The State of Broadcast Networks – 2nd Season

[HappyEndings]

And now, I know many of you have been waiting for this: Sunday nights. Probably one of the most commented nights of the season for ABC.

Once Upon a Time proved to be a powerhouse on its first season and Revenge was one of the most talked about/buzzed shows, so the pairing made a lot of sense. When both shows premiered they did it to a 3.9 (for OUAT) and a 3.2 (for Revenge). Pretty nice, right? They were amazingly promoted, people tuned in and from September to November the network enjoyed nice ratings for both shows… and then January came, and so the AFC championship and the Grammys, which hurt both Once Upon a Time and Revenge quite badly. OUAT hit as low as 2.0 for the first time late in the season and Revenge hit a 1.4 against the Grammys. Soon OUAT would settle in the 2.2 range and Revenge in the 1.7, way away from their glory days when their sophomore seasons began. Now, is it all ABC’s fault? I do think ABC shouldn’t have aired episode against such a huge competition, but I can’t deny that there are many fans that complains about the writing in both Once Upon a Time and Revenge; wherever it was the writing or the schedule, we can’t be too sure, but I do think both factors combined hurt them. And 10PM performers… ABC still doesn’t find something there that can work; 666 Park Avenue didn’t make it, the bizarre Happy Endings/ Apt. 23 input was a complete failure, and Red Widow never managed to impress.

Now, let’s see the season average for the scripted shows:

Network scripted shows average:
Drama average: 1.85
Comedy average: 1.825
Network average: 1.78

State of the network: ABC was badly hurt, coming from a season that got a 2.4 average and falling into 1.8 is something that surely hurt their pride. In order to rebuild the network, ABC is hopping Agents of Shield can rebuild Tuesdays night, and that Once Upon a Time in Wonderland on Thursdays at 8PM change things around for the timeslot. They are also praying to get OUAT’s and Revenge’s momentum back. We’ll see how that goes.

Should those averages carry over next season and considering ratings alone (i.e no syndication, production costs, etc), and should ABC be willing to renew performers over 80%, these would be the bottom lines:

http://www.spoilertv.com/2013/08/the-state-of-broadcast-networks-part-ii.html

[RumplesGirl]

Nothing we didn’t already know. The combo of some lackluster episodes (S, B and T for example) and the absolutely stupid schedule that ABC had us on hurt us. But, here are some other numbers:

OUAT was almost always the third most watched TV program on ABC, just behind Modern Family and Grey’s Anatomy.

OUAT ranked 18th out of all possible network shows, which was over a hundred.

OUAT always averaged between 8-11 million viewers from week to week. Our live +7 numbers were always solid.

On some blogs/sites, people have already predicted that no matter what OUAT will return for S4 because of syndicaton rules.

The ratings system is changing to incorporate social media like Twitter, where OUAT is always pretty strong during the airing of the show.

A and E know that they stumbled a bit in S2 and they’ve already said they are streamlining the new season and returning focus on the cast.

All great TV shows go through this. I’m not going to worry at all until I start seeing ratings numbers for S3.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[Phee]

Everything RG said!

Also, since I’ve been keeping an eye on the OUAT tag on tumblr, I’ve noticed that most days there’s at least one person on there saying how they’ve heard so much about the show that they’re checking it out for the first time and loving it. So there are new people joining the fandom who will be tuning in to watch live for the first time when S3 starts.

[RumplesGirl]

Oh that’s good to know! And Netflix is putting out S2 at the end of August and last year, through word of mouth, a lot of people watched S1 and then came back for S2.

Here are some other things to keep in mind: often times networks will keep shows that aren’t “powerhouses” because 1) they have nothing better to put on the air at that time and 2) the fans keep the show alive.

Ever heard of Fringe. It stayed on the air for 5 seasons with less than 5 million views per episode because of the fans. They literally kept it alive. The network and the actors all acknowledged it. OUAT has a strong fan base and ABC knows it. Our numbers aren’t what they were but they are nowhere near “cancel”

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[Phee]

And Netflix is putting out S2 at the end of August and last year, through word of mouth, a lot of people watched S1 and then came back for S2.

That’s another thing there’s been a lot of on tumblr, “Why isn’t S2 on Netflix yet, I NEED TO WATCH IT.”

It can be amusing to see the posts from newbies who post as they’re watching. Often see things like, “Well I’m two eps in and am officially addicted.” And lots of people who instantly jump on the Rumbelle ship. There’s also a bit of, “WHY DID YOU MAKE ME LOVE GRAHAM AND THEN KILL HIM?!” It’s fun seeing people have those same reactions I did back in the beginning.

[heatherc1275]

I have a friend who is VERY anxious for OUAT S2 to get on Netflix before she starts school again (she’s a teacher) and she was so ecstatic this morning when I told her that it was going to happen soon, LOL 😆

I’m not too worried about the ratings right now. I think this broken up schedule will help a LOT (oh boy did us fans HATE the two weeks on, three weeks off, etc. that we had last year) and avoiding all those big events in January/February is going to help a lot too. I also think this fanbase is WAY bigger than the ratings say and we’re also very vocal (the ABC prez said last year that he gets more mail/opinions/comments from OUAT fans than ANY other show on the network) which has to help a lot too. I think OUAT (and Revenge for that matter) are going to have big years this year because of everything I just wrote AND the fact that both regimes know they had things to improve from their second seasons and are doing just that right now. I have my fingers crossed for both!! 😀

#MoreBOOMLessGloom

[Author]

Posts