Dammit

[sombrefan]

Angel gets cancelled and the WB throws a bone in the form of TV movies. What are we Babylon 5 or something? As of yet no word from Mutant Enemy for the fans. They're probably still formulating a strategy like what they did for the Faith spin off and Firefly.

Meanwhile the fans have somewhat calmed down and what to know what they can do to save their favourite show.

And lets thank the WB for their cynical timing of the announcement. Spot on boys, Wolfram and Hart would be proud of you.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

From Ocipital

Hey Simon, sorry dont have a Live Journal, thought I'd respond to your ASSB post here, am absolutley gutted, even though i've been expecting this since Harm's Ways ratings came out. Dont much feel like explaining bad news to people on a huge fanboard so thought i'd respond here.

In response to

[> is Dark Shadows made by the WB? -- Simon, 15:53:04 02/15/04 Sun (cache3-blfs.server.ntli.net/62.254.32.6)

cause I was wondering what 20th Century Fox was thinking right now of Angel's cancellation in terms of loss of potential revenue from DVDs and overseas syndication sales.

*I was daydreaming today about the BBC and Sky One putting in a joint bid to save the show*
[Edit]

and

[> [> [> I really doubt it, sadly -- Simon, 16:14:50 02/15/04 Sun (cache3-blfs.server.ntli.net/62.254.32.6)

Angel does well for Sky in the ratings (under a million but you would have to ask Octipal for details) but I can't seem them buying it for domestic consumption.

But I still believe Fox is going to lose a lot of money from overseas because the WB has cancelled Angel. Can't see Gail Berman being too happy about it.

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First off News Corp (Fox/SkyOne) and BBC are having a bit of a dispute at the minute. 2oth century Fox are unhappy that the BBC have decided to stop using Sky's digital encryption. This Encryption cost annually a hell of a lot of money, and stopped people being able to watch the BBC who shouldnt. The BBC cut it likely in a response to losing the rights to The Simpsons (to Channel 4), and the ending of Buffy. Now Fox are officially unhappy with this because the satelite feed could concievably be picked up in forign countries, but its fairly clear that given no one else is complaining it has more to do with the loss of revenue to Sky. Since this dispute was reported BBC lost or failed to bid on the first run rights to 24, which has subsequently been lost to Sky One and I'm not sure about Malcolm in the middle. This situation will be resolved eventually its just a question of who needs who more, The BBC2 6-7:30 slots are actually very highly rated, and often have the best ratings on BBC2, this generally benefits Sky as they have the first run rights to these shows, and people subscribe to see more episodes, it also helps Fox's merchandising. It also does benefit the BBC, they have a commitment to air shows of all genres and 20th Century Fox does produce a wide variety of programming that can neatly fit into the slot. One of them will realise they need each other soon, but it's a case of waiting it out. For now though it essentially rules out any collective buying power. Such a despute may make "Ripper" impossible at present, or BBC buying Angel outright.

Saying that even if the BBC and Sky were prepared to collaberate, I dont think they would for Angel. Buffy I think would have a real possibility, but Angel was always too dark for an early evening slot, whilst the BBC endevor to spend money on British produced shows during prime time, and There isnt the kind of money Angel would need at 10-30 showings. Other Channels are much less likely to care, C4 and FIVE have not done well ratings wise (mainly because all bar season 1 aired after the DVDs were released, and in season 1 C4 thought Angel was a kids program), and it certainly wouldnt gell with any of ITVs audiance. World wide theres similar problems, cancellations in Germany and varrious other countries, it just never was quite the success Buffy was. If it were Buffy It'd could have survived on European DVD sales alone (IF SMG had wanted to).

Still from Ocipital

[(Anonymous)]

Why Angel was cancelled

Money, Money and Money. Dark Shaddows played a very minimal role, it may yet not be picked up.

Money 1) The WB are having a bad year, Smallville has dropped badly, as has Gilmore Girls (both of which were cash cows), Tarzan flopped badly, They are desperatly spending money in an attempt to make One Tree Hill a success, and it isnt working. The only positive they have is Everwood, Charmed is stable as is 7th Heaven, but their both aging and niether are owned by the WB, their licence is up next year, and even though 7th Heaven is the highest rated program on the Frog it may well end due to costs. Essentially under the current regime there looking at decreased income with increased costs, bare in mind that the WB wasnt even profitable till 2001/2002 season, its problomatic

Money 2) New shows are cheaper and they can own them outright. Whats more there more likly to get a better rated show, very seldomly do people decide to start watching a show once its established, not enough to increase the ratings anyway. It's buzz just dies down. The fact that Dark Shaddows featuures a vampire is scacilly important. The Frog had sever pilot issues last year, they just wernt any good. (Its a contributing reason to Angels survival), this year it looks like theyve been more keen to develop new shows, and get some quality talent behind the shows. In doing so they may actually have many more than they need.

Money 3) Cancelling Angel will increase its ratings, especially for the finale (or so the theory goes). Dawson's Creek's finale was a 4.8, for 2 hours, it was the highest rated series finale in the history of the WB (as well as being exactly equal to the DC series premiere), and it seems to have given them the idea that cancelling Angel would increase the ratings further. Thinking back I should have realised how important this played in their decision to renew it for s4 in the first place ("DC taught us the importance of giving fans closure etc"). Now Cancelling Angel may seem like a short sited gain, but for shows and new shows especially, upfront ad rate is often determined by the performance of the time slot in the previous years sweeps (seems stupid to me) In making the decision early, time is allowed the marketing department to market the end of the show right.

Why Angel though, it was a race between 6 shows and Angel was just slowest the improvement didnt matter. They could have gone for Charmed instead but sunday has always been seen as problomatic for the Frog (charmed is the only drama on the history of the frog to keep its sunday berth), that kind of stability on a difficult night is why it remained. Gilmore Girls was another possibility but even though its dropping like a lead balloon, its a good few tenths of a rating point better off, owned by the WB, and going to get a big 100th episode celebration next year (after which it will doubtless be cancelled). The rest wernt in any danger.

The fact that this decision has so little to do with Angel itself maybe a positive for getting another network to pick it up. I cant see UPN stepping in, too many genre shows have crashed and burnned on the network. I think Fox should remain a possibility, Angel always fitted Fox's audiance better anyway, and Gail Berman is the new prexy over there (shes not only Executive Producer of Angel, but also the person who came up with the idea for making Buffy into a TV show in the first place). I'm sure this would raise conflict of intrests, so she'd prolly have to resign as Angel EP, but theres a very old personal link there. It'd be an unusual move for sure and Fox is prolly more intrested in reality shit, but I think moving Angel to Thursday or Friday 8pm could be a smart move. I wouldnt say the odds were high, but thats my best bet.

[simonf.livejournal.com]

Octipal you are the wisest person I know when it comes in to the ins and outs of the US tv system. Thank you for this, honest and intelligent analysis. I really hope the show gets picked up. I happen to agree with you when it comes to Fox.