Futurama delivers strong ratings!

[Reply #200 on:]

And don't forget to wear your Futurama shirts in public!

[Reply #201 on:]

I was at a bar last night with my Planet Express t-shirt, and I seriously had more than ten people approach me or point to it and say that it was awesome. One guy actually asked me where I'd gotten it so he could find it and buy one.

[Reply #202 on:]

I wear mine out in public but there aren't enough nerds here in Orange County. Just Laguna Beach wannabes

I did have THREE people comment on my $1 Thumper tin that was holding my money...I was at Disneyland, though

[Reply #203 on:]

The only time anyone ever commented on one of my Futurama shirts was a year ago when some girl I don't know hugged me because she liked my shirt. And the guy at Walgreens who didn't know my Planet Express shirt was related to Futurama, but rambled for a few minutes about how cool space shuttles are, and how he always wanted to be an astronaut, and how he hopes NASA will make more "retro space shuttles" and go to the moon. That was... interesting.

Still, I feel like a walking billboard when I wear them, and that makes me feel like I'm doing something for the noble cause of making people watching Futurama. :P

[Reply #204 on:]

I'd have loads of Futurama t-shirts if they were sold in Europe. The shipping cost from the US is annoying as hell. I'll try to get one for Xmas though.

[Reply #205 on:]

I don't own any Futurama T-shirts, but if it will help me pick up nerdy singles in bars, I'm all for it.

[Reply #206 on:]

Do nerds go to bars now?

[Reply #207 on:]

Well, most nerds have sad, pathetic lives--and, going on the lyrics of Billy Joel's "Piano Man" (which constitutes my entire knowledge of the bar scene), such people enjoy idling about in pubs all day.

And honestly, if I saw a guy in real life wearing a Futurama T-shirt, I'd probably propose marriage on the spot. Sad, but true.

[Reply #208 on:]

Well, most nerds have sad, pathetic lives--and, going on the lyrics of Billy Joel's "Piano Man" (which constitutes my entire knowledge of the bar scene), such people enjoy idling about in pubs all day.

My only experience of bar life is hanging there drinking Coke with a bunch of bearded science geeks twice a month.

Oh, god, that sounded pathetic.

And honestly, if I saw a guy in real life wearing a Futurama T-shirt, I'd probably propose marriage on the spot. Sad, but true.

Come to our gatherings and that can be arranged.

[Reply #209 on:]

For full disclosure, I should say that this bar I was in is a bar in Denver with an old-school video gimmick....old arcade art all over the walls, every wall lined with classic (mostly 80s, a few 90s) arcade and pinball machines, a case display of early 80s consoles, etc. So it attracts a lot of nerds. But hey, I go to bars all the time, even ones that don't have old video games. Even nerds drink.

And honestly, if I saw a guy in real life wearing a Futurama T-shirt, I'd probably propose marriage on the spot. Sad, but true.

Hahaha, I once told a friend that if I was ever on a date with a girl and she asked if I wanted to go watch Futurama, I'd probably propose on the spot. This was in response to my friend telling me that he'd ended various dates once the girl asked him if he wanted to go watch Family Guy. In each case he knew at that moment that it wouldn't work out.

[Reply #210 on:]

[Reply #211 on:]

Well, most nerds have sad, pathetic lives--and, going on the lyrics of Billy Joel's "Piano Man" (which constitutes my entire knowledge of the bar scene), such people enjoy idling about in pubs all day.

And honestly, if I saw a guy in real life wearing a Futurama T-shirt, I'd probably propose marriage on the spot. Sad, but true.

is that so? just out of curiosity, were do you live and what are your measurements?

[Reply #212 on:]

The only time anyone ever commented on one of my Futurama shirts was a year ago when some girl I don't know hugged me because she liked my shirt.

And honestly, if I saw a guy in real life wearing a Futurama T-shirt, I'd probably propose marriage on the spot. Sad, but true.

Speaking as somebody who often wears a Futurama shirt in public and has developed a healthy fear of crazy girls due in no small part to being a member of PEEL, this terrifies me to my marrow.

[[Patronising image posted by relative n00b]]

I'll be what I wanna do!

[Reply #213 on:]

And honestly, if I saw a guy in real life wearing a Futurama T-shirt, I'd probably propose marriage on the spot. Sad, but true.

What about a mutant wearing a Futurama F-shirt? ...

[Reply #214 on:]

And honestly, if I saw a guy in real life wearing a Futurama T-shirt, I'd probably propose marriage on the spot. Sad, but true.

Speaking as somebody who often wears a Futurama shirt in public and has developed a healthy fear of crazy girls due in no small part to being a member of PEEL, this terrifies me to my marrow.

I'm not hearing a no...

[Reply #215 on:]

"The Silence of the Clamps" had 1.406 million viewers, another step down (source).

