Ok, so first the "bad" news. Journeyman fan Joe was able to have some e-mail correspondence with John Miller, Chief Marketing officer (and I believe member of the board of directors, but I'm not sure) for NBC. Now, bear in mind that in some ways, John Miller was responsible for the marketing of Journeyman, so he's not going to admit they did anything wrong with their placement and promotion of Journeyman. He does however lay things on the line, especially with regard to FOX.
Here's some quotes:
The biggest issue with Journeyman is that for all 13 episodes - the first half hour had more viewers than the second half hour. Every one - without exception. Hit dramas show some signs - over 13 episodes - that they can at least hold if not build an audience. The first original episode was the highest rated...and continue to fall week in and week out - even provided with a solid lead in.Too bad - it's a good show. The Show is owned by Fox - perhaps they can find another home for it.
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The data we get from Nielsen is live, live plus same (people who watch DVR in same day) and Live plus 7. What advertisers buy is C3. commercial ratings viewed with in 3 days. The Journeyman DVR use was high - but not as high as other shows on the network such as Heroes, the Office, or Friday Night Lights. FOX owns the show and can participate on other revenue streams such as International sale and DVD could place it on their own air or sell to another broadcaster or cable company. Unlikely. But possible. NBC just licenses the show for a fee. We ordered 13 and played them.
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My wife hounds me about the show as much as the 1000 e-mails I have received.
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I'm going to leave it up to SaveJourneyman.net and YOU the wonderful Journeyman fans to decide what this all means, and where (if anywhere) we should now focus our efforts. It does sound as though perhaps the best hope lies with FOX, so perhaps someone can get started looking up "who's who" at FOX.
Ok, so while that's a little bit depressing, bear in mind again that while Mr. Miller is clearly being very candid, he would be reluctant to take any responsibility for what happened to the show. Not that he's lying or spinning the truth, but it's human nature to pass the buck, if only a little.
Also, the Rice-A-Roni is being sent to Jeff Zucker, who's likely more "important" decision-wise than Miller, so there's always hope that going to the top of the chain can result in something, just like it did with Jericho.
Ok, now for the "good" news. Over 1,300 boxes of Rice-A-Roni have shipped, and donation total is now over $2,500! There is still much more Rice-A-Roni to be sent, so Zucker will hear the message. In the end, even if NBC doesn't make a move on this, at the very least FOX will get wind of this information, and if they don't get wind of it, we'll make sure they know just how many people contributed to this cause. And all of this food is helping charity, so that's always a sliver lining.
Again, if anyone has comments or suggestions, please do share!
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39 comments:
I've sent an email to FOX, I think you could send them your "statistics" to show to them how much the fans love this show, it would be a plus.
1/2KL from France.
He mentions that every episode had less viewers after a half hour. Perhaps that's because Journeyman is on at 10pm? Us working folk who have to get up early in the morning get sleepy come 10:30! Lucky for me being in Canada I could watch Journeyman a couple of hours earlier than the US watching the Halifax station :)
I agree with the post "Halifax" that ppl dont stay up late at nights.. we need to get up early to work in the morning.
All that we've been doing is a long shot anyway..i guess execs dont really blink an eye at fans UNLESS the fans do something organized and collective (even newsworthy), like sending Rice a Roni or tons of letters written "from the future."
But we have to send tons of it. The nuts sent from jericho fans were huge amounts.
COMON EVERYONE!! KEEP SENDING THE R-A-R AND LETTERS-LETS MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!
and Happy new year!
