NBC Axes My Own Worst Enemy

[Relique du Madde]

Remember, BUDGET and VIEWERSHIP are not the only concerns that determine if a show is axed, ADVERTISING REVENUE is also part of the equation.

Like it or not the prime time schedule is like a funnel. With each half hour you gain and loose viewers until you have a few thousand between 3 - 5 am. Ideally a NBC wants to keep viewers from 8 pm till the end of Leno in order to keep their advertising rates up (while knowing that there is a percentage drop each half hour as a result of sleep).

Sadly if a show like My Worst Enemy can't keep viewership at an optimal level after following a show like heroes, then it's likely to be axed due to revenue loss. That is because MYE is not just the follow to Heroes its also part of the lead up to Leno. Meaning like there might be a advertising revenue cascading effect going that NBC is trying to "fix".

 

[LightPhoenix]

Remember, BUDGET and VIEWERSHIP are not the only concerns that determine if a show is axed, ADVERTISING REVENUE is also part of the equation.

That speaks to MOWE, but not to Heroes. In fact, Heroes is probably their biggest advertising draw on Monday night, further cementing it's status as not on "thin ice."

 

[Felon]

Nuts.

I really liked My Own Worst Enemy. It just goes to show that I'm not the U.S. market.

And Chuck's continued survival proves the same of me. Dum-de-dum-dumb.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Sadly if a show like My Worst Enemy can't keep viewership at an optimal level after following a show like heroes, then it's likely to be axed due to revenue loss. That is because MYE is not just the follow to Heroes its also part of the lead up to Leno. Meaning like there might be a advertising revenue cascading effect going that NBC is trying to "fix".

So if that's true, and you sound fairly reasonable in explaining it, why do they just up and cancel a show with fair ratings (but not enough for the slot it's in)? Wouldn't a network try and move it to a different time slot before axing it completely and losing at least a bit of investment put into the show? Even if they end up showing all the season 1 episodes, I'd imagine a show has some "initial costs" and seasons beyond the first are thus cheaper to produce. Seems like it'd be worthwhile to try it somewhere else, but eh. I'm not a tv head.

 

[LightPhoenix]

So if that's true, and you sound fairly reasonable in explaining it, why do they just up and cancel a show with fair ratings (but not enough for the slot it's in)? Wouldn't a network try and move it to a different time slot before axing it completely and losing at least a bit of investment put into the show? Even if they end up showing all the season 1 episodes, I'd imagine a show has some "initial costs" and seasons beyond the first are thus cheaper to produce. Seems like it'd be worthwhile to try it somewhere else, but eh. I'm not a tv head.

As Relique du Madde said, the cost of a show to make is fairly contingent on the income from advertising. The show might be too expensive to produce in another time slot, and thus it gets the axe. The show's budget also has to eat some of the cost of promotion; often this is offset by increased revenue through advertising due to higher ratings. Long story short, it probably isn't profitable for them to keep it around in another slot.

Also, with regards to initial costs, this is both true and not so true. There are costs for building sets and the like, a lot of which comes from the first season budget. However, everything else (crew salaries, cast salaries, extras, on location shooting, catering, and so on) is fairly continual, and most shows will also try to bring in new sets as seasons progress. So the initial cost for a season is not that much different than successive ones.

Finally, to help offset the risk of a show not meeting expectations (ie, make money), networks typically only order a small number of episodes - typically between 9-13 - so that if a show doesn't pan out financially there's not a huge loss. This often happens in successive seasons as well; Pushing Daisies was only picked up for 13, Life was only picked up for 13 but was recently given a full season.