You are here:
Home 
Arts, Entertainment, Living Tuned In TV Q&A: Reruns, Super Bowl ratings and 'D...
Arts, Entertainment, Living Tuned In TV Q&A: Reruns, Super Bowl ratings and 'D...
|
P-G TV writer Rob Owen blogs about television and the TV industry. |
RSS:
Favorite sitesTuned In Journal archive |
Friday, 10 February 2012 01:00
For a link to headlines of recent TV news and views posts, click here.
TV Q&A with Rob Owen
Submit a question to TV Q&A by clicking here.
This week's TV Q&A (after the "Read more" jump below) responds to questions about reruns, “Super Bowl” ratings and “Downton Abbey.” As always, thanks for reading, and keep the questions coming.
- Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV writer
Q: Why does “NCIS,” a top rated show, have so many repeats during the middle of the season? The storyline is difficult to keep track of when they show a new episode and two repeats and then another new one and another repeat.
- Gary, 59, Plum
Q: I can remember as a child a new TV season began in the fall and went until spring. Each week there would be a new episode until the end of the season and reruns would air all summer long. It seems these days that any show has a "new season" that consists of a handful of new shows followed by reruns for a few weeks and then one or two "new" episodes followed by more reruns (lather, rinse, repeat this cycle).
Why are there so many reruns during a "new season" and why don't the networks program the way that they used to?
- John, 40, Beaver County
Rob: Looks like it’s that time of year to play another round of TV math, which puts revisionist TV history in its place.
In general, the networks order the same number of episodes of a TV show per season now as they did in 1970. That’s 22 episodes. Some series have more (usually 26 at the maximum) and some first-season shows today have fewer as networks take a page from shorter cable runs (often 13 episodes). But established series in 1970 and in 2012 both generally run about 22 episodes.
When you have 22 episodes and the TV season runs from late September to late May – about 34 weeks – there are bound to be 12 weeks of either reruns or pre-emptions. And those won’t happen in September, October or the sweeps months of November, February or May, so that means all those reruns have to be squeezed into December, January, March and April.
One way networks have changed is that today they are more likely to remove a show from the schedule for a few weeks – as Fox will do with “Glee” in March and much of April – than air reruns because reruns increasingly get ratings that are just too low to be managed.
Q: I heard a report yesterday that Super Bowl XLVI achieved a slightly lower TV audience rating than last year's game of Steelers vs. Packers.
Then, last evening, NBC ran a promo thanking viewers for making Sunday's telecast the "most watched" program in history.
Just wondering which is correct. Can you please get to bottom of this? Thank you. And thanks for the Q&A column.
- Greg, 46, South Park
Rob: Both were correct at the time they were reported. The initial report was based on preliminary Nielsen ratings. The second report is the final report which can vary from the preliminary ratings report; in this one the ratings went up enough to set a new record.
Then, last evening, NBC ran a promo thanking viewers for making Sunday's telecast the "most watched" program in history.
Just wondering which is correct. Can you please get to bottom of this? Thank you. And thanks for the Q&A column.
- Greg, 46, South Park
Rob: Both were correct at the time they were reported. The initial report was based on preliminary Nielsen ratings. The second report is the final report which can vary from the preliminary ratings report; in this one the ratings went up enough to set a new record.
Q: The Netflix series “House of Cards” (starring Kevin Spacey) is tostart filming this spring in Baltimore. As a TV writer/critic, how do you feel about the fact that the show will not be on TV? And since it is not broadcast on TV, should I assume that this excludes it from Emmy nominations, etc.? The show sounds interesting, but since I’m not a Netflix member (I don’t really want to join) I guess I won’t be able to view it.
- Jill, Mercer
Rob: The world is changing and we must change with it. I wrote about the first Netflix series, “Lilyhammer,” last week in Tuned In. Turns out it is eligible for the Emmys, according to Emmys senior vice president of awards John Leverence. The Emmys made broadband programming eligible in 2006 so Netflix can submit “Lilyhammer.” Shows also have to be a certain duration to avoid being entered as a short and they must have at least six episodes. “Lilyhammer” is eligible on both counts and “House of Cards” will be, too.
Now that there are devices, like Veebeam, that allow us to watch on a TV screen the programs we’re streaming to our computer, I have no problems with it. It takes a few more steps but it’s still the same as watching a show on, say, HBO, which, like Netflix, is a premium service you pay for above and beyond broadcast TV or regular cable.
Q: Will “The Amazing Race” offer an Elimination Station feature this year? I really liked the behind-the-scenes part.
- Kris, Franklin
Rob: According to the show’s CBS publicist, there will be no Elimination Station feature this season.
Rob: According to the show’s CBS publicist, there will be no Elimination Station feature this season.
Q: Are there only two seasons to “Downton Abbey”? If so the ending sucks!
- Jeannette, 53, Crestwood
Rob: There are only two seasons of “Downton Abbey” to date but season two is still airing. The season finale will air on Feb. 19 so it has yet to have an ending, although I’ve seen it and it’s much more satisfying than the non-ending of season one. Season three begins production in England soon and will likely air in the U.S. next January.
Rob: There are only two seasons of “Downton Abbey” to date but season two is still airing. The season finale will air on Feb. 19 so it has yet to have an ending, although I’ve seen it and it’s much more satisfying than the non-ending of season one. Season three begins production in England soon and will likely air in the U.S. next January.
Q: Haven't seen Jo Koy on “Chelsea Lately” for a good while. Is he no longer a part of the roundtable?
- Linda, 46, Cecil
- Linda, 46, Cecil
Rob: According to the show’s E! publicist, Koy is still part of the round table, he’s just been busy lately.
