The rumors about “The Resident” and “9-1-1” collaborating on a show together turned out to be not true. They should have done this to increase ratings. I am not sure why they never followed through with it.
“The Resident” still seems to be holding on despite the addition of “American Idol”. On Idol’s premiere on Sunday March 11, “The Resident” only dropped by 200,000 viewers. That week, Idol had 8.36 million viewers. The following week, “The Resident” actually gained back those viewers despite Idol having 7.74 million people watching. It seems like “The Resident” is going to stay consistent with numbers even though major players got added into the game.
Also new at “The Resident’s” 9pm timeslot is iZombie on the CW. iZombie premiered on February 26, 2018. It does not seem to be competition at all because it cannot bring in a million viewers.
Going on week three for the CW’s new series, Life Sentence. Life Sentence seemed to have a soft opening when it comes down to ratings. It got a 0.3 for week one and 0.21 for week two within the 18-49 demographic. They had a 0.76 for week one and 0.62 for week two when counting the viewers by the millions. TVbythenumbers is up in the air on whether the show will be continued into a new season, only giving three dancing bears. It’s still early to tell though, with it only being out for a few weeks.
Advertising for the show has increased since right before the air date and then following. Social media has been covered and increased, with Snapchat advertising and cast and crew showing their support for the show and more advertising being done across networks for the show. Lucy Hale has also been on The Tonight Show Staring Jimmy Fallon a few days before the release date to discuss the show and her transition into something new.
As the Winter Olympics continues to air, networks are making the decision to hold off on airing new episodes of their premiere shows. The CW is among this group that chose to skip airing a new episode of Black Lighting for this week (February 20th). Black Lighting had a drop in rating’s last week (February 13th) from 0.8 to 0.5 for viewers 18-49. The Flash also experienced a similar drop that same night. The decision to skip this week is a good strategy for The CW to maintain good ratings of their premiere shows/episodes.
On the other hand, The CW has turned their social media aim towards advertising other ways to watch Black Lighting. This may allow for the show to continue to gain viewers on other streaming sites and applications. Roku, Amazon Fire Tv, and The CW app are just a few of the services highlighted on The Cw’s social media pages. With special programming continuing of the Winter Olympics, The CW is using their opportunity to advertise the other streaming sites that allow for viewers to watch their shows.
Life Sentence tells the story of a girl named Stella who suffers with terminal cancer. When she finds out that her cancer is cured, Stella has to deal with all the stuff she didn’t when she lived like she was dying, looking at decisions she has made and things her family and friends have hidden from her. This show is set to premiere on the CW on Wednesday, March 7th, 2018 at 9PM and is set to run for 60 minutes. This date was pushed back from the original January release. This show is set to run after the popular CW show, Riverdale. This is in hopes that those who tune in to watch Riverdale will find Life Sentence interesting, with the target audience being 18-34 like Riverdale. Life Sentence is taking over the spot that was previously occupied by the Dynasty reboot, which has been moved to a different night. Lucy Hale, Carlos PenaVega, Elliot Knight, Brooke Lyons, Gillian Vigman, and more star in this new series. This is Hale’s first television series since Pretty Little Liars on Freeform. The CW is hoping that those who followed Hale on PLL will move with her onto this new series. Hale has spoken to a few magazines about her new series, but has not been scheduled to attend any other press events in regards to the show (Us Magazine). Life Sentence Official Trailer
As Grandfathered prepares for its premiere on Tuesday September 29th, Fox must consider this show’s competition for the upcoming season. Unfortunately, Grandfathered will be directly competing against the CW show, The Flash. The Flash is known for being one of the first Superhero TV show hits in recent years. This along with Jane the Virgin helped boost ratings on CW Network last year. This show and network are targets younger viewers in their teenage years, so Grandfathered might lose some younger viewership to this program.
Also, Grandfathered will be competing against NCIS, which has long-standing viewers that tend to be older. NCIS, draws in a solid following, but their viewers could be becoming bored with their average content and might look to some new programming like Grandfathered. Completely different genres, but hopefully Grandfathered can steal some of this viewership.
ABC will also be premiering a new show at this time, The Muppets. The Muppets, always a fan favorite might cause some shifting in this Tuesday night lineup and it will be interesting to see what age demographic ABC will be targeting.
