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Post by Cletus Van Damme on Apr 5, 2007 4:12:04 GMT -5
Well, I hate to be the one to break the bad new but 'On the Jones' had pretty poor ratings:
The Shield (season premiere) - 2.076 million viewers - 1.3/2 HH - 1.1/3 A18-49
I remember that the premiere for last season had about 3.5 million viewers, and that the show averaged about 3 million viewers for the entire season.
WTF?
Where did a million viewers go?
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Post by -|E|- on Apr 5, 2007 8:21:05 GMT -5
During the 13 month hiatus, viewers found other things to watch/do. FX didn't do the usual advertising blitz for 6 months prior (ie: black/white, dirt, riches), and people forgot about it. FX really dropped the ball on promoting the show that made them a decent network to begin with.
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Post by vegaslily on Apr 5, 2007 9:09:18 GMT -5
Does anyone know why FX never replayed Season 5? It was really dumb for them not to do that.
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Post by stealingjoy on Apr 5, 2007 9:46:37 GMT -5
Man, that's depressing. At least season seven has already been okay'd by Landgraf.
Honestly, I don't think it's entirely the poor promotions. I think a decent percentage of people liked TS for the action/adventure element and didn't really care for the true drama, so last season turned them off. On another board that is not movie related I started a Shield thread and had some people comment to this effect, stating seasons 4 and 5 were the worst of the series.
Boggles my mind, to be honest and it's sad the ratings are so low, but I guess that shows people's tastes. Great shows like The Wire, Deadwood, Arrested Development and others were either cancelled by low ratings or had cancellation/renewal scares, so it's easy to be disappointed by the masses.
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Post by axeman61 on Apr 5, 2007 10:12:52 GMT -5
During the 13 month hiatus, viewers found other things to watch/do. FX didn't do the usual advertising blitz for 6 months prior (ie: black/white, dirt, riches), and people forgot about it. FX really dropped the ball on promoting the show that made them a decent network to begin with. Yup. Getting people to know is half the battle (or was it "knowing is ha..." ah, screw it). Dirt was on every FX commercial break even before it's promos had any actual video from the show. The Shield got lousy coverage. I'll bet some of those million missing viewers didn't even know it was on yesterday. Magazines and internet articles did more promoting the show than FX did, compared to FX's normal level of "Look at this hot piece of ass - LOOK AT IT!!!" advertising.
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Post by lynch345 on Apr 5, 2007 13:39:00 GMT -5
Who the hell cares? The show has already been picked up for its final season and it is going to go out on its own terms. Ratings are only necessary to the point of keeping the show on the air. Ratings from this point forward are completely irrelevant.
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dutch1980
"This one will cut your hands off and then sweetly smile as she asks you to clap louder." -Vic
Posts: 30
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Post by dutch1980 on Apr 5, 2007 15:39:41 GMT -5
Lets see here..... Having a short 11-episode season, pushing back the next EVEN SHORTER 10 ep. season from the usual Jan. start to April, filling its slot with crap like 'Dirt', not re-running season 5 right before premiering season 6, outsourcing the promosode to a crap site ... all reasons why it could drop in ratings. I'm not surprised. FX does everything wrong. A show like The Sopranos can survive spreading things out and watering it down, but a show on FX can't. So when this short season ends in 2 1/2 months, and the show finally returns who knows when in 2008, I'd expect the ratings to be even lower.
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Post by SMOKE-DOG on Apr 5, 2007 16:12:38 GMT -5
Does anyone know why FX never replayed Season 5? It was really dumb for them not to do that. They did, back in November. Why they didn't do it last month? Beats the hell out of me.
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Post by Cletus Van Damme on Apr 5, 2007 17:20:29 GMT -5
Who the hell cares? The show has already been picked up for its final season and it is going to go out on its own terms. Ratings are only necessary to the point of keeping the show on the air. Ratings from this point forward are completely irrelevant. Well, my point wasnt so much that the show is in danger of being cancelled, but that it seemed strange to have lost a million viewers after a season that was successful, both artistically and ratings-wise. Its a damn shame this show doesnt have more viewers. I was moved at the end of 'On the Jones', because after watching 1 year of entertainment-oriented, simplistic, one-dimensional shows like Prison Break and 24 (which I both enjoy BTW, especially Prison Break), I was ready to see and appreciate real drama again.
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Post by jwc53531 on Apr 5, 2007 20:22:27 GMT -5
ha ha, I'm not sure I'd call Prison Break 'one-dimensional' - more like 'bizarro-dimensional' considering its complete lack of logic and any sense of normative reality (but I like it too for those very reasons) - but I agree - not showing S5 as a lead up to the 6x1 was a fatal mistake - being able to move seamlessly from "Post Partum" to the "promosode" to "On The Jones" would have made much more sense and for sure would packed a great wallop - also, I noticed that in the intro they actually used the words "sixth season"
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vicmackey
That makes you my bottom bitch!