Q: I've had several episodes of "Boss" languishing on the DVR for a while, so I watched one the other night and was reminded (not that I had really forgotten) why I got out of it in the first place. The weekly plotlines, as well as the ongoing story arc, are interesting enough, and Kelsey Grammar's performance is top-notch, but the sound is driving me nuts. Do they have a rookie sound crew? Lazy editing? Sometimes the dialogue is so quiet you have to crank the volume and rewind six times to catch what they said. And it's not even that it's scene to scene (that would be somewhat manageable); it's word to word and sentence to sentence. Is the boom mike guy not paying attention to what he's doing and waving the thing around during tapings? It's making the show unenjoyable at best, and almost completely unwatchable at worst. Just wondered if you had noticed or heard anybody else complaining about it, or if maybe even you knew what the deal was.
- Mike, 36, Pittsburgh
Rob: I have not heard any other complaints about the sound on this program specifically although complaints about sound on TV, in general, are No. 1 on my viewer complaint hit parade, something I’ve written about in the past and will likely revisit in the near future.
It’s hard to know the cause of the problem – home electronics, the signal from Starz to the cable company, the signal from the cable company to Mike’s house, Mike’s hearing – but so far this is the only complaint I’ve heard specifically about “Boss.”
Q: What has happened to the CBS website? I tried to watch several programs tonight and was unable to get beyond a listing of entertainment programs. The format of the website has completely changed and I am hoping that this is "growing pains" and will soon be resolved. Thank you for your attention.
- Jane, 76, White Oak
Rob: The CBS website was redesigned a few months ago but the same content is there. At the top of the CBS.com home page you click on “Watch” and that takes you to all the prime-time shows. Next to the “prime time” tab are tabs for “day time,” “late night” and others. For news, you’re better off visiting CBSNews.com and for sports, visit CBSSports.com.
Q: This is more a comment than a question regarding local news coverage. As much as all three local stations brag about their "breaking news coverage," it seems they limit their coverage to certain areas of the Pittsburgh region. I live in the eastern suburbs and today there was a major fire at a local restaurant. I checked the websites of Channels 2,4, and 11 to get information and here is what I found. WTAE had a “breaking news” alert less than 20 minutes after the fire was reported. KDKA waited about an hour to report this. And WPXI has nothing on their site at all, 2 1/2 hours later. I am surmising that since WTAE is the closest station to the fire scene, they deemed the story more important than WPXI, which seems to cater to news from the North Hills area and Beaver County. KDKA seems to cater to stories from the inner city, especially the North Side and Oakland. WTAE has always catered more to the eastern communities and Westmoreland County. This is just my impression of how news coverage is handled by the three local stations. Anyone else agree?
- Don, 52, East McKeesport
Rob: I’ll throw this out there and let others write in with their impressions. Certainly station proximity to where news happens can play a role on who gets to the scene first. But I’m not sure one example is enough to judge local stations on in terms of proximity to the station and what they deem newsworthy.
Rob: I’ll throw this out there and let others write in with their impressions. Certainly station proximity to where news happens can play a role on who gets to the scene first. But I’m not sure one example is enough to judge local stations on in terms of proximity to the station and what they deem newsworthy.
Q: Is it me or does WTAE have a chimp running their control room? Several times a week the anchor starts to talk about one story while the video showing belongs with a different story. If I were one of those anchors I would either be spouting profanity or ready to kill them! Several months ago someone at the station told me they were correcting that and it would stop. Any idea when?
- Sharon, 70, Greenfield
Rob: According to Channel 4 news director Alex Bongiorno, the station did a technology overhaul in September that “converted our entire operation to non-linear format with server based playback. In the first few months after we launched, we did experience some issues on the air.”
As for what Sharon has seen recently, Bongiorno said, “At this present time we are not experiencing an unusual amount of issues in this area beyond the normal expectations of putting on a live broadcast.”
Q: What does the notation DVS mean in the TV listings?
-Charlotte, 73, Sewickley
Rob: DVS stands for suggestive dialogue (D), violence (V) and sexuality (S). There’s also L for language. These are part of the content guideline ratings and serve as sub-categories to the primary ratings: TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, TV-MA.
VOICE MAIL OF THE WEEK
“Your Super Bowl commercials column didn’t mention the Clint Eastwood ad so I can’t take it seriously. It’s as bad as the commercials themselves.”
-Angry-sounding, erroneous, anonymous male caller, who must have missed the reference to the Eastwood ad at the end of a whole section devoted to car commercials.
Comments (3)
Subscribe to this comment's feed
...
written by buffy, February 10, 2012 - 08:03 AM
written by buffy, February 10, 2012 - 08:03 AM
I have to disagree with the opinion that the first season ending of 'Downton Abbey' was terrible. Of course it was ambiguous -- clearly the start of World War I was going to change the entire world, and no one knew exactly how. And a large part of the plot had been the sisters sabotaging each other's love life, so the fact that none of them made a good match fits in too. I think a happy ending would have felt like it was tacked on.
-
- +0
-
-
...
written by Marshall629, February 10, 2012 - 01:08 PM
written by Marshall629, February 10, 2012 - 01:08 PM
I don’t have a problem with shows airing repeats. It gives me a break too.
I wonder if the shows from Netflix will be available to view elsewhere. I know that you can purchase HBO shows at Amazon for a couple of dollars.
I wonder if the shows from Netflix will be available to view elsewhere. I know that you can purchase HBO shows at Amazon for a couple of dollars.
-
- +1
-
-
...
written by r_owen, February 10, 2012 - 01:19 PM
written by r_owen, February 10, 2012 - 01:19 PM
Yes! Thank you, Marshall629, I had intended to put that in my response to the Netflix question and then got distracted and forgot. Shows that are Netflix originals will be available on DVD at some point down the line. And I imagine they'll be sold as reruns to cable networks or in syndication.
-
- +0
-
-
Write comment
You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|