Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate...among other things

[shadowkat]

1. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.

Currently watching or half watching The Thanksgiving Parade on NBC. So far the only musical numbers I've enjoyed are Jimmy Fallon's take on Prince's "Let's Go Crazy", The Goo Goo Dolls..."You can make it on a wish", Once On a Island - Broadway Musical - "We tell the Story", and Anastasia's Once Upon a December. Other than that it feels like one long marketing campaign.

Oh, a couple of insider's takes on the Parade? They have heaters on the floats, and also on the area where everyone performs or the stage - heaters. The people walking will have pocket heaters. (I know this because I know people who have either performed or been in the Parade and they told me.) Also, Macy's gives everyone in the Parade a holiday cookie spread.

Decided to skip the movie/dinner at the diner with 19 strangers, and just hang at home with my comfy yoga pants, purple sweatshirt, and fluffy socks. I'll binge watch Stranger Things S2, most likely, maybe do a Hulu 7 day trial or a Starz 7 day trial if I run out of stuff to binge on Netflix and Amazon which is highly unlikely.

Thanksgiving is a simple affair. Having tummy issues, I'm scaling back.

2. Television Show Annual Hiatus...

I'm thinking US Television Series Hiatus must confuse the heck out of non-Americans or people who don't live in the US. It confuses me, and I've gotten used to it.

US Broadcast Television (ie. anything that is on the Basic Cable Channels such as NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and the CW...) - is advertiser driven. What this means is the television shows are paid for with advertiser dollars or bought "ad space". And Nielsen Ratings inform advertisers where the premium ad space is -- or where there product will reach the most viewers. You can sort of tell, if you watch the ads at all, which shows are doing well. The better the ad, the better the series is doing in the ratings from the advertiser's perspective.

Anyhow, Neilsen Ratings are determined by polling a randomly selected group of people in various demographics. They are hooked up with a box, a journal, and told to tabulate all the shows they watch during a specific period. Then the Neilsen's collect the box and journals, and that's that.
They get these boxes during "sweeps" months, they don't do it year round. Although there a few who may be hooked up for that.

If you don't have a Neilsen Box or have never been contacted -- they have no clue what you are watching and you don't count in the ratings. (So boycotting television shows or news, without a box, is sort of a waste of time. No one cares, except you.)

How do I know all this? Ah, my parents and grandmother have been contacted and participated with the Neilsens at different points. I've also been contacted than told, eh, never mind, we already have a lot of people similar to yourself with boxes.

Sometimes they follow up to see what products you buy, but mostly just tabulate the television shows.

The months that they do this -- are October - November, February- March, April - May. With November, February, and May being the "SWEEPS" months. SWEEPS is when they pay the most attention to the tabulation and the most people are tabulated. December, January, and pretty much the entire summer are dead time. You also have some dead time in between Feb-March, and March-April.

Why? Television series have between 13-22 episodes to spread out during the year. If your television shows survival is based on Sweeps -- you want to put your best episodes in the months that they will be tabulated. Which is November, February, and May, but you need to build up to those episodes and maintain audience interest in between.

So what most network programmers do is they start their series in October - have new episodes through November, with maybe one or two in December, then go on hiatus until the last week or two weeks in January, rev up for Feb Sweeps, do one or two shows in March, go on hiatus until the end of April, rev up for May, finish in May.

Some will split season into two halves, with half shown in October - Thanksgiving in November, go on hiatus, then second half will either pick up in March-May. Or they will pick up in Jan-March, and end there. Depends on the show and network. The network is also being rated during those months, so may yank a show for a sporting event or live music or other event that they believe will pull in bigger ad dollars and viewers. (Such as the Superbowl or the World Series or College Basketball Playoffs).
The reason they break in December is -- that's the time for holiday specials, which starts the week after Thanksgiving and continues until roughly the first week of January. Awards season takes off shortly after that, along with the big Football Matches. So the television series jump out partly due to that.

No one shows television shows during Thanksgiving, if they can avoid it -- that's specials and games, mainly because they don't get good ratings during those days, it's dead time from their perspective.

This is why I love Netflix. I can watch and binge shows whenever and ignore the stupid network timelines. But, if your show airs first on a broadcast channel and is being picked up by Hulu or Netflix or a streaming channel, that's why you don't get episodes after a certain point. The shows only tabulate ratings during certain periods -- so they put their episodes in those periods. Also, advertisers only purchase ad space for the series during those periods, so they really can't afford to put an episode in an off period.

Confusing? Yep. Antiquated? Yep. Particularly since most of the people in the 18-35 demo aren't watching television that way -- they are streaming. It's really the people over 45 that are watching television the old way. So they aren't getting a good picture of the top ad dollar demographic. But they haven't figured out how to change it -- outside of doing DVR downloads and looking into subscriber numbers.

Comments

[ex_peasant441]

Interesting explanation of why the American TV comes out the way it does. I had always just accepted it as a cultural quirk, never really stopped to wonder why it was that way.

I do like the rhythm that the system creates - with things rising to mid season peaks and then relaxing back into more quiet episodes before building up tension again. It does make American TV more predictable, but I actually like that because I find predicting stuff from the rules of story structure to be part of the fun.

[shadowkat]

I do like the rhythm that the system creates - with things rising to mid season peaks and then relaxing back into more quiet episodes before building up tension again. It does make American TV more predictable, but I actually like that because I find predicting stuff from the rules of story structure to be part of the fun.

Interesting perspective. Don't quite see how you can do that based solely on when they decide to air various episodes during the ratings season. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something here? And how exactly is the US tv series's story structure different than elsewhere? I don't quite follow.