Posts: 34
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Post by vicmackey on Apr 5, 2007 21:42:00 GMT -5
F/X has done a horrible job promoting the show that literally put them on the map!
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Post by anothershieldfan on Apr 5, 2007 21:46:15 GMT -5
Does anyone think that it really has to do with the way they killed Lem? I remember reading a lot of angry fan posts in a forum. Some of them said they weren't watching anymore, he was the conscience and a main reason they didn't see the ST as wholly corrupt. Now maybe some of them came to their senses after the shock waned but maybe some of them aren't watching any more. I don't know if it could be a million but I'd guess it did have some effect of some of them fans. Any thoughts...
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Post by ISaidWhoaDangIt on Apr 5, 2007 22:06:46 GMT -5
^ The death of Lem angered me, but more importantly, it made me want to watch this season to find out what would be Shane's fate.
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Post by axeman61 on Apr 6, 2007 2:01:48 GMT -5
Does anyone think that it really has to do with the way they killed Lem? I remember reading a lot of angry fan posts in a forum. Some of them said they weren't watching anymore, he was the conscience and a main reason they didn't see the ST as wholly corrupt. Now maybe some of them came to their senses after the shock waned but maybe some of them aren't watching any more. I don't know if it could be a million but I'd guess it did have some effect of some of them fans. Any thoughts... I could understand if they were hurt by it. I was too. But if they decided not to watch because of it, screw 'em. They missed the whole point. Perhaps they'll come to their senses later on.
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Post by anothershieldfan on Apr 6, 2007 18:54:41 GMT -5
^ The death of Lem angered me, but more importantly, it made me want to watch this season to find out what would be Shane's fate. That's true with me as well. I wanted to watch it all play out. I also realize that is a part of the story they're telling. I lost perspecitve during the shock of the season finale. It helped when I watched the BTS on the Shield website. They really haven't had to pay for anything they've done so it made sense to add some element of cost to them. I just didn't think it would be that severe and I didn't think it would be Lem. I think some of them fans will come back as the season goes on, esp. after the 6th ep.
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Post by icy on Apr 9, 2007 9:19:28 GMT -5
F/X has done a horrible job promoting the show that literally put them on the map! I am with this member. Where's the love for THE SHIELD??!!! I am not asking for it, I DEMAND more from FX as a fan from a show they supposedly support. FX should give "THE SHIELD" unprecedented coverage instead of taking for granted the series that MADE them the network that they are today. BUT, NO! They are tightwad corporate bigshots seemingly too busy churning out one crappy-ass loser show after the next instead of fulfilling their dues to the one major hit that IS "THE SHIELD". UNFORGIVABLE!!!!
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Post by dizzylizard on Apr 9, 2007 13:39:38 GMT -5
They really did do a poor job promoting this season. I remember last season there were promos for it everywhere, and they didn't start a mere 2 weeks prior to the premiere. I was seeing it on TV, hearing it on the radio, etc. They also had their website updated to reflect season 5 a lot earlier than they did this year. I can't tell you how many times I checked the site, looking for the update, and only got the season 5 info.
Something else that really bothered me was that they promoted the hell out of Dirt, and The Riches on YouTube, but if you do a search for The Shield, you find next to nothing. What you do find is all fan based, nothing official, like the other two shows.
I can also see where the more casual viewer of the show could have decided that they had jumped the shark with Lem's death. There are a lot of people who aren't out to get wrapped up in the intricate details that span several seasons like those of us here do.
~Diz
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Post by Bailey on Apr 9, 2007 15:30:30 GMT -5
Nice to see other fans feel the same way I do about killing off Lem. Some say it was a great way to tell the story, I say it sucked. FX did not do what they should have to promote this season, I agree with that. It doesn't matter because I'm watching anyway!!
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Post by Inside Man on Apr 9, 2007 16:49:33 GMT -5
Here in Chicago, there was a much bigger media blitz than I expected. I was seeing Shield spots on channels besides FX, newspaper articles. Saw a bus ad, too. TV Guide exposure helped, but that was national.
I find it hard to believe that people didn't watch the Premiere because they didn't know about it. I'd tend to believe that they didn't like the way Shane Lem died. Myself, I hated it but see the beauty in the story. People that would abandon the show for that are people who can't differentiate being "entertained" from a "happy story." To me, they are not synonymous. To my wife, they are.
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Post by axeman61 on Apr 9, 2007 17:03:28 GMT -5
Don't you mean Lem? I used to be unable to separate entertainment from good endings, but I'm past that now.
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