In its third week in syndication, Trek Remastered scored a 1.3 1.2 rating with the episode ‘Naked Time’ . This rating is exactly almost the same as the 1.3 rating Enterprise got in its 3rd week of national syndication a year earlier with ‘Borderland’. It is also below the average rating Enterprise got in its first year. The Remastered version of the Original Series with new CGI effects was seen as a way to improve things for CBS after Enterprise didn’t catch on in syndication. There isn’t enough data yet to declare TOSR a success or failure, but one would imagine CBS was hoping for a higher rating.
First two weeks not available yet
TrekMovie has been trying to find more ratings data for Trek Remastered but it has not been unavailable. We even contacted our collegues at Broadcast & Cable to help out, and they have done just that. On Sunday they released an article titled ‘Trek Ratings in Black Hole‘ which identifies the creation of the new CW network as the culprit. Apparently for the first two weeks of the season a number of CW affiliates ratings were miscalculated and Nielsen is working to fix the problem and issue the ratings later. Once the full set of ratings are available Trekmovie will report them along with comparisons to other genre shows and Enterprise.
UPDATE on 2nd week ratings (and correction):
As noted above, the 1.3 rating for the 3rd week was actually 1.2. It turns out the 1.3 was for the 2nd week (episode ‘Devil in the Dark’). The first week is still unavailable due to errors in the Nielsen system. So far all ratings for TOSR are a bit below the ratings for Enterprise the year before, Enterprise averaged around a 1.4 for it’s first (and only) year in syndication.
Well, if the vitriolic polarized opinions on these message boards are any indication, it’s no wonder Trek is in limbo commercially.
When a fanbase can’t even unite and support a project, it’s doomed.
It doesn’t help of course when dissention is almost deliberately voiced by certain individuals, seeking to divide rather than unite.
I think in the end Trek “fans” may be undeserving of Star Trek after all and perhaps Paramount should truly just let it fade to obscurity.
Every fan of each series has their DVD’s anyway. If I were Paramount I’d feel a little unappreciated and simply say “To **** with you all then.”
Lets not forget that in the majority of the markets TOS Remastered is Buried in the Wee Hours of the Morning, seriously how can Paramount have expectations. There should have been some kind of Deal made that would’ve Guaranteed a Spot for these in the Later Afternoon
I can’t speak for other markets, but in my area the Remastered Star Trek is always shown in the wee hours of the morning as well – and the time it airs varies quite a bit from week to week; 1:00am some days, 2:00am other days, and so on, and without any advertising whatsoever. I really can’t see how CBS/Paramount expect this show to garner any critical mass when it is dumped into these odd and inconsistent timeslots and so many people have to go out of their way just to figure out when it’s on. Shame on CBS/Paramount for not cutting a new deal with cable and satellite outlets, where the show would at least have a consistent time slot.
They should put the show on at 7pm on Saturday in the NY market like it used to be a long time ago when it was on WPIX Ch. 11, not at 3am on NBC on a Monday.
Yep.Here in NY ,it’s on at something like 2 am in the morning on a weekday.
If they had it showing at a reasonable time they would get better ratings
WDCA 20 in Washington, DC moves the show around the schedule on a weekly basis. Two weeks ago it was 2:00 PM Sunday, last week it was 4:00 PM Saturday, this week it’s supposed to be 1:00 PM Saturday — if they don’t change their minds this week.
That’s a formula for low ratings.
CBS/Paramount will make all the money they want when this show goes to HD-DVD/Blue-Ray/Whatever. For a relatively cheap production cost (in-house) Paramount has revved up an older property for re-newed consumption.
But these ratings will never increase if the show is aired at 2:45AM in NYC. No way.
WPIX-11 carried Trek for what must have been decades at that time slot.
But there is an element not considered: a forty-year old television program, with a chaotic schedule, still managed to beat Enterprise in the ratings. Not a bad accomplishment, coming out of retirement!
And Josh:
TAKE IT EASY, MAN, YOU’LL STROKE OUT ON US. Don’t make these sites out to be more than they are — a place to bullshit on something we all enjoy. I guarantee you not one of the workers at Paramount will read this and do anything other than agree or disagree with “yeah man!” or “screw you!” as his response. The important thing is that anyone still cares about a 40+ years cancelled TV show!
@DB At least you found the show on WDCA. I get that channel and I didn’t know until I read your post that we could get Star Trek on that station I did watch the first 45 min or so of remastered “I, Mudd” (until I fell asleep) when I ACCIDENTLY discovered it on at 2:00am on one of the superstations I subscribe to!
Ratings suck when viewers can’t find the programs. But that is beside the point. Paramount has certainly recouped their production costs by now. So they are licensing a show that barely costs anything. I believe it is called that a “cash cow” in marketing class.
Who the hell wants to stay up until 2:am to watch ST episodes that I have seen 100 times?
Frank, the answer would be me!
as dorky as it is I ususally stay up till midnight to watch them on Saturday night here in Indianapolis.
A 40 year-old series that pulls a 1.3 rating after some relatively cheap remastering? With utterly crappy and often unpredictable time slots too. And those remastering expenses can be easily recouped through DVD sales? This all has to count as a huge win-win situation for CBS Paramount.
A 1.3 is no great ratings shakes, but it’s better than what a lot of very profitable cable series pull. And they’re not 40 years old.
“a forty-year old television program, with a chaotic schedule, still managed to beat Enterprise in the ratings.”
Actually, it didn’t.
JPH,
Through its various owners and parent companies, Paramount has treated Star Trek with frugality from the get-go. They knew going into the remastering process that they would clear a profit.
Although I was astonished to learn that Patrick Stewart was paid $14 million for his work in NEMESIS. Wow. That’s disturbing. No wonder they’re not making any more TNG pictures, Capt. Picard cashed out!
Well I must be the lucky one, in Sacramento CW31-KMAX shows the Remastered trek every saturday at 5:00pm. The funny thing is, that every commerical now is either the Bill Shatner Priceline or Direct TV ad and very little other ads. I don’t see why CBS would want great ratings when NBC in the 60’s couldn’t get good ratings and they burried the show in wacko time slotes like CBS is. But there should be some improvement, especially most people probably Tivo the show and that counts for the ratings.
Look, this isn’t about ratings, never was. If anything the expectation would be apples for apples – that it would perform atleast equal to – Enterprise was run almost in primetime and you can’t even compare that with 12:00 am (Denver market anyway).
The entire purpose of this entire campaign is to restore classic Trek back into the culture, which builds for 2 years until the movie comes out, at which point no one should even remember Enterprise. Why run Enterprise in syndication when it has nothing to do with the movie franchise you are kickstarting back in to action?
The remasters are not meant to generate ad revenue as indicated by the timeslot and overall lack of promotion. The idea here is get the core audience back into the mindset, and perhaps bring in new fans. I’m not too upset with some of the criticalities I’ve read here about the CGI – and readily admit that YES the nacelles might look not as good as some non-CBS in house examples that we’ve seen, etc, etc… I’ve read them all and pretty much agree. But again, missed opportunity or not, slavish recreation or not… let me put this to you this way:
I’ve got the entire series recorded on VHS from syndication in the mid 80s. I bought the entire series ONE EPISODE AT A TIME at $14.95 in the late 80s. and yes, I shelled out the $300 for the 3 season dvd collection. Yet… I can’t remember the last time I watched “I, Mudd”. It probably would have been 20 years ago atleast. It’s just not one of the episodes that come to mind especially having the completionist luxury to watch whenever you please. I think I’d somehow overlooked it, and probably some others too.
