Wednesday, November 03, 2010

That Darn TV

The other day I was asked how much television my toddler watches.
The short answer? He loves to turn the TV on, change the channels, play with the volume, and wander off.  The TV is on a lot, but he doesn't really watch it.
I joked that it was okay since he probably shouldn't be watching Caprica with me.
What I didn't realize that tonight, after looking forward to watching Caprica with a toddler climbing all over me, that it would, in fact, have been suddenly cancelled, mid-season.
Apparently SyFy felt that well written science fiction wasn't worth continued support on the basis that ratings were down.
I understand that ratings determine how much advertisers are willing to pay for air time during a particular program, however, might not a better solution have been to switch it to a time slot where it might have performed better than a Tuesday night?  It did well enough on Friday nights for them to bring it back this fall, so why bury it on Tuesdays and then cancel the show outright when the time slot and the audience don't perfectly mesh.
Don't even get me started on the fact that *my* viewing choices aren't reflected in ratings, nor are most of yours.  Don't get me started on the fact that great shows are regularly cancelled because the people whose viewing habits are monitored don't have the same tastes.

TV execs? There has to be a better way.  First Firefly, and now this?  Not to mention the long litany of excellently written shows which have been canned in the interim.

So if you're in Canada, where you get to finish out the last filmed episodes, you're lucky and probably think I'm rattling on about nothing, but if you're here, pining for your complex plot science fiction hit, you're not alone.

Caprica- toddler and I missed you tonight.

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