I listen to Howard Stern. I don't listen to the entire show, but I listen for 40 minutes driving in and slightly more driving home as it takes me longer in the evening. Since Conan took Jay Leno's time slot and Jay took a break before coming back in prime time - they have completely disected late night Neilson Ratings. Howard hates Jay and wants him to fail. The arguement is that even though he went from a 15 on opening night to a 4.6 last night, the show is cheap to produce and at that price it's still OK. One of the arguements on the other side is that it might be cheap, but you will never generate dvd sales from it or get syndication money. Good points, all. The one that really sticks in my craw (jaw?) is the arguement that he is losing lead-in for the local news. I'm not here to argue that maybe when dealing with local news lead-in might not be somewhat important as once the big story comes on, why change it.....but they talk about lead-in viewers like it's 1978.
I don't know about you, but I have a remote. I have pretty damn nice one too. Touch screen, runs software, controls 15 devices and knows what components to turn on and what the settings are for actions like 'Watch TV' or 'Watch DVD'. When you press an action, all the component settings change. It's like butter, but I digress. I was a very young kid when my great aunt got a tv that came with a remote. We followed a few years later. Lead-In? Are you serious. Are you telling me if your shitty show comes on after your really good show, I still might watch the shitty show? I seriously doubt it. I'm a stats geek. I would be willing to bet $1,000,000 if we could pull the data much like website analytics show "bolt rate" - we would see that the "Lead-In" effect has been in steady decline since the advent of the remote. I get it. I understand why it used to work. I was party to why it used to work. People watching TV today, at least the ones who count (the coveted 18-35 males) have the attention span of Robin Williams on a Double Gulp Diet Coke. Please with your Lead-In. People have their favorites of everything including late night news. Does anybody even watch the local news? Shows used to get a full season, sometimes two to prove their worth. Today they will be yanked after 3 or 4 episodes and there are a plethora of other new shitty shows with 8 episodes already in the can. I wonder how many people only know "plethora" because of Three Amigos? Anyway, I'm done, but I know a terrible show was crammed down my throat on every commercial break last year so I gave it a chance because it had that funny ass rich lady from Will & Grace in it....and after 6 minutes we turned the channel and never gave it a second chance. It didn't matter if Mother Hubbing Cheers was in front of it, I'm not watching a turd. Jay Leno? He's a clown anyway. Lettermen is King. Long live the King.
4 comments:
I feel like an idiot for spending the kind of money I did on my big screen TVs and entertainment systems because ALL OF TELEVISION SUCKS, not just Jay Leno. I got 147 channels and I can't find anything to watch.
Football, and every once in a while a Free-Fer-View movie and that's about it. Mrs. Dog finds far more entertainment value on there than I could ever hope to.
Blockbuster is closing all 3 of their locations in my area this month so DVD rental isn't really in the mix for us either.
I am one of the few who watches the local news, but I never make it a point to do so.
I got one of them dynamic remotes too with the GUI screen. I use it mostly to control the room lighting!
I agree with the loss of importance of the "lead in". It's one thing to get your big ass up off the couch and turn the channel on the set, and another to grab the remote. Hell, I turn to The Daily Show on Comedy Central anyway.
One reason I think the stations still heavily weigh the lead-in is so that they can shill for the upcoming show and issue all those tantalizing teasers like, "Life as you know it comes to an end... Details at 11."
Leno is flat and I think he made a big mistake moving his time slot. He could probably care less though - he has enough money I am sure and he can always sell a car or two. I actually like both Conan and Letterman but Ferguson is the one who cracks me up - too bad he is on so late. He is hilarious.
And Dog - Netflix is awesome!
I heard that on Stern too. I was even more surprised when they said that not only did it affect the late-night lead-in, but also the morning show lead-ins? I'm sure there is some lead-in factor when people see a compelling headline and they DON'T have a favorite local newscast, but it has to be WAY down than it was 20-30 years ago...can it be more than 3-4%? But to think that it could then affect the potential morning show lead-in was even more surprising.
I do watch the local news every night, Fox is preferred, then NBC. I usually make it through at least 30 minutes before I crash. I almost never watch late night, but Letterman is preferred. Not a Leno fan, don't even really like Conan. Jimmy Kimmell, maybe. Have watched some of Jay's new show (usually after watching some of the news), and am not impressed at all, but sometimes you have to watch just to see how bad it is!
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