Yet saturday night, I had reason to watch it again. The excitement of having a new remastered show to look forward to EVERY WEEK. And I like the changes, and I like that they are (so far, um pretty much if you dont count the saturn rings at the end of this week) almost perfectly recreating the original shots as filmed. Of course I know while watching it what is new and what isnt, but my 10 year old kid who hasnt seen the show as much of me couldn’t really tell a difference. He was all like “where’s the remastered stuff?” when I showed him Balance Of Terror. I think he was expecting new actors or Lucas kind of tinkering. But even the Saturn rings, YES, lets do that stuff too. It looked totally cool, I don’t even care if they were there before or if the original shot was even similar.
As hardcore Trekkers, this remaster deal and the new movie (with or without Shatner and Nimoy) is win win win win win. Star Trek is the greatest show ever made. The greatest movies (I’m thinking II here not so much Nemesis) ever made. Alot of people don’t accept V, aka Shatner’s Opus, as canon but really it was a good movie. Enough about the movies, some are going to be more accepted than others. There are dudes that will tell you the clinker that was TMP was the best.
Such dissent. Who’s right and who’s wrong? WHO CARES. If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad Sheryl Crow. THATS what the friggin remasters are about. That’s why they did them. That’s why we want them.
And frankly to see this site which is predicated on the success of said remasters building up to said new movie running an story with this negative a slant is to put it MILDLY DISAPPOINTING. Who cares what Enterprise’s ratings were? Good parents don’t choose favorite children.
I’d really like to write a review of one of the shows for this site. I think there’s a positive angle that is not being represented here. The remastered Trek in syndication project is a full-on suck-sexx, not because of ratings or the quality of the remasters. But because we are coming back to that which we originally fell in love with and it is giving us much much much satisfaction like a good lover should.
and… I’m … spent.
=h=
1. Chopped up episodes
2. Second rate updated effects
3. Episodes shown out of sync
4. Hoot owl timing in rebroadcasting of episodes
What do they expect in ratings? The last season was beginning to show
tremendous promise yet it was cast aside for this? Get real now. Ok?
It was as if everything CBS and Paramount is doing is either second rate or at best maybe a afterthought – perhaps they should just hang it all up!
The least they could do..(for now) would be to offer the episodes uncut so the fans could get some enjoyment from them plus CBS could get some $$ too out of the deal – sounds good to me.
Frankly, I think it’s doing ok, all things considered. I highly doubt there are MANY new fans out there looking the schedule over thoroughly each week, trying to find the awful time slot it’ll be shown in this week. I think it’s the old die-hards, like me, that are willing to follow it PLUS look at the new special effects (whether good or bad, at least “curious”). Perhaps as the word gets out there and people share with other “young fans” maybe the ratings will go up as schedules stabilize. It’s really hard to say. I am actually one of the lucky ones. I get it from two different market areas (that I can get via TV reception and/or the dish). One market area (an hour away from me) shows it at 7 p.m. on Saturday’s and the previous week’s episode on Sunday’s at 9 p.m-yipee!! The other market area (45 minutes away from me) shows it at midnight, followed at 1 a.m. by the previous week’s episode on Saturday night/Sunday morning-yuck. I feel very lucky to have the Omaha market’s great time slots. Sioux City is treating it like most places (buried late at night).
I also get to view these every Saturday at 5 in the afternoon, and I find myself looking forward to each weeks new episode and hashing it out with my friends afterwards. It’s that ever slight element of the unknown that makes it fun to watch for the umpteenth time. While I used to average about one episode a month, watching my DVD’s I find myself getting a weekly dose of Trek, and I like it…warts and all.
It’s sad, however, that so may affiliates have buried the show in the early morning hours. To get ratings you have to have exposure…and to get that you need to air the show, in the same timeslot, week after week so viewers adopt a pattern. But this is totally in the hands of the affiliates, not CBS. I think if Remastered Trek was on at a decent hour of an afternoon or evening , every week , and it was promoted in the right way…. it would find a good audience. I NEVER see the promos of the upcoming episodes on my local station……and aside from some early promos, they don’t promote the new FX at all…just the episode. People don’t know that if you run it through your home theater system you’re going to get a 5.1 remix. They have to be told…and they’re not. The result is those casual viewers, who aren’t aware of all things Trek, have no reason to believe that these new airings are any different from the Trek they have seen off and on for the last 40 years. It’s all about marketing, promoting and scheduling. Until those issues are tackled with some savy, you’re just not going to see stellar ratings.
