TVLine Reports: Is the Split Season Working?

[RumplesGirl]

The interesting numbers will be the upcoming maybe 3-4 episodes, if the audience is coming back: will there be a significant drop or will the numbers stay the same as before the break or maybe even increase.

Yeah, I’m really interested to see what our 312-314 numbers are. I think we’ll be higher for 312 than 3111 (seems like a common sense thing IMO. People want to see “what happens next” and ABC is hyping the #WickedIsComing stuff) but I don’t think it’s going to be a BIG jump. 311 was good but I don’t know if it’s enough to bring back scores of people. My totally uninformed guess for 312 rating is a 2.3/4

[Myril]

PriceofMagic wrote:
The biggest downfall is the long hiatus. Had Wonderland been saved for the hiatus, I think the fandom wouldn’t be so frustrated at times because we would still be getting our Once “fix”. If they do decide to do a split season again for season 4, I hope they give us something to fill the hiatuses especially the winter one because winter is a gloomy season anyway made all the worse without Once.

That was the original plan for Wonderland, that it would air during the break between 3A and B, but for whatever reason, ABC set it to air at the beginning of the season.

Maybe they thought it could be a show not just interesting for die hard fans of OUaT? More than an interlude, a filler? If shown during the hiatus, Wonderland would have had to compete with big events, award shows, Superbowl, but most importantly the Olympics. It would have been a sort of throw away, a snack for the fans, or for people with little interest in sports and live events. Think they hoped, believed the show could attract broader audience.

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[obisgirl]

Good point, @myril

[Cinders]

I’m confused as to how the ratings work. I used to be able to rematch episodes using On Demand from Time Warner, and I believed that rematch was included in the ratings.
However, Time Warner and other cable providers have changed what they give us On Demand. It’s my understanding that they won’t offer next day viewing. We will now have to wait a full week to rewatch OUAT.
Will this change effect the ratings?

[Phee]

I think the split season has been beneficial in that you’re getting the whole story in one continuous motion rather than constantly stopping and starting every few weeks. The biggest downfall is the long hiatus. Had Wonderland been saved for the hiatus, I think the fandom wouldn’t be so frustrated at times because we would still be getting our Once “fix”.

Agreed. I think when the season is done, we’ll be able to look back and say that it really was a great idea from a story telling standpoint. But man, this long hiatus is a killer if you’re in the fandom.

However, Time Warner and other cable providers have changed what they give us On Demand. It’s my understanding that they won’t offer next day viewing. We will now have to wait a full week to rewatch OUAT.
Will this change effect the ratings?

I’m far from being an expert on this kinda stuff, but from what I’ve heard about them cutting back on the next day viewing, and making it next week viewing instead, my guess is they’re trying to get some of the people who watch it that way to watch it live instead, to try and boost their live ratings numbers.

[Gaultheria]

My main problem with Neverland is that it was visually boring. The flashbacks weren’t all cramped dark jungle stage sets, but in my viewing experience it’s the “now” timeline that sets the tone.

As for the split season, I used to be in favour of it, but I think that what bothered me about the old way of scheduling was not that there were many breaks but that they interrupted story arcs, and I think season 3 has gone too far in the other direction. Farscape had mini-arcs, each running for just a handful of episodes; I’d like to see OUAT try that for season 4, with breaks of a week or two between mini-arcs.

Gaultheria's fanvids: http://youtube.com/sagethrasher

[Myril]

@Cinders The ratings are confusing 😉 First, a thing to really remember is: The networks have access to a lot more data than we have on the internet for free. The craze about the numbers is a craze, maybe showing a trend and at best good enough for a qualified guess, but executive decisions of networks are not just based on the free numbers we know, context plays a role like expected numbers, on which day the show airs, how does the network usually do in average and how on that day, investment (a show costing little in production might not need to attract big audience as much as a show costing a lot of money), advertising sales (a show could have seemingly good ratings and still sell not that good to advertisers, and that is were the big money comes from for the networks, not merchandise, not the fans or the audience, we’re just means to an end). With On Demand it’s a bit more complicate than DVR, it is only of interest for ratings if it includes pretty much the same advertising, because that is what all rating is about, looking good and interesting and strong for selling time slots to advertising. Not all On Demand is counted, but some is, like yours maybe was. Advertisers nevertheless are not so comfortable with On Demand, they assume people skip ads more readily, and even more the longer they wait to watch a show, so they care little about the 7-days ratings.

