Re: NBC Extensively Tweaks January Changes


Major ChrisB wrote:
> "WQ" <wq@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1133994765.769275.202920@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> > Major ChrisB wrote:
> >> "WQ" <wq@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> >> news:1133919456.540146.241470@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> >
> >> > Major ChrisB wrote:
> >> >> "David" <dimlan17@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> >> >> news:1133834568.625221.64660@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> >> >
> >> >> > WQ wrote:
> >> >> >> --- So, did I fool anybody with this? Pretty
> >> >> >> good, huh?
> >> >> >
> >> >> > You fooled me. It was so bad for a second I thought Jeff Zucker
> >> >> > snuck
> >> >> > back into the NBC offices. Launching a new drama against "House" and
> >> >> > "Commander in Chief"? A comedy block aimed at young viewers airing
> >> >> > on a
> >> >> > Friday night? Shifting two promising shows to the Friday at 10 and
> >> >> > Sunday at 7 death slots? Why?
> >> >>
> >> >> Its weird. Here in the UK Friday and Saturday are big nights for TV.
> >> >> 8
> >> >> to
> >> >> 9pm on a friday night is when Channel 4 did it's comedy block,
> >> >> Friends,
> >> >> Frasier, Will and Grace...even back as far as Roseanne would be in
> >> >> that
> >> >> time
> >> >> slot. In the summer it works great as you have the live big brother
> >> >> eviction results at 8:30 to 9pm then two comedy shows and then the
> >> >> live
> >> >> eviction with an interview with the evictee at 10pm. On saturday
> >> >> night
> >> >> is
> >> >> when the BBC will play their british comedies and Dramas. Out big
> >> >> medical
> >> >> drama Casualty has been on Saturday nights since the early 80's and
> >> >> Doctor
> >> >> Who has always ran on a saturday night since the 1960's. Now it's
> >> >> back
> >> >> on
> >> >> it's on Saturday nights at 7pm again with Casualty at 8pm and usually
> >> >> some
> >> >> kind of Variety show after it. Recently there have been the Stricktly
> >> >> Come
> >> >> Dancing (the original Dancing With The Stars) and it used to be family
> >> >> entertainment shows. ITV always do a big family entertainment show on
> >> >> a
> >> >> saturday night and they used to start their saturday night TV at about
> >> >> 5pm
> >> >> with Baywatch then Gladiators then something else that was family
> >> >> orientated.
> >> >>
> >> >> Ironically CSI is on Channel 5 on a tuesday night and gets about half
> >> >> a
> >> >> million viewers if it's lucky...
> >> >
> >> > --- Fridays and Saturdays in the U.S. used to be big entertainment
> >> > nights between the 50s and mid-90s. Increasingly, however, between the
> >> > late 70s and mid-90s high-rated series on Saturdays in particular
> >> > gradually became increasingly more difficult to come by, largely due to
> >> > the arrival of home-use VCRs in the late 70s and the unnecessarily high
> >> > number of cable network alternatives to the regular broadcast networks,
> >> > both of which steadily chewed bigger chunks away from the regular nets'
> >> > audience. The last decade has seen an erosion of Saturday night
> >> > programming on the Big 4 to nothing more than tenth-run movies,
> >> > uneventful specials and lots of series repeats on three of the four
> >> > regular networks. Friday night programming has recently begun to see
> >> > the same loss of interest among viewers and unless steps are taken to
> >> > slot more interesting fare on that night, it'll probably go the same
> >> > route as Saturday. Although, CBS this season has proven that if you
> >> > program Friday night right, they will come. The network has a solid
> >> > hit with its new "Ghost Whisperer" at 8, just turned a loser of a show
> >> > into another hit with "Close to Home" after recently moving it into the
> >> > 9 spot, and closes off the night with a third hit, "Numb3rs." Now
> >> > it's up to other 5 broadcast networks that air on that night to try to
> >> > program it right, and maybe they'll learn their lessons and get back to
> >> > doing successful Saturdays again. Maybe in Britain you don't have
> >> > about 200 channels to choose from as in the U.S. and that's why the
> >> > regular nets do better.
> >> >
> >>
> >> well we have 5 "terestrial channels" like you would your 4 Networks.
> >> Because all our TV stations are partially publicly funded (through a
> >> forced
> >> TV licence everyone has to buy) so each channel launches with a set
> >> purvue.
> >>
> >> We have BBC1, BBC2, ITV, C4 (channel4) and Five.
> >>
> >> Five launched about 10 years ago and still some people havn't bothered
> >> tuning their TV's in to receive it. It bought lots of american shows,
> >> Joey,
> >> all the CSI's, SVU and a few other shows. but they get hardly any
> >> ratings.
> >>
