It ’s almost fall television receiver time of year , which means just one thing — it ’s fourth dimension to start secondly guessing the telly networks . Many new shows will be introduced , and most of them will die an ignominious death .
We will all struggle to translate . Theories will be bandied about . Browncoats will experience schadenfreude . The insensate ruthlessness of the television networks will be talk about at length . But the truth is , most of us are groping in the darkness when it come to understanding how these decisions get made . Here are 10 myths about television that most of us buy into at times .
1 . Every expert show gets cancelled too before long .
This is clear not true , and I ’m trusted we can all cogitate of at least one show that lasted beyond its prime of life and keep going after it had run out of ideas . Plenty of display do get top to slaughter while they ’ve still pay off a few well years left in them — but there ’s nothing sadder than a show that lurches on and on , taking its umptieth triumph lick , long after a merciful web would have put it out of its miserableness . ( Sorry for the mixed metaphor . )
2 . Fox is the show - killer .
One give-and-take : interference fringe . Another word : Dollhouse . Look , Fox has made some infuriating decisiveness over the years , as Sarah Connor could tell you if Fox had n’t besmirch her brain across a parking wad . But the true statement is , Fox takes more chances than other networks , in picking up risky gamey - construct task and keeping them on the air for a whole season . Even in the grammatical case of Sarah Connor Chronicles — the show was opine to be cancelled halfway through season two , but Fox offer it for another nine episodes . Fox has given a injection to some pretty off - the - wall ideas over the years , and has keep shows with dwindle away audiences on the air longer than it had to .
3 . Everything is more successful if it ’s a constabulary procedural .
This was a myth that was more current a few years ago , but you still hear it a clean bit . The truth is , a muckle of police procedurals fail just like a portion of other show — and most attempts to crossbreed the “ police adjective ” musical genre with other genres , like scientific discipline fiction or fantasy , have mostly failed . Just count at Eleventh Hour , and a few other single - season effort to do CSI with uncanny science , or The Mentalist with weird scientific discipline . Or look at 17th Precinct , which was an attempt at a magical procedural that never even made it to your concealment . constabulary procedurals are a pretty narrow musical genre , in terms of what works , and it ’s already a crowded orbit .
4 . Cable TV always has cooler programming .
certainly , prove like Game of Thrones and the first time of year of The Walking Dead are strong examples of big , widescreen , edgy programming that you would n’t see on regular programme TV . But plenty of cable fare is just as unadventurous as broadcast telecasting — for every True Blood , there ’s a Chloe King . And broadcast networks have try some pretty ambitious , challenging poppycock , like the aforesaid Sarah Connor , Kings , and Lost in its prime quantity .
5 . The British give shows a better chance .
Among American boob tube buff , there ’s a “ grass is unripe ” feeling about British television , and a notion that the Brits do some stuff better than we do . It ’s dependable that the British approach of give birth shorter season probably pays off in term of character controller . However , the British are just as unpitying about axing appearance as we are . Just depend at Outcasts , which seems to be dead in the water . Or No Heroics , which was good enough to get its Almighty a gig writing the next Iron Man flick . Or plentitude of other British shows that hold up just one short season .
6 . TV show do n’t handle about science .
Many TV show seem to make at least a tokenish elbow grease to get scientific discipline right — as long as it does n’t conflict with the far more significant finish of providing some silly escapist amusement and sell some cleanup product . That ’s what I make by from the panel at this preceding Worldcon about working as a boob tube skill advisor , including Stargate Universe advisor John Scalzi . you’re able to order that some shows , like Fringe and Eureka to name just two , make an effort to use veridical skill . I ’m sure a lot of shows precaution , but there ’s other stuff they like about more .
7 . You should see a show “ live ” if you want it to stay on the air .
This is only a myth if you ’re not a Nielsen household . Look around the room where you check TV . Do you see a box with a caboodle of push button on it , to register your TV viewing substance abuse ? If you do n’t , then it does n’t matter what you take in , or when . Because the networks and advertisers have no direction of do it . There ’s a family somewhere else , where someone who is reckon to represent you statistically is recording their tv set wake , and that soul ’s television consumption will enumerate as your vote .
8 . Time - shifted viewings ought to count as much as alive viewings .
When wetalked to people who consider video ratings , it became moderately absolved that there ’s a tidy sum of argument over how to “ monetise ” people who do n’t watch TV live . Here ’s the matter — television is not really innocent , even if it ’s on the major broadcast internet . You pay off for these telecasting shows by watching ads , and everybody knows that DVR viewers jump over ads . And multitude who watch shows via Hulu and other streaming services apparently generate a lilliputian fraction of the revenue that live TV viewers generate . ( DVD sales agreement assist in some cases , if the internet is also the production studio apartment . ) So when you hear people say that less than a million multitude watched Caprica know , but tons watch it afterward via DVR — that still means less than a million mass saw the advertizing that run with Caprica .
https://gizmodo.com/how-the-nielsen-tv-ratings-work-and-what-could-replac-5636210
9 . “ stage set are being tear down ” entail a bubble show is either set off or renewed .
Sets can get torn down for all sorts of reasons , including just that these particular sets are no longer needed . Or that they ’re being put into memory during the long break between filming sessions . Or it can intend that the output company is going to progress a humongous bonfire , using all of the sets in which your favorite scene happened , on which they will illume your dreams and wishes ablaze , leaving nothing but acid ashes . But it ’s surd to secern , from the outside .
10 . Fan movement always make a immense difference .
There have been a few Brobdingnagian success stories in fan campaigns , admit the original Star Trek campaign and the Jericho peanut - mail movement . All of those sandwich - eat Chuck devotee made a heavy impression , too . But fan campaigns for “ bubble ” show often seem to make no difference whatsoever , and mesh will only regenerate a show if they really conceive that it makes sense financially to keep it on the atmosphere . And conversely , networks do n’t invalidate shows because they detest them , or because they hate us — they ’re melt down a clientele , and if The Cape is n’t locomote enough donuts , then it ’s out , and we never get to happen out the accuracy about Summer Glau ’s supervillain pappa .
Thanks to Hannah Wilson , Jessy Randall , the One True B!x , IrrationaliTV , Simone Davalos , Daniel Thomsen , Zack Stentz , Grant Imahara , Chris Hill , Julia Carusillo , Poor Mojo , Lawrence E. Forbes , Allen Varney , Laura La , John L. Gehron , Michael Wilson , Veronica , Warren Frey , Tom Coates , and everybody else who gave feedback and suggestions !
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