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

[mjstaceyuofm]

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.

Not to mention the fact that Erin is HOT!

 

[YoHo]

You said it, I didn't

(CYA)

 

[maxtomsmom]

I don’t mind providing back-up at all. This is the internet; nothing should be taken at face value.

Television ratings are fun things. The "lowest rating ever" was a comment from a friend at NBC. Their 1.1 for a Stanley Cup was the lowest recorded rating for a program ever for NBC - sports, entertainment, whatever. http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs2007/news/story?id=2894490
(The episode of 'West Wing' mentioned in the article actually scored a couple hundredths of a point higher, but ratings are traditionally rounded to a single decimal point.)

The article that buckylarue posted has a good explanation of the differences between rating points and share.

Rating information is controlled by the Nielson company and a subscription to a ratings book is a very expensive. They’ve also been very aggressive about wiping the internet of numbers. The only good historical information I’ve been able to find on the pipes of the Internets is the share.

I took a quick look at fifty years ago – 1957. The U.S. population in 1957 was 172 million people. Today, it’s some 300 million people – virtually doubled. The one estimate I found said that 1957 some 90% of all American households owned television sets (that was up from just 10% in 1953). The article is at http://www.loti.com/fifties_TV/you_are_there_history_comes_to_television.htm

According to the website (http://www.trivia-library.com/c/top-television-show-ratings-1957.htm), the top show in 1957 was ‘Gunsmoke’ with a 43.1 share. That means 43.1% of all households with televisions watched the show. The top rated show in 2007 was ‘American Idol’ with a share of 27. The highest rated series was ‘CSI’ with a share of 17. What’s interesting was that in 1957, a share of 27 wouldn’t even have landed you in the top ten.

I’ll continue to see if I can publish the actual number of viewers. If nothing else, these numbers show how fractured the television landscape has become. Networks used to be able to get well over a third of the country to watch them, now it takes a true miracle show like ‘Idol’ to not-even-come-close to that result.

FYI: The Top Ten for 1957 and their shares:

1. Gunsmoke CBS 43.1
2. The Danny Thomas Show CBS 35.3
3. Tales of Wells Fargo NBC 35.2
4. Have Gun Will Travel CBS 33.7
5. I've Got a Secret CBS 33.4
6. The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp ABC 32.6
7. General Electric Theater CBS 31.5
8. The Restless Gun NBC 31.4
9. December Bride CBS 30.7
10. You Bet Your Life NBC 30.6

And for interest – in 1955:
1. The $64,000 Question CBS 47.5
2. I Love Lucy CBS 46.1
3. The Ed Sullivan Show CBS 39.5
4. Disneyland ABC 37.4
5. The Jack Benny Show CBS 37.2
6. December Bride CBS 37.0
7. You Bet Your Life NBC 35.4
8. Dragnet NBC 35.0
9. The Millionaire CBS 33.8
10. I've Got a Secret CBS 33.5


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.

What's funny about this is my mom still watches Gunsmoke faithfully. Loves it- not sure what that says about my mom never seeing an episode myself. Maybe it rocks better than the new caveman show. Fifty years later it's still on the air.

 

[EUROPACL]

What's funny about this is my mom still watches Gunsmoke faithfully. Loves it- not sure what that says about my mom never seeing an episode myself. Maybe it rocks better than the new caveman show. Fifty years later it's still on the air.

I still watch reruns of the black and white Andy Griffith show and its better than 95% of the other stuff on TV these days.

 

[100_acre_woods]

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

Hopefully two seconds after the opening credits....

 

[plutospup]

Good writing, production, and acting can make even a bad idea a good, long lasting television show. I remember a show about a loudmouthed, undereducated bigot. Who would think this concept would be successful? Of course All In The Family ran for many years, and collected numerous Emmy awards.

Do I think Caveman will be as successful-No. In today's broadcast mentality of doing it cheap, throwing it at the masses, and giving it maybe two weeks of becoming a hit, I don't have much hope for Caveman.

What is the main goal of television programming? Selling "soap". If Caveman can find an advertising audience, the show will go on. (Maybe Geico?) Just like St. Elsewhere whereby the ratings were not huge, but it fit a demographic that advertisers were willing to reach. The show continued for many years.

BTW...Supertrain! I'm shocked that anyone except Fred Silverman remembers that show!! BIG budget - NO results