled it's final 13 episodes on Friday nights instead of another night. I personally think they thought it was going to do better though. I'm almost wondering if they flipped Grimm to 8 if that as a lead-in would help Chuck. That said, any other network might have canned it since it wasn't helping them last season in it's old time slot. I think with the Comcast merger they decided to just let it finish, keep the fans happy and have a series that ran from start to finish creatively.
It's literally mind-boggling, the tax breaks they get. I'm a bit off on my numbers and some stuff will be changing with the HST stuff going on in BC in 18 months time but crew/labor is around a 25% break, VFX is around a 30% break and each city has their own rate to shoot there too. That averages 'around' 20%. Don't quote me on these as exact percentages but they are around these figures. Same for movies too. That's why films like Superman, Elysium and RIPD which are extremely effects heavy are shot in BC too.
I find the pairing to be weird too because I don't see how that would get people to watch Sci-Fi after a reality show. I wish they would build-up their Friday like how the have The Animation Domination on Sundays. I also Like Once Upon A Time. Grimm's premise for me is just too far off, I couldn't even finish the Pilot.
I just have to ignore the commentors. Every once in a while though, it's blatant that they are trying to start something with fans of shows like Fringe, Chuck, etc.
NOTE: Name-calling, personal attacks, spamming, excessive self-promotion, condescending pomposity, general assiness, racism, sexism, any-other-ism, homophobia, acrophobia, and destructive (versus constructive) criticism will get you BANNED from the party.
As long as it stays around this number, I'm quite relieved. Thank God!!
ReplyDeleteSPN's good?
ReplyDeleteyay Fringe <3
ReplyDeleteYay, it's trying to increase again. :)
ReplyDeleteGood job Fringe XDD
ReplyDeleteNice to see that Fringe is stable even if it should be stable with a little better numbers. They said they don't expect it to grow soo...
ReplyDeleteI am curious to see how Grimm did after those ridicullously good numbers last week.
It seems Fringe is holding its own,lets wait for the rest of the numbers before we break out in dance,shouting out hallelujah!
ReplyDeleteI hope so.. I never really know how to read these haha
ReplyDelete1.3 for Fringe this is great.
ReplyDeletec´mon people!! watch fringe pleasee
ReplyDeleteI started watching Fringe a few days ago, almost done Season 1, so I'm happy about the increase :)
ReplyDeleteAs for Supernatural, I don't know if it's in a good place or a bad place..with CW I'm confused. At least it
seems stable :)'
Fox will compare Fringe to Grimm ratings, so if you are a Fringie, don't DVR Grimm, because you're helping up its ratings
ReplyDeleteI think I've said this a million times but...
ReplyDelete...It only matters if you have a Neilson Box. And I think the Neilson People who watch fringe are basically established. Also I think the Neilson people do not frequent this blog. So it basically boils down to this:
If you have a Neilson box them by all means watch Fringe live, or at the very least let it play live while you watch another TV or something. But if you don't have a Neilson box DVR it if you have a DVR. Otherwise do whatever you like.
DVR Fringe~
ReplyDeleteWow, Chuck is getting really low ratings. Ouch. Thank God it is the last season. I just hope they don't cut the season short before filming all episodes.
ReplyDeleteKeep steady Fringe!
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily.
ReplyDelete*cough* nielsen box *Cough*
OOOOHHHH!!! so they do exist. *Ahem*
ReplyDeleteSPN is stable and is doing the same average demo than most of the CW shows...while being on friday :) So yeah it's good
ReplyDeleteFirst off you have to go by the network, I would think. Supernatural would be fine for the CW but terrible for Fox. It goes by the number of viewers the network gets and the night it's on. Supernatural was stable last week at .08, but it has gone down this week. I am sure the ending of last week didn't help matters, but those who missed will be disappointed that they had. I also imagine that James Marsters remarks about the boys wanting him back and that Castiel was gone did help matters at all.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, Supernatural has more or less kept steady and if it's final numbers are put up to 0.8 like last week that would be confirmed.
ReplyDeleteGrimm is the new unknown on Friday nights now and I am curious to know where the Grimm viewers have come from.
Have they transferred from other shows, and if yes, from which ones, or has it attracted completely new viewers?
