TV companies suck

[Andrew]

So how many hyped up tv shows did you try to watch this year only to see them canceled before ending the season?

I started to watch Fox's Drive which was hyped up and then canceled.

I also started to watch Day Break, which got canceled after 6 episodes.

Now I hear they canceled Jericho!

wtf? Stupid tv. Maybe if they didn't take 3 month breaks in the middle of a season, people would still watch the shows.

Gah, seems pointless to watch any shows since no way of knowing when they will cancel them.

[Egeides]

Cancel tv.

[Khan]

That's why internet is the best thing to ever happen to tv, more internet tv I say! 4OD is the future I'd much rather pay for a tv service that I want to see than have (and pay for) 23 hours of tripe just for 1 golden hour.

[alchemi2]

Firefly cancelled too  >:( :'(

[veK]

day break was awesome but I guess it was just too sophisticated for the average viewer  :(

at least they did a great job finishing the series with the following episodes being shown via their website. it was a great story and I really liked it.

another great show was vanished and unlike day break they ruined it completely with the last episodes as there was no real ending just a lot of lose ends, more questions and an unsatisfying turn of the whole story.

why did they cancel jericho? I thought it had really good ratings and the first season didn't really end the story. so f*** them if they really cancelled the show.

I think the companies should take a look on how many fans some shows have worldwide. just because they can't broadcast everywhere around the globe it doesn't mean people don't know and love the shows. ah yes, I forgot... torrents are sooooo evil. those stupid morons should use this great system to sell their episodes for a small price in good quality and much more shows would be a great success.

at least they announced that lost will have 3 more seasons, 16 episodes each and will end in 2010 - so you can be rather sure that most questions will be answered then. I think more shows should have timeline which determines how long the story will go on. so the viewers won't be disappointed if they stop a show right in the middle and/or shorten a season and ruin everything.

happy news: next weekend I'm going to watch the sixth season of 24... I didn't watch a single episode until now so that I can watch the whole season at once  ;D

[Andrew]

at least they did a great job finishing the series with the following episodes being shown via their website.

Only US residents can view video from the website. Do you think I can use a proxy to view it? or make it think I am from the US?

With Jericho they noticed a decline in ratings after the "break" they take with tv shows (about 1-2 month period). Maybe they should learn a farking lesson and not take "breaks" during the season. Especially with serialized tv shows. Do what they do with 24. Play an entire season in a couple months. Same day/time every week. That way people will not forget about the show. Then once that show is over put another show in that time slot for a couple months and repeat that process.

It would be nice if there was a better way to legally download high quality tv shows anywhere in the world.

Also lets say I am watching a tv show but I miss an episode. What do I do?

1. ignore the episode and continue watching the season.

2. Go to the company wesbite and watch the episode split into 5 or so parts all of which are streaming content. And it is really bad quality and not available outside of the US (although some native broadcasters have started putting video up as well). Also seems there are dedicated streaming websites with tv shows.

3. Buy from itunes (US only) or wait for DVD to come out, but by that time some friends could be talking about the show which would suck.

4. Illegally download the episode with high quality (any quality really, all of which are better than on company website), there are 3 types, normal (most popular), high quality (twice size of normal) and HD 720p which normally use x264 format. So users have choice of when to get, when to watch (and pause if needed) and quality.

Dunno why they havn't tried to legalize/charge money for #4 better.

EDIT:

NVM about where to get streaming video, found a spot. I'm betting 48 hours and it will be blocked by ISP :P

[jeff2429]

Haven't been watching to much TV lately, but I can remember seeing the commercials for each of those shows.  I remember saying to myself to don't bother trying to watch them because they would probably get canceled.  Guess I can predict the success of new TV shows. :O

[veK]

With Jericho they noticed a decline in ratings after the "break" they take with tv shows (about 1-2 month period). Maybe they should learn a farking lesson and not take "breaks" during the season. Especially with serialized tv shows. Do what they do with 24.

YES they really should. I don't know why they didn't get that yet. from last year to this year they did a break with every major show except 24. I had to wait for new episodes of lost, prison break, jericho, ...

It would be nice if there was a better way to legally download high quality tv shows anywhere in the world.

I guess I said that already but it's what I'd like too. I really don't know why they don't do it. every episode there are tons of comments on each torrent file available. people want that stuff and some of them - like me - would really buy that stuff if it was available for us and not too expensive.

side-note to andrew: get the last 7 episodes of day break. they are totally worth it  :)

[Egeides]

It would be nice if there was a better way to legally download high quality tv shows anywhere in the world.

I also think so... Didn't Apple include TV shows on iTune recently? I'm not sure, but it might be going in that direction.

[veK]

afaik only us residents can buy the episodes on itunes. besides: you do need itunes for it and I don't install that piece of crap on any of my machines. in fact I can't stand apple products, neither the hardware nor the software. sometimes the design is cool but that's all...

I think they won't allow the rest of the world to download it (legally) because they want to sell their shows to companies abroad so they can air the show on television. sucks too because a) they don't bring a lot of good shows over here (heroes, prison break...) b) they are not aired at the same time of course but much later c) you are depending on even more companies which can cancel a show and d) they dub it with -in my case- german speakers which totally sucks.

