Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Don't Delay My Drama

Why all the delays?!

Heroes, Lost and Jericho are perhaps my three favorite shows on TV. Most Americans would probably agree with me on that list too. And yet we find ourselves having to wait for at least several weeks before they air the next episode.

Jericho's delay is probably directly related to March Madness and I can forgive the CBS decision makers for that. However, I don't understand the NBC or ABC decision makers.

For the time being ABC is keeping Lost on the air until this season is over. That's great. But I don't understand the huge delay in the middle of the season. They finally bring the show back just in time for February's sweeps.

We got pretty much the same treatment from CBS and NBC too. We had to go on hiatus from these serialized shows for at least two months after the November sweeps.

Are the viewers only worth their votes on the ratings months? Sure we have value then. But when we are treated as though that is our only value to the producer, we aren't happy.

It's acceptable to have a break in a sitcom or a regular drama, but when the show is serialized, people hang on from week to week. I have even found that it is better to just wait and either rent the video, or watch the replay on the Internet.

I have to give NBC a little credit in that they did at least allow Peter to "save the cheerleader" before they took a break. We at least got some closure. Lost, however, didn't give us the same courtesy. If I recall correctly the best that they gave us was revealing that Jack, Kate and Sawyer were on a different island. However, Jack was also told by Juliet to kill Ben. We were left hanging even more.

Well-done serial stories are great, they keep us wanting to return. This is especially true when the story lines are as captivating as Jericho, Lost and Heroes. But the producers and broadcasters need more respect for their audience.

This is a call out the decision makers at the television networks. Have more respect for your viewers. If you string us along too much, we will get fed up and leave.

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posted by Anonymous @ Wednesday, March 14, 2007

1 Comments:

At Monday, March 19, 2007 9:18:00 AM, Blogger That One Guy said...

You should also realize that you, as a viewer, are simply a commodity, a pair of eyes, for which the media company can charge an advertiser, which is the SOLE reason for putting ANYTHING on the air at all.

You're just a revenue stream. Period.

Obviously, the longer they keep a majority of viewers entertained, the better for them, but really, a lot of media companies will flush the long-term benefits down the toidy in favor of short term numbers for the year.

It's a stock price thing.

 

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