Because the Academy Awards ceremony started at the same time that Cooper’s Guide airs, the show simply aired a rerun instead of a new episode in order to avoid a time conflict with the much larger event.  The episode received a dismal 0.5 rating with 1.33 million viewers, though every show on Sunday night had worse ratings because of the ceremony and red carpet show.

Still, I question how a show like Cooper’s Guide, which underwhelms as it is, can survive in its time slot when it constantly has to go on hiatuses in order to avoid conflicts with special events.  The show took a break from airing new episodes for nearly a month during postseason football, and now it did the same for another week because of the Academy Awards.  It already struggles a bit without these hiatuses, but I question how it can continue to hold the interest of viewers if they are constantly made to wait extended periods of time for new content.

The series premiere of The Family is a little over a week away, and I am beginning to see sponsored advertisements on my Facebook news feed for the show.  Whether or not it is because of my Google search history for research on the show, I cannot be certain;  however, if ABC is indeed sponsoring advertisements for the show on Facebook then that is huge in terms of promotion.  However, the advertisement was simply a picture of the characters along with the title of the show, The Family.  The nondescript title, which was previously discussed, combined with a boring picture of characters does not attract as much attention as it could.  Classmates were intrigued by the trailer that was shown in class, so the show does potentially have interesting content and an ability to be marketed, but it must capitalize on that ability instead of coupling its boring title with equally boring advertisements.

Cooper’s Guide did not experience much change in viewership this past weekend, with its fifth episode “How to Survive Your Roommate’s Girlfriend” maintaining the 0.8 rating the show received the previous week but with an increase from 1.74 to 1.87 million viewers. These are still not ideal numbers for a show wedged in the time slot between powerhouses The Simpsons and Family Guy on FOX, which had ratings of 1.4 and 1.3 this past weekend, respectively.  Cooper’s Guide and fellow FOX newcomer Borderlands continue to disappoint and seem like likely candidates to not be renewed for second seasons.

One thing that I noticed about the show since the last TRF 594 class is its awfully long title.  Professor Jones mentioned that TV shows will often keep their titles concise so that they are not cut off in TV guides and newspapers, and Cooper Barrett’s Guide to Surviving Life is definitely a title that would not fit.  While it is certainly descriptive, perhaps the producers could have sent the same message about what the show is about with more brevity.

Cooper Barrett’s Guide to Surviving Life has experienced interesting trends at the beginning of its existence.  It received a 1.19 rating for its January 3^rd premiere, with a total of 2.621 million viewers.  The following week it experienced a 74.17% increase in viewership as ratings rose to 2.07, only to see a decrease in the third week that saw it return to a level similar to its debut with a rating of 1.17.   Currently the show is on a brief hiatus because of the way its time-slot of Sundays at 8:30pm clashes with post-season football, and it will return the week following the Super Bowl on February 14^th.

The debut episode of Cooper’s Guide did outperform its competition that also debuted the same night, the season premiere of Galavant and the series premiere of Bordertown—however, none of the three shows performed particularly well.  Cooper’s Guide received a lot of promotion during commercial breaks of Fox’s NFL broadcasts, but perhaps these promotions could do a better job of establishing an identity for the comedy in order to attract new viewers before the show returns in February.