Lost repeats hurting viewership..
This came across the wire today as reaction to tonights episode.
By SUZANNE C. RYAN Boston Globe Staff
Wednesday night, fans of ABC’s mysterious drama ”Lost” will be riveted, no doubt, when the principal villains make an expected appearance and two main characters get romantically involved.
Savor every detail. There won’t be another new episode this month.
To the dismay of many fans this season, the ”Lost” reruns just keep coming. Since September, ABC has broadcast 10 repeats and 19 original episodes, including Wednesday night’s. Next week, the show will be preempted for ”Alias,” and on April 26 ABC will broadcast a recap of the entire ”Lost” season.
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By SUZANNE C. RYAN Boston Globe Staff
Wednesday night, fans of ABC’s mysterious drama ”Lost” will be riveted, no doubt, when the principal villains make an expected appearance and two main characters get romantically involved.
Savor every detail. There won’t be another new episode this month.
To the dismay of many fans this season, the ”Lost” reruns just keep coming. Since September, ABC has broadcast 10 repeats and 19 original episodes, including Wednesday night’s. Next week, the show will be preempted for ”Alias,” and on April 26 ABC will broadcast a recap of the entire ”Lost” season.
Read the rest in the comments....
posted by Germain at 3:09 PM
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continued from the front page...
While the network says this practice is standard in the industry, fans maintain the repeats just don’t work for a suspense-filled show that relies on weekly twists and revelations. They say they would prefer the cable model of shorter, uninterrupted seasons.
”As a fan, it’s just too aggravating,” says Dan DiPrima, a Haverhill computer network engineer who was once a ”Lost” devotee but who recently switched to Fox’s ”American Idol” instead. ”The first year was riveting. But this year, they have totally turned me off,” says the 34-year-old. ”They are just trying to stretch out the season, and I don’t care anymore.”
After messing up his 27th birthday because of ”Lost,” Mark Demeo agrees. On Feb. 1, 15 relatives showed up at his home in Quincy with cake. Problem was, they were late and it was almost 9 p.m. ”I don’t answer my phone or open my door when ’Lost’ is on,” says the insurance claims adjuster. Feigning sickness, he rushed them out the door only to discover that the night’s episode was a repeat.
”ABC ruined my birthday,” he says.
From ABC’s perspective, it’s terrific that viewers are hungering for more. ”We love that people love ’Lost’ so much,” says Jeff Bader, the network’s executive vice president of programming, planning, and scheduling. Bader is quick to assure viewers that ABC plans to run ”Lost” originals the entire sweeps month of May, up to the season finale May 24.
Why not satisfy demand and run originals the entire 36-week season? Impossible, Bader says.
”It takes eight days to shoot an episode,” he explains. When the producers factor in writing scripts and the post-production editing process, then the equation is six to seven weeks to create a single episode. ”There are only so many weeks in the year,” he says.
”Alias,” another plot-driven ABC drama, has been broadcast in two parts this season without preemption. The show aired from September to November and then went on hiatus, except for two specials in December. The show returns next week and will finish its run this spring. ”That’s a luxury,” says Bader. ”It means that half the season we don’t have that show on. I think viewers would complain more if we did that to ’Lost.’”
With two additional ”Lost” repeats this season (last year there were nine), viewership has slipped slightly to an average of 15.3 million viewers compared with 16 million last year. But in the key demographic of 18- to 49-year-olds, viewership is up 9 percent to an average of 8.3 million viewers.
Sam Weisman, a Newton-based television director who directed episodes of ”LA Law” and ”Moonlighting” in the ’80s, maintains that money is the driving force behind the rerun cycle. ”ABC is only going to make the number of shows needed so the bottom line is met,” he says. ”When they have a hit, they feel they are in the driver’s seat for a while.
”Advertisers want to be associated with the show, and they are probably in line to buy time for new episodes. So a network will say, ’If you buy ads for our reruns, maybe we will give you a shot at a new episode.’”
What’s more, he adds, there are plenty of weeks in the year when viewership is traditionally low, such as around holidays. Reruns make sense then. ”The sweeps periods are the periods they care about most,” he said, referring to the time each quarter when television viewership is measured to help determine advertising rates.
In fairness to ABC, other networks have aired their share of repeats this season. NBC has broadcast 10 repeats of ”ER” and 18 original episodes. CBS has aired seven reruns of ”Without a Trace” and 18 originals. ”CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” has had eight repeats and 20 originals.
On the flip side, Fox chose to broadcast ”24” - the ultimate plot-driven drama - with no repeats from January to May. Fox’s ”Prison Break,” launched in August, went on hiatus from December to February to give its creators time to catch up with production. Now the show will run without interruption through May.
To avoid further disappointment, ”Lost” fan Ann O’Leary, a librarian at New Bedford High School, may just buy the ”Lost” season two DVD, which is how she watched the show’s first season.
”I watched two and three episodes a day. I just loved it,” she says. Jumping into season two, O’Leary and her family planned a ”Lost” costume party in January. Everyone dressed as a character.
The family spent $40 on ingredients for tropical drinks, with miniature umbrellas and Polynesian-style glasses, she says.
”We were so excited when the show came on,” she says. ”We couldn’t believe it when it was a rerun from last season. My daughter and I stayed to watch it, but my husband and son drank their smoothies and left.”
First of all, someone stab the whiny guy who complains about "Lost" ruining his birthday. What a douchebag.
Damon had a quote, I think it was in EW a few weeks ago, about how they were throwing around the idea next season airing the episodes in three uninterrupted parts - like 8 new episodes, couple repeat weeks, 8 new episodes, couple repeat weeks, etc. They would also write the season specifically driving to cliffhangers at the end of those 8 episodes, etc., breaking it up into three "acts" for the season. That makes sense.
I like what 24 has been doing and it makes sense because of the nature of that show (and Lost) to try to keep the suspense going from week to week. But 24 didn't start doing that until ratings dropped, so maybe if there is enough of a drop in Lost ratings they will consider taking up that model.
Alias and Prison Break aren't the best examples, because they weren't preempted for strategic reasons. Alias' ratings have been terrible, and Prison Break's hiatus had more to do with Fox's poor ability to program. Airing new episodes from Sept - Dec and repeats for three months is a terrible idea.
But something definitely needs to change.
Yeah, sorry, but if LOST reruns are "ruining your life," then you have to come to terms with the fact that maybe -- just maybe -- you don't HAVE a life. Yeah, it sucks, I hate it and it makes the show less impactful, but yknow what? I'm gonna buy the DVD and watch the whole season through on my own time anyways. So if you're a LOST defecter and jumped ship to American Crapdol, you couldn't have been much of a fan to begin with.
I really wish the ABC execs would just own up and admit they wanna hit all 3 sweeps weeks in the regular season. We know it has nothing to do with the shooting schedule, although that does slow things down a bit. The bottom line is that they wanna hit sweeps, and to the viewers, that doesn't mean jack shit -- Joe Fuckface in Idaho doesn't even know what sweeps is. So like Mere said, once the ratings drop (and they will), hopefully they'll move to 24-esque schedules. But knowing ABC, they're more prone to dump the show in some shitty timeslot than give it the respect it deserves. Remember: this is the house that gives more attention to Desperate Housewhores.
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