People who have Nielson boxes are not the only ones who matter! This is a good article on the things you can do as a Fringe fan to gain more attention for the show. http://www.fringetelevision.com/2011/11/fringe-ratings-how-to-overcome-nielsen.html#more
ReplyDeleteThey have a lot of great suggestions, but the point is that what people are talking about on the internet MATTERS more and more. So talk about Fringe! Tweet @FringeonFOX how you feel about the show, that you are watching live. Comment on official FOX message boards. Check in on GetGlue EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT! FOX has regularly teamed up with GetGlue promotionally and Fringe reigns as number one over there during new episodes, so don't tell me those numbers don't matter. And as Ricky said, if you have a DVR, make sure you record it and watch it again and let the commercials play. Those ridiculously good DVR numbers might have been highly responsible for there being a season 4.
I was worried Grimm would take a chunk out of Fringe's viewership, being a new show and all. But it's good to see that the two audiences don't really overlap. If Fringe stays where it is (or goes higher), it may just be safe.
ReplyDeleteI think Fringe has hit the stabilization point in ratings. The people that watched, the 1.3% of 18-49 year olds, they are the base. It'll get renewed.
ReplyDeleteNice Fringe is up to 1.3 again. Next week's episode looks nice so I'm hoping for a 1.4 :)
ReplyDeleteToo bad I can't influence the US viewer counts.. I'm from Germany. :(
Definitely. Where is Fox going to find another Friday show with a loyal core audience like that? Bringing any other show to that timeslot to replace Fringe would just be a risk to them.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the mystery of who the Grimm fans are interests me as well. You would think for a show like that to do this well they would have to take away viewers from existing Friday shows. Namely genre shows like Fringe and Supernatural. But those shows stayed rock steady. Clearly more people are willing to watch tv on Fridays; I just wish it was Fringe they were watching.
ReplyDeleteThe people that watched Grimm, I think, are new viewers. Viewers looking for a casual show to watch, not some die-hard Supernatural or Fringe fans.
ReplyDeleteDon't feel bad. 99% of US viewers can't influence those numbers either.
ReplyDeleteYay for fringe..keep watching people, woot!
ReplyDeleteApparently the Grimm viewers have not come out of the Supernatural or Fringe viewers. SPN and Fringe numbers are both up from last time they both aired a new episode (3 weeks ago). I am sure there is plenty of overlap in viewers, but it isn't having any negative effect on either of those 2 shows yet, contrary to my dire predictions last month. Fringe and SPN may have a chance to survive yet, though they are both still doing poorly.
ReplyDeleteThe people watching Grimm are likely the people who lost interest in Fringe & SPN in previous seasons (both shows only have about 30% of the viewers they started with).
ReplyDeleteI am happy that Fringe is getting a bit more ratings and the only solution I see for it to get better ratings is to have a good lead in show that would compliment it. I was hoping for Alcatraz since it is also another JJ Abrams show but it's going to be on Mondays. So I'm really hoping FOX gives Fringe a good companion show if it want's it's ratings to go up.
ReplyDeleteThe only other genre show Fox has coming up is Touch, which isn't coming until Spring. It is always possible that Terra Nova will get pushed to Friday as its numbers drop.
ReplyDeleteFox will compare Fringe ratings to other shows on Fox.
ReplyDeleteAs for the DVR thing, only people with Nielsen boxes affect both the live and DVR ratings. If you have a DVR but are not a Nielsen family, it still doesn't matter that you DVR's it. Only exception - if you are sent a paper survey in the mail during sweeps week. Then your viewing will count also. Rooting against Grimm will not help Fringe out at all.
Fringe hasn't lost many viewers since it was moved to Friday Nights.
ReplyDeleteHA! I wrote a similar blog about Supernatural in October. However, that still doesn't change the fact that watching live or even DVR-ing Fringe does not help its ratings unless you are a Nielsen family. I agree that it is more fun to watch live and DVR because then you can talk about your passion with fans right away and you can rewatch all you want. It just won't help the ratings. The other suggestions are where genre shows like Fringe and Superantural might have some power. Letting advertisers know you are buying their products because they support your show is better than sending useless items to the networks. TV like every other business comes down to the money.
