David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. "Survivor" seeks its immunity idol
Last night's premiere of "Survivor: Montgomery, Alabama" -- er, sorry, "Survivor: Cook Islands" -- did OK in the ratings, but the segregation gimmick proved not to be the thing that'll put the kibbosh on viewer erosion.
CBS issued the obligatory giddy press release, which breathlessly exclaimed that last night's episode's 17.7 million viewers -- a not inconsiderable number by any means -- "delivered the largest audience and highest ratings in key demographics for a 'Survivor' episode since last February." Given that maybe about 10 episodes of "Survivor" have aired since last February, that seems to be an awfully weak selling point for such ebullience. More noteworthy is that last year at this time, "Survivor: Guatemala" debuted before an audience of 18.4 million.
(UPDATE: CBS released a final ratings number of 18 million viewers, enough of a bump to make qualifying and hedging and rewriting the paragraph above a bit of a chore. Still, to further stem viewer defection, the next version might consider human sacrifices.)
"Cook Islands"' crass gimmick, in the end (at least last night), was neither fish nor fowl -- the fowl were lost when that "Rollergirl" let them escape. Sure, Jeff Probst was anxious to point out a cultural stereotype (black men don't respect their women) and the show's producers are clearly accentuating any moment that race even hints at becoming an issue. But the contestants, by and large, to their credit don't seem particularly interested in playing along.
Meanwhile, Fox's new Thursday sitcoms couldn't even beat a repeat of "Grey's Anatomy" at 8 p.m. last night. "'Til Death" and "Happy Hour" lost more than 20 percent of their audience from last week, garnering 6.3 and 5 and a quarter million viewers, respectively (though not respectably), numbers that generally spell cancellation, though of course this is Thursday, where Fox has traditionally struggled. Its "Celebrity Duets" at 9 p.m. just barely managed to scrape past repeats of "My Name is Earl" and "The Office."
Wednesday: ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" (sorry; don't get it, never will) trounced everything in its path. CBS's finale of "Rock Star: Supernova" was received with the same shrug that has greeted it since its incarnation. And Fox's "Bones" and "Justice" are praying that the hit they take when the season begins next week won't cripple them.
MyNetwork's shows, "Desire" and "Fashion House," average fewer than a million viewers nightly -- that's fewer than a million viewers spread out throughout the country. So you have a better chance of contracting cancer than of meeting a MyNetwork viewer.
Finally, next week on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," guests include Bill Clinton and Johnny Knoxville, touting "Jackass Number Two." Actually, I suppose there should have been some sort of qualifier in there between "Clinton" and "and," because to the best of my knowledge, Clinton is not also promoting "Jackass Number Two." But where, outside of right-wing blogs, do you get the chance to see the words "Bill Clinton" and "Jackass" in the same sentence?
Comments
Ok, I watched Survivor, but there was nothing else on. The race separation thing was anticlimactic, but the misogyny displayed by the black men was pretty surprising. More surprising was that the women let them get away with it.
Posted by: Suzy Q | September 15, 2006 5:08 PM