[Andrew]

Cancellation of 'Jericho' was fault of CBS and not viewers

I also found out Fox canceled The War at Home. Wow.

So note to self, don't bother with serial tv shows unless they are extremely popular (heroes), otherwise they will get canceled and you will have wasted your time and be left with lots of questions about the show that will never get answered.

[veK]

great... I also loved the war at home. one of the last few comedy shows besides scrubs and the office I still kept watching...

somebody should really visit some ceo's with a baseball bat  ::)

[erjin999]

Firefly cancelled too  >:( :'(

I hear you bro  :'(

[Megashrap]

I just wish they would bring back 'The King Of Queen's'...god I love that show. I don't know if it was cancelled or what but now they just show reruns of it.

Ones they should cancel:

1. The View. (Kill it already)

2. All daytime soaps.

3. Who wants to be a millionaire.

4. All of the reality crap shows.

5. Saturday morning cartoons. Why, they no longer make any damn sense whatsoever...way to warp a kids mind guys.

6. MTV. Not only cancel it, but beat the shit out the current ones running it. What brain pollution that channel is.

7. House. I have watched this show several times and really tried to understand it. For the life of me I don't get it at all other than some injured doc that pops pills and treats patients as he pleases regardless of rules.

8. 24. I liked this show alot when it first came out. But it's run it's course way to far.

9. American Idol

I could list tons more but those are just a few that come to mind.

[Acriku]

You can't kill the Jack Bauer Power Hour! I'm pretty sure that's an act of terrorism, and you KNOW who will be knocking on your door next season! Watch the first season of House to understand it, it's a great show - albeit, a slight formulaic show.

[Megashrap]

You can't kill the Jack Bauer Power Hour! I'm pretty sure that's an act of terrorism, and you KNOW who will be knocking on your door next season! Watch the first season of House to understand it, it's a great show - albeit, a slight formulaic show.

I'll try and dload the first episode of House to watch since I really didn't see it.

24 like I said, I loved that show back when he was defusing a nuke at the airstrip, then decided to go on an air trip across the desert with it in the plane. Maybe it's the current 24 episodes that are boring and mundane to me I dunno. They are not as seat gluing as they used to be that's for sure.

[veK]

I liked the first 3 season of 24 very much (especially season 1 and 3) but with season 4 it started getting ridiculous (meltdowns, hijacking a military plane, shooting down air force one, launching a nuke... fortunately aliens didn't land in l.a. in that season too  ::) )

I haven't seen season 6 yet (though I have all episodes now) but if it is like season 4 and 5 I think I won't like it. but I'll see...

[Megashrap]

Here's the most common channels I ever watch..

Comedy Central

Discovery Channel

National Geographic Channel

Discovery Times

Pentagon Channel

The Military Channel

Military History Channel

History Channel International

History Channel

Biography Channel

Animal Planet

TLC (The Learning Channel)

Frontline (PBS)

ESPN

Sci-Fi

A&E

Playboy TV (sorry, I got to have a titty channel somewhere in the mix.) :P

[Acriku]

Ew... Scifi has become a crappy station.

reason 1: Introduction of wrestling into the mix.

reason 2: BIGGEST REASON EVER: Cancellation of Stargate.

[Megashrap]

Yea, I haven't watched sci-fi in a long time actually since stargate. Also, how the hell does wrestling fit into sci-fi?

I think what ruined t.v.the most was Survivor. After that it was reality t.v. America.

Out of the bazillions that came out, I did like only 2 one was Fear factor the other I forget the name but they would scare the shit out of people, it had Shannon Dougherty on it...can't recall the name of it.

[Acriku]

Ahh, Scare Tactics! Funny as hell, despite the odd casting for show host. I, unfortunately, got into the first two seasons of Big Brother before breaking myself out of the reality tv mix. It's addicting once you're in!

[jeff2429]

24 has been renewed for another season and they better step it back up cause this last season bored me.

[Andrew]

Stargate had been on for like 10 years. It was time to cancel it. They really should have said back in season 7 or whenever they were first gonna cancel it and set a fixed number of seasons before canceling so they could write better stories, instead of the Auri crap introduced in last 2 seasons. Nothing against the Auri, but they could have finished so many other stories introduced in the first 8 seasons instead of introducing a new powerful enemy that gets defeated in a short amount of time.

[Megashrap]

I'm just curious as to how the Neilson ratings actually work. I mean most guys including myself will click through channels like a madman. So how do they know who actually watches what, or which show in it's entirety. If I watch part of a show, say 10 minutes of it then switch channels it's that considered me having watched it? Maybe I just don't understand that system, I dunno.

[Andrew]

And do they count people with digital recording devices such as tivo, or people who purchase tv shows from apple itunes? I would think that the rating system is severely inaccurate for the entire market.

It's safe to assume that at least 1 million people illegally downloaded Heroes season finale since last Monday. I was actually surprised to see 500,000 downloads from a single public torrent site.

Now if I could legally purchase/download the episode in same/higher quality for $1 (say $24 for season), I would. Seems like they lost out on a ton of sales.