INFORMATION PLEASE
Dennis Franz: successful series
NYPD Blue was one of the best police dramas ever, and I own Seasons 1 through 4. Can we expect any more seasons to be released? Kevin Epps The police drama, which starred Dennis Franz as Det. Andy Sipowicz and Gordon Clapp as Det. Greg Medavoy, ran from 1993 to 2005 and was very popular. That said, at this time, no sets of the series beyond Season 4 are slated for homevideo release — but that’s not necessarily to say it won’t happen eventually. Such things can be hard to predict, since each video company has its own considerations in deciding whether to proceed with such releases ... but right now, nothing more is in the works.
Linus Roache: Titanic not a hit
In this age of PVRs, how do networks determine who’s watching what? So many shows I’ve really enjoyed have been cancelled or not scheduled for repeats due to “low ratings,” such as Titanic and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, just to name two. Who measures the success of these shows? Karen Lang That’s a big question, but in the space available here, I can tell you that the A. C. Nielsen Company is the leading supplier of audience measurement in a variety of mass media. The Nielsen research team is able to tell network executives approximately how many people are watching their shows and also who those people are in terms of age, economic level, etc. — and since 2008 Nielsen has been tracking viewing via the Internet, PVRs and mobile devices as well. Commercial networks are profit- driven companies, so they use ratings data to identify the shows most likely to draw the highest advertising revenues from sponsors. To some degree, that’s a judgment call, but both the projects you cite above weren’t near misses. ABC’s
Titanic miniseries, which starred Linus Roache and Geraldine Somerville, didn’t just draw a disappointing audience; it bombed disastrously, and no network that’s watching its bottom line is going to commit multiple nights to repeat programming that already failed once.
Studio 60 started respectfully enough in terms of audience size and demographics, but the show had serious creative problems and struggled with its tone and style. Its ratings were in free fall at the time NBC pulled the plug.