In the television business, producing a successful show involves many factors. There are normally three stages to television production, Pre-Production, Principal Photography and Post Production. The main locations where shows are produced are either Los Angeles or New York, however some other U.S. metropolitan areas are also used to produce a show. Before a show can even reach the stage or pre-production programmers will require a package. This is a collection of key assets that differentiate one property from another. The main performers, the producers and the story line are also closely related to the concept and how it will be executed.
Pre-Production
Pre-Production is the stage of production which involves planning and development, financing and deal making as well as securing people to produce and appear in the television show. This is the period of time when a series is scripted, the actors are cast, sets are built and a production crew is hired. The producer or production company create a full-scale budget, schedule and production plan once a project is given a green light. The budget must be planned very carefully in order to assure that the project is delivered without exceeding the available funding and to make sure that the producer makes a profit. Pre-production on a show ends once the planning ends and content starts being produced. Most shows do not get a green light, because they cannot secure financing.
Once a network has given a script a green light, it will order a pilot of the television show. Television pilots are standalone episodes of a television series that are used to sell the television show to a network. These episodes are used as testing grounds to gauge if a series will be successful. Sometimes a network will pick up a show after watching a pilot but will not air the episode. Instead, it will be reshot and even recast after it is given the green light. Variety estimates that around 20 pilots are ordered by a network, which are typically made up of half comedy, half drama. About half a dozen of these are actually picked up to become the premier episodes for the show. The rest are passed by the network and generally never seen again.
The big five networks, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and CW have ordered nearly 100 pilots for the fall 2013 season. The networks ordered a total of 87 pilots last year. The Hollywood Reporter offered a breakdown of the pilots ordered:
Grand total: 98 (vs. 87 in 2012)
Drama total: 50 (vs. 42 in 2012)
Comedy total: 48 (vs. 45 in 2012)
Single-camera total: 34 (vs. 30 in 2012)
Multicamera total: 14 (vs. 15 in 2012)
Just because a network has picked up a pilot does not mean that it will last throughout the season. If the television show receives low ratings within the first few weeks of airing, a network will normally cancel a show. This spring 2013 saw many new television shows get canceled. Zero Hour (ABC), Do No Harm (NBC), and The Job (CBS) are notable shows that were canceled after airing less than five episodes.
This is the phase of production when the actors are finalized for their roles and locations have been secured for filming. At this point the development team has created a plan for filming and financing the show. The term principal photography refers to the phase of production when the majority of footage and sound are recorded. This stage takes place either at a soundstage or filmed on location. Filming on location means securing permits to shoot in an actual real-life setting. Shooting a show normally means rigorous 12-hour workdays. Television episodes are filmed in groups called blocks, and rely on the availability of resources and the restrictions of the production schedule. Large sets can be altered to look like many different locations simply by changing set pieces or lighting. For example, a dark scary park can also be a beautiful garden by using contrasting lighting and changing a few set pieces. Techniques like this help to keep the cost of production down, since this is the most expensive phase of production. Most directors and producers will shoot the most expensive production elements first so that the budget can be allocated for the rest of the scenes.
Post Production
Once the first few episodes of a show have been filmed, the post-production phase begins. All of the footage that has been recorded is edited and sequenced and special effects are added. Sometimes additional dialogue needs to be recorded in the studio and it is layered into the recorded footage. During this last stage of production the production team will screen episodes to their target demographic. This can help gauge the public response to the show and if it is negatively received then it can be altered or reedited before releasing to the public.
Production companies provide the physical basis for filming. Television programs are produced in a variety of entities, from small companies to large multinational corporations. Many corporations employ in-house producers for internal communication reasons. Outside production companies will handle Television networks and local stations will employ producers, who’s main job are to control costs and manage brand identities. Producers are held responsible for a television show’s overall quality and survivability. There are a variety of producers that work on a television show.
Producers
Typically, the main producer and the writer are normally the same person; this ensures that a producer can make sure that a project stays true to its brand. There are many different types of producers; the executive producer or the “chief executive” is in charge or everything relating to the production of the show. Executive producers can be the head writers of a show, the CEO of a production company, or a producer on the writing team and may serve on the board of directors. The co-executive producer is second in charge behind the executive producer, and assists with the development and daily management of the show. The associate producer runs day-to-day operations for the show.
Many stations will have producers that work on multiple projects for the network. For example, Seth MacFarlane has three television shows in production on Fox network. Another notable producer is J.J. Abrams, who has produced shows on multiple networks throughout the years.
Sources
1. The Business of Television, Bleumenthol & Goodenough