Maybe if they weren’t showing it at 3 am for half the country they would come in with higher ratings.
Well, I’ll add my late night schedule to all of yours. 12:30 to 1 am… here in Iowa. That’s if a ball game hasn’t bumped it all back. The CBS affiliate doesn’t promote it and sometimes ends up trailing a infomercial.
No, no, no…. you all have it wrong. It’s got nothing to do with bad or inconsistent time slots or even lack of proper promotion.
Josh is right…. it’s all of our faults for not appreciating the inconsistency of the new effects and for being divisive enough to have our own opinions of how the effects could be improved.
We’re wrong… even though as Trek fans who have likely watched tens of thousands of hours of media over the last 40 years, we have NO idea of what looks visually appealing on screen. All of our opinions lack appreciation, respect and artistic credibility.
I want to thank Josh for making me realize that I really DON’T love Trek, and that we don’t deserve all the love that Paramount is showing us. I will hardly feel worthy when I give them my $100 per season for the new set of HD DVD’s, which of course replace my existing set of $100 per season regular DVD’s, which of course replace the $1200 that I spent on the VHS tapes of the original series. How could I be SO ungrateful!
settle down, John N. You’re acting like a woman on the menstrual with the control freaking and the cattiness and whatnot. While your perspective is one of merit and to be appreciated on some level, ie- I’ve listened and considered, but dude, this is a trees through the forest thing with you here. Don’t internalize the remasters, man. It’s not all about YOU. It never was.
If you dont like them, don’t watch them. So they dont make you grow in the pants like they make me grow in the pants. That’s OK. but why make poopypants all over this site for that? You, like me, have bought every other version that’s come out so why not just enjoy what you have and be like the Klingons in ST6 who resisted the Gorkon Initiative™ and plotted his assassination?
People are afraid of change, Kirk tells us. I can’t wait until they start remastering the movies. Oh wait they already have – TMP the clinker. And here to think of how many times I keep buying that every time they repackage it.
Thats the game and if you don’t like playing, take your ball and go home my friend. The remasters rock, the new movie rocks, the old stuff rocks, but you sir are a poopypants. Either change your diapy, or get a diapy rash.
best!!
=h=
Wow, people are just getting out of control. Must be the “Mudd Factor”…total and complete “illogical actions”. If Norman read these boards, he’d be “smoking” again! Relax! In summary:
1. We all wish more stations would air Star Trek at a better time.
2. We all have various opinions about the remastering-great, good, fair, poor, awful.
3. We all really do care about Trek or we would not be here.
4. Some of us get “crybaby-like” if everyone doesn’t fall in line and love the new remastering blindy, or hate it blindly.
5. Some of us are getting rather snippy with each other.
Why don’t we just all respect each other and the show we love by discussing the good and bad points. I don’t think anyone has complained about the remastering of the picture and sound. So, some of will love the new F/X, some won’t. Some will enjoy 50/50 on the F/X. Some 75/25, some 25/75…whatever. Some will love the “new theme”, some won’t. But, we all WANT Star Trek to do well. Relax, discuss, enjoy and stop trying to hurt each other with a computer keyboard!!
I would like it for everyone to stop the personal attacks. This is not that kind of Trek site.
Anthony,
Editor TrekMovie.com
“taH pagh taHbe’. ” = “To be, or not to be:” translated from the original Klingon. This site, taH pagh taHbe’? Well, I didnt intend it as a personal attack so much as an analysis of a perspective which i feel contrary to the interests of the site, Anthony. I thought that spirited debate was encouraged; all sides thoroughly presented.
However, I do rescind my poopypants comment out of respect for the decorum you strive to maintain here. And shall strive to further comply with your directives, as oversimplified and mistated they have been to date. John M certainly has a right to his opinion. I even validated that to some degree. I shouldnt have called him a poopypants though. I see this now.
