62 lines
2.8 KiB
HTML
62 lines
2.8 KiB
HTML
From: Jms at B5
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<TITLE>Ratings (95-12-02 01:46:18)</TITLE>
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[America Online postings by JMS]
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<A HREF="/cgi-bin/lurkfind">Search</A>
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- <A HREF="24.html">Previous</A> - <A HREF="26.html">Next</A>
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<H2>Ratings</H2>
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95-12-02 01:46:18
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<PRE> Every so often, this flares up, and I have to kind of get into it. Yes,
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Bruce would like the ratings to get better, because he feels that this show
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is at least as good as ST, if not better, and thus deserves the same ratings.
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This is not a reasonable expectation, I think; ST has almost 30 years of
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presence in the public consciousness. You can't beat that.
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What *is* important is that we have continued to get the level of
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ratings required for renewal. You don't have to be a top-10 show, or even a
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top-20 show; that's only the very tip...there are about 250 syndicated shows
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out there, and we are invariably in the top 35-40 out of 250, the ratings are
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either constant or growing in various markets, and the demographics (the kind
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of people watching the show) are exactly what the advertisers want.
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Consequently, the ads sell for very good prices to the sponsors...and WB is
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making money on the show.
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There's this recurrent wave of panic about the ratings that's really not
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merited. The fact is that Space Rangers is off the air, Time Trax is gone,
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SeaQuest has sunk, Earth 2 has fallen out of orbit, Sliders is gone, VR5 is
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gone...of all the SF shows introduced the same time or after we were, only B5
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and DS9 are still here. They're gone because they didn't get the ratings
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necessary for renewal. We're here because we do. It's really that simple.
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I've never intended this show to be a Huge Landslide Success, a
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*FRANCHISE* a la ST. I want to tell this story, and it's the kind of story
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that kinda grows on you. If you want to get the really big numbers, you have
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to dumb up the show, bring in kids, have lots of women in skimpy outfits, and
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make it into something other than what it is. And once you *become* a
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franchise, you get Noticed by the studio types...when you get Noticed by the
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studio types, suddenly they want to protect you...protect the show...and any
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stories with teeth in them get knocked down, all the corners get filed
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off...and you've got something soft and inoffensive and essentially
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meaningless.
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If I for a *moment* genuinely thought that this show was in any measure
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of jeapordy, I'd be right here banging the drums and sounding the clarion
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call and urging everyone to go out there and move and start letter campaigns
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and make lots of calls. You'll notice I'm not doing that. Because it's not
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necessary. The show is doing well enough to go on, and that means the story
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will be told, the way I feel it has to be told.
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If that should *ever* change...believe me, you'll hear about it.
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jms
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</PRE>
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