Day Break - ongoing thread (merged) (1 Viewer)

[Rakesh.S]

they probably won't...abc doesn't care.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Not much money in putting them on the web - I imagine they'd be much more valuable if they sold the "rerun" right to Spike/USA/Sci-Fi/TNT, or released a "complete series" DVD set.

 

[NeilO]

The thing that they lose by not putting them on the web is the trust of all the viewers who they told that they'd put them on the web. Who is going to believe anything that ABC says if they don't follow through? People are getting more reluctant to follow series that they feel will get abandoned by the networks.

Neil

 

[Rakesh.S]

This is what people say, but they will come back and watch a show if it is good. No one follows through with these boycotts.

 

[NeilO]

Except that the viewing figures for Kidnapped, Vanished and DayBreak are a symptom of all of this. Kidnapped, at least, got great reviews, but there was still a resistance to the fear of being abandoned by the network. NBC at least did play the final episodes online and it did have a satisfying resolution.

Meanwhile, not only is the link and all mentions of Day Break gone from the ABC website, if you typed in the Day Break URL you are redirected to the main ABC webpage.

Neil

 

[Jason Seaver]

And yet, people dove into Lost in droves and made Heroes a huge hit. While I don't think that "fear of cancellation" is something that can be completely dismissed, I think it's something that is likely to be overrepresented on message boards, just because of the self-selecting nature of the forum - fans of serials and people who follow the business end of entertainment are more likely to complain about such things than the public at large.

Kidnapped, Vanished, and Day Break all tanked, but they were all pretty flawed shows - Vanished was often over-the-top ridiculous, Day Break seems to spin its wheels by its very nature, and Kidnapped was sort of boring. It's not that their numbers started low and stayed there, but the decreased week-to-week, meaning people were tuning out. I sort of suspect that if "network distrust" was the issue, they wouldn't have had even relatively strong starts.

As to ABC not following through with putting them on the web - eh, I don't know how big a deal that really is. You'd think most people who paid attention to press releases would have learned by now that they represent current plans, not ironclad commitments.

 

[Charlie Campisi]

Fair points Jason, but the flipside also has some merit -- one of the reasons I tuned into Day Break was because of its predetermined 13 ep run. I wouldn't have held high expectations for GroundHog Day + 24 as an onrunning series, but for a 13 ep run at a time when most shows were on hiatus? It was a perfect fill in. With Friday Night Lights and Studio 60 (two of my favorite new shows) on the potential cancel list around the time Day Break premiered, the fact that it was unlikely to be cancelled *or so I thought* because of the planned limited run, was definitely attractive. I cannot say that I would not have watched it otherwise, but I definitely thought about the short planned run when I tuned in. I do feel let down that a show specifically written to have a beginning and end might not get it, even in dvd or on the web.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Except, I'd argue, that by knowing beforehand that Day Break was a 13-episode limited series (for now), you fit in the subset I described - fans of TV who keep up with the latest developments. And that group is a highly vocal minority.

 

[Charlie Campisi]

I wasn't disagreeing with the points in your post that good shows will attract viewers and bad shows will not, no matter the existence of network distrust or not. I agree that members of this forum and dvr owners represent vocal minorities that will put more energy into their viewing decisions, or take steps to make sure a show will last before investing time in it.

But in my own experience, one of the reasons I tuned in to the show was that it had a finite arc. I feel like I was taken a bit since they didn't finish it out given that it was only 7-8 more weeks. Then, I feel taken a bit more that they indicated they would air them on the web and are not going to follow through with that. It's like checking a book out of the library without realizing the last chapter was torn out.

I was watching shows like The Nine, Smith, Love Monkey that got cancelled quickly. I was also watching shows with critical acclaim but which seem to be fighting for their lives like Friday Night Lights, Studio 60 and even Battlestar Galactica or Entourage. So now I always wonder if a show will be allowed to run its course. Then you add the experience in with Day Break and I start to get more cautious with my viewing. Maybe I am in the minority. But maybe the minority is growing each time the networks pull a series before it has a chance to catch.

I've just started The Wire, season 1 and never knew what a good show I was missing. And I work in Baltimore. Still have Rescue Me, The Shield, Oz and a couple others on that list of shows I missed. Maybe dvd is the better way to watch a series? I know I did not watch Firefly until I heard the buzz here on the forum about Serenity. Many fans of that show in hindsight wish they never saw it on air but on dvd for the first time. Times they are a changing. And maybe the networks don't care since they make money off the dvds.

 

[NeilO]

I just heard at Harris Online http://www.harrisonline.com/ in this Monday's Aaron Barnhart interview that ABC apparently has resolved the Day Break music rights issues and will be having the final episodes starting late February.

Neil

 

[Qui-Gon John]

I hope so. But I wish they wouldn't wait so long. Stillon the web, or are they gonna air them?

 

[NeilO]

This is on the web. I don't think they have any plans to air them. Of course, if they want to just put up something to absorb air time against Idol they could air them.

Neil

 

[Prentice Cotham]

Just a reminder..the episodes are at ABC.com now.

 

[Joe_H]

Thanks for pointing this out, I definitely want to see how this ends. Now if I only didn't have to watch it in a small window in 2.0 sound.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

If anyone wants to posted the ending in spoiler tags after watching, fine by me.

 

[Joe_H]

Not all of the episodes are posted online yet. 7, 8, 9, and 10 are online, with 11-13 I assume appearing at once, on the 5th. Honestly, the show is really good, even the episodes that haven't aired yet. I hope they bring this to DVD sometime soon, because I'd buy it.

 

[Patrick_S]

Gees getting the episodes on the net took so long I can't even remember what was the last episode to air on TV?

Does anyone remember?

Thanks

 

[Joe_H]

The ones in the player marked 1/29/07 are the new ones. Episode 6 was the last to air.

 

[Patrick_S]

Thanks for the information.

 

[Prentice Cotham]

New one put up today.