According to several sources NBC gave notice to Journeyman just prior to its November 21st episode that it only had two weeks to improve its ratings before facing cancellation. It has also been noted that without that rating improvement, NBC would stop promoting the show. However, back on November 9th Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle reported the following:
FROM EARLIER SOURCES:
"-- You can almost feel the decisions being made. And many times they are unfair or are just frustratingly predictable. We feel terrible for writer and executive producer Kevin Falls, the Emmy award winner who wrote for "The West Wing" and "Sports Night" (among others) before launching his series "Journeyman" this complicated fall. By most accounts, Monday's episode was the best yet - but the ratings were bad and NBC didn't even bother to promote it during the entirety of its Sunday night football coverage. A bad sign, indeed. "
The rest of my comment:
IMO, this still doesn't address the issue of the total lack of promotion after sweeps started. The ratings actually went up one week, then the next week the network gave no promotion to the series except for 30 second slots stating that a new show would be aired on Monday, while each of the other new shows got full promotion. Then during the final few shows there was absolutely NO promotion at all, not even during the hour before airing. Personally I've never seen anything like it before. NBC made the decision to stop promoting this show months before it ended. How can you expect ratings to rise, let alone level off with NO promotion?
I'm sorry but it amounts to sabotage as far as I'm concerned.
Howdy!
I'm a big fan of Journeyman and have been following your blog, though not the fan base as a whole. I'm sure most of what I'm going to suggest/offer is already covered but in any case...
I recently created a web site for FOX's upcoming New Amsterdam series. Knowing how hard genre shows have of catching a sizable audience, I've already included a "renewal" section on the site listing some good do's and don't's for contacting TPTB and raising awareness for the show. Most of it should be easily adaptable for use in your Journeyman campaign.
http://newamsterdam-forever.com/Renewal/Renewal.html
Also, are you guys in need for forum space for your campaign efforts? I have an existing forum with room for expansion, if needed. It covers similar shows and efforts like The Dresden Files renewal campaign, Moonlight, New Amsterdam and Dark Shadows and a Journeyman section could literally be tossed online in about 15 minutes if people want to use it. I know discussion and communication is important.
As I said, most of this is probably covered but I still wanted to make the offer as I know how important it is for fans to get mobilized early. ...and despite the depressing news that may be coming out of NBC, it is early days yet if played right.
John
(I'll, also, email this so you have my proper address)
Again, I have to agree that it was just on too late at night. I had one friend in particular who I know would have loved the show, but she just never was able to stay awake long enough to watch it. Of the people I know who did watch it, I'm the only one who just went into work tired and sleepy Tuesday mornings. Everyone else waited to watch it until Friday or so.
On a related note, our house was randomly selected to "audition" as a Nielsen house over the summer, but I guess our program viewing didn't make the cut. We were selected to write down everything we watched for a week and send it back to them, which, in the dead of summer with no new shows, wasn't much of anything. We weren't selected to continue with the process. It seemed to me to be an odd way to select viewers to monitor.
Please dont give up the fight people we need to continue fighting, we cant stop all that we have done simply because things are supposedly looking grim, we have known from day one that things looked grim, so why stop now that things are continuing to look grim we need a lot more support and a lot more signitures and rice-a-roni boxes. Lets save this show.
Also the holidays are almost over meaning that the people of NBC are going to be comming back into the office soon. so lets wait til they come back and see what they have to say about all we have done. even if their choice is still not to renew JM, we will still fight.
I also think though while we are doing all of this we need to start sending emails over to FOX. We need to inform them of all we are doing, meaning the petitions, the rice-a-roni and everything we are doing. we need to let them know of the fan base we have and what we are willing to do for this show. we also need to ask for a DVD of the first season.
NBC owns SciFi channel. Why don't they just move the show to that cable channel. Journeyman is a hell of alot better than Flash Gordon.
Happy New Year Everyone!
Let's keep our efforts going! I think what the NBC exec said is to be expected. After all they would've ordered more episodes if they thought their numbers were wrong.
Perhaps we should be communicating with both networks at least right now. After all communicating with NBC could show FOX that there's fans out there and vice-versa.
We'll be discussing thoughts on contacting FOX and NBC and other fan efforts at the chat tomorrow (wednesday) night 9PM EST. Message me on the nbc journeyman board if you'd like to be there, send input or be kept updated. My screen name is also serulous over there.
http://boards.nbc.com/nbc/index.php?showforum=93
i came across a very smart blog entry today.
http://www.realhonestfilm.com/2008/01/is-journeyman-t.html
snilrch2nd, thanks so much for posting that. I think I'll post that on a couple other sites. Great review.
