SMASH tanks in ratings — Page 3

"The difference is that those shows [30 Rock, Parks & Rec] have prestige. They're critical darlings with strong, dedicated followings. And 30 Rock has a wheelbarrow full of awards, both nominated and won. "

Don't forget 30 Rock (and Parks & Rec will follow behind) was sold into syndication for $800K per episode. That's major bank. Smash will most likely never generate that level of revenue. No matter how many seasons are a SMASH!

i think that there are a couple of issues at play here. First off, I find it mildly ironic that the reason for this show's midseason premier was because NBC stated that if they started it in the fall, then they would have to stop showing it for a bit due to the news around the election. That makes sense to me. However, I find it stupid to start the season (double episode or not) and then skip a week due to the State of the Union. I echo what others have said here, that they should have waited to start the week after the speech that way they could have shown all the episodes straight through. Not, create some momentum and kill it right away.

I only watched the first episode of the two episode premier, and I could notice a big change in the show, hard to describe, something that I can't quite put my finger on, but a difference in the show between the first season and this one. I think that if the first season were like this one, the show would be drastically different overall.

Lastly, I don't get this notion of putting season or series premiers online to stream from various venues. NBC isn't the only one that does this. To me, it's just common sense that if you're going to do this, don't expect great ratings for when the episode actually airs. As far as I'm concerned, that's just a sign of the networks wanting to shoot themselves in the foot. You can't give the premier to people in advance and then expect high ratings when it actually airs.

---

I have to say the season premiere was way better than last season's mess. I actually enjoyed the premiere and the music was pretty fantastic in these episodes.

I think a storm of things caused problems - the premiere being available online, a TERRIBLE lead-in, and the fact that it was two hours pretty much guaranteed bad ratings. How many people will watch two hours of any show in one night as it's live? Similarly, and I don't know if this has an impact, don't most professionals who work in theater actually WORK during that time? I don't know how big an impact that might have on ratings, but I'd assume some...

---

Why did they move it to Tuesday?

I liked having a little SMASH start my week.

---

Borstalboy, I believe that they moved it to Tuesdays to give Revolution the timeslot that Smash had in its first season.

And, Jasonf, I am sure that there are people in the theatre community that watch the show, but I don't think that it's a big enough demographic to impact the ratings. Furthermore, season one aired at a time when people in the theatre would be working anyway.

---

And just like that NBC cancels "Do No Harm". Is this a good sign for SMASH?

Makes you wonder. I enjoyed the first year even with it's faults. The first two episodes this year were much better and I like the elimination of several characters. I hope it catches on a bit and NBC gives it a chance. I don't like the way NBC scheduled the premier one week and then show will not be on for two weeks.I remember many years ago ABC killed a show I loved "Murder One" by erractic scheduling which cost the show its audience.

Winston89 - excellent points. I believe a lot of series TV shows you can't see the episode on-line until 8 days after it airs. You hit the nail on the head about State of Union sppech also, why not wait until the week after. I remember in the early days of the FOX series "24", one of the keys they said to building and keeping the audience was that the show never missed a week once it started the season.

Here's one thing to remember, though. The season 1 premiere was available for viewing online well in advance of the actual airing as well and yet it was still able to pull in much better numbers.

Let's face it, they lost their audience after the ridiculous inconsistency of the first season and are going to have to work pretty hard to win some of those folks back.

Didn't they order a full season which for Smash is like 16 episodes?

Updated On: 2/10/13 at 12:30 AM

While the State of the Union has been on a Tuesday the past couple of years, that is something that just by chance. For example, the 2010 one was on a Wednesday. But, it is always at 9.

NBC moved it to Tuesday because they wanted to air their new show Revolution to air after The Voice (Revolution picks back up again in on March 25th, the same day as The Voice starts.)

And, AEA AGMA SM, while I am not sure with you about the audience being gone, I do have this to say though about the fact that both season premiers being aired in advance online. That is that the pilot was so well reviewed that it even got people who missed the short online viewing period to give it a chance. However, putting the season two premier, of a show that spent a season going back and forth between being really good and horrible to watch is a bad idea for two reasons. First off, It's a bad idea because it allows what a dwindling fan base to watch it early and miss it live altogether. And, the issue was that they made it a two hour episode. No one is going to want to watch a 2 hour episode that late in the evening live, of any show. I understand that they wanted to have two episodes out since they are missing next week because of the speech, but still.

---