.

NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Thursday, March 7, 2013

The rise of the Vikings & the collapse of NBC




Go Vikings!  -  Thank Odin for violent programming


By Gary;

And thank Thor for cable TV.  Almost all of the good dramatic programming is coming from the smaller networks.

With "major" network programming becoming a wasteland I have turned to cable shows like HBO's Rome series or The Walking Dead for entertainment.

Now Vikings.  Yes!

This was only the first outing for the characters and story lines.  It takes time to develop the plots.  But I can say so far, so good.  The History Channel appears to have pulled off a good show.  Time will tell.

The History Channel has hit ratings gold with its new dramatic telling of the history of Nordic peoples, the “Vikings.” Over two telecasts Sunday night, “Vikings” brought in 8.3 million total viewers, 3.4 million Adults 18-49 and 3.8 million Adults 25-54, making “Vikings” the #1 new cable series launch of the year among total viewers and Adults 25-54, execs at the History Channel reports.

“‘Vikings’is an incredible win for History – our first scripted series. We began this journey over six years ago, when we set sail to broaden the genre of History and now we are the only cable network to have achieved this amazing level of success in both nonfiction and scripted genres,” Nancy Dubuc, President, Entertainment and Media, A+E Networks said in an official statement. “People think they know the Vikings – but the reality is more complex. We knew our audience had an appetite for this unexpected storytelling and it was a big bet that paid off.”


Vikings:  Behind the Scenes






The Collapse of NBC goes on and on
  • The NBC "Love Obama All The Time" network is almost out of business.

Last week's Nielsen ratings are in and NBC is in total free fall.  The network managed to only place one single show into top 40 programs and that one only made it to #38 of 40.  Other NBC shows were in the pits of ratings Hell placing at #110, #116, #126 and #127 crushed by higher rated re-runs on TNT and Univision shows.

Meanwhile cable channels have 20% of the top 10 programs with The Bible from History Channel and The Walking Dead from AMC hitting at #4 and #7.

The CBS network continues their domination with 13 of the top 20 shows coming from their network.  Network totals tell the story.  For the season to date CBS has 12.46 million viewers.  The next closest is ABC with 7.9 million.

All the good stuff is on cable TV.
The so-called "major" networks have their points.  We have gotten some good shows over the years.  But the fact of the matter is more and more of the quality productions we really like are coming from cable networks.  
.
HBO has given us classics like Rome and True Blood.  Other cable networks such as AMC have joined in with quality programs like The Walking Dead to Mad Men and Hell on Wheels. 

No comments: