Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Dear FOX, stop letting monkeys plan your television schedule.


Generally, I like FOX. Well, not their news product, or their tendency to cancel great shows even if their ratings haven't caught up to where they should be. (I did think that Alyssa Rosenberg brought up a good point on her blog when she noted that FOX gives chances to a ton of weird shows that the networks don't want to touch, so they are going to have a higher cancel rate as well. I'm not sure when she said this, so instead, let me just plug her blog in general here.) But in general, I like several of their programs.

I do not like their scheduling habits though. I'm not sure why, but they consider it a good idea to air a couple episodes, then take three weeks off. I imagine that this practice started because, back in the day, FOX aired a lot more live sports in the middle of the week, when they had less live programming. They still don't run a full programming slate, since they aren't active in the 10 p.m. hour, or late night.

Also, this practice was more defensible in the past because it allowed people to catch up on shows if they missed some episodes. For example, if you did miss the wonderful first four episodes of Glee this year, they are being replayed in repeats now. However, you could have just watched them on Hulu or downloaded them from iTunes or... uh... other sources. In this wonderful digital age, you don't really have to wait for shows to be re-broadcast.

With that in mind, FOX, here is what I suggest - Just run shows in order from start to finish. The only exception should be if there is a holiday, in which case, sure, run a repeat or a holiday special. Let me actually see new episodes of Family Guy, The Cleveland Show and Glee in proper order instead of breaking them up with repeats. Thanks!

Note: I included random pictures from Robot Chicken because I like Robot Chicken. Deal with it!

10 comments:

  1. FOX and I have a love/hate relationship in many ways. Like how I really love to hate their network in general and they really love to hate the shows that I love and cancel them before I really get to enjoy them and then subsequently make me cry like a baby back bitch and then boycott them for a whole TV season and then come back and only watch two shows...

    But for realsies, I agree with you on their whacked out scheduling. Of course, I think monkeys would do a better job at the schedule than whatever corporate douches they have planning it out.

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  2. It drives me crazy when networks do that crap! I say we protest!

    http://rantersbox.blogspot.com

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  3. Robot Chicken rules. Fox doesn't even make their shows available On Demand. It is a pain in the rear to try and keep up with their shows.

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  4. @ Christina - They could even make the monkeys picking out shows a show in and of itself. I'd watch a one-hour special that determines how shows are scheduled, starring monkeys throwing their feces against the wall. (I'm classy like that.)

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  5. @ The Empress - I think you can get the protest off to a roaring start by burning your bra, missy ;)

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  6. @ TS - I totally agree. I think Hulu might have Family Guy, or at least, it used to. However, there isn't much rhyme or reason to when shows start back up, or why they go on break at certain points. LOST did the same thing this past year, but at least it was because they had a weird number of episodes.

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  7. It use to make more sense how the breaks worked - they'd start in the fall, take a week off every now and then, break for a few weeks around christmas time and start back up in middle of january and then back to showing regularly with a couple of breaks. There's generally only around 22 episodes in a season, so they need to stretch them out to last til about May.
    But you're right, they've gotten pretty ridiculous with their scheduling. Like last year, Glee didn't come back in the spring til like March or April! And they had a full season!
    I blame American Idol. I effing hate that show SO MUCH. and fox just has it take over the entire network when it comes on and it just makes me hate the show even more. I can't wait for it to get canceled.

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  8. @ Danielle - Yeah, I had forgotten about American Idol and how lame its effect is on the television schedule :/ FOX relies on it way, way too much.

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