Newest Nielsen Ratings Reveal Futurama Higher than FOX's Cops; NBC's Fear Factor

[on:]

The newest Nielsen ratings are out, for February 24-March 2. Futurama got a 7.0/2.6 7%. That means 7.0 million sets were tuned to Futurama, resulting in 2.6 points. 7% of sets were tuned to Futurama. It was ranked 82nd of all shows shown for the week.
Saturday night's Cops also got a 7.0/2.6, but was ranked 83rd of all shows, and I believe it is getting renewed.
NBC's Saturday night Fear Factor got a 4.7/1.7 5%, ranked 97th, and I believe it is getting renewed.

Is there any logic there?

Source: March 6, 2003 USA Today (Page 8D)

[Reply #1 on:]

and to think if it were played an hour or 2 later it would be like number 60 something or lower even!

Meh this is logic! Fox listening to Logic! HA!

[Reply #2 on:]

With all this recient attention Futurama is geting then it's hard to believe that Fox has not ordered more episodes. Maybe they are waiting to see how well the season 1 DVD sells when it is realeased in the US...

[Reply #3 on:]

FOX aren't going to renew it, the only glimmer of hope I can see is if CN bought the rights to it and ordered new episodes but this is a long shot.
I've bought the DVDs which are great but it makes me want to puke seeing that FOX logo every time I play them and the fact that FOX are making money out of Futurama after killing it.

[Reply #4 on:]

At this point I don't think FOX would try to renew the show if it were getting number 1 rankings.  They'er just too leaked off at Matt and David X. to want to keep the show alive, no matter how well it might do.

FOX is "cutting off their nose to spite their face" and they don't care.

[Reply #5 on:]

Bang on, FilthyCrab.  It's all about ego, not logic.

Frankly, I've always felt that Fox really doesn't care one way or the other about Futurama.  Their treatment of Futurama is in actuality transplanted emotion; they are doing to Futurama what they *wish* they could do to The Simpsons.

I think that's even why they've let Futurama linger in limbo.  Once they finally get rid of their whipping boy, they have to put up with The Simpsons with no way to vent.

[Reply #6 on:]

FOX must order more shows and keep it on the air....

Or I will destroy! 

[Reply #7 on:]

There probably is some logic, but you have to operate on the proper premises. What matters is how profitable a show is. If an episode of Cops takes a couple hundred dollars to produce and Futurama takes a few hundred thousand, and both get nearly exactly the same amount of ad revenue because their ratings are practically equal, Fox will go with Cops.

[Reply #8 on:]

Possibly CDA, but Fox stand to make much more money from DVD sales and other licensing deals - I don't see any Cops DVDs for sale...

Anyway, Fox probably decided a long time ago that Futurama was going to be cancelled, and good ratings probably aren't going to change that.

[Reply #9 on:]

CDA is right. Cops and Fear Factor are dirt cheap to produce. But still, it pisses me off to see Futurama get cancelled over crappier shows with crappier ratings.

 

By FilthyCrab:
At this point I don't think FOX would try to renew the show if it were getting number 1 rankings.

No joke. Even if the show suddenly shoots up in ratings, and becomes the biggest show on television, they would put out some bullshit along the lines of "we'd love to renew it, but most of its creators have gone on to different jobs!". Or they'd spin it to make themselves look classy: "we wanted to end the show while it's still hot!".

[Reply #10 on:]

Well the current "we want real life shows" is just getting easy cash on Fox but this genre is getting crowded, week after week there is now type os show and eventually people will be bored to that crap.

[Reply #11 on:]

Yeah, those real life shows are annoying as hell.  The last two episodes of Joe Millionaire made me want to hurl!  And what the hell is up with this Married by America shit?!

I hope FUTURAMA's ratings shoot up more just to piss off FOX. 

[Reply #12 on:]

 

Originally posted by LittleMiss:
....  The last two episodes of Joe Millionaire made me want to hurl! ... 

You actualy watched Joe Millionaire?!?! Blech! 

[Reply #13 on:]

Yup!  Me and my mom watched it together, but I only saw about four episodes.  I couldn't sit through the rest.  x__x

[Reply #14 on:]

Gasp! Blasphamy!!

[Reply #15 on:]

Shut up. :P

Anyway, I *really* hope Futurama starts getting more ratings!!  *hopes*

[Reply #16 on:]

 

Originally posted by FilthyCrab:
At this point I don't think FOX would try to renew the show if it were getting number 1 rankings.  They'er just too leaked off at Matt and David X. to want to keep the show alive, no matter how well it might do.

FOX is "cutting off their nose to spite their face" and they don't care.

What does Fox have against Matt and David X?

[Reply #17 on:]

Well to start with, they dont conform to what they think is the TV norm, and what people wanna see.

Secondly...

I think they want Matt Groening to get a hair cut or something

[Reply #18 on:]

A hair cut!?! They are going to cancell Futurama over the state of Matt's hair?

And Futurama and The Simpsons are better than the TV norm!