Sad news.
http://scifi.about.com/b/2008/01/03/thats-all-she-wrote-journeyman-is-dead.htm
I am sorry to those of you who have taken the time to post but i personally am not listening to the post saying that Journeyman is over till we hear something official from NBC themselves.
I also encourage everyone to keep fighting dont give up now we have come so far and done so much to simply give up. Please continue the fight for this show. PLEASE!!
"It's not over, till it's over" Yogi Berra
I emailed the execs provided, and alerted a few friends I know in the local media. I also plan to send a box with a hand written letter from the future.
Does anyone else have any ideas?
Keep it up, maybe we can keep some intelligent television on the air.
J
Don't forget "JOURNEYMAN DOWNLOADARAMA" night this Monday, Jan. 7, at 10 PM E.T.!!
All Journeyman fans please watch Episode 1-- "Love of a Lifetime" from NBC.com/journeyman
Invite a friend who has never seen the show or watch it again!
Let's support our favorite show on the night its supposed to be on!!
And every Monday after, we'll tune in again to watch the following episodes at 10pm E.T.
what say you?
I will be there monday who anyone else
I will definitely be watching Monday! 10pm be there. ;)
Well I'm still not giving up. One fantastic television show making a massive comeback won't be the weirdest thing that's ever happened.
Dross sells as shown by the six million viewers for 'Tila Tequilla's Shot at Love' on MTV. Journeynan was a real thinking person's show that such people could delight in. But you had to have had the good fortune to start at the beginning and stay with the show to appreciate this. And four million viewers did. The problem with those that tuned in for one episode here and there is that they could never "get it," and why they tuned out. This show was behind the eight ball from the get-go as being up against CSI. But programming on NBC is about the lowest common denominator, and they were not tuning in. We should be lucky that we were witness to such a great inspiring show at all really. But when the day is done, dross sells. I really think that if it had "chuck's" time slot the outcome would have been an entirely different scenario.
I am so pissed about this, and now hearing that the sets were destroyed? I am literally in a rage over the loss of this show. Why can't they just move it to Sci-Fi channel? Or USA? Whats the big deal? I just don't get it, and I tell you this much if they don't bring it back I will not watch NBC ever again even though another show I like is on it, I don't like it more than I did Journeyman.
Absolutely ridicolous, I will boycott NBC if they don't bring this show back somewhere. I am going to send some rice-a-roni and I hope everyone else does too. This is very upsetting to hear the sets were destroyed, it just means we have to fight that much harder. Should we, in addition to the simultaneous viewing on 1/7/08 at 10pm on nbc.com of episode 1, schedule a simultaneous "call-in" to the studio where we all leave a message for someone about the show, we could simply call and say save journeyman or leave a message saying dan vasser called? I think this will help prove the point that we will not give up on our show.
I am the one that made the post above. It wasn't hard to find or anything, but i found the phone number that will let us leave messages for Mr. Zucker. Now i'm not saying that we harrass the guy, just that we call when the office is closed and fill the voicemail box with messages from dan if you are a guy or livia if you are a girl. Anybody else like this idea??
Yes that article was distressing, but I have not seen the news of the sets released anywhere else. No other entertainment reporters, no confirmation from NBC. Has anyone? Entertainment reporters can be wrong, as people feed them wrong info, etc. I know a few years back, there was news from a high-profile reporter on my favorite show at the time. The fans were so saddened and angered but the news turned out to be completely wrong.
Also, the reporter himself is a fan of Journeyman and encourages people to still fight for the show in that article. The strike gives us time to do that. So whatever the case is, we should take this opportunity to send letters,emails & rice-a-roni to NBC letting them know how much we love Journeyman & that we want reruns and more episodes.
And spread word around about the simultaneous streaming event: Journeyman fans are planning to watch the first Journeyman episode, Monday Jan 7th at 10pm EST on nbc.com Show NBC how many fans watch Journeyman.
