Why DON'T they show more shows on TV?

Does anyone know what the ratings for South Pacific were? Why don't they put more shows on TV as they close out their runs? It doesn't hurt the show at that point (if anything might give an end of run boost) and can give the production more money in inevitable DVD/boost in cast album sales.

There HAS to be a big enough audience for these airings. I would think they're amongst PBS's biggest audiences, no?

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Actually, I wouldn't be so sure that Broadway productions would be among PBS' highest rated shows. If so, they would be repeat much more often - and during pledge time.

A friend who worked at our local affiliate once told me you can tell the highest rated programs by those shown during pledge weeks. If I recall, they're usually things like Celtic Thunder, Celtic Women, that self-help lady whose name I don't known, and other novelty-type groups.

I only wish the audience was bigger. But then, I also wish more people went to live theater....

Nice article about why only selected shows get filmed...

http://www.livebway.com/?page_id=538

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Well, it didn't do all that much for the box office -- which is wbat they were hoping.

There was just a clip on The View of the behind the scenes of an episode. It happened to be about the show when MDQ appeared. They only appear to raise interest and sell tickets. The set design the View people came up with would have cost 10k. THEY didn't want to pay it so they asked the producers of MDQ to do so. They did, hoping that it would sell tix.

The shows that are closing really have NO reason to spend the money to have a show televised. It's expensive work. They are unlikely to make any kind of profit from it.

Theater is a business.

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But so much is loss on film of a live production. You do not (under most circumstances) get the same energy when filming a stage production.

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dramamama - I 100% agree that watching on tv is not a substitute for being in the theater live. I doubt anyone here would. But there are MANY people who love theater who simply live too far away or cannot afford to go, and the TV productions at least provide some of that. I would even tolerate taped shows with planned commercials between scenes if necessary to get to see them.

Fact is, even with discounts, the absolute minimum cost for my wife and I to both go to a show is 120 dollars because of transportation costs - and that's if we HAPPEN to win a lottery. That's a pretty steep cost for 2 hours of entertainment when we have unlimited access to movies for 15 bucks a month on Netflix. It's become nearly impossible for us to justify that money any more. That is why we actually subsribe to one local theater and go to three others a few times a year depending on their shows. The cost of a subscription (which is seven shows per season) for the two of us is less than the above mentioned cost for us to see two shows on Broadway.

Even if they didn't broadcast the shows on TV and JUST released the DVD, I would gladly spend that 20 bucks to buy it for the chance to get to see SOMETHING of these shows.

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When I was a kid we used to do that. Up to the last few years we used to do that. I've seen over a hundred shows on Broadway - but the last couple of years the incredible price and, in all honesty, mostly a lack of shows that's really pulling us in, have prevented us from seeing much of anything.

I'm not saying that I think it's actually going to change. I just figure that they show ENOUGH shows that there must be SOME financial reward for them doing it (or NOTHING would ever be shown), so given that, I'm trying to understand why it's so selective. The legal issues aside, because obviously if they want to they can work through that, is there another reason we only get such select shows?

And really, dramamama, you don't even watch the Tonys?

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