> >> Channel 4 launched in 1980 under the purvue of being educational,
> >> original
> >> and entertaining so it shows a lot of documentaries and schools
> >> educational
> >> shows during the day and has innovative stuff like Big Brother when it
> >> first
> >> launched. They always did a big comedy block on Fridays with Us shows
> >> and
> >> original british comedies like Phoenix Nights, Spaced and things. they
> >> also
> >> buy lots of american shows like Sopranos, ER, The West Wing, Lost,
> >> Desperate
> >> Housewives. IIRC the Friends Finale was the highest ever rating the
> >> channel
> >> has got and it was about 5.5 million. Big Brother finale's get ratings
> >> around that high too.
> >>
> >> ITV shows almost all original programming and news. It's highest ratings
> >> (outside world cup football) is Coronation Street. A Soap thats been on
> >> since the 50's and is on 4 nights a week and gets about 14 million
> >> viewers.
> >>
> >> Those three are all commercial channels.
> >>
> >> BBC2 was supposed to be cultural and original and has a few american
> >> shows
> >> but usually puts them in crappy slots. Larry Sanders and Seinfeld were
> >> on
> >> BBC2 but at about 11.30pm. they also showed the X-Files when it first
> >> started and shows like Extras, The Office and Red Dwarf.
> >>
> >> BBC1 is probably the highest ratings earner. It's highest thing is
> >> another
> >> soap, Eastenders which gets about 12million.
> >>
> >> We have about 6 million people on Satelitte TV and about another 4
> >> million
> >> on Cable TV so it's still pretty popular but no channel would get ratings
> >> over about 750,000. i might be wrong on that but I dont imagine they'd
> >> get
> >> much more than that.
> >>
> >> The weird thing is that BBC1 could be showing a repeat of a comedy show
> >> from
> >> the 70's which has been repeated about 50 times already and it'll get
> >> higher
> >> ratings than Lost or ER on C4 or CSI on Five.
> >>
> >> Ratings arn't too important to channels....Soaps will always win the
> >> ratings
> >> so it's not too important for dramas and they'd never cancel a show
> >> mid-way
> >> through it's season. Plus for ther BBC at least it's not commercial's
> >> that
> >> dictate how much people pay, I think the commercial broadcast channels
> >> are
> >> regulated so stricktly that they can't show too many. We have some
> >> strange
> >> rules that commercials can only last 3.5minute blocks during shows and
> >> they
> >> can only show 15 minutes of comercials in an hour. They also usually
> >> have
> >> to edit US shows as we're not allowed to take a comercial break on a
> >> cliff
> >> hanger.
> >>
> >> The US show could be designed so that, for example, Kate falls off a
> >> cliff
> >> in Lost and might be dead...<commercial break>...show comes back as kate
> >> starts to wake up.
> >>
> >> We couldn't do that and they channel would have to edit the episode to
> >> move
> >> the commercial to a few minutes later after she's woken up and is fine...
> >
> > --- While all that about British TV I've more or less known, it's the
> > last bit about editing according to commercial breaks that's a bit of a
> > revelation and somewhat ... eccentric? I'm not sure what the logic is
> > behind that but I think I'd be irritated by it. Sort of takes the fun
> > out of watching some shows. I don't know if you get "Prison Break"
> > there, but its cliffhangers prior to commercial breaks is partly what
> > enhances one's interest in watching that show.
> >
>
> I dont think Prison Break has aired here yet but it'll probably be on
> Channel 5 who got into trouble earlier this year for not re-editing an
> episode of CSI and leaving in a Cliff Hanger.
>
> the actual rule is something about avoiding breaks in the story which will
> be immediatly resolved forcing the viewer to watch the commercials.

--- Funny. Cliffhangers never force me to watch commercials. I either
leave the room or flip through other stations till the break is over.
I'd imagine that's possible to do there also.

> We also have much stricter product placement laws....although ironically...as long
> as it's after 9pm we can have as much violence, swearing and tits as we
> want....I think they're allowed pubic regions too. the kind of films shows
> on Cinimax are shown on regular TV here (usually Five) but even our cable
> porn PPv channels arn't aloud to show erect penises or any actual
> penetration including fingers.
> I remember when they premiered Reservoir dogs here it started at about
> 9:30pm on channel 4 completly uncut.

--- That's nice. You can see a guy agonizingly bleeding to death for
what seems like an hour and Michael Madsen doing a dancing ritual
before he slices off a cop's ear, but no erect penises or finger
penetration. Silly, huh?

.

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