I shall not comment here again. Good luck with your site, I think it’s kicking TrekWeb’s ass these days. Good job.
yours,
=h=
Well I can’t watch anymore because of the change to the CW.
My story is largely the same, we have 2 stations here in columbus showing TOSR, however the one that was showing it in a decent hour (sun afternoons) has pre-empted it for the last several weeks. And the other one showing it at the rediculous time of monday morning at 1am. which for the last few weeks, has been listed as showing at 1:30 but really hasnt started until 2:30-2:45. In a word…it’s a friggin mess. CBS should have done the unprecedented and just put it in a regular slot on CBS stations, prime time or late night who cares but a SET spot ffs. You cant expect much burying it like this.
Is it so hard for people to talk like adults anymore? I know the internet is a place for ranting, etc., but this site has (from day one) been a pleasant exception to the rule- a place where Trek fans can talk about the show they love without making personal attacks. Certain sites are great for that fodder, like Ain’t It Cool News, but I credit the majority of people here for maintaining civility throughout our discussions. We don’t have to agree on anything, except to treat one another with respect and decency. I tip my cap to Anthony and Co. for leading the way. Ok, back to the Trek…
premted for sports i meant to say
It might be interesting to see a comparison of average ratings for stations that are taking advantage of Remastered (the ones promoting it and airing it when people are actually awake) versus the ones throwing it in the graveyard hours. Probably a big difference that the suits could use to encourage more support and better scheduling from the slackers.
Strange though that for how big this could have been, there hasn’t been much hype. I discovered the news pretty much by accident…and I’m a regular reader of Trek resouces.
Adam Cohen, the high road is to say nothing and not further incite through continuing the personal attacks. I have taken back my poopypants remark to John N… Has hitch1969© become the Mel Gibson® of this site? I disagree with you. Am I not allowed to state this? Why have discussion if there is no discussion allowed?
I tell you Adam, I’m a better Trekker than you and I KNOW MY STUFF because I have done the homework. I don’t dress up and go to conventions, I dont buy and sell the little dolls. I listened to Shatner in ’86 when he told us to GET A LIFE. I like the remasters. I like this site. I think it’s all cool… well minus the pontificating and hypocrisy of what you just said. It’s not your place, man.
It’s Anthony’s place, it’s his site. And I have bowed unto that… reluctantly, because I think he’s sort of missing the point and over generalizing what I said. That’s OK though, it’s his site. I support it. And if what I have to do to support it is NOT respond to personal attacks, minor as they may be within a valid point being made, then so be it.
I still say that this site kicks TrekWeb’s ass. And that’s quite an accomplishment. I don’t even go to TrekWeb anymore and I used to daily. Now, I come here. However for the better of the site and the wishes of the webmaster, I can be silent. Although if I had a chance, you would see that I have ALOT to offer. I was serious as shit about writing a review or an article. I would love to do that.
best!!
=h=
Clearly some of us know more about Trek than others, but we should respect all types of Star Trek fans, rather than attacking them/each other, in my opinion. Anthony was right in what he said to anyone/all who attack others. It’s understandable for a person to want to respond, though. I just hope we can get back to the show we love, that’s all.
Heres a clear and clean cut site without the drama and etc…..
As Joe Friday would say: Just the facts Maam…..and thats what is is.
trektoday.com
To #1: opinions mean nothing, numbers do. You will notice even those us who do not like the CGI very much continue to watch. For the ratings it is inconsquential why a person watches. Also you make a flawed assumption that those who are critcal of the CGI are somehow against TOS Remastered. It is quite the contrary, I think we all support the concept of TOS Remastered, it is just that we feel something is not quite right with the show we know and love so well.
I think the answer is that aside from a few markets most bury TOS Remastered in early morning/late night timeslots.
