Fox, you are bleh.

You know that there's someone, somewhere, at Fox going, "gee, I don't get why the ratings for our shows seem to be so inconsistent all of the time."  Man, I can tell them how to fix that issue right now.

Stop jacking with the flipping schedule!   

This past week I have been thinking about the love/hate relationship I (and I would have to assume a good chunk of the other viewers) have with this particular network.  

Part of it was my rant about the whole Bones second season episode that got wedged into the third season without any effort at continuity.  

Part of it was what happened Tuesday night when viewers across America tuned in at 8 p.m. (central time) to finally, finally, get a new episode of Fringe and were subjected to ten minutes of overflow of American Idol before the scheduled program aired.  I have never hidden my irritation or general disgust with this show, and while I acknowledge there are apparently plenty of people out there who watch it, it's just not cool to let it bleed into another show's timeslot without any sort of prior announcement--especially when the two shows have such completely disparate audiences.  I am just lucky that I was planning to watch Fringe live--I can tell you right now my DVR didn't catch the last ten minutes of the episode, so I can only imagine the anger of anyone else who had set up theirs to record in advance and then planned to watch later, only to have to fast forward through a bunch of AI crap and then have the episode cut off before the ending.

And then there was the whole bruhaha with the Dollhouse season finale episode "Epitaph One" that came out this week.  The long and short of it is this--Fox paid for 13 episodes.  Because Joss scrapped the first filmed pilot episode to make a new one (using lots of footage from the first pilot), Fox Network feels like they are not obligated to air this final episode because it is technically the 14th episode made.  So, they paid for 13 but are only going to air 12 because 14 were made.  There's still a lot of debate going on as to whether or not "Epitaph One" will be on the season one DVDs, because Fox Studios want a 13 episode DVD set, and the first pilot, to them, doesn't count--since it didn't air and it is a lot of the same footage from the pilot that did air.  So, we may get the unaired episode on the DVD set, we may not, but we are definitely not going to be seeing it on our television screens this season.  No one that I have seen has brought up the possibility of just airing it as the season two opener (especially since supposedly it is mostly a standalone episode, the preceeding episode "Omega" wrapping up a lot of the season one storylines).  This is because no one knows if there will be a season two or not--Fox at this point is flat out refusing to tell anyone until the upfronts at May.

The thing is, all of the stuff listed above is perfectly typical of Fox, and that is so maddening for me.  

On one hand, Fox continually takes chances on cool new shows that no other network would even let see the light of television--Firefly, Kitchen Confidential, Greg the Bunny, Tru Calling, Dollhouse, just to name a few that I have enjoyed.  Then, Fox turns around and totally kills the shows by constantly moving them around on the schedule, putting ridiculous (usually reality show induced) hiatuses in between new episodes, airing episodes out of order, failing to actually market/advertise shows that might need some attention drawn to them in order to gain/maintain an audience, etc.  

This is no way to run a business.  As far as I can see, Fox invests all of this money in these potentially awesome "high risk" shows in hopes that some of them will smash through and be a huge hit, and then doesn't know what to do with the shows once it has them, essentially just throwing all of that money down the toilet.  Yes, all of this does go on at other networks on some level or another, but at Fox it seems to be the rule rather than the exception, and that is where my problem lies.

Someone may point out that Fox can't be all in the wrong here, because, hey, Bones has had almost all of those things done to it and it is currently enjoying its fourth season.  Frankly, I am completely baffled that this show is still on the air.  Don't get me wrong, it's one of my favorite shows--maybe my actual favorite--currently on the air, and I cross my fingers every spring that it gets the green light for a new season, but I have no idea how it keeps happening.  This show has not only started on a different night almost every season, but in every season it gets moved to a new night halfway through each season, and still gets put on continual breaks due to American Idol and Major League Basesball.  

I can't even argue that it's the high quality of the program, because honestly, some of the stuff that gets canned is just as good and some of the stuff that's been on as long or longer is absolute crap, so quality is not something to go by.  And to tell you the truth, in this day and age, I don't believe in ratings--because I think the networks only use them as an excuse nowadays to get rid of shows they don't feel like dealing with anymore or to justify holding on to shows that really need to be wrapped up because they've gone on way too long.  I can only guess that someone very high up at Fox completely adores this show and until they get replaced or decide they don't like it any more, we will continue to enjoy new seasons, if we can figure out when it's on.

I realize that television production and programming planning today are done in a vastly different environment than even, say, ten years ago.  A lot of expectations have changed--for networks, advertisers, and viewers alike.  But I don't think that justifies what Fox is doing.  Because what Fox is doing, in the long run, is completely disregarding the value of viewer loyalty--to the point where they don't even try to develop or encourage it any more.  

Let's say that you start the season out by airing your show on Tuesdays.  Then about halfway through the season you decide to move it to Thursday nights--and at a different timeslot to boot.  There may be many reasons in your mind to do this (you want to pair it with a more complimentary show, you have something else you think would do better on Tuesdays, the ratings aren't what you expect for that day/time so you decide to give it a try in another spot, etc.).  So, you decide to move it--but you make the decision to move it after, say, the winter holiday hiatus.  So there's a two month period in between when it stops airing on Tuesdays and when it starts airing on Thursdays.  Here's what's going to happen:  some people who couldn't watch it live or at all on Tuesdays may be able to start watching it live on Thursdays (yay!).  But, most people trying to make up their mind about the show will just not bother to follow when it makes the move, people who watched on Tuesdays but have another show they watch in the new Thursday timeslot will have to decide between the two shows--some are going to keep up with your show, more will decide to keep watching their other show live and DVR your show to watch later, and some will decide that they don't care enough about your show enough to follow it to the new slot and stop watching altogether, and finally, quite a few people will totally miss the memo and just not watch the rest of the season because they think the show disappeared.