Fox = stupid!

[Reply #19 on:]

I think fox should be renamed to Bat.
They are blood sucking freaks instead something what presents smart animal.

[Reply #20 on:]

 

Originally posted by Carbito:
 What does Fox have against Matt and David X?

Matt more or less threw the FOX "experts" out of his office, when they wanted to change things in the Futurama scripts. It was his way, or no way!

I don't think FOX ever forgave Matt for doing that. Just a theory.

[Reply #21 on:]

I've always felt it was because of a total lack of patience. Shows that don't become "instant" hits nowadays are scrapped. In the case of Futurama, they thought the show would withstand being moved about (but not telling anyone) and frequent pre-emption (which I still believe should be declared a violation of the Sales act (mis-representation  ).

I still wonder if Futurama on Sky is a bigger hit for them than for FOX (relatively speaking). Another tactic Sky employ is to rotate Malcolm and Futurama every six months or so.

BTW, does anyone know what Sky's "official" relation to FOX is? An affiliate, a rival network or sibling?

[Reply #22 on:]

 

Originally posted by CyberKnight:
I've always felt it was because of a total lack of patience. Shows that don't become "instant" hits nowadays are scrapped. In the case of Futurama, they thought the show would withstand being moved about (but not telling anyone) and frequent pre-emption (which I still believe should be declared a violation of the Sales act (mis-representation   ).

I still wonder if Futurama on Sky is a bigger hit for them than for FOX (relatively speaking). Another tactic Sky employ is to rotate Malcolm and Futurama every six months or so.

BTW, does anyone know what Sky's "official" relation to FOX is? An affiliate, a rival network or sibling?

Fox and Sky are both owned by News Corp.

[Reply #23 on:]

Hmmm, with this, Cartoon Network's explosive success, the upcoming U.S. DVD (which all of you must buy) and all of Futurama's supporters, if we keep this up for another couple of airings, who knows? A renewing? We can only hope...

[Reply #24 on:]

I really don't know what's going to happen.  Jon dropped off the petition, and I can only hope he didn't just waste his quarters on printing out all that paper.  That seems kinda odd, Matt and Fox fighting.  Really Matt and a few others (Married with Children comes to mind) have made Fox, I mean without him, there really isn't a Fox.

[Reply #25 on:]

I think it boils down to Fox not having complete control over Futurama...
Buh, it's time to play the waiting game.

[Reply #26 on:]

 

Originally posted by CyberKnight:I still wonder if Futurama on Sky is a bigger hit for them than for FOX (relatively speaking). Another tactic Sky employ is to rotate Malcolm and Futurama every six months or so.

Futurama on Sky is at least getting some promotion, and it also has a far better timeslot than either KOTH or Family Guy, both of which have been shown between 5-6pm.  That implies that it's performing reasonably well.

I don't think switching Futurama and Malcolm every few months is a tactic.  It's simply a case of what new episodes are available.  Sky show the new season of Futurama, then when it's finished they put on the new season of Malcolm.

[Reply #27 on:]

 

Originally posted by Baddblood:
I think it boils down to Fox not having complete control over Futurama...
Buh, it's time to play the waiting game.

The waiting game sucks. Let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos.

[Reply #28 on:]

 

Originally posted by FishyJoe:
Or they'd spin it to make themselves look classy: "we wanted to end the show while it's still hot!".

Fox? Classy? The network that brought you Glutton Bowl? 

Also, this is the same network that dragged out The X Files for three, arguably four years longer than its natural lifespan, and is doing the same thing to The Simpsons - to the point where I can't even be bothered to check if there's a new episode on Sundays, as they've all been so poor lately!

[Reply #29 on:]

It looks like Futurama may not be the first inline for formal ax off the air forever on Fox.  The entire Friday lineup of Fox tanked (Fastlane 3.3 and John Doe tied for 4th in timeslot).  This means that Fox may cancel its current Friday Primetime lineup very soon, thus Fox would need to air more shows instead of thier current Friday lineup.  Meaning, maybe less pre-empting of Futurama this season  or worst case scenario Futurama could end up in Fox's Blackhole known as Fox Friday Primetime.

[Reply #30 on:]

remember the episode of the simpsons, i think it was the australian one, maybe not, when rupurt murdoch says to the family, you saved me and my empire (or something like that) and Bart says- it wouldn't be the first time!! The Simpsons = Matt Groening Futurama = Matt Groening Fox = Matt Groening  See the trend emerging?!?!

[Reply #31 on:]

 

Originally posted by Carbito:
 What does Fox have against Matt and David X?

Matt and David X cut a deal with FOX that gave them total creative control of the series.  FOX has wanted to meddle and Matt and David X can just point to their contract and say screw off, you promissed us full control.

Unfortunately FOX has ultimate control because they can ensure the series is killed off, which is what we are seeing now.

Looks like Matt and David X won the battle, but the war goes to FOX at this point.  ::head explodes from the pent-up rage::