They hit upon moving it into a slot behind The Week The Women Went, which drew more of a younger women demo, and was drawing over a million viewers.
Only one problem. It never hit that number again. And every Wednesday Erica since has shed more and more viewers. Bill Brioux enjoys the death spiral here.
This whole "bold CBC" thing -- where rather than let underperforming shows run three years, they cancel them; or move them -- that's all still new. Maybe we're hurtling toward the "timeslots don't matter" age, but the rapidly cratering fortunes of the freshman drama show we're not there yet.
Any move the CBC makes is always met with a great big storm of complaints. Whatever it is. So that shouldn't be the metric here. In retrospect, you look at the competition and the truth is that the reason why Fifth Estate was better in that slot was because of the very reason it's "pooh poohed" -- all those over 55 viewers. See, Wednesdays at 9 crushes Erica because there are at least three shows splitting that younger female demo. Unfortunate, but true.
What to do?
Move it back. Period. Clearly the show did better Monday at 9. The CBC doesn't have the most flexible schedule anyway because of the need to show the news at 10.
Yes, there will be 'tsk'-ing. But there was going to be that anyway. Right now you have to stop the freefall. Right impulse, wrong decision. Ah well. Live and learn.
Meantime, it also bears repeating that the other freshman drama on CBC, Wild Roses, has built audience every week. And it's way outpacing Erica since the timeslot change. So I guess there's good news for that show too.
Of course, good news is relative. Look at that pretty glinty thing on the horizon. Is that an iceberg?
9 comments:
Is Erica a deck chair?
I'm not so sure Denis. I think moving it around creates confusion, and I don't see any intrinsic reason why Monday's a better slot. In fact it's worse -- Sophie is a terrible lead-in.
They got killed by idol on Wednesday, right? That's not always going to be the case. I should look at the schedule again I don't have all this in my head...
Right now I'm thinking more along the lines of THIS given the recent news.
/just sayin
i must admit that as someone who had a cup of coffee with the wild roses folk, i am enjoying this recent turn of events, watching the red headed stepchild out-perform daddy's little girl is kinda fun -- makes you think maybe the cbc should have hedged their bets and bought wild roses a billboard or two...
Perhaps creatively Being Erica doesn't need more than one season. Its going to so sad and cathartic when they do the episode where her brother dies. Unless they are planning to save that for a second season which I think would be a mistake.
I have given up on my Michael Riley is really the Devil thing. I can mock them no longer and it was never really all that funny in the first place. They have beaten me. Brushed me from the mighty shoulders like Jay-Z. They have me now. Though I still think a lot of it is still very clumsy and awkward, I cannot lie - I want to be Erica too.
(oh yeah, and I watch it on the Internet. Does somebody or something 'rate' that?)
correction: ... going to BE so sad and cathartic ...
(shit, must preview)
FURTHER: ... THEIR mighty shoulders ...
why doesn't she just jump back in time to Monday night?
Here's the deal: I'm a 30+ woman working with 30+ women who were all watching Being Erica at one time. Until it moved. As my colleague said, "there was nothing else on on Mondays so I watched it. And it was good. But by Wednesday, I have other shit to do." Anecdotal, yes. But I think it only emphasizes that sometimes you just gotta get out there and get to really understand your audience.
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