SFC & sabotaging "Rangers" pilot

[GarySeven]

SFC & sabotaging \"Rangers\" pilot

With respect to the most recent article titled "SCI FI: traitors to television?" on the Main Page --I believe an additional important factor in the condemnation of the Sci Fi Channel and its treatment of the "Legend of the Ranger" telemovie which should have been mentioned in the piece as well is the fact that the station chose to premiere the pilot on a *Saturday* night, something no station out to get a pilot off to a good start would ever do or even consider doing because of how it would stand to negatively affect the ratings simply by virtue of the day. In short, they picked the worst night of the week to debut the movie, and if you're looking to sabotage a project --any project from going to series-- that's a perfect way to start. /forums/images/icons/rolleyes.gif

 

[Recoil]

Re: SFC & sabotaging \"Rangers\" pilot

GarySeven?

Did someone just get done reading "The Eugenics Wars" by chance? Just a hunch. /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[KoshN]

Re: SFC & sabotaging \"Rangers\" pilot

GarySeven, I think you're reaching. Besides, isn't Friday night the worst night of the week?

The Rangers pilot just wasn't a very good movie. It had some really bad parts, ...some "I have to leave the room because I can't stand it." parts. /forums/images/icons/frown.gif Sci-Fi may be guilty of stupidity (for letting the movie come out the way it did), but I doubt that they placed the Rangers pilot on a Saturday night to sabotage it.

 

[GarySeven]

Re: SFC & sabotaging \"Rangers\" pilot

Kosh,

No, Friday is not the worst night of the week --it's the second worst night of the week. However, "The X-Files" thrived there for years, showing that there was some potential for that particular week night, and FOX is launching their "Firefly" premiere this Friday at 8:00pm.

I'm aware of how mediocre "Legend of the Rangers" was as a movie --you should have seen my review of it in the B5 newsgroup the night it premiered and you'd have no doubt that I know it too. However, no pilot for a series airs on Saturday evening, primarily because it is the night of *the* week people are least likely to be home. Friday night people may crash in front of the tube after a long week of working. Saturday nights they bolt from the house.

Bottom line is, SFC couldn't have picked a worse evening of the week to air the movie as a premiere. I'm all but sure that had the movie aired the following night instead, they would very likely have had a good full ratings point more in its overall performance, perhaps more. The fact that the station chose Saturday instead meant many people wouldn't be home to tune in, and it's quite possible that the execs in charge of programming knew it and decided that would be a good way to back out of the project with the least amount of flack because they decided there were other projects they'd have preferred to develop instead.

 

[Kribu]

Re: SFC & sabotaging \"Rangers\" pilot

Didn't JMS say that while the ratings overall weren't too thrilling, they at least kept growing steadily throughout the movie? That those tuning in did not tune out? I seem to recall him saying something to that extent.

So that would still indicate it wasn't the mediocrity of the movie (which I enjoyed a lot and still maintain that while not brilliant, it was at least enjoyable) that was driving people away - if they didn't tune in in the first place, you can't blame the mediocrity of the finished product for it (maybe the not-so-stellar pre-premiere reviews played a part but I doubt they did that on a large scale).

I don't think the trailers were particularly bad either, to turn people off.

That goes for the premiere, of course. That it hasn't got too good ratings the couple of times it's been shown after the premiere is another story, I suppose.

 

[Shaal Mayan]

Re: SFC & sabotaging \"Rangers\" pilot

All this discussion is a mute topic we have no series no show and talking about the ratings will never give us I think we would all like to see .

 

[KoshN]

Re: SFC & sabotaging \"Rangers\" pilot

If it was "mute" ...the text would be in <font color="#1E3957">this color</font color>.

/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif

*cough* Sorry. /forums/images/icons/blush.gif /forums/images/icons/blush.gif /forums/images/icons/blush.gif

Hey, look, we have a Minbari mage. /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[hypatia]

Re: SFC & sabotaging \"Rangers\" pilot

I think we are all just trying to figure out the mindset of the Sci-Fi channel right now.

Kribu, you are right, I also remember JMS posting that, probably in the moderated group. He also said the ratings would have to be near "Dune"-level for the series to get picked up.

I dont' think the ratings were even close to Dune-level. /forums/images/icons/frown.gif