TrekToday.com, Duane Boda? You’re joking, right? Well HELLO 1997!!!
anyway dude, the reason it’s just the facts is because NO ONE GOES THERE. Every story seems to link out for comments at the Trek BBS. The top 3 or 4 stories have no comments and no views. The first one that has comments is a story like the one here Rick Berman getting canned. um, yeah, they all talk like adults over there:
“oh F**k off rick. We’re glad you’re gone. ”
thats the first response to the thread, dude.
and then there’s more:
“The responses in this thread are really unwarrented. If Roddenberry had survied through all the spin offs it would have eventually gotten stale and fans would be all over him”
its all here:
http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=6734954&an=0&page=0#Post6734954
so you were being sarcastic, correct?
best!!
=h=
Is anyone aware if Series programed into TiVo are included in these ratings? At one time they were a separate set of numbers not reflected by Neilsons.
hitch1969, my comment was not directed at you, it was a general post to the group, as there has been some heated discussions in other articles as well. I believe you missed the entire point of my post, so I will paste the most relevant part again for you to read:
“We don’t have to agree on anything, except to treat one another with respect and decency”
Debating, disagreeing, stating one’s own opinions, etc. is precisely what this site offers with the comments section. I was backing up Anthony who has had to say a few times over the past couple of weeks that personal attacks are not kosher. You’re right, it’s not my website, but as a regular visitor, I appreciate what Anthony has accomplished and I want to support him in keeping it the best Trek site I’ve come across in years.
Star Trek is played out.The ratings failure of Trek re-mastered further illustrates the need to re-caste and re-interpret Star Trek
I see a lot of folks blaming CBS for lousy time slots for the Remastered Trek. Its not the fault of CBS.
When the package was remastered for syndication, CBS/Paramount went to the stations that were running ST: Enterprise in syndication and said you can have the series for free. To get it that way we will sell one half of the available air time for advertising. The other half will be available for you to sell to your local sponsors.
That is the basic contract for ST: TOS – Remastered.
The syndicator (CBS) does not negotiate time slot of the day of the week the series will air. The closest they will ever come to that is that you have to run new episodes between this date and this one and you may repeat them once the following week between this date and this one.
If a sports event runs over causing the episode to be pre-empted, the station has the option of making it up at another time during that seven day window or skipping it until its fed again as a repeat.
Syndicated episodes don’t generally run on a single network. Sometimes it works out that a CBS station has gotten the right to broadcast the episode but that usually is due to someone else backing out.
If a local station pre-empts the series enough times, CBS/Paramount will shop the series around to another outlet that is less likely to pre-empt the program.
The only thing CBS can really be accused of once you know the facts is that they simply do not provide enough advertising materials for local stations. They should provide ad slicks for the local stations to use in newspapers and local magazines. Generic images just to advertise the series and episode specific ads that highlight specific episodes. They should should also provide 30-sec radio ads like the networks do for their popular series featuring sound bytes and music clips that highlight each weeks episode. Finally instead of providing the standard 30 sec preview for next week, they need to do what they did with the other Trek series… 30 – sec, 15 – sec and 10-sec ad spots so the stations are not locked into the 30 second only spot. 30 seconds of air time can eat into the local stations income when they are pushing a 40 year old show. Whan an ad for Lysol or Burger King will actually generate income when its aired instead.
CBS/Paramount is not giving local station enough support in promoting this new series. Heck, I didn’t even know about it until I came across it quite by accident a few weeks ago. They was little word on the web and even less in the news. And when I did find something out getting additional was next to impossible because so few people actually knew about it.
If you want to help this series at all, tell your Trek friends that may not know about it. Put a flyer up a local bookstore with the day and time the episodes run in your area. The show is way under supported and needs help. Its entirely possible that when this first year is over, Paramount could pull it before it airs them all and at that point you can look forward to paying $150 -$175 per season set to get HD-DVD editions or Blue-Ray editions simply because CBS/Paramount couldn’t recoup the cost through the advertising they would have sold for the second year of remastered episodes.
