Weekly Update – Primeval Cancelled, Wetpaint to Measure Fan Engagement, Fall Premiere Dates
June 22nd, 2009Categories: News and Updates, Paul S. White
Primeval Cancelled: ITV has decided to cancel their Science Fiction time travel series Primeval after three seasons. The independent British television stations chose to drop the series as a cost-cutting measure seeing as that station is currently experiencing financial troubles. They tried to work a deal with financing from other sources to allow the show to continue, but ultimately decided to pass on producing further seasons. The show currently airs in the United States on BBC America (Seasons 1 through 3) and the Sci Fi Channel (Seasons 1 and 2). A total of 23 episodes were produced for the series as British shows tend to have shorter episode runs than their American counterparts.
Wetpaint to Provide New Gauge of Fan Interest in TV Shows: The website creation service Wetpaint has launched a new service that will measure “fan engagement” on the Internet for current and past television shows. It will gauge this based on activity relating to shows on such social network sites a Twitter and Facebook, as well as certain search engines like Google, and activity on sites created through Wetpaint’s site creation service. Just how this will be used to determine the fate of an existing show is uncertain, but television programs with strong Internet buzz tend to bring more hits to a network’s website and usually have more activity in downloads and DVD sales. This factor seemed to play a part in the renewal of low rated shows Chuck on NBC and Dollhouse on FOX this past season. The index tracks current shows such as those mentioned as well as completed or cancelled shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jericho, and Firefly. The genre entries in the Top 10 of the site’s most recent “Fandex” include True Blood at number 1, Supernatural at number 5, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles at number 6.
Fall Start Dates: Both FOX and the CW have announced the start dates for their programs that will debut in Fall 2009. For FOX, the network’s freshman hit Fringe will return on September 17th as it moves to its new Thursday 9 PM EST slot and faces off against juggernauts CSI on CBS and Grey’s Anatomy on ABC. Dollhouse returns the following night on September 18th, keeping the same Friday 9 PM EST slot it had this last season and hoping to improve on the numbers from its inaugural run. The CW will get a jump start on the season one week earlier as new series Vampire Diaries and returning favorite Supernatural bow on Thursday September 10th in the 8 PM and 9 PM timeslots respectively. Two weeks and a day later on September 25th, Smallville will debut in its new Friday 8 PM timeslot. Stay tuned to Axiom’s Edge for our full Fall Science Fiction and Fantasy Television preview in August.
Ratings Update: NBC’s Canadian import The Listener dropped in the ratings this past week as it slid down to a 1.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic with only 3.8 million viewers. This marks a measurable decline in its numbers from the prior week when it had a 1.3 rating and 4.2 million viewers and casts doubt on the shows future on the peacock network. On Saturday, Kings actually improved a little after barely registering in its return last week. It pulled a 0.5 rating and almost two million viewers. ABC’s burn-off of the remaining Eli Stone episodes pulled the same 0.5 rating (which was down from what the Pushing Daisies episodes saw in the same slot) and 2.5 million viewers.
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