Post by snacky on Mar 5, 2014 2:45:12 GMT
This article about NCIS also applies to Murdoch Mysteries:
www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/03/the-plight-of-em-ncis-em-tvs-biggest-drama-gets-no-respect/284175/
I've brought this phenomena up many times, though I usually point to Stargate. The SyFy channel (fortunately not as obscure as Ovation) ran Stargate episodes every day, sometimes multiple times a day, all week before showing the new episode on Friday night. There was a great backlog of episodes for syndication - I think SyFy only picked it up in it's 4th or 5th season...? It is very hard *not* to get addicted to a series if you watch it every day for weeks at a time. The story arcs get presented all at once, and the viewer has immediate reference to details and a handle on the continuity of it all. The intensity of viewing sparked a lot of creation - tons of fanfic, videos, a flock of LiveJournals, etc. SyFy even legitimized the fan vids by sponsoring a special web site just to showcase them.
Ovation sort of has that model in mind. Except they don't show "The Artful Detective" every day, and their weekly "new" episode is from Season 5. As mentioned in other posts, they are doing a god-awful job at marketing, though I'm proof that strategy still works. I discovered Murdoch Mysteries via Ovation, and managed to get hooked on their not-very-intensive syndication efforts. Too bad I had to go elsewhere to get my fix through Season 7.
I can vouch it also worked for NCIS. I also started watching NCIS after being spammed by syndicated reruns for weeks on end. This made me like NCIS enough to watch new episodes in prime time even though it really doesn't have the qualities that are addictive for me. If NCIS was a quirky fun period piece like Murdoch Mysteries, I'd never miss an episode!!!
It probably takes a big media conglomerate that controls multiple network and cable channels to pull something like this off: in the US that would be Comcast, Fox, Walt Disney, or Time Warner. But the strategy obviously works better than giving short runs to brand new shows when it comes to pulling in millions of viewers. I wonder how they choose their investments? *dangles Murdoch Mysteries*
www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/03/the-plight-of-em-ncis-em-tvs-biggest-drama-gets-no-respect/284175/
Glasberg credits the show’s syndicated run on USA for goosing the CBS ratings, which have surged since the sixth season (they jumped more than 3 million alone during 2008-2009, its first season in syndication, and have hovered around the 20 million mark ever since). “It’s a rare scenario where I really think at the end of the day, there were a lot of people who had never given NCIS a chance,” he says. “They watched it in syndication and suddenly they’re saying, ‘Hey, maybe I’ll watch Tuesday night as well.’”
I've brought this phenomena up many times, though I usually point to Stargate. The SyFy channel (fortunately not as obscure as Ovation) ran Stargate episodes every day, sometimes multiple times a day, all week before showing the new episode on Friday night. There was a great backlog of episodes for syndication - I think SyFy only picked it up in it's 4th or 5th season...? It is very hard *not* to get addicted to a series if you watch it every day for weeks at a time. The story arcs get presented all at once, and the viewer has immediate reference to details and a handle on the continuity of it all. The intensity of viewing sparked a lot of creation - tons of fanfic, videos, a flock of LiveJournals, etc. SyFy even legitimized the fan vids by sponsoring a special web site just to showcase them.
Ovation sort of has that model in mind. Except they don't show "The Artful Detective" every day, and their weekly "new" episode is from Season 5. As mentioned in other posts, they are doing a god-awful job at marketing, though I'm proof that strategy still works. I discovered Murdoch Mysteries via Ovation, and managed to get hooked on their not-very-intensive syndication efforts. Too bad I had to go elsewhere to get my fix through Season 7.
I can vouch it also worked for NCIS. I also started watching NCIS after being spammed by syndicated reruns for weeks on end. This made me like NCIS enough to watch new episodes in prime time even though it really doesn't have the qualities that are addictive for me. If NCIS was a quirky fun period piece like Murdoch Mysteries, I'd never miss an episode!!!
It probably takes a big media conglomerate that controls multiple network and cable channels to pull something like this off: in the US that would be Comcast, Fox, Walt Disney, or Time Warner. But the strategy obviously works better than giving short runs to brand new shows when it comes to pulling in millions of viewers. I wonder how they choose their investments? *dangles Murdoch Mysteries*
