Friday 22 June 2012

TV popularity

According to TV.com, the top 20 most popular shows on TV right now include Eureka, Scrubs, House, Chuck, Desperate Housewives and Sanctuary. All of those shows have been cancelled, though most of them got to say a proper farewell. Now, if the most popular shows can be cancelled, on what basis are networks choosing what to make and what to axe?

Of course, this assumes that TV.com represents the true popularity of the shows, and that popularity equates to profitability, which is not necessarily the case (eg a cheap show with a small audience may be more profitable than an expensive show with a slightly larger audience).

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Which goes a long way to explaining reality TV.
PPS - If only good scripts, good actors and high production values guaranteed good audiences.

2 comments:

Robin Gravel said...

I heard somewhere that commercial ads won't pay higher price for primetime or on popular series.

That's why cheap shows are more profitable than expensive shows.

John said...

That would contribute, certainly. I wonder why it would be the case, though. I'm sure there's a minimum price for an ad spot at, say, 3am in the middle of a third-rate show, but surely the broadcasters would try to charge higher ad prices for prime time shows.

Perhaps a few big advertisers pressure them enough to keep the prices lower.