[Reply #216 on:]

Which star trek episode is that?

[Reply #217 on:]

Eh, Futurama did just as well as the Daily Show, so that's a good thing. As long as it stays in the 1.5 million viewer range, I think all will be well.

[Reply #218 on:]

Inspired by totalnerduk's theory (and the love of graphs; how else am I going to impress the ladies?), I decided to pick two episodes from CGEF that rate in at slightly different values.  The idea here is to take each individual rating on CGEF, then line them up against the average as the more ratings come in; giving a 'history' of the rating of these two episodes.

First up is "The Late Philip J. Fry", which there seems to be a general consensus around here that this is a good episode, and the rating history seems to agree:



The latter is "Attack of the Killer App", which seems to divide the flocks and certainly does not receive as decent ratings on CGEF.



As you can tell here, it actually takes a while for the graph to stabilise.  We need to be around rating 50 before we get a sense of where the overall rating of this episode is going.

When I figure out how to do the graphs better (i.e. not manually in LibreOffice Calc), I might do more.  But I am le tired.

[Reply #219 on:]

Fuck, svip. That's impressive graphing. If I were a lady, I would have a ladyboner for you right now.

Also, I can see from the initial curve that the ratings seem to stabilise relatively quickly, and the calculated average undergoes only minor fluctuations once the initial few (I think you're right with fifty or so) reviews are in. From this we can infer that the ratings are pretty constant over time and that therefore there's no significant "skew" with regard to some of the older episodes. They may have more reviews, but that doesn't mean that the average is any indication of an altered sense of quality.

I'm heartened by this. I was, however, far too lazy to actually test my theory by processing the information, and it's nice to see it borne out by the actual results. There really isn't a solid case for people saying that there's been a decline in the series' quality over time now that we know we can rely on the data from CGEF as being representative regardless of age (though I suppose some will say that you need to do the same for every single episode from the entire run before we can claim that). 

I take my hat off to you. Or would, if I was wearing it.

[Reply #220 on:]

You could put it on and then take it off.

[Reply #221 on:]

I take my hat off to you. Or would, if I was wearing it.

It's a sign of respect, you savage!

[Reply #222 on:]

Having nothing else to add to tnuk, I just say that that is some nice graphing, Svip.

[Reply #223 on:]

 Why is the second half of each graph a copy of the first half?

[Reply #224 on:]

Having nothing else to add to tnuk,

You could add robot arms to me. Or graft a laser cannon to my chest. Those would be appreciated.

[Reply #225 on:]

Having nothing else to add to tnuk,

You could add robot arms to me. Or graft a laser cannon to my chest. Those would be appreciated.

I'll add laser to your chest if that's as appreciated.

[Reply #226 on:]

No real change in this week's ratings versus last week's, which is certainly not a bad thing.

[Reply #227 on:]

Next weeks could be the lowest ever after the crapfest that just aired though...

[Reply #228 on:]

I don't think that there's a direct and appreciable correlation between how good or bad a particular episode is, and if it positively or negatively effects the following episode's ratings. I've obversed that for every crappy episode from Season 6A that was followed with a good episode with lower ratings, there's an example of a great episode that was followed by a crappy episode with lower ratings.

For example, "Lethal Inspection" was a good episode, which was followed by "The Late Philip J Fry", which is widely regarded as one of the two best of Season 6A, and did have higher ratings; however, "That Darn Katz!" had lower ratings, so the previous great episode didn't help its ratings. Nor did the crappy Katz episode cause significantly lower ratings for "A Clockwork Origin". Hence, no definitive correlation between quality and ratings (which is unfortunately true for all TV shows, which is why there are so many popular, crappy TV shows).

The only consistent pattern is that the first episode (technically first two) have the highest ratings of the season, then the ratings drop off, stabilize around the 4th or 5th episode, fluctuate unpredictably, but with an overall declining trend until the end of the season.

[Reply #229 on:]

"Katz!" is great, though.

I think with SOME other shows specific crappy episodes make more of a difference since they have continuing story lines from episode to episode. This would be especially true of many dramas. But Futurama is a comedy you can easily duck in and out of so it doesn't matter as much. People can tune in whenever they feel like it, or catch repeats of anything they miss without it affecting much. The upside is a show like Futurama will also do much better on DVD and in syndication, for the same reason.

I also haven't found much sign that the episodes that are commonly disliked on a forum like this are actually disliked by other people. All my friends loved "Attack of the Killer App" and enjoyed "Holiday Spectacular" and so forth. I remember going to high school the day after "A Leela All Her Own" first aired and there were people talking about how great the episode was (and how bad The Simpsons the same night was - granted they were right about that). Hardcore internet fan opinion and general audience opinion are not the same thing.

