Some Afraid Favorites Won’t Survive the Break
Yesterday, TV.com’s Colin Mahan made an interesting suggestion that television shows that go on a mid-season vacation might end up on the hit-list of a serial killer.
Unlike sitcoms, reality TV, talk shows or specials, the serialized television program, especially those with convoluted plotlines and ensemble casting such as ABC’s “Lost” or the Fox hit “24” tend to lose more than gain in audience stats after a mid-season hiatus.
While it is true that the two programs just mentioned end up re-couping some of those losses after the first two or three episodes of their return, there are still many viewers who just stay away, having now had their attentions drawn to something else in their absence from the airways.
There was a time, in the brown-shoe days, when all shows ended their seasons in June for the summer and returned in mid-September with all new shows. When most viewers only had three or four networks to choose from that plan worked out fine for everyone, but in today’s 250 plus channel environment that kind of huge gap in time is a definite show stopper. To counter that, networks and cablers have resorted to the mid-season and shorter 2-month breaks, but many are finding that this is even becoming too long of a hiatus.
Another new show that came out of the shute flying high with ratings fever is “Jericho.” This CBS drama about life in a small Kansas town after a worldwide nuclear attack just went on hiatus last night after a very high-profile mid-season finale. It will be returning on February 7, 2007 to finish out its freshman season. While we here at Slice of SciFi believe it has what it takes to survive this break, many in the industry are not so sure.
“The show has been leaking audience in recent weeks,” Diego Vasquez wrote in Media Life Magazine. “‘Jericho’ seems to have fallen into the ‘Lost’ pattern of presenting mystery after mystery without providing enough solid answers.”
We disagree with Vasquez on that point. “Jericho,” like “Lost” give just enough answers to keep the true SF addict wanting more, but not so much as to spoil the really big surprises that we all relish. Good SF doesn’t need to keep banging one over the head week after week, so long as the writing is excellent and the execution from page to small screen is believable.
So what does CBS plan on doing in order to keep their key demographic hyped over “Jericho”? Exactly what any saavy executive who is in that 18-49 age group would do – keep the program alive and on the minds of fans by providing tons of original online content and webisode-type snippets. Taking a page out of the SCI FI Channel Battlestar Galactica playbook, CBS hopes to keep fans of the show happy, satisfied and talking about the series through internet content until it returns on television in February.
“We never would have done that…if it wasn’t for the Internet,” CBS chief research officer David Poltrack said this week.
Mahan has suggested that “one way of mitigating the uninitiated’s trepidation about being lost within a serial’s story arc is with marathons. NBC’s sister network Sci Fi Channel has run two Heroes marathons this season. The freshman serial, about superheroes that walk among us, is the season’s highest-rated new show.”
He may have something there that CBS may want to take a look at.
Submitted by: Cougar (SoSF Staff Reporter)
Kurt says
On-line content would be great, if the F*#Kers would let it be viewed outside the USA.
In the essentially shared market that Canada has with many of the Major US networks, it really sucks that we’re locked out of content such as the BSG’s Summer Webisodes, and Jericho’s “Countdown” web-based content.
Sam says
I agree wholeheartedly with you Kurt.
Kurt says
Ah well, that’s what they invented “private aircraft” for, right! ๐
Tony says
Carlton Cuse and friend promised us last year during the podcast that there wasn’t going to be a hiatus in ’06, obviously the network or something said otherwise. Luckily this year they’ve replaced it with the excellent “Day Break” – how come not a single mention on the show (except reporting it was happening way back when?) has none of you Slicers seen it? We’re up to episode 4 already!
Also, I find it strange that other countries aren’t able to see Jericho’s web content. I thought that show had a simultaneous airing worldwide, I know in Australia it’s been neck-and-neck with the US. I can understand them not showing us the BSG stuff, as our Network 10 will probably *never* air the remaining season 2 episodes and why should they, they have endless repeats of the Simpsons to air.
Sam says
I’ve got Day Break DVR’s and one of these days I may get the chance to actually watch it, once I get caught up with everything else that is recorded. ๐
We have reported on the show several times and mentioned it many times, as part of other stories here on the website.
Kurt says
Tony, I’m watching it on the HD feed of KIRO 7 from Seattle. Love the HD, not just for the obvious, but it bypasses the CRTC’s (aka FCC) dirty trick of “simulcasting” the US feed with the local Canadian signal.
So even though I’m watching the actual CBS feed, I can’t view the webisodes.
Not cool, indeed.
Sam says
Yep. Just checked out all the stories we have done concerning either directly with Day Break or a mention of it in a related article and it totals 8 stories we have done on the site here and 2 mentions on the actual show. So, I think we have covered it pretty good…but I still need to find the time to actually watch it. ๐
Summer Brooks says
I watched the 2hr pilot of Day Break and enjoyed it, but I missed the past two weeks (I tried to upgrade my DirecTV DVR to the newer model, and I so hated it, I went back to my old TiVo powered model).
So now I have to catch up on the past two eps.
fred says
In general, I don’t like mid-season breaks. Once you’re up to 8 episodes all the ground work has been layed and you’ve pretty much commited to watching the rest of the season. And then, it just seems to sneak up on you and you’re ass out of a show.
Tony says
Yes, i’ve seen the mentions here and heard them on the show, but no actual “I’ve watched it’s and it’s crap/good” for the last few eps. Just the endless Heroes/BSG touts. (which is fine, they deserve it) In fact SoSF is where i heard about Day Break first!
Kyle Nin says
How can I complain about the 3-month mid-season break for “Lost”, when I have to wait 6 MONTHS for “Stargate” to come back to finish the second half of the season (that’s for both “SG-1” and “Atlantis”)? Canadians are lucky enough to see “Atlantis” at least, but I’m not in Canada.
And, yes, I do watch “Day Break”. It’s an excellent show and I would recommend that people should watch it.
Tony says
Re: Stargate Atlantis second half 3rd season :
You are so not missing anything so far.
Kyle Nin says
You say. But I am a really big “Atlantis” fan, so I’m kind of biased when it comes to how good the show is or not.
Tony says
Well, if you really get off on the loud mouth McKay mugging it for the camera, smirking, sarcasm overload in tow..mediocre storytelling in spades YOU’ll LOVE IT!!!
Especially episode 12 where he’s even more loud!! Lap it up Kyle! Have you thought about simply going and downloading them somewhere, it’s easily done…
Kyle Nin says
It would be easily done for someone else, then. My computer is about ten years old, and I don’t even have speakers. I’ll have to wait the … let me see, how long is it now? Oh right, three or so months. Hey, I’m already half-way through the break. Before I know it, it’ll be March 2007.
Kyle Nin says
Well, now they’re saying “Stargate” will be back in APRIL, instead of March. So now the six-month hiatus has expanded to a seven-month hiatus. I think that’s a little ridiculous. Fortunately, I’m already about half-way through the break.