[ex_peasant441]

Don't quite see how you can do that based solely on when they decide to air various episodes during the ratings season.

You can't predict solely from the air time, but it is an important factor in knowing whether the next episode is going to see some plot point move towards a climax or if it will wait another episode or two.

And how exactly is the US tv series's story structure different than elsewhere?

I don't know about elsewhere generally, but compared to British TV, American series run to many, many more episodes, which changes the pacing a lot. American TV also things like the hiatus built into the story structure (no such thing as a hiatus in the UK) and for more channels the beats of the advert breaks make a difference (we have some of that, but not so much).

[shadowkat]

but compared to British TV, American series run to many, many more episodes, which changes the pacing a lot. American TV also things like the hiatus built into the story structure (no such thing as a hiatus in the UK) and for more channels the beats of the advert breaks make a difference (we have some of that, but not so much).

Hee.. Eh, no. That's only true of maybe 20-30 shows if that. (Keep in mind the US has over 145 scripted television series at one time. So roughly 2-5% fit your description.)

The 22-episode model only applies to a handful of American television shows. And those air on NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and CW. Also, not all of them follow the logic you are applying to them. They aren't all set up like say Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Some are like Lucifer -- where you have in reality 16 episodes, and they don't necessarily show them in the order they shot them, or for that matter in the same season. Other's are like Scandal -- in which you have ten episodes shown in the fall, no breaks, big cliff-hanger. Then a second season wrap up in January through April. End. Or you'll have the Once Upon a Time Model -- where you have one winter season, everything wrapped up. Then a spring season with everything wrapped up. Episodic model such as Bones -- where they show about five or six episodes, reruns, then two episodes, reruns, then three more, reruns...

Netflix series such as Stranger Things, House of Cards (US version) Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Sense 8, The Defenders, Punisher, Luke Cage, Dare Devil, Longmire, etch...tend to have 6-13 episode arcs maybe slightly longer. And, you can usually see the entire season in the space of one or two days. All the episodes are often released at once, with few exceptions, so you can binge them whenever you want. Hulu is similar - The Handmaid's Tale - streamed pretty much at once or over a a few months, no hiatus.

Cable, such as AMC, TNT, TBS, Syfy, Freeform, etc -- follow a model that is impossible to understand. Their series don't go on hiatus, air weekly, and tend to air the whole thing within the span of a few months or so. The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Good Behavior, The Closer, Major Crimes, Suits, White Collar, BattleStar Galatica v2, The Expanse...all didn't follow the 22 episode model closely. If anything they were following the British one. Splitting the season in half, ignoring sweeps. Showing episodes in off-seasons like the summer, January, or December. Some do, some don't.

Premimum Cable -- Outlander shows episodes and it's seasons in the space of three months, no hiatus and about 13 episodes maybe more. Game of Thrones? Had 6-7 episodes this summer, each one about 45-60 minutes long, one was close to 90 minutes. Aired all with one or two months. No breaks in the season.

Did I make your head explode yet? ;-)

We have so many tv shows, so many different television models, and so many channels and weird changes in scheduling that I can't keep track of them any longer. If I didn't set them up to DVR -- I'd miss half of them. And if I don't know or jot down when a new show will air? I will lose it and give up.

The old model - from about 1950s to 1990s, followed what you stated above fairly consistently. It used to be that the new tv season started in Sept, ended in May, with breaks in between. Summer was rerun hell. Now, about a handful follow that, most don't and those that do? See Lucifer and Once Upon a Time. You also have to factor in the mid-season replacement shows, which replace shows that start in the fall season. Some series are set up as a sort of novella for television -- similar to Poldark. I can go on and on...until your head does explode.

[wendelah1]

We were a Nielson family a couple of years ago. We didn't keep journals. We wore these electronic gizmos from the minute we got up until we went to bed.

[shadowkat]

You're kidding? My mother didn't have to do that. She was giving a journal and had something hooked to a tv.

What does the electronic gizmo tell anyone? That you are jogging instead of watching tv?

[wendelah1]

It recorded anything we were watching or listening to wherever we were--TV, radio, car radio. Any signal being broadcast--even our DVR.

[shadowkat]

Ugh. I would not like that. Feel like an invasion of privacy. You didn't do it for very long, did you?

I remember once Nielsen asked if they could track my internet usage back around 2002-2004. I said no. Have no interest in anyone knowing which fansites I frequent, thank you very much.

[wendelah1]

Not for long. We did it for about four months. They started courting us almost a year earlier and we kept turning them down. We hardly watch television in the first place. Since I retired, my radio consumption dropped, too, since I mainly listened during my commute and only to NPR. They said that was fine. They were interested in every demographic, including people who didn't consume much media. Of course, we didn't get counted for the official ratings that get marketed to advertisers--we're too old. I have no idea to whom they were selling our data.

[shadowkat]

LOL! My parents had the same reaction. They were contacted this year -- Mom's 75 and Dad's 82, and they rarely watch much television. And certainly not that much during the period they were being tabulated. My mother figured they were going to be disappointed. Also they don't buy that much now.

Make more sense to court people like myself or my brother. But no, they court people who are over the age of 70 in my family.

Honestly, I've decided logic and marketing don't mix.

[rahirah]

I miss the old days when the parade focused more on the balloons and the marching bands. :P

[shadowkat]

I like the Broadway Show numbers before the Parade gets to Macy's. I do miss the old days though...when there were less pop musical numbers, just B'way numbers, marching bands, balloons and floats. I could do without the pop numbers.