Lost, Lost, Everywhere…
Think ABC is pushing LOST enough? The show is literally EVERYWHERE this week. They even went so far as to tap into the madness that is the Windows Vista launch. Surprisingly, there was no SuperBowl commercial, but I think they pretty much have it covered.
The looming question everywhere this week is will LOST recapture the viewers it apparently LOST over the mini-season. Perhaps a better question for us die-hards is "does it have to?" Personally I could care less about all the people that gave up on the show, unless that margin is enough to make ABC consider cutbacks in cast or, worse, location that could really trip up the show.
LOST is not the ratings darling it was was, and the cold hard truth behind that is the show may have grown too fast and too expensive in the beginning to continue with its current production amenities. The numbers that LOST pulled in this season are nothing to sneeze at. There has to be a reason that ABC is pulling out all the stops now.
Of course, another plain fact is that this is sweeps, and ABC already went through one sweeps period without LOST. With the success ABC is getting already, a big fat LOT return could certainly be the icing on the cake.
I’m not a doom-sayer, so I truly believe the big push is really just a show of faith in the show from ABC’s side of the fence. And, from what I’ve seen so far, the show merely needs to poke its head back in the door to find fans who fell by the wayside returning for another peek. As I’ve said before, Not In Portland is good enough by itself to bring some of those fans back, and if the rumors are correct, it is just the tip of the iceberg.
No Superbowl commercial because those are two different networks. No way CBS was going to allow ABC to advertise during that time, or ever.
Comment by tony — February 5, 2007 @ 1:39 pm
i was gonna say it would have been a surprise if there was a Lost commercial during the Bowl.
Comment by dr. nope — February 5, 2007 @ 4:00 pm
I’m sure if ABC would have paid CBS enough money they would have shown a LOST commercial…anything can be bought for a price.
Comment by Brett — February 5, 2007 @ 8:12 pm
You should really edit this post Artz, it’s pretty sloppy.
First, as other posters already commented, the big networks don’t advertise each other’s shows. Especially in the case of a 10 pm show which leads into the 11 pm local news. Sweeps ratings determine how much the local stations can charge for ads for the next few months.
Second, your article says that ABC alredy missed LOST for one sweeps period this year. You might want to check your facts again–LOST was on the air during the November sweeps (last episode was 11/8).
Comment by mike donovan — February 5, 2007 @ 8:39 pm
Geez Doc….You better step your game up….the hardcores are back and they will not tolerate “slop”…..unappreciative SOB’s…where are your websites devoted to the best show that’s come out the past 2 years?!…..ass-clowns…..Keep up the good work Doc….ABC is pushing LOST because it was the number 8 most watched show in the fall….It’s the most DVR’ed show, according to a new survey…ABC did something unprecedented this season and now the payoff is finally here… I would look for LOST to show an increase in viewership each week…This season is shaping up to be the best of the 3…..end of story
Comment by El Prez — February 6, 2007 @ 6:42 am
i don’t live in the US so i can’t give LOST the ratings it deserves, but i watch the episodes online and contribute buying both of the previous seasons, and i guess with the DVD sells they make better profit that sponsors, ’cause nobody watch the commercials, but many bought the DVDs, (don’t even think of putting commercials on the DVDs) …. (they already does that on both season, promoving anothers shows DVDs and movies, ….), Well that’s my point of view, Shows shoudn’t be cancelled because of ratings, they always lie_
Comment by Desmond Brother — February 6, 2007 @ 6:57 am
I think the issues LOST has are sort of 2-fold. First you have a night on ABC where the only thing that is good is LOST. Everything that was good has been cancelled. Now LOST will be preceeded by either comedy shows or game shows. And the constant fear of American Idol is to it’s detriment. FOX and CBS own wednesday nights. ABC needs to just own this fact and not get rid of shows that could eventually lead to a decent following. They think they are avoiding the Death Star by moving to 10? Ha! House just took in all of the audience after AI. There may be another Death Star to battle! And they just moved Lost to 10pm. What’s next? A different night?
We keep hearing that all of these decisions being made are because the fans asked for them. Things like “more romance and action” and “no repeats”. These are not what the LOST fan has asked for. These are devices to stop the bleed off of the casual fan. If you take a look, Desperate Housewives went for 10 episodes straight and I don’t think it ran any reruns this season. Not sure what happened last season with all of ABC’s shows doing tiny runs with lots of repeats, but that didn’t happen this year. So was this “arc” necessary? FOr me, while I enjoyed the shows, it threw off the writing a bit. So the show suffered a bit unneccessarily.
I do hope that ABC gets good ratings for LOST, but I do have my doubts. Not about the show, but about how it’s being handled “for the greater good”.
Comment by downthehatch — February 6, 2007 @ 9:03 am