Posted by Neil Juan Luis at 208.132.148.251 on February 22, 2000 at 12:01:47:
Kevin,
I have a friend who is a high-level exec at ABC. This person read your post and responded with the following:
(And please don't ask me who my friend is... because I'm not saying.)
"OK, as an ABC 'suit' let's take a look at this situation... I think Kevin Smith needs to stop and think before sabotaging his own show before it gets a chance...gone are the days that only repeats and loser shows run in summer. In fact, it makes perfect sense to me to run an 18-24 year old show in summer. It's a great way to get younger viewers to sample the network when there's nothing else on. Take Drew Carey's "Whose Line is it Anyway" and "Millionaire" as examples of our biggest success stories in the past couple of years. Both launched in the summer (Whose Line in '98 and Millionaire in '99). Now they're both regular series on the schedule.
Instead of complaining, why doesn't he use his website to rally all of his fans to watch the show so that he can show ABC that he was right."
I think this person has a point. This might be a blessing in disguise. Why debut the show right before Sweeps? If anything, it will face too much competition and get lost in the mix.
Kevin, you're right that viewership drops off after Sweeps, but never say die. Last summer 'That 70's Show' benefited from new episodes in the Summer... and ratings were strong because there was very little competition. The show held onto that momentum, and is now strong enough to anchor its own night.
I don't think that Clerks is going to be a huge Top 10 hit, and I have a feeling ABC probably agrees. I sincerely doubt it will pull in Friends/ER-esque ratings. And even though HUT levels might be down (Households Using Television), you do stand a better chance of attracting a larger share of the audience when you don't have Must See NBC bullshit to compete with.
In fact, I think that the best chance for success for a 'small' show like 'Clerks' is to roll it out in the very beginning of the Summer. That way ABC can afford to give it breathing room, if need be. Networks have no fucking patience these days. If a show doesn't succeed in 3-5 episodes, it is yanked (Action is a great example, and hopefully Freaks and Geeks won't be another). At least during the summer the opportunity cost for the Networks is greatly diminished. Like you said, less people are tuning in. So they can afford to give Clerks a little more of a chance than they might during the season... ESPECIALLY during Sweeps, when every time slot counts, and there is no room for low-rated programming (which is why NBC was so quick to yank Freaks and Geeks for the next few weeks).
I work at Comedy Central, and we debut our big shows during 'Summer Premiere Week' in mid-June, specifically to avoid the stampede of Sweeps. Yes, I know that it isn't exactly apples-to-apples to compare Network to Cable, but hopefully you see my point.
Granted, shows like Robert Altman's 'Gun' and 'Maximum Bob' never appeared after their Summer runs on ABC, but those were both hour-long dramas that were buried on Saturdays at 10pm (if memory serves correct). There's no reason to think that an animated half-hour sitcom will follow that path.
My point? I realize that I have no business telling you how to act, but why make an enemy out of ABC? At this point you can either put a smile on your face, play the hand you're dealt, and make the most of it; or you can bitch and moan and piss off ABC, giving them no reason to promote the show.
Neil Juan Luis Pedro Philipo de Huevos