Its easy to sit here and complain and gripe about haw terrible this is. But you as a viewer have the power to fix it. Write to your local station. Tell them how much you enjoy seeing the remastered Trek episodes but it would be even better if you didn’t have to stay up until 3 AM to see them.
Do what I do in Michigan. Plan a viewing party for the rebroadcast episodes (Sunday at 7 PM in Grand Rapids). I post fliers in local bookstores and we meet at a local restaurant with multiple TVs and watch each week. The crowd gets beigger and bigger every week. You have more power than you think when it comes to influencing local TV. Let the local station know about your viewing party. A news crew might show up and there is a great promotion on the news which far more people see. This also would catch people who like the show but didn’t know about it, simply because they came home after work to watch the news.
Just as Star Trek displayed cultural and racial architypes of it’s day,New Star Trek xi should also reflect our cultural changes and highlight them.Like have a rapper type guy who’s building his own career after dropping out by stowawaying on the enterprise or actually somehow get someone from the 21st (our) century to co-star!
DAVE Is CBS gonna pay me to put up fliers in my bookstore?
No…I was far from being sarcastic just letting others know of a different site if they compelled to check out other options and views. I wasn’t advocating the site for any particular reason – it is what it is..simple as that!
I didn’t mean to offend anyone by mentioning that site here..all is well. Ok?
Arturo – I don’t think that has a chance of happening. While I agree in general with comments being made on both sides, if you want this to succeed you sometimes have to do what you think is right.
On a weekly basis I spend two hours making photoshop images for the flyer. I then grey-scale it, and print out a master. So far I have very little cost. By the time I have 30 flyers printed to get to the bookstores, I have spent less than $5 as far as paper and printer ink or toner go. Its not a hardship for me.
I care enough to see this succeed that I don’t mind spending a few dollars on something I’ve loved since 1966.
Anything I said earlier can be taken with a grain of salt. I simply made some suggestions as to what local Trek fans could do to help promote the series. In the 70s fans didn’t worry about what the cost of doing something like this. They did it out of love of the characters, the stories and the series itself. They wanted to see it succeed and eventually return and their efforts paid off.
You always have the option of doing something different, or not doing anything at all. I will never put myself in the position of telling anyone what they have to do. The choice to spend between $3 and $5 dollars or nothing at all will always be yours.
I guess it wouldn’t hurt to mention that the flyers I make are generic. One gets posted in the entryway or near the cash register. Each store gets one. I’m not dropping stacks of 500 flyers off at every bookstore in town. But each store gets one flyer. If they request additional ones they usually end up in the Trek book area of the store. The flyers contain a general shot of the crew along with the time and date of the event. They also feature the local airtimes of the show in this area.
In part, due to the flyers, the local station stopped bumping the airtime all over the dial on Saturdays and locked the show into the not horrible position of Midnight on Saturdays opposite SNL. The previous weeks episode airs at the much better time of 7 PM Sundays which is when the viewing parties take place.
The next question I’m waiting for is how I know how TV syndication works. That usually follows the money question. :)
Dave, do you have anything to back up what you are claiming? Who are you, man?
That post was large in the pants, my friend. I hope that you’ve got the Dirk Diggler™ to back that up. Either way, you’ve got balls as big as church bells with them fightin words.
The discussion has commenced. Dave brought it to the table. Scooped the site altogether. Had the inside info of the innerworkings that no one else did. I like Dave. Dave is my newest e-buddy here at trekmovie.com.
Whether it’s fact or fiction, I dont care. Dave laid it out. It was a good read. I am impressed.
best!!
=h=
Hi Hitch1969,
Since before you sun burned hot in space, and before you race was born, I have awaited the question. :) (Slightly changed for my amusement),
Here goes:
A lot of non-credits that still add up to something in general fandom.
I was President of the local ST Fan Club in Grand Rapids on and off for a 15 year peroid. I was part of the convention committee and occasionally a chairman for the now fondly remembered Babel Conference Convention from Grand Rapids, Michigan.
