Tag Archives: Television

The End of The Slap

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The Slap finished this week with 3.13 million total viewers, a number mostly on par with the rest of the season. The episode seemed to wrap everything up nicely. The slapper received his punishment, the parents of the slapped child were taught a lesson and, in a time jump, they all learned to coexist. For a show called The Slap, it doesn’t seem like there is anywhere to go from here. Though one of the producers of the show was holding onto hope that there would be a season 2, it looks like that is not going to happen. According to tvseriesfinale.com, NBC has confirmed that Thursday’s episode was its last. The mediocre ratings could just not justify continuing with the show. Plus, with a Metacritic score of 62, it wasn’t exactly a critics’ darling that could score the network any prestigious awards.

The Slap has been through a lot of criticism in its 8 weeks. It’s hard not to argue the show’s wasted potential. With such a great cast, big names behind the scenes and the support of NBC, this show could have been a very interesting turn for the struggling network. Instead, it filled its episodes with wildly unlikable characters and became yet another one season wonder. In this day and age, it is always possible this show will find new life elsewhere (i.e. Netflix, Hulu) but I highly doubt it has that kind of dedicated fan following.

The Slap-By The Numbers

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Since its premiere, The Slap has enjoyed modest ratings. It dipped a bit when it changed timeslots, but for the most part, it has stayed pretty consistent between 3 and 3.5 million viewers with a 0.7-0.8 rating. However, these are not the only numbers that matter. The show has benefited greatly from L+3 viewings. For 2 weeks in a row, The Slap saw a 51% increase in viewers with L+3 numbers. This meant that it gained 1-1.1 million viewers with this delay. In this era of changing viewing habits, these are not numbers that should be ignored.

The show also has a 116 index of adults living in homes with $100K incomes. This upscale audience is likely to bring in desirable advertisers for NBC, which could be a contributing factor as to why the show hasn’t gotten cancelled. If the network is making money from advertisers, they won’t worry as much about the modest ratings.

The Slap-Beyond the Screen

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It seems as though The Slap is getting more comfortable in its new 10 pm timeslot on NBC. After taking a hit on 3/12 and dropping to 2.74 million viewers with a 0.6/2 rating, it rose closer to the numbers from previous weeks with 3.18 million viewers and a 0.7/2 rating. With 2 episodes left, I expect the ratings to stay around this zone.

The Slap was recently prominently featured in a New York Times article. A woman who lives in Brooklyn (where the show takes place) was walking down the street and nearly run over by a young boy on a scooter, prompting her to yell an expletive at the child. His mother was appalled but the “victim’s” community (read: Facebook friends) supported her actions, some even feeling she didn’t go far enough. It seems these kinds of discussions on parenting styles are being fueled by the show. Even if they haven’t seen it, the people of Brooklyn have an opinion. One resident said, “These are some of the most hateful people you will find, until, of course you leave your apartment.” So even if The Slap isn’t winning in the ratings, they seem to have struck a cord of realism, at least in their New York setting.

Secrets and Lies – Week 5

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“Secrets and Lies” continues to be a stable presence on Sunday nights. Although the show has not demonstrated an ability to grow its viewership, TV by the Numbers says the mystery has retained 95% of its audience from its premier on March 1. One major obstacle for the ABC drama is overcoming the stacked CBS Sunday line-up. Weekly, CBS pulls in at least 11 million viewers at the 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. hours for “60 Minutes” and “Madam Secretary,” solid lead-ins to the “The Good Wife” at 9:00 p.m.

When it comes to reviews, the critics drastically disagree. In February, the Hollywood Reporter endorsed the cast of the show. That same month, SFGate.com, a Hearst owned entity, came away unimpressed and delivered a scathing review. Critic Dave Wiegand said, “Even before you’ve finished watching one episode, you’ll be convinced that ‘Secrets and Lies’ is the single worst show of 2015 so far.” The varying reviews have not stopped the show’s publicists from promoting the cast. An ABC News article published Wednesday, seeks to promote and humanize actors Ryan Phillippe (Ben Crawford) and Juliette Lewis (Andrea Cornell) who high speak about their personal lives and attempt to tease future episodes. However, in my opinion, teasing future episodes of a fictitious murder mystery is pointless. Regardless of the show’s plot, the mystery always gets solved in the end. Furthermore, this ABC show gives viewers another clue; there will be secrets and lies along the way.

American Crime- Second Episode Ratings Drop

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During “American Crime”‘s second week on television, the series drew headlines for losing a sizable chunk of its audience compared to the week before. In the 18-49 demo, the show lost six tenths of a rating point, and has left many wondering how the show will perform in the next few weeks of its 11-episode season.