ReplyDeleteI suppose you would have to total up the overall viewers from last week and compare with this week's total to see any new viewer numbers.
ReplyDeleteHowever I'm happy SPN is holding up although it deserves more of an audience than what it has!
The CW will be in a quandary if the ratings continue as they are. Typically the CW launches around 3 new shows a year plus a couple reality shows. Unless the CW dumps reality, which I don't see happening because it is so cheap to buy, they will probably need to ax 3 current shows. One Tree Hill will end this year, leaving them to make a decision about the other 2. Unless things change ratings wise I think Nikita is done but except for Vampire Diaries, all their other shows have very similar ratings which means other factors might come into play. Supernatural has the advantage of being on Friday nights where ratings are expected to be lower (although I don't think this will save Nikita). They also know Supernatural fans bring press to the network, like with the TV Guide cover. Still right now it looks like a toss-up on who stays and who goes. It may come down to which shows are more expensive to purchase. Either way, if One Tree Hill is successful with it's last season billing the way that Smallville was, you can expect an announcement that something will be in its final season next year at Upfronts in May.
ReplyDeleteThese are just the preliminary numbers. Supernatural has been getting a 0.7 demo in prelims for weeks. Except for last week when it stayed a 0.7, they tend to bump up to a 0.8 in the final ratings. That is a trend I would love to continue.
ReplyDeleteYikes, put Terra Nova on Friday night too and my head might explode. Already I juggle more on that night than any other day of the week and that's supposed to be a TV dead zone.
ReplyDeleteMy point is that there are a ton of viewers who like genre shows who aren't currently watching Fringe or SPN.
ReplyDeleteUnless he's been holding out on us for a year, Wilson sadly does not have a Nielsen box either. I do however know a person online who knows a person who had a Nielsen box and let them house sit one weekend. Before then, I put Nielsen viewers in the category of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster - people talk about them but there hasn't been actual proof.
ReplyDeleteThe internet may only count as a fraction of what Nielsen ratings do, but they still matter, they're still looked at, especially a sci-fi show with a fan base like Fringe. I've seen the EP's and actors say multiple times that the campaign to send Red Vines into FOX helped us get a fourth season. Perhaps they don't know what they're talking about but I think fan campaigns can make a difference just by bringing attention to the show. Of course it all comes down to money, but the people spending the money don't only care about Nielsen ratings, they also care that there are other ways to document the way people watch television today. They understand that the people watching live on Friday nights with Nielsen boxes aren't the only people exposed to their ads.
ReplyDeleteI dropped SPN years ago so I was looking for something else like it and found Grimm. I still watch Fringe though.
ReplyDeleteIt's a relief seeing Fringe starting to do better in the ratings. Let's hope it keeps it up.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that Red Vines had less to do with it than the fact that it was in the WB's best interest to sell Fringe at a discount to Fox in order to get to the magical 88 episodes needed to syndicate it. However I can't prove that. I'm not sure any send-in campaign has been successful since Jericho's ratings tanked after theirs. More successful by far was the Chuck Subway campaign. The fans encouraged Subway to be Chuck's sponsor and Chuck was renewed despite poor ratings. I honestly think that the best thing a non-Nielsen fan can do is show advertisers that they are watching the commercials and buying their products. That way the advertisers, who in the end determine what shows are renewed and which aren't, know theirs ads have been successful despite the ratings. That's a powerful testament to a show's bottom line.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the internet is getting more attention now at least by the TV creation side of Hollywood. It still has a long way to go before they have a working model to make it profitable to advertisers and convince those advertisers it is worth the thousands to millions of dollars they spend during a one hour TV show. I also agree that getting a show attention can only help. Fringe has a great supporter in Entertainment Weekly. I would expect fans to capitalize on that opportunity as much as possible.
No, I don't have a box. I was just pointing out that demanding people that they watch the show to increase ratings doesn't work if they don't have the box.
ReplyDeleteArguably SPN is NOT doing poorly, when compared to other CW shows AND for what night it is on. Fringe however remains a weekly source of stress for me.