[Reply #230 on:]

The people you went to school with thought "Weekend at Burnsie's" was a bad episode? Smart kids.

And I agree that the hardcore fans' reactions to these episodes have virtually no bearing on the ratings, and are not indicative of how the general viewing population perceives the episodes. Plus, most people on PEEL don't stop watching the series altogether after one bad episode, so it's not like there's even a lot of drop-off week-to-week based on quality amongst the most dedicated fans. At this point, I think the fact that it's the summer--which means fewer people are watching first-run broadcasts of any show--has a much greater effect on the ratings than does the quality of the episodes.

[Reply #231 on:]

"Katz!" is great, though.

I think with SOME other shows specific crappy episodes make more of a difference since they have continuing story lines from episode to episode. This would be especially true of many dramas. But Futurama is a comedy you can easily duck in and out of so it doesn't matter as much. People can tune in whenever they feel like it, or catch repeats of anything they miss without it affecting much. The upside is a show like Futurama will also do much better on DVD and in syndication, for the same reason.

I also haven't found much sign that the episodes that are commonly disliked on a forum like this are actually disliked by other people. All my friends loved "Attack of the Killer App" and enjoyed "Holiday Spectacular" and so forth. I remember going to high school the day after "A Leela All Her Own" first aired and there were people talking about how great the episode was (and how bad The Simpsons the same night was - granted they were right about that). Hardcore internet fan opinion and general audience opinion are not the same thing.

I certainly had no idea a Leela of Her Own and Cryonic Woman were so despised until I signed on here.  Even then I just think they left a bad taste in the Peeler's mouths rather then the majority of people.  As for casual fans, my flatmate said she thought Rebirth was crap, and didn't watch any of the other new ones for a year.  (I did see her and her then boyfriend watching LD a few weeks ago, but she moved out before I could ask her what they thought about it.  Personally that episode was one of my favorites of the new season.)  "Lrrr!  I'm in here now!  Not out there!"

[Reply #232 on:]

The people you went to school with thought "Weekend at Burnsie's" was a bad episode? Smart kids.

There were some who liked it too, but yeah, I remember this particular conversation where people were saying that Simpsons episode was awful and that Futurama's was better. (Why I remember something like this so vividly nine years later, I wish I could tell you.) I didn't really hear a whole lot of Futurama talk in school until Adult Swim started playing it, though (at which point I started hearing quotes every single day). I think there were a bunch of people who at least liked it, but few who could find it or were close enough to a TV whenever it was on.

I see at least some correlation between fan and general opinion, but it's more with the really beloved episodes - everyone agrees Roswell That Ends Well and Late Philip J. Fry were awesome, basically. Beyond that, I've found it's more unpredictable...I've heard some talk from friends about how last year's episodes were too focused on current events (I don't really agree, but I think this is just because of the iPhone and Prop 8 episodes airing so early and one after another), but otherwise I really don't tend to hear much complaining about the show, new or old episodes, provided the person likes the show in the first place of course. Maybe if I or someone started a "worst episode" conversation or something, but I don't think that really enters into the general conversation much with a show unless it declines as obviously and severely as The Simpsons has. And I sometimes hear quotes from less popular (Futurama) episodes, too. I don't think the general audience tends to have very strong opinions regarding the worst episodes as much as they maybe have a few strong favorites, since the others are run so randomly and they don't put much expectation into any of them in particular.

[Reply #233 on:]

The Futurama Point just tweeted this:

#Futurama ep. "All The Presidents' Heads" got almost 1.5 million viewers & a rating of 0.8 (90K more than last week) http://fb.me/1d3m6g4r3

[Reply #234 on:]

I guess that proves a weak episode makes no difference after all, although many of those wouldn't have watched last weeks ep anyways...

[Reply #235 on:]

"Mobius Dick" drops a bit in ratings compared to last week. 1.46 million viewers with a rating of 0.8. ("All the Presidents' Heads" got 1.49, with the same rating)

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/08/05/thursday-cable-ratings-jersey-shore-dominates-burn-notice-suits-project-runway-wilfred-futurama-louie-more/99741/

[Reply #236 on:]

I guess it makes sense, you have a weak episode one week, the next you have less people watching. After all weak episodes would only effect the ratings a week later, no?

[Reply #237 on:]

Not necessarily, depends on the level of channel switching in a 50+ channel universe.  A bad, or unattractive episode does not necessarily deminish ratings week to week.  If you were talking about strictly traditional network programs, then that dynamic is more appropriate.

[Reply #238 on:]

Looking at the numbers, it has settled down around 1.450 million viewers, plus or minus 3%:

1.406 (July 14) Silence of the Clamps
1.407 (July 21) Yo Leela Leela
1.493 (July 28) All the Presidents' Heads
1.459 (August 4) Mobius Dick

[Reply #239 on:]

It went up, and down again.