If a show premieres in the Fall and nobody hears about it, does it attract an audience?
When said audience lives in an era of unprecedented access to an immeasurable number of entertainment options at the click of a mouse (or fingertip), probably not. And why —following another dismal ratings report from the CW that had Monday night’s 90210 and GOSSIP GIRL hovering at well below the million viewer mark — we can’t help but wonder what CW President Dawn Ostroff is thinking.
Newsflash! Not everybody follows @cw_network on twitter, has Deadline Hollywood set as their homepage and spends every waking moment of their lives surfing the internet for television news. Some people have actual lives, and therein lies the problem.
Time and again, history has shown that despite the millions spent on splashy promotions and advertising campaigns, the most effective way to communicate a network’s Fall schedule and new offerings is through commercials airing throughout the summer. Unfortunately, despite Ostroff’s assertion at her recent state of the network address during the semi-annual Television Critics Association Press Tour that summer is “important for us to launch fall shows,” all evidence points to the contrary.
If Ostroff and the CW were actually serious about ensuring that fans are re-tweeting that 90210 and ONE TREE HILL are swapping timeslots come Fall, “liking” SUPERNATURAL’s move to Friday, and counting down the days until the premiere of highly-anticipated new shows such as HELLCATS and NIKITA (September 8th and 9th respectively) they wouldn’t be relying on this summer’s sad mix of repeats, reality and hastily imported Canadian shows (18 TO LIFE) to do so. 