Cavemen - ABC Trailer...everything that is wrong with Disney.

[fitzperry]

For 2007, the top rated ABC show was ‘Dancing with the Stars’ with a 12.7 rating and a 20 share; the top ABC series was ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ with a 10.3/16.

Is anyone else surprised that with all the choices on television a network show can pull in 20% of the tv audience? I'd have expected the ratings to be even lower.

 

[G8RFAN]

Looking at what is available in the household to entertain, the fact that network tv has can even be measured regardless of content is mindboggling. There was a point when I thought the transition to digital in '09 was going to give them a huge edge, but with so much bandwidth available through cable and satellite, they have lost the HDTV advantage even before it is mandated into the mainstream households. There are so many choices, each claiming their own little niche and TIVO and similar technology has also challenged the metrics of the ratings system. Even with all these challenges, the "networks" have also expanded into the various niches of the non-broadcast market. Do as the romans do. I don't think you can fairly look at network television today and compare it to 40 years ago. Look at radio. How many households do you know that still gather together around the radio at night listening to big bands or a mystery show. Even then, they too are challenged by digital satellite radio. I guarantee that someday we will no longer need terrestrial signal broadcast and "network" tv and radio as we know it ceases to exist as rural markets become wired or satellite becomes an affordable option for all.

 

[mjstaceyuofm]

Just outta curiosity, you got a source on that? I find that really hard to believe. Granted, ratings aren't what they could be if we had some more quality programming. But I just don't see how it's gotten so bad to the point that records were broken. Especially the part about attracting less viewers since black and white broadcasting-- if you consider the astronomical increase in TV sets per household in America since the 50s (along with other factors like the dramatic increase in population), I estimate that you would have to have more than half of Americans with TV sets not watch it for one night.

It's not about how many people turn their TVs off in one night - it's about what they watch (or in this case don't watch).

There are so many channels anymore it becomes real easy to see how diluted the market is. My regular lineup of channels consists of ESPN, Fox Sports (insert city name here), HGTV, Travel Channel, PBS, Food TV, Discovery Channel and the local newscast. I'd rather watch "Good Deal with Dave Lieberman" or "Easy Entertaining w/ Michael Ciarello" (sp??) on FoodTV or "Dirty Jobs" on Discovery any day of the week over any network show on TV. I just flat out don't have the time to stay committed to a show anymore. The only show I've watched over the past 5 years has been "The Sopranos" and barely at that. People just don't have the time to stay committed to shows any more. Nor are they interesting enough to keep them tuning back in....

 

[Wick]

I know its the Interwebnet and all...but still after 7 years of post and in this case someone reading them for 5 years you would have to say to yourself "hey this guy knows what he is talking about...maybe I don't need to challenge him on everything." In this case its not as if the networks are going to go around yelling at the top of the lungs..."hey we can't get 10 million people to watch our shows".

Jeez, struck a nerve there, didn't I.

Thanks for the explanation AV

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

It's not about how many people turn their TVs off in one night - it's about what they watch (or in this case don't watch).

My regular lineup of channels consists of ESPN, Fox Sports (insert city name here), HGTV, Travel Channel, PBS, Food TV, Discovery Channel and the local newscast. ....

ESPN???? ESPN????? ESPN????????????

In my eyes ESPN is controlled by evil people interested in taking over the world one ridiculous 'greatest' list at a time, one bad self egrandising announcer at a time or one too many mentions of 'Junior' at a time ... And they're succeeding...OHHHHHHH AAARRRGGHHH...AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!



Sorry.

Have I talked about this before???

I just don't like Espn very much....

 

[KMovies]

Even in the dead of summer, network TV is the place to be.

For the week of August 27, the top 20 network programs had shares of 4.0 to 6.6 and audiences of 6m - 10.3m.

On Cable, just one program was in that range. The Closer with a 5.1 share and 7.8m viewers.

For syndicated programs, there were 7 with a share of 4.0 or higher and 6 of those with an audience of over 6m viewers (many of these are on one of the network's local stations anyways).

Yes, Gunsmoke had a 43% share - but face it, there were only 3 networks at the time and most market had at tops 1 independant station. There are now 5 networks, and too many cable channels to count.

 

[DancingBear]

Uhhh, yeah, Kmovies, that's why A-V's quote that started this whole ratings discussion was:

The trend in network television for more twenty years is the loss of veiwers. People are going to cable, to pay-per-view, to local stations, to home video, to the Internet, to reading a book.

Nobody was arguing that any particular show or channel on basic cable beats the networks.

 

[YoHo]

Uh, Highschool musical 2 outdrew all other shows the week it debuted on cable and If I recall correctly, Hannah Montana also drew higher audiences then anything on network TV that week.