Addresses and emails for NBC can be found here:
http://boards.nbc.com/nbc/index.php?showtopic=779766
I also don't put it past a network or anyone else to release information that isn't true in an effort to make the fans give up.
But, even if it were true, are you really gonna tell me they couldn't rebuild all that stuff, if there was enough of a fan demand to see the show come back? If anything, news like that ought to make fans campaign all the more fervently. Are you gonna let them take your show away?
I'm not!
Thanx for visiting my blog. I am so bummed to hear about NBC's unwillingness to keep this show...sounds like they need to keep the show and cancel the promotional guy. Shall we begin pestering Fox?
www.flexfiles.blogspot.com
Yea Flexfnx, I think it's good to write Fox. I sent kevin.reilly@fox.com an email earlier, and
I'll be sending snail mail to them tomorrow.
I found a general address:
FOX Broadcasting Co.
P.O. Box 900
Beverly Hills, CA 90213
Does anyone know a Fox address (or a person) that's more direct?
serulous, thanks for posting where NBC's addresses were.
Ok so maybe we are going about this all wrong. Lets start convincing Sci-Fi to pick this up. It wouldn't be the first time. Look at StarGate SG1, first on Showtime then Scifi bought the rights and it was the longest running and most successful show which also produced a spin off. I don't expect to see a Journey Woman but yall get the idea!
Please dont let them cancel Journeyman. It is one of the only shows I watch.
So no one likes the idea of filling Zucker's voicemail with messages?
I think that the best thing we can be doing is continuing our efforts with NBC but also emailing, snail mailing and calling FOX and informing them of our efforts, how great this show was, why they should pick it up, and that we are willing to follow this show anywhere and will do anything for it.
I think that filling their voicemail boxes is a good idea especially if they are not in the office and when they get back in they will have all of these messages. My only worry is that they will simply delete them and not listen to them. but it is worth a try. I also think we should do the same to FOX
is there any new updates on the rice-a-roni campaign??
While everyone is watching Journeyman tonight for the simultaneous viewing I reccommend we all call in to Jeff Zucker's (CEO of NBC)voicemail so when he gets in tommorow morning his mailbox is filled with messages about Journeyman. One idea is that if you are a guy leave the message as Dan Vassar and if you are a girl, Livia Beale. the direct number to Zucker is (212)664-2830 if you call when you are watching at 10pm no one will answer, it goes right to the voicemail. I think this might help nail our point home even though I am sure they are sick of hearing from us we can't stop now. In addition if anybody can track down a number for a higher up at FOX then I would reccommend we do the same there. Let me know what you all think about this. Maybe this could get posted to the blog?
Ok, I did some digging and found the CEO of FOX is Jack Abernathy and his email address is: jack.abernathy@foxnews.com
we should email him and FOX just as much if not more than we have NBC. In addition to calling Jeff Zucker tonight when watching Journeyman I reccomend we call Mr. Abernathy too. His number is: (212)301-3545. As we have been with everything else we should just be polite and tell them how many people don't want to see this show go!
G'day everybody,
I just caught wind of your fantastic effort to save a fantastic show.
We only got to watch three or four of the episodes of journeyman in Australia before the channel broadcasting it dropped it after putting it in a ridiculous timeslot. (no wonder viewers dropped off after the first half hour as in the case in the states)
So I had to view the rest of the series off the net.
Keep up the good work and i hope you succeed in getting this show back.
Many of my friends love the show and are as disappoionted as i am that NBC haven't ordered more episodes.
How do the aussies get involved in saving the show????
The comments about a drop off after the first 30 minutes is BS. Sorry, I don't believe it for a minute.
NBC flat out did not do the show justice with marketing. You know how many people I talked with did not even know that the show existed??
NBC, this show would be a hit if they did it right......
~Tim
The Journeyman DVR use was high - but not as high as other shows on the network such as Heroes, the Office, or Friday Night Lights
Well of course! All three of those shows have been running for multiple seasons, have had heavy promotion, and hold much better time slots.
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