Now doesn’t seem to make much sense, that ABC and ABCfamily in January changed accessibility. Some On-Demand still have access next day, but access for everyone is offered only after a week. From a rating point of view maybe a little contradictory, but those still having early access are the ones paying (enough), and that is what the networks are after in this case. Others have to watch live to be good audience. And as long as numbers for On Demand are not huge, it doesn’t matter that much to them, advertiser still are more interested in live viewing numbers.

This article gives more insight.

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[Jenna_B]

I think the split seasons works.  Cable has shown that.  However, people are still used to traditional programming on the major networks, and it’s going to be an adjustment until they’ve been doing it for a while and ‘work out the kinks’ if you will.  Bottom line, you need to offset the mini-seasons with something compelling for your audience, or you run the risk of them moving on.  Especially if they’re a casual viewer.  ABC failed to do that.  The good news is, they learned their lesson, and pilot season will probably have them shopping for something that will hold the OUAT audience during the breaks.

 

S4 is a lock.  @spoekenkieker, you outlined how ratings work wonderfully, I will not rehash.  OUaT is performing as ABC expects and that’s what matters.  In order for them to cancel, 1) they’d have to not care about syndication, which is NOT going to happen.  Syndication is pretty much ‘free money’ and OUaT is the perfect kind of show for syndication because you can air it during ‘family friendly’ hours.  And 2) they’d need to find something to fill the Sunday 8pm slot, which is not easy.  It needs to be able to compete against football in the fall, and ‘specials’ like awards shows and such in the spring.  You’re not going to pull something that’s doing ‘fine’ to take the risk of losing that audience to some major competition.

I think they’ll test the split seasons again in S4, and when they’ve got enough episodes, let the show get it’s foot wet in the syndication market, see how it does, and go from there.  Which would very likely get a S5.

[RumplesGirl]

I think they’ll test the split seasons again in S4, and when they’ve got enough episodes, let the show get it’s foot wet in the syndication market, see how it does, and go from there. Which would very likely get a S5.

I think they will too. And it’s not just “split season” for people wondering about the ratings. We’ve all said this–A and E need to put away some toys and focus on the internals. I think if they stop world building and adding on myth and instead focus on the characters and have simpler storylines the show could “bounce back” as it were.

 

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

[betsypaige24]

PriceofMagic wrote:

I think the split season has been beneficial in that you’re getting the whole story in one continuous motion rather than constantly stopping and starting every few weeks.

I agree. The frustrating thing about season two, is that we had hiatuses all over the place. It was nice when the show came back for The Cricket Game and a episode after that, but it went on hiatus again. And there other hiatuses after that until, I think it was the last 3-4 episodes where there were none.

PriceofMagic wrote:

The biggest downfall is the long hiatus. Had Wonderland been saved for the hiatus, I think the fandom wouldn’t be so frustrated at times because we would still be getting our Once “fix”. If they do decide to do a split season again for season 4, I hope they give us something to fill the hiatuses especially the winter one because winter is a gloomy season anyway made all the worse without Once.

That was the original plan for Wonderland, that it would air during the break between 3A and B, but for whatever reason, ABC set it to air at the beginning of the season.

I agree with the first quote,  but not the second. I don’t thing ONCE’S audience is the same as WONDER, because general FT as the mother show is using has more of an audience than WONDER, which always seemed a niche show to me.  I’ve never seen it and even if it aired during the hiatus, I wouldn’t watch it.  Not everyone interested in fairy tales is interested in Alice in Wonderland.

Much as 11 and 11 worked in theory, did it in practice ? I loathe the 2 hiatuses- basically 6 months without our show.  Yes ABC could have been more creative, perhaps shooting mini segments showing cute character and ship moments, but I don’t think it would have helped that much

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