Also, 6 of the top 10 Broadcast TV shows last week were NFL related. Those were the only shows with double digit shares.

 

[adabob]

I think that it will be great

 

[Disney MAINEiac]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6GuL7f0zIw

Anyone want to take bets on how long this stays on the air?

If it fails it will be because they don't have the same "cavemen" from the commercials, or they deviate from the commercials premis and don't incorporate the people who developed the characters for the commercial. those commercials are the best television I've seen in 10-years. That said i'm sure some million $ per episode pointy head executive will find a way to screw it up

 

[EUROPACL]

I think that it will be great

???

State Trooper: You fellas been doing a bit of boozing, have you? Suckin back on grandpa's old cough medicine?

If it fails it will be because they don't have the same "cavemen" from the commercials, or they deviate from the commercials premis and don't incorporate the people who developed the characters for the commercial. those commercials are the best television I've seen in 10-years. That said i'm sure some million $ per episode pointy head executive will find a way to screw it up

Quick name all of the other really good TV shows based on TV comericals.....and add to that even Geico ran out of ideas for 30 second TV spots after 4 comericals.

 

[Disney MAINEiac]

???
Quick name all of the other really good TV shows based on TV comericals.....and add to that even Geico ran out of ideas for 30 second TV spots after 4 comericals.

Other commercial that led to successful shows isn't the point. good writing is good writing! I stick by my statement that they will find a way to screw it up, so i am voting that it will fail!

However if they follow the right track and actually poke fun at Politically correct society (which has wimp-a-fied a country) it could work, IMHO.

will it? No! they will screw it up cause they won't have the guts to risk offending to get laughs and it will wither and die

 

[Keyser]

Other commercial that led to successful shows isn't the point. good writing is good writing! I stick by my statement that they will find a way to screw it up, so i am voting that it will fail!

However if they follow the right track and actually poke fun at Politically correct society (which has wimp-a-fied a country) it could work, IMHO.

will it? No! they will screw it up cause they won't have the guts to risk offending to get laughs and it will wither and die

You know, maybe the series really will have great writing, acting, production, etc. But, the fact that it's based off of a commercial can't be ignored. They chose to do this. As a result, no one is going to go into that series without a bunch of preconceived ideas, the majority of which revolve around "this seems like a dumb idea." I have yet to hear anyone say "Wow, that sounds like a show I want to watch."

If the show really is good, that ought to eventually win out over the initial reaction. But, they've put themselves at a disadvantage to begin with. I can't believe that they really are thinking "This is such a great story that we have to tell it, even if people do think it's a dumb idea at first." The whole thing just feels like the product of a committee trying to check off boxes oblivious to the idea of making a show anyone would want to watch.

 

[DancingBear]

However if they follow the right track and actually poke fun at Politically correct society (which has wimp-a-fied a country) it could work, IMHO.

The commercials don't exactly make fun of PC, though. The cavemen (who are the protagonists) in the commercials seek more sensitivity.

The entire premise which you spoke so highly of above seems to be that there are cavemen living among us, who apparently are just like us in every way except that they look different. Worked for a limited purpose in short commercials--it's hard to see how that could be extended to multiple half-hour sitcoms.

 

[G8RFAN]

I'm just thankful that it isn't about the Burger King freaky dude.

Seriously, we have seen sketches from SNL turn into full length feature films with some of them reaching cult and classic status, showing that a little bit of base comedy can inspire some pretty good entertainment. I also doubt that we'll see this turn into something long term and successful as the odds are stacked enormously against them, but you never know.

 

[ChrisFL]

I'm just thankful that it isn't about the Burger King freaky dude.

Seriously, we have seen sketches from SNL turn into full length feature films with some of them reaching cult and classic status, showing that a little bit of base comedy can inspire some pretty good entertainment.

right, but in those cases the base comedy was actually FUNNY

 

[G8RFAN]

right, but in those cases the base comedy was actually FUNNY

Not disagreeing but there are some that don't like those SNL skits either. The cave man in the shrink's office was funny to me..... Of course the Geico commerical with Little Richard was absolutely hysterical.

 

[imsorry]

I think my IQ went down just looking at that

 

[YoHo]

I'm just an unfrozen Caveman. I don't understand your concepts of good writing and storytelling or your ideas of viewer shares, but I do know that Gieco stopped running those spots. I wonder why?


Probably cause Erin Esurance is both more interesting and drawn better.


Which of course begs the question of when we're gonna get that show, because there actually are people who wait for those commercials to see how the romance between Erin and guy whose car always gets trashed is going.

 

[EUROPACL]

I'm just an unfrozen Caveman. I don't understand your concepts of good writing and storytelling or your ideas of viewer shares, but I do know that Gieco stopped running those spots. I wonder why?
.

BWHAHAHAHAHA...