Is 2011 The Year That Network TV Gave Up On Geeks?

 Power will be on FX.  This article was about Network shows

There’s been no giving up on the geek.  Next big geek moment will get a try by some network.  The rejection of Wonder Woman, in fact, seems to be based at least partly on geeks having their say.  Those in the blogosphere and on Twitter and Facebook, etc., stood almost uniformly against this version of Wonder Woman.  From the costume to the leaked scripts (especially the elements that appeared consistent from one script to the other) to Kelly’s writing tendencies and style to the rather cheesy photos released by the studio in an attempt to gin up support all met with derision.  From all we saw, this version of Wonder Woman was going to be bad.  Apparently the finished product did nothing to allay the concerns raised by fans.  But it was the geeks who spoke; and it was the network that listened.  The right take on Wonder Woman, I’m certain, will meet with enthusiasm at the network or at a movie studio.  And let’s thank geeks that this version will not see the light of day.  DC is trying to work its way into a run of movie franchises to rival Marvel.  This version of Wonder Woman would have set back that effort 5 or more years, just like the last Superman movie did.  Imagine where DC would be now, movie-wise, if both the Batman and Superman franchises had been good.  Maybe a WW movie?  Maybe a Justice League movie?  Certainly movies starring other key DC characters.  But Superman failed.  The Batman franchise is closing (for 3 to 5 years) after the upcoming release of Dark Knight Returns.  And there doesn’t appear to be much else on the near horizon.  At least now there is a cleared playing field for a new producer/developer to come along and claim some character in the DC universe, make it his/her own, and wow us  without having to overcome the ugly memory of failed WW show.

Network planners have different criteria than cable and cinemas — and it has nothing to do with that competition.

That competition doesn’t rely on advertising revenue based on comparison with their competitors. If you look at HBO, and Game Of Thrones, there’s no ads period. AMC and SyFy have ads and numbers, but those are rarely compared to the networks (except when you’re putting the most expensive show in the slot with two of the highest rated shows on networks).

And for ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and CW, the strength of that one show also has to carry into the next show to win the night and for the overall network as well. Good shows that can’t carry the stronger numbers from the previous hour are losers; dominant blocks can push other nights through interior advertising.

Geek TV or Reality TV, it has to answer those criteria. And the fact of the matter is, Geek TV is harder to get those successes because the geek audience just isn’t big enough to carry a show on their own — they need to have the general audience as well. 

That’s why Fox pushed Joss Whedon to make more done-in-one Dollhouse episodes at the beginning: revealing long conspiracies all at once asks for a commitment that just doesn’t attract those numbers.

What smaller questions does Flash Forward offer? The Event? What did V start with?

Lost, however, had that by setting up smaller challenges for survival and leadership at the beginning to get you invested in the characters. Buffy, for all its success, didn’t show the ties to earlier episodes until the end of the first year, just as Babylon-5 did. Until then, they were done-in-one.

Even Stargate did it that way. Look back at season 1 of SG-1 and you’ll see the pilot sets up a long quest, but immediately offers the possibility of other stories until they run into that same villain again. And so, within a few episodes, they’ve expanded the storyline possibilities much more than other shows have.

(The ONE exception is 24, but 24 had a huge marketing push and a very tense storyline with one hour challenges in between to keep you hooked on the action.)

Against all this, Locke And Key gets passed on right now because Fox just can’t see it on their schedule — not when their roster is built around American Idol, Glee, House and Bones… and Bones is going on hiatus quickly thanks to a baby. Does it fit with any of those? And what night will you put it on to compete against the other networks?

Wonder Woman appeared to have a better shot until you realize this is the network that tried to repeat the success of Heroes (and failed with each subsequent year) followed by The Cape. Bionic Woman and Knight Rider remakes were also ripped apart for missing the charm of the original. And with very poor response on the Internet to the early news, weak response to the test audiences, and nothing else to carry with it, NBC would be taking a huge gamble on that series when there are other ones which just seemed safer bets.

To take risks, you need to be either desperate or in a position that you can risk it without harming your other nights. Smallville got its start from a network of hero teens like Buffy and Charmed. Lost was dropped in an ABC looking for another Alias.

These two shows? No goes from the start. It looks like the other networks might have a better shot, though.