What TV Have You Seen?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Just an observation.

Being a Doctor Who fan where ratings figures seem to matter immensely i've always been fascinated by them. That and the sad stats tosser part of me that finds them intriguing.

The football match on ITV last night brought a whole new meaning to the words 'live audience'. It's generally agreed that tv ratings will never match the 70's and 80's heyday when there were only three channels until Channel 4 got in on the act in the mid 1980's. General tv audiences are down across the board thanks to the huge amount of channels we now have access to, not to mention mediums like Netflix, Amazon and I-Player.

For an ITV program to peak at almost 24 million viewers is an unbelievable figure in 2018 and just goes to show that the viewers are still there and will unite if something is worth watching. Perhaps this is something worth thinking about to the producers of the likes of Eastenders, The X Factor and all the other shows with declining viewing figures - things have become stale. Make it fresh and exciting and you will get viewers.

My own fave - Doctor Who lost around three million viewers during the Peter Capaldi era which is why the new show runner, Chris Chibnall, decided to make the new Doctor a woman. It may work, it might not but at least they are addressing the decline in viewers.

Interestingly, ITV must have made a hell of a lot of money from advertisers as the five minute viewer breakdown shows - 20.76m (76.7% of the whole tv audience) were watching at 21:00, between full time and extra time and 21.98m (77.1%) were watching at 21:40, between extra time and penalties.

That's an awful lot of people watching an advert for a Volkswagen T-Roc as it meets it's match with a black sheep.

[Paul Zombie]

I am watching series 5 of 2 broke girls at the moment. it is very funny.

[Demoncrat]

Watching this Lore finally.
Stand alone stories. First two were middling but the 3rd floats my boat as it explores small town superstition. An odd series, half narrated/half 'reconstructions'. 6 episodes. Hmmm ....

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

I've recently watched a couple of long TV shows: The Millennium Trilogy which was made by extending the three films in the series (The Girl With Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest). They are very good feature films, but even better with the extra material and when three hours long. The story also seems to work better when viewed in a short period of time – I watched the three in four days and would have seen them on consecutive nights but had to go to a meeting one evening – because it means the events and characters are fresh in your mind, making minor plot developments more meaningful.

I also watched the second season of The Exorcist, hoping for the best but expecting the worst because of how I felt about the first season. It began very slowly and I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bored before it suddenly went up a gear and events were much darker, impactful, and interesting. It's a shame it's been cancelled by Fox because the subplot about demonic possession in the Vatican and Satanists trying to bring down the 'exorcist department' could have led to a really interesting story arc in the third season.

I watched the first two episodes of American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace last night and am enjoying it despite the strange title – he was murdered, not assassinated – so will probably watch another couple of episodes to fight.

[trebor8273]

Finished star wars c!one wars lost missions and star wars rebels season 2. Also continuing allo allo and dad's army's .

[Demoncrat]

Ahem. It's based on a series of podcasts. D'oh! etc. Robert Patrick's in the 4th one btw

[Demoncrat]

Well ... the last two go into horror overdrive tbh. Reasonable enough I suppose. Worth a look. It'll be on the Amazon Prime as they paid for it I think.

[Demoncrat]

Now watching Electric Dreams.
His short stories can be hit or miss imo. Too many ideas ... which isn't a bad thing, seeing how witless most tv has become. So we shall see ... the first story is his standard territory, as a totalitarian state finds it's newest control mechanism is fallible.

[Demoncrat]

Up to the 4th ("Crazy Diamond") ... interesting casts anyhow . There are remnants of PKD's liberalism and humor, something forgotten by Hollywood. But I am enjoying them overall.

[trebor8273]

Finished season 3 of star wars rebels.