Brown Jenkin said:
Except of course those shows that build an audience from year to year. Sienfeld had realy bad ratings its first year and went out on top at the end. Many Shows start Strong and stay strong for years like ER. Abrams creates shows that start strong and decline after only 1 year as his plots get too convoluted to follow.
Felicity was on the air for 4 years. I'm not too familiar with this show, but I think it's fair to say that a show on for 4 years, that does well in DVD sales as well, counts as successful.
Alias for 5 and never ranked out of the top 100 in ratings, bringing in 7.2 million viewers in its worst season, season 5. Contrary to what you said above about not building ratings and declining after one year, Alias had its highest ratings in Season 4.
Lost has been on for three seasons and counting. Season 1 averaged 16 million viewers and ranked 14th, Season 2 averaged 15.5 million viewers and ranked 14th and the 3rd season has averaged 18 million viewers. Wow, it sure is stagnating.
Lost has also never lost (no pub intended) the 18-49 male demographic, the one everyone wants, in its time slot.
It also has critical success, with an Emmy for Best Drama series for Season 1. Abrams himself was awarded the Emmy for best direction for the Pilot episode of Lost.
Abrams then went to Hollywood where he directed a movie named Mission Impossible III, a movie that made almost $400 million dollars worldwide.
I mean... why the hell are we having a conversation this long about whether or not the guy is a success?
Still, several of the claims made in this thread by you that his shows peak after one year and don't build ratingsare just wrong.
I mean, clearly you don't care for him. Cool. But stick to either actual facts, or just state your opinion. Don't try to cook up falsities to make your opinion seem unbiased somehow.