ReplyDeleteI always wonder what Fringe's Friday ratings would be if it's lead in wasn't a cooking show. I happen to like Kitchen Nightmares but the programming of those two together completely confuses me. I would love to know the rationale for it. As for Grimm, I tried watching it and I didn't like it to be honest. I DO like Once Upon A Time which is 'similar' but not really so it's not a genre/fable thing. It just seemed to corny to me and I couldn't get through it.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of dead things on Friday nights, but the schedule no longer is one of those things. Ever since SPN switched over, it seems like everyone's jumping on that bandwagon (usually with the "Oh this is where the X Files was, so let's throw Grimm/Fringe/Chuck, etc. on Friday as well!)
ReplyDeleteJust curious, but where are you getting your info from that Warner Bros is licensing Fringe to FOX at a discount?
ReplyDeleteI figured. :-) I think the best solution is that we get our very own Nielsen box. Surely it would be a boon to the economy considering how many more employees they would need. I propose some senator put that in the nation's economic recovery plan. :-P
ReplyDelete- Nice second showing for Grimm. It had a slight drop but it won the hour and was second in the demo, behind only Blue Bloods for the entire night.
ReplyDelete- Nikita and Supernatural were steady, like always.
- Fringe inched up a little, thankfully.
- Chuck was even more dismal than last week. I don't care if this is Chuck's final season or not, if the ratings don't improve NBC should pull it. They could get much better ratings showing a repeat of almost anything.
lol That's not true at all. Have you seen the other ratings for NBC shows lately?
ReplyDeleteYes I have and they don't air any scripted show that comes close to a god-awful .8 in the demo. I stand firmly behind my post.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting point about the new viewers for Grimm. More people spending time home on Friday night maybe?
ReplyDeleteIn Canada, there's only one of me and I had to watch Grimm and taped Fringe. Will see how that affects ratings later in the week.
SPN is doing poorly no matter how badly everything else on CW is doing. Though yes, SPN doing better than some other CW shows does help its chances of survival.
ReplyDeleteim glad fringe is steady but i stilll wish the ratings would increasee!!
ReplyDelete2 weeks ago, NBC ran reruns of The Office (.6) and Parks & Recreation (.6), so they can easily do worse than Chuck's .8, though I do agree that is awful for a first run episode.
ReplyDeleteTrust me I'm doing all I can, but watching live doesn't quite do it. Unless you have a Neilson box, that's all I mean. Unless of course you go buy all the products that are advertised.
ReplyDeleteSomething that close is still beneficial by comparison.
ReplyDeleteIt's better for NBC financially to run a repeat (a show they've already paid to make) with roughly the same ratings as it would be to continue to produce a brand new show that performs similarly. They get the same results without all of the added cost.
Sure, but they have already paid for the Chuck episodes.
ReplyDeleteI see. Thank you for clearing that up Dahne and Soline :)
ReplyDeleteI'd feel a lot better if Supernatural ratings went a bit more up though >_<
I have to admit, I still watch SPN and Fringe but sporadically and almost never on the night it airs. I'll usually DVR or watch it at Fox/CW online later in the week. I have, however, watched both episodes of Grimm when it aired and will continue to do so. I like it!
ReplyDeleteYay for Blue Bloods! So glad it won in the ratings and the 18-49!
ReplyDeleteLook at the uproar from the Sons of Anarchy fans. Sutter had them riled into a frenzy.
ReplyDeleteThey may or may not have influenced anything but the producers and the network know how their fans feel.
I don't know it for a fact. It's simply speculation and a popular theory on different ratings sites, including TVbtN. However, last year's ratings alone did not rate another season, especially after seeing how relatively little an ad costs during Fringe compared to most other Fox shows. It's not on the air because Fox is making a lot of money from it.
ReplyDeleteFringe has a deep cast and is in its 4th season which automatically means higher costs salary wise. Add in 2 different universes and a lot of special effects and Fringe is not cheap to make. They've got product placement going for it but my guess is that WB is making its most money through DVD sales and foreign markets. If they can get a syndication deal that ups the take substantially and opens Fringe up to a whole new market. In short, if they get a syndication deal they would make up for any discount they could offer Fox relatively quickly. However, syndication can really only happen if you have enough episodes in the can and you can't have episodes without a network to air it on. Therefore, WB needs Fox too if they want syndication to happen. This season will put Fringe past the new 88 episode level that tends to lead to syndication deals. If they get a season next year, they will have the tradition 100 episodes. There was a lot of incentive for WB to make Fox a good offer for this season. I don't know that they did but it certainly makes a lot more sense to me than Red Vines and DVRs.