So while the experiment may give you a small ratings boost from new viewers who couldn't watch it (or at least couldn't watch it live) on the old night, there is far more likely to be a larger loss of viewers (or at least live viewers) who are inconvenienced by the move.  And let's be frank, for any kind of serial show, it's not too reasonable to expect a lot of brand new viewers halfway through the season--people generally don't like going "what the heck is going on" the whole time they are watching something.  Yeah it happens, but not as often as the networks seem to expect it to.  

Far better to leave the show on the same night for the rest of the season and then if you still have enough faith to renew it for a new season, move it then, when everyone else is rearranging schedules as well.  If you must move it, at least keep it on the same night and switch the timeslot.  It's a lot easier for your average viewer or DVR-er to find a show that's on at a different time than a show that's on at a different time and/or on a different night.  

In my mind it just seems that keeping a show consistent makes it a lot easier for the viewers to find and to continue watching--even if their hearts aren't in it any more, they'll still watch out of habit, and usually at some point they'll decide it's gotten good again and so keep on watching.  Heck, I continued to watch Smallville to halfway through the current season despite the pure crap it has become--just out of habit.  I mean, look at Friends--on almost every Thursday night for ten years--and people kept watching through good times and bad.  Or hey, let's look at an example on Fox itself.  The Simpsons.  Need I say more?  Okay, well, you know I will--The Simpsons has been on the air for 20 seasons.  20.  And to my knowledge it has been aired on Sunday nights the whole dang time.  This started out as a highly controversial show (and sometimes it still is)--but Fox supported it and nurtured its audience and didn't jerk them around--and so while the people who started watching 20 years ago may not still be tuning in, their kids sure are.  Never underestimate the value of a loyal fanbase that has been developed by the network proving the show is worth the loyalty.  If the network treats the show like it's just one of the bazillion on the schedule, or like it doesn't really matter next to their brand new reality show, then the audience is going to think the show isn't worth following and will tune out.  Guaranteed.

Okay, one last point, and then I'll stop, I swear.  Aside from the moving the shows around for days and times--there's the preempting the shows for weeks and months at a time for other shows and events.  I'm not talking about the Olympics or the Oscars here--something that happens one night a year or for a set period of time every few years.  Allowances can be made for that stuff.  What I'm talking about is American Idol and baseball season.  Fox has a tendency to just stop airing their serial shows for weeks at a time so they can air American Idol every night or so they can run baseball games.  The problem is that a serial show is usually a show with a building story.  The show runners themselves work hard to make sure that one episode tends to flow into the next and tell us an immersvie story that we want to find out the ending to--and then the network goes and puts huge breaks in the middle of the story.  Then they get surprised when the ratings tend to drop off as the show returns--you wait long enough and people a) lose interest in finding out what's going to happen next and so don't tune in, or b) forget what was going on and are completely confused when the show comes back and so stop tuning in because it's not worth trying to figure out anymore.  It's not like Fox is giving us reruns to keep what's going on fresh in viewer minds during these breaks.  Add to that moving it to a new timeslot after the break and well...the word "watershed" comes to mind.

I do understand that some breaks are necessary--the holiday break, the summer break, etc.  But the problem here is that Fox has a tendency worse than any other network to break for things that they can and should be planning around.  Baseball season (and I love baseball people, don't get me wrong--I just would rather watch the next episode of Bones) happens the same time every year.  It shouldn't be that hard to plan a show's run so that it finshes up beforehand or starts afterwards (hey, new content when everyone else is in the summer doldrums--there's a thought).  And American Idol--gah.  Fox has complete control over when American Idol airs.  Just figure out a schedule for that show and plan your other shows accordingly.  Say that American Idol season will run from point A to point B and again, plan your shows to finish up beforehand or start afterwards, don't just throw a reality show in the middle of the season.  You notice that Fox isn't breaking up the episodes of the reality shows but running then all in a nice steady block...hmmm....

With all of this going on, Fox still gets surprised at the crappy ratings and shows that don't do well in their freshmen seasons, and it just kills me.  There is no element of surprise here--if people can't figure out when a show is on, or if you keep moving it around on the schedule, they're just going to DVR it, watch it online, or stop watching completely.  If you keep interrupting the flow of the story, people are going to lose interest or get confused, and again, stop watching.  It's that simple.  

So here's my finishing thought, a message of advice for Fox:  

If you're going to gamble on a new "risky" show, give it chance.  Be nice to your viewers and you might find they can be nice you to.  Stop screwing around with our timeslots and constantly interrupting our stories, and we probably will keep on watching and maybe even tell our friends to watch too.  

Don't be evil Fox.  That would solve a lot of your problems.  

And with that, I say good day.  

Happy Easter y'all.  Hope it's a great one.