I know you all (ok, at least five or six of you) are just dying to find out how Swingtown did with its move to Fridays. While I wouldn’t say I’m dying to know, I’m at least a little bit curious myself. Curious I will remain as it appears Bill Gorman isn’t the only one on a summer schedule. If the numbers wind up showing up today, I’ll wind up posting them sooner or later.
Update: The data is now up here. It wasn’t pretty…
LOVE SWINGTOWN, LETS HOPE THEY DO NOT CANCEL IT
Scristanti: unlike Bill, I am not yet convinced it's a slam dunk that CBS will pull the plug. It seems to be trending in that direction, but I do believe there is yet a case to be made for it based on the numbers. Note: I have never seen a single episode so am not commenting based on the show itself or its quality.
Really? I can see Flashpoint still having a chance because it's a Canadian production and rather cheap, but Swingtown is more expensive and they have been having a lot of trouble getting and keeping advertisers.
Holly, really — but not emphatically so. I think it's likely the show gets nixed, but I am not certain of it. CBS seems to have entered the “beggars can't be choosers” realm with regard to the demo in *many* slots (and not just in the summer).
I don't have any way to get a handle on is whether being more than 50% better in the demo than just about anything CBS airs on a Saturday would make the show's extra production cost tolerable on a Saturday with much better demo performance than anything else CBS has. It seems that though viewers suffered with the move to Friday at 10pm, demo performance didn't really take much of a hit.
Demo-wise, excluding Big Brother and the Monday night rerun lineup, there wasn't anything on CBS that solidly had a better demo performance than Swingtown. Even Flashpoint wasn't vastly better demo-wise with many more viewers. Granted, a lot of the shows that marginally beat it were reruns.
But if they can't get the advertisers, does a marginal demo really help all that much? More than half of the CBS shows last week beat or met it in the demo. Without good ratings, advertisers, or any major critical acclaim, I don't see it having a chance.
I really, really hope they don't cancel this show, or at least they give it a chance for another season. It's the ONLY network show I watch. I thought it was ridiculous that they switched its night without any warning—I was sitting right in front of the TV on Thursday at 10—yet there I was again on Friday.
Holly, keeping in mind that *do* think it's likely the show gets nixed and I'm thinking about it in terms of the summer, not the regular season….
I don't have any insight into advertising on the show. I have seen some critical kindness ranging from Aaron Barnhart to the New York Times. I think what caught my eye from the Friday airing was the percentage of the overall viewership that was in the demo.
You know, both the New York Times and The New Republic magazine have just come out with excellent articles with a lot of positive things to say about Swingtown. I think that says a lot about the quality of this show. I hope the brass at CBS takes note and orders more episodes. I don't care if it is CBS or Showtime. As long as it is the same cast, same writers, same sets and same costume people.