“American Crime”‘s lead-ins “Scandal” and “Grey’s Anatomy” were also down, so that almost certainly contributed to the show’s drop-off, but there could be another reason why the show isn’t performing like some anticipated it would.

The series has a different feel to it than its time slot predecessor “How To Get Away With Murder”, and viewers seeking a Shonda Rhimes sensationalized hour of TV may feel empty after watching “American Crime”. The series may just not be the type of programming that ABC viewers are looking for on Thursday nights, which doesn’t diminish its quality, but may just indicate that it needs to find a different place on TV.

American Crime- First Week

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“American Crime” performed well during its first episode premiere on March 5th. Ratings wise, approximately 8.4 million people tuned into the show, which benefited from its lead- in (“Scandal”) and heavy promotion during the Academy Awards a few weeks prior. However, while the show started on fairly solid footing, there was a noticeable drop off when it came to viewers 18-49 from “Scandal”. “American Crime’ only captured about 60% of viewers 18-49 from the hour preceding it.

Reviews for the show have been strong, and critics have been almost universally giving it high praise. However, there has been some conversation about whether this type of program is appropriate for broadcast television, when it has more of a “cable-esque” feel to it.

 

The Slap–New Timeslot

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Following the cancellation of another new show, Allegiance, The Slap moved to NBC’s 10 pm timeslot on March 12th. This perhaps would have been the slot to start off the show, not to move it to halfway through the episodes. Due to its slightly risque subject matter and somewhat explicit scenes, the 10 pm slot makes more sense for the miniseries. The change also led to a drop in the already low numbers. The show lost over a million viewers when it aired at 10. Perhaps this is also because NBC didn’t properly advertise the change. I only knew about it because I read the trades and am looking out for news about the show. I never saw any advertisements informing viewers that the show would now be on at 10. These ratings also seem to indicate that there is little to no chance of a second season. Since it has been dubbed a miniseries, NBC will likely air the remaining episodes but that will be all we see of The Slap.

World’s Funniest Fails Weeks 3/4

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Back again! World’s Funniest Fails continues to keep its ahead above water in the death slot, on Fridays @ 8pm. For a show that should have been off the air a while ago World’s Funniest Fails is making quite the statement as of late. Since February 13th, the total viewers have gone up every single week with the most recent viewing coming in at just under 3 million total. While the ratings have now been stuck at .8 for the last four weeks the show is definitely making progress. Fox has officially ordered EIGHT, yes you heard that right, eight! new episodes. From Variety, “WORLD’S FUNNIEST FAILS ranks No. 1 in its time period among Men 18-34 (tie), Teens (tie) and No. 2 among Adults 18-34 (tie) and has improved upon FOX’s prior season average in the time period with entertainment programming in Adults 18-49 (+38%), Adults 18-34 (+60%), Teens (+50%) and Total Viewers (+45%).” Killing it! Hopefully Terry Crews and Co. can keep their momentum going through March into April and May. Stay tuned ! And don’t forget to check the show out, Fridays @ 8pm on FOX !

The Slap – Post 4

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This week, ratings for The Slap are down yet again. Its rating declined by 0.1, which is not as bad as the week before, but still is not ideal. However, Bob Greenblatt, head of NBC Entertainment, has no regrets about the show. He told Variety earlier this week, “I’m very happy with the critical acclaim and the quality of “The Slap.” I’m not going to regret doing something that is really high quality, but I am disappointed in the rating not being higher.” NBC is standing behind its programming, even if viewers are not flocking to it as they hoped.

One reason for this lack of viewers could be the show’s lackluster social media activity. Their Twitter, at just under 4,500 followers, does not really interact with the viewers. Instead, it live tweets during the show and posts about the upcoming episode. Occasionally, it will retweet a kind word from a viewer, but this does not seem to promote much audience engagement. Perhaps, if it had a larger social media presence, more people would know about the show and get excited about it.

The Dovekeepers – The Production Team

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The creative minds behind The Dovekeepers are the dynamic husband and wife team Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. Both Downey and Burnett have done extensive work prior to this miniseries on their own terms. Roma Downey is an Emmy award-nominates actress with prominent roles in television shows like Touched By An Angel, and Burnett is one of the most prominent reality tv producers both in the US and internationally with hits such as Shark Tank, The Voice, and The Apprentice.

As much success they’ve had separately they are an even more dynamic team together.  Burnett and Downey were the creative minds between the epic miniseries The Bible, Burnett’s first scripted work, which has garnered more than 100 million views cumulatively.  In addition to The Dovekeepers, the pair has produced another 12-week miniseries, a sequel to The Bible titled AD: The BIble Continues to air on NBC starting Easter Sunday. Looking to the future, Burnett and Downey are also producing a big screen remake of Ben-Hur, another religious historical adaptation to add to their growing list.