New TV season

[GKarsEye]

Well, the new TV season is now upon us and officially starts tonight, though some shows started early. Most notably Whoopi Goldberg's show and everybody's favorite sci-fi punching bag, Enterprise.

Whoopi seems to be getting decent reviews. I saw a clip of it and it looked like typical sitcom race-joke drivel. I think Goldberg's real talented, but she hasn't been involved in an exciting or interesting project in ages.

John Ritter's sitcom is going on without him.

CBS will be sticking to crime and law shows.

This will be the last year for Friends (a show I never liked) and Frasier (a show I used to like).

Ralphie from the Sopranos has some show that also stars that really weird-lookin' but hot chick that was in a bunch of movies. Some cop thing. Eh.

Of course I'm looking forward to 24, but that doesn't start for a month.

 

[Elizar]

Looks like Boston Public is probably going to have it's last season...no official word as of yet.

 

[GKarsEye]

Oh yeah, is that thing still on? I gave up on it a while ago. It seemed to me they already did all the stories they could in the first season.

 

[PsionTen]

Yeah, they pretty much took every sensationalized story about public high schools from the last 5 years and ran with it... they've already re-told most of the stories from season one and now they're re-re-telling them. This is pretty much every Boston Public episode:

-- Scott Guber likes a hot teacher that doesn't like him back
-- Steven Harper yells at Guber, teachers, students
-- Guber catches student(s) doing something illegal
-- A teacher catches a couple either having sex or about to have sex somewhere in school.
-- Harvey Lipschultz yells, "It's because I'm jewish, isn't it!" for no reason at all.
-- Marla Hendricks starts waving her finger, shakes her head and goes nuts on someone that doesn't deserve it.
-- A teacher has some meaningful heart-to-heart talk with some student we've never seen before
-- Something "surprising" happens at the end.

 

[Recoil]

Boomtown's new episodes start this Friday. Yep, Friday. Well I am going to set the VCR and watch it later anyway. I heard they picked up Vanessa Williams for this season, so that alone is worth the price of admission.

Alias (a show I finally got caught up on) premiers its third Season Sunday. I am curious to see where this season goes cause DAMN did the last one end on a whacked note!

24 doesnt start for a month, dammit.

I think JAG starts this week also, on Friday as well. Friday slot usually equals death but what can you do.

Well those 4 shows pretty much are the only television I watch.

 

[Recoil]

CBS will be sticking to crime and law shows.

Yea have you noticed this? Like EVERY show on CBS is either crime or law. They are premiering this new show NCIS which is a spinoff on JAG. Basically their mindset was this: "Let's take our two more popular shows JAG and CSI and combine them!" So now we have CSI, CSI:Miami (same shit, different city) and NCIS (same shit, but in the military). How original!

 

[AntonyF]

Well I want more Bo Selecta mostly Now! Hopefully that'll start soon. For now I just have The Pilot Show which is most amusing.

From the start of the new US TV season, I'm looking forward to Alias mostest. Angel... curious to see what it's like. 24 just got dumb, so I'll probably wait until the season is over, download some... and see what it's like. If it's tolerable, then I can loads of episodes without the delay. But I expect more soap opera mixed with heavy doses of implausibilty, wild terrorists threats and Jack repeating everything he says over his walky talky twice. I also expect Kim to look HOT!

 

[G Kar of the Kha Ri]

About the only shows I'm looking forward to this season are Law & Order and its two spinoffs. And anything new Cartoon Network may add to its Adult Swim lineup.

 

[Elizar]

ABC sucks.

 

[GKarsEye]

I can't really blame CBS. I think they were the lowest rated network for a while and had a reputation of appealing to older audiences, outside the key demographics. And then they had two breakthroughs: Survivor, which pretty much re-defined prime time TV forever afterwards, and CSI, which despite its lack of mass media pop exposure is one of the highest rated and, even better, most consistently watched shows on TV.

So, yeah, they're gonna milk every last drop.

 

[admiraldave]

The only shows that I'm watching regularly are The OC and Angel. I was shocked by the good writing and acting on the OC, I was expecting a mindless soap that I would never admit to watching. I'm interested in seeing how Angel turns out after last year.

I did watch the first two episodes of Enterprise. "The Xindi" was an awful episode, with a by-the-numbers plot and poor characterization. "Anomaly" was better, I consider it one of Enterprise's best episodes, which sounds like a back-handed compliment, but it's not. I'm debating whether or not I'm going to spend any more time on Enterprise. This week's episode is another "fun-with-DNA" makeupfest, sounds like some of the worst of TNG and VOY.