I don't watch SoA so I'm not sure what Sutter did, but I absolutely believe that fans influence TV shows far more than ever before. A vocal, motivated, and persistent part of a fandom can force show producers to change course, drop plot lines, and yes, even bring fired people back. As far as show content goes they are very powerful, sometimes to the detriment of the series. Supernatural is a perfect example of fans that almost have too much say in what happens on their show. As far as the creative side of a show goes, fans are king. It's the business side of Hollywood where I think they have less influence.
ReplyDeleteI'd be doing my happy dance all week if Supernatural got back to a 1.0 demo, but I am resigned that it won't happen. The only good thing is that ratings are down all over the CW so the only show getting a 1.0 or above is the Vampire Diaries. Supernatural doesn't have to be the top show (although I wish it was). It just has to do better than enough shows to stay in the game.
ReplyDeleteOk. I though it was in print somewhere (as in quoted) that they were selling it to them at a discounted rate. I've worked in syndi for a long time and know how it works, but there are a lot of back end deals that need to be taken into account for this show. And it's expensive - just like any show on TV right now - but helluva lot cheaper than many think. Fringe, SPN, Secret Circle and Once Upon A Time get HUGE, (HUGE!) tax breaks in Van. From crew, to VFX, to on-location in outlying city tax credits, it's why everything is shot there that is Sci-Fi or effect heavy. (Meaning they have so many individual tax credits, not just one flat one) And that's why those shows continually have the same production quality too, they don't have to 'cut' anything out for budget slashing. (And I'd take the snarky writing on TVBTN like a grain of salt. Some of the 'writing' there has a lot to be desired on how they report their facts.) And still, the rate that they can charge for a Friday night show at 9pm on FOX is still pretty good. I'm not sure why so many are seeing that number from Ad Age as a bad thing. That's just ONE source of income for the show. And it's the price of a show that runs at 9pm on a Friday. It's comparable to the other networks and the rates they are charging for the same time period. In fact, it's more than some of the other networks for that time slot.
ReplyDeleteI think NBC knew they were going to be taking a loss on Chuck and that's why they scheduled it's final 13 episodes on Friday nights instead of another night. I personally think they thought it was going to do better though. I'm almost wondering if they flipped Grimm to 8 if that as a lead-in would help Chuck. That said, any other network might have canned it since it wasn't helping them last season in it's old time slot. I think with the Comcast merger they decided to just let it finish, keep the fans happy and have a series that ran from start to finish creatively.
ReplyDeleteYes, the tax breaks. That is a huge deal. Thanks for mentioning it.
ReplyDeleteIt's literally mind-boggling, the tax breaks they get. I'm a bit off on my numbers and some stuff will be changing with the HST stuff going on in BC in 18 months time but crew/labor is around a 25% break, VFX is around a 30% break and each city has their own rate to shoot there too. That averages 'around' 20%. Don't quote me on these as exact percentages but they are around these figures. Same for movies too. That's why films like Superman, Elysium and RIPD which are extremely effects heavy are shot in BC too.
ReplyDeleteI find the pairing to be weird too because I don't see how that would get people to watch Sci-Fi after a reality show. I wish they would build-up their Friday like how the have The Animation Domination on Sundays. I also Like Once Upon A Time. Grimm's premise for me is just too far off, I couldn't even finish the Pilot.
ReplyDeletenot good but awesome,,!!
ReplyDeleteTBYTN isn't that bad. They're usually on the mark.
ReplyDeleteI just have to ignore the commentors. Every once in a while though, it's blatant that they are trying to start something with fans of shows like Fringe, Chuck, etc.
ReplyDeleteJust like last week, SPN was elevated to a 0.8 in the final ratings. It's been a 0.8 for 3-4 weeks now I believe.
ReplyDeleteAlso, total viewers: 1.84 million.
(All according to TVBTN...which is the best place for numbers)
Yeah, they sometimes go over the line, but they're just trying to boost web traffic.
ReplyDeletethis is great!
ReplyDelete