In my dealings with these two organizations I had the opportunity to come into contact with a number of local program directors that I still stay in touch with to this day. This allows me to ask questions and learn about the syndication process.
My best contact for the longest time was the very lovely Nancy Kern from WKZO-TV Channel 3 in Kalamazoo, Michigan which is now WWMT TV-3.
When the local Grand Rapids station (WZZM TV-13) screwed up the 1st season syndication package for STTNG in its original run, WWMT picked up the series and ran it successfully at 7 PM on Saturdays for the rest of its original broadcast run. WWMT was running into an issue though. They were scheduled to start new episodes that week and still had not gotten the satellite information for grabbing the feed from Paramount.
By networking with the WZZM (my friend is a broadcast engineer there) people, I was able to acquire the satellite feed data and get WWMT on target for their premiere of season 2 of STTNG. This endeared me to Nancy Kern and suddenly I found myself in possession of press kits for each new episode. This included black and white promotional photos, detailed (2-page) episode synopsis and the occasional set of color slides.
My relationship with WWMT allowed me to learn a lot of how syndication deals work. It might really surprise some people to find out how many stations actually air shows like THE SIMPSONS or STARGATE SG-1 for free.
Hitch, I’m not anyone of great importance. I was an Asst SysOp on GEnie BBS (run by General Electric) before the internet sprung to life. I helped manage their Sci-Fi area and I helped build the first Babylon 5 online community before the series even went into production. When JMS talks about the spatial coordinates of Babylon 5, he used the page numbers of that first community as a tribute to the work we did there.
I have been a topic leader on AOL for Star Wars and Stargate SG-1 message areas but that was a long time ago. Currently, I make office furniture and run a personal website that basically promotes my hobbies and intrests.
I still have my contacts (which netted me some way cool news about B5 and some direct to DVD productions that will be coming out in Spring of 2007 for that series), and when its appropriate I share what I am allowed to share.
I’m nobody important. Just a fan that people like to talk to because I don’t come off as what they might considier a typical fan to be. That’s not a slam to any kind of fan out there. But the program directors have the impression of fans that they do thanks to the news people who go to conventions and concentrate on the crazy costumes. I give them something different from that view and its worked to my advantage.
Just want to step back into the fray to apologize to anyone that I offended.
I just get hot under the collar when people invalidate other peoples opinions. I’m kind of upset with both factions on the “Remastered” issue. I don’t like extremists who can’t even acknowledge when the other side has a point. Josh did that in another thread, and started this one off on the same note.
Quite simply I over-reacted, and as some pointed out, I should have taken the high-road and simply clicked “ignore”.
Particular apologies to Anthony Pascale, who runs what has quickly become a favourite site of mine.
Cheers.
I recently found this site. I’ve been an avid fan of ST since the original series, and I was one of the original letter-writers (in 11th grade) who convinced NBC to continue the series after the 2nd year. I’ve seen every ST episode and movie multiple times, so I think I qualify as a knowlegeable fan.
I’ve enjoyed all of the ST series and I’m surprised at the scorn heaped on Enterprise and Nemesis. Enterprise was an entertaining, well-acted, well-written, technically sophisticated series, and was certainly better than Voyager. They writers, actors, technical, and production teams did an excellent job of bridging the gap, both in the trek universe and in the SFX universe, between the present day and TOS. Nemesis was far from the worst of the ST movies, certainly better than I,V,VIX and arguably better than VII.
It’s no coincidence that Enterprise and Nemesis failed during the same time period. Perhaps instead of condemning them and finding fault with everyone involved with their production, it’s time to admit the obvious – the general public is tired of star trek, too tired to make any trek movie or tv series a success. In another time when there was a more widespread interest in ST, for example when ST:TNG or ST:DS9 were launched, I’m certain it would have had a full 7-year run.
And now, when it’s becoming clear that TOS Remastered will also be a ratings flop, people still don’t see the obvious answer: Trek Saturation.
Trek needs to lie dormant for 10 years, as did TOS. Maybe then it will come full circle and be attractive again to the mass audience.