I caught the first episode of Survivor, but that's my roomate's fault. Ah well, I've been showing him the wonders of Babylon 5 (I love my DVDs!), so turnabout is fair play.

 

[AntonyF]

I still think the US TV system is plain barmy. They get all these new shows... then throw them *all* out at the same time, like a mad rush to get people's attentions.

 

[PsionTen]

What I don't understand is why they can't air some of these shows in the Summer.

 

[MartinRoth]

What I don't understand is why they can't air some of these shows in the Summer.

Viewership is generally way down over the summer. So the networks aren't generally inclined to air their best new material during the summer, since it'd make them less money.

The networks tend to start their fall seasons all at the same time because that's when Nielsen's "season" for ratings purposes starts. Of course, years back Nielsen started tracking ratings for "seasons" starting in the fall because that's when the networks were rolling out their new shows. It pretty much feeds on itself.

 

[AntonyF]

But then a bit of low ratings... and bham! They never stop and just do a show for the sake of it... for creating something good.

*is thankful for the BBC*

 

[GKarsEye]

But then a bit of low ratings... and bham! They never stop and just do a show for the sake of it... for creating something good.

Well, yeah. [American] TV is just a ploy to get people to watch ads. 85% marketing, 10% entertainment, and 5% "something good" (I could count the shows that fit this category in one hand, and that includes "of all time").

 

[dren1138]

I don't plan on watching anything new until The Simpsons start up again around Halloween. Does anyone know if Malcolm is starting around Halloween as well? After those shows I'm set until January for SG-1 and Monk to return. Man, I hate waiting until January. At least with all the garbage on I'll have plenty of time to do other things. Lets see, I'll watch this DVD and then that DVD and then buy that other one. I have no life!

 

[PsionTen]

Viewership is generally way down over the summer. So the networks aren't generally inclined to air their best new material during the summer, since it'd make them less money.

Viewership may be lower overall, but if everyone else is airing repeats then why wouldn't you bring out a new show? Fox has actually been dabbling in this for years... It did it this year with the O.C. and it did it in past years with That 70's Show and others. It must work somewhat because ratings for the O.C. has increased each week, it's a bona fide hit right now. Not to mention all the cable networks that benefit from everyone else airing repeats in the summer... shows like Monk, Sex in the City and the Dead Zone become "must watch" tv.

 

[MartinRoth]

Viewership may be lower overall, but if everyone else is airing repeats then why wouldn't you bring out a new show? Fox has actually been dabbling in this for years...

"Dabbling" is about right, and the other networks occasionally do this as well. Sometimes it's with a show that they feel needs a bit of time to build an audience, other times it's with a show that they're not quite sure about and want to give a test run. But the feeling seems to be that, aside from the occasional exceptions, it's generally not the most profitable way to go about things.

Also, while I talk about the ratings, I shouldn't fail to also mention the whole ad industry buying process, which is also geared toward the fall season. Their customers expect new shows to start in the fall, so new shows are going to start in the fall...

Not to mention all the cable networks that benefit from everyone else airing repeats in the summer... shows like Monk, Sex in the City and the Dead Zone become "must watch" tv.

Cable's a bit of a different thing. Cable networks are a bit more willing to break the mold, in large part (I suspect) because they don't have local affiliates that they need to keep happy. And, of course, the premium channels like HBO and Showtime are an entirely different business model, since they don't rely on advertising.

 

[PsionTen]

Sometimes it's with a show that they feel needs a bit of time to build an audience, other times it's with a show that they're not quite sure about and want to give a test run.

Or maybe they don't want a good show to get lost in the glut of all the new and returning shows in the Fall, so they air it in the Summer where there's no competiton. Not exactly a bad idea.

But the feeling seems to be that, aside from the occasional exceptions, it's generally not the most profitable way to go about things.

It isn't? Instead of sending off a good show to get slaughtered in the Fall, they air it in the Summer, build up an audience and give it a head start for the Fall giving it at least an opprotunity to thrive.

Also, while I talk about the ratings, I shouldn't fail to also mention the whole ad industry buying process, which is also geared toward the fall season. Their customers expect new shows to start in the fall, so new shows are going to start in the fall...

Maybe I'm wrong here, but when I was younger it seemed that shows returned a lot earlier than they do now... the new and returning shows used to come out in mid to late August. Nowadays, it seems that they return in late September or, in some cases, October and even November.