LAST NIGHT, The Border's fourth episode was watched by 760 000 viewers across Canada. That's up significantly from the week before, and up from the heavily promoted premiere, which drew 710 000 viewers. Better still, younger audiences seem to be responding to The Border's mix of action and humor. The Terminator's numbers are going down. The Border's are going up.
There were a lot of naysayers, but it's safe to say now that the show is building audience. That's good news. If The Guard manages to hold on to its HOUSE audience tonight, that'll be another piece of good news.
Someone was laughing to me down the phone line today about this Toronto Star article. This is a typical Canadian news spin and another example of what I was writing about down below. Really, at what point do you look at the angle you're taking and ask, "is this really the right spin to the story?"
Fighting against the drag, and the perceptions is never easy. But with baby steps forward being taken by better ratings, and things like this story, about a CTV series sale to CBS, the chains are moving down the field ever so slowly.
Just keep grinding out those first downs, and maybe down the road there's a happy tale to tell.
(Though the timing of the CTV series sale is a little unfortunate.)
13 comments:
well i guess the mood of self reflection didn't last long and i guess you didn't need the "chin up".
"the timing of the sale is a little unfortunate"
is this the sort of spin we want to put on this?
That's not the spin. It's merely a polite afterthought and acknowledgement of the reality.
As opposed to, say, making the lead of your story about the Genies about a movie that wasn't even *entered* into the Genies.
Point of fact, if you want to be accurate, the spin in my story was: "But with baby steps forward being taken by better ratings, and things like this story, about a CTV series sale to CBS, the chains are moving down the field ever so slowly."
My two wishes: an end to the strike and an end to the spin. Oh, and world peace, maybe.
Better ratings are great, and definitely good news. But the timing of the better ratings is just as unfortunate as the timing of the sale - that baby is stepping on reruns and stale movies. If you can celebrate one with a pure heart, it seems a bit hypocritical to not celebrate the other with no reservations.
Not entirely accurate. Terminator is probably the strongest potential contender -- and would be whether or not there was a strike. And American Gladiator was enormous for NBC out of the gate, which no one expected. And Heroes was fading. And then there's that Dance show, too. It's probably one of the most competative timeslots of the week.
Moral equivalency is up to every soul for themselves. I don't see the two things as the same thing. But I do agree with your sentiment and the two wishes.
But that world peace thing would never work.
What week are you talking about here? I thought last night, when Terminator, American Gladiator and the Dance show were on at 8, not 9. Last night against The Border was Would Be Kings, repeats of the Office and 30 Rock, and old-ish Hollywood movies. Or in your time zone, the state of the union.
Shilling for your own show is understandable, even leaving out the context in order to put the most positive spin on it is understandable, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth when you take a little swipe at another show in the same post, especially when Peter Raymont is in Las Vegas hoping to sell The Border to a US network saying things like "It's certainly helping us that there is a writers' strike and the Americans are hungry for content." That wasn't unfortunate enough, I guess - it's only success that makes it so?
Oh, I hadn't read that coverage. I guess I'm not thrilled about that either.
I'm sorry there's a bad taste in your mouth. I'll try to do better in the future so I can meet your exacting standards.
Yeah, Dmc. Didn't you know the onus is on you to be fair, even-minded and consistent every single time out.
You can't ever come at things on a personal level -- it's not like you're writing a BLOG.
Oh, wait, you are.
You could try meeting your own. What was that you said earlier about not talking about the CTV sale because you had a conflict of interest?
Yeah, yeah, I know ... it's "just a blog" when people call you on anything.
Diane, if my one line about the item so offends you, you'll be thrilled to know that's as far as I go with it on the blog.
I do the best I can. And this is now way past silly.
i feel like i'm fanning the flames here. i love you both. but please note i didn't say "just a blog" which connotes that it's unimportant so one can say whatever one wants, but was merely pointing that a blog is by nature personal, opinionated and not necessarily objective. and anyway, i've seen the big guy get big-time excited in these pages over the success of shows I happen to know he personally wasn't crazy about... ive also seen him steer clear of shows he absolutely hated in the interest of "if you don't have anything nice to say, etc..." he's one of the best cheerleaders most of us have, on average. so, i dunno... that buys you some goodwill in my book. i give you a pass on this one. you know where to send the cheque.
It's the spin and the comment spinning the spin that offended me, not the swipe. If you didn't know last night's lineup it was obviously unintentional. But then you got all offensive again with the swipe at me, so let's just leave it at Mr. Hypocrite and Ms. Sanctimonious.
why aren't i sleeping.
just one more thought: on reflection, is denis' comment really a swipe? the truth is that the timing IS unfortunate... The show, rightly or wrongly, is going to have this strike business tainting its accomplishment. the scuttlebutt on this show is that it's a strong piece of work and probably deserves the attention, and the sale. But unlike Due south, that sale DID come during a writers' strike, so they're always going to have a Roger Maris-esque asterisk appended to this accomplishment. I'm sure the producers would probably agree with the unfortunate-timing part. Here they've done good work and run the risk of being dismissed in some circles as a "strike show". no?
kind of my thoughts exactly, actually. but Jesus Christ this is sure more than I ever wanted to talk about the fucking thing. So now that this thing is officially a twenty dollar clusterfuck, I'm gonna just lock the thread and contemplate smashing a glass into my forehead cause it'd be way more fun.
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