RATINGS - Veronica Mars as popular as last year; WB not so good

A year ago on UPN, Veronica Mars second season was averaging a 2.1%
among american households. So far this year, on the new CW network,

Obveeus...

If CW had better shows to put on the air, the current ones would be gone.
They are trying to launch a 'new' network. The biggest mistake they make
was not having much 'new' to offer. A couple of stinkers (Runaway and The
Game) do not make for a 'new' feel.

Veronica has averaged 2.1%.

Equal popularity amongst viewers from UPN to CW.

Veronica's same-night partner, former WB's Gilmore Girls, has dropped
from a 3.7% average to a 3.1% average. All of the old WB's shows have
shown a similar fall in the ratings.

Obveeus...

All of them? So Smallville and Supernatural, for example, are down by
similar amounts?

videonovels...

Yep.

Obveeus...

Dodging the 'all of them' part of the question? Do I actually need to list
every Wb show to get an honest answer out of you? How about One Tree Hill?
Is it down 20% in the ratings?

KalElFan...

No. One Tree Hill is up a bit (0.8%). Supernatural is down even more
than Gilmore Girls and Smallville, because last season was its first
and there was sampling initially as there often is for shows. The much-
touted Ugly Betty has lost almost 15% and 2.4 million viewers in the
space of 2 weeks for example. It could hold the rest of the way and
into season 2, and we'd be here next year saying it lost 15%. Would
that tell the whole story? No. Same as this doesn't:

.

The new CW has better analog-channel coverage (83%) than UPN (78%), but
worse than the old WB (91%). 12% of the CW's total reach is

Obveeus...

So GG should be down by 8% and VM should be up by 5% and ANTM should only be
up by 5%, right?

videonovels...

Only in your black-and-white world.

In the real world, things are shade of gray, and there are *multiple*
reasons affecting the ratings/viewership.

Since Veronica Mars is holding steady (ditto top model), it appears
that CW's *effective* coverage, subtracting all the digitial channels &
the cable companies that are not carrying it about the same as UPN's
was (78%). So WB-CW would be a net decline of 13% in National Access.

Obveeus...

Right, I forgot, there are still a bunch of WB fans that are so smart that
they cannot find the channel after a month.

Back in the real world, there have been a few posts here suggesting that
some former watchers just don't care (posted by those former watchers).

videonovels...

.

Right. And that's who you were para-phrasing when you said "just don't
care". The rapid fans who like to talk about tv. Those comments are
not representative of the whole audience.

I like to defer to expert opinion. Babylon 5 producer J.Michael
Straczynski has observed, not once but several times, that the
rec.arts.tv or alt.tv fans are "not even a blip on the ratings,"
because their numbers are hundreds, whereas tv shows are measured in
millions.

What you "heard" on these groups only tells us what 0.01% of the nation
thinks. It doesn't tell us what the 3.0% of casual fans & casual
viewers (non-fans, but they watch because there'es nothing else to
watch), think about the show.

For all we know, the casual fans/viewers of Gilmore may just enjoy the
one-liners (raises hand), and could care less about the
Lorelai/Chris/whatever triangle.

That isn't a problem of not being able to find the channel or of the channel
being too expensive for their non-cable paying world. They just don't care
enouigh about the tired old WB serials to seek them out.

Obveeus...

Sun spots.

Obveeus...

Top Model is going up, not just holding steady.

KalElFan...

You keep mentioning this but it isn't much of an excuse when
we're seeing 19% declines for Smallville and 21% for Gilmore
Girls, for example. It's not like the ENTIRE 8% reduction in the
analog coverage for The WB results in losing 100% of those
viewers. Many do have access to digital and the general point
of the merger was to strengthen the affiliate system as a whole.

videonovels...

Too bad it didn't work. In Cinncinnati OH, the CW had to *bribe* the
local cable company, else they would not have been carried.

I'm sure in the long-term, CW will be stronger than WB/UPN were
separately. There's no doubt in my mind. But in the short-term, CW is
suffering from a lack of distribution to ~15-20% of the nation.

In terms of availability to the audience, the CW network is not much
better than Sci-Fi Channel or TNT.

videonovels...

Too bad it didn't work. In Cinncinnati OH, the CW had to *bribe* the
local cable company, else they would not have been carried.

I'm sure in the long-term, CW will be stronger than WB/UPN were
separately. There's no doubt in my mind. But in the short-term, CW is
suffering from a lack of distribution to ~20% of the nation.

In terms of availability to the audience, the CW network is not much
better than Sci-Fi Channel or TNT.

Even for The WB shows, there should be some markets in which
it gained stronger affiliates, at least partially offsetting the analog
downgrade.

Admittedly UPN seems to have benefited more from the merger
(told you so! :-)). But its comedy lineup tanked on Sunday, with
Everybody Hates Chris actually having the highest percentage
decline of anything on The CW. That's partly because it premiered
last season like Supernatural, but it's also a reflection that there
are millions of viewers who just didn't care enough to stick with it
since then. The increased analog coverage didn't prevent the show
from taking the worst hit, and the move to Monday hasn't helped
much (it's mainly screwed over 7th Heaven and got Runaway off
The CW schedule a bit quicker).

So again, there's much more to it and in Smallville's case it's mainly
a repudiation of its season 6 strategy and promotion of it.

digital-only subchannels (example:10.2) that many Americans can not
access, and prevents them from watching CW programming.

Obveeus...

It is a good thing that WB and UPN were neve roffered on cable tiers that
people didn't have access to.

videonovels...

As of 2006, they were not. All of the "cable only" stations that
existed in the 1990s had been phased-out or upgraded to broadcast
stations.