Let's Ask America/The List on Scripps Stations

[tvmitch]

FTVLive has an article about Scripps stations and the switch from WOF/J! to Let\'s Ask America/The List and how the experiment has not been good. I haven\'t been up to speed on this topic since my market doesn\'t have a Scripps station but I know some of you follow Let\'s Ask America pretty closely.

[Matt Ottinger]

In the palce of Wheel and Jepordy...

 

Yes, this is a journalistic endeavor I need to take seriously. 

 

Sounds a lot to me like a planted story (\"Sources say\" this and \"Sources say\" that) with a disgruntled angle to it.  Where are the numbers saying just how disastrous a move it really was to the local stations?  There\'s no doubt that ratings took a hit, the question is how that really affected Scripps\' bottom line, since they\'re saving tons of money by not buying the expensive shows.  Sounds like it came from a local station manager with a bad book and an ax to grind.

[clemon79]

Sounds like it came from a local station manager with a bad book and an ax to grind.

 

I learned a new thing yesterday. (New to me, anyhow.) Betteridge\'s Law of Headlines, which states that anytime a headline asks a question, the overwhelming majority of the time the answer is \"No.\"

 

This just made me think of that for some reason. \"Was Dropping Wheel and Jeopardy A Horrible, Awful, Misguided Mistake?\"

[BrandonFG]

I noticed the typo that Matt notes, well partially...I saw \"palce\", but to misspell the title of a popular TV show? Did you not see the red squiggly lines* when you typed the piece up?

 

But yeah, I have a hard time believing the show is in jepordy**, with the additional stations jumping on board throughout the season. Last time I checked, I thought the second season was a go? Sure a lot changes, but I don\'t think it\'s as dire as that EXCLUSIVE*** blog wants viewers to believe.

 

 

*MS Word doesn\'t catch everything...but those two words should definitely show up.

**See what I did there?

***Such an overused term

[PYLdude]

Misspellings aside:


I\'m willing to bet that there was quite the drop off in ratings in those time slots. However, if there\'s been talk of Let\'s Ask America going national for next season it must not be doing too bad.


That said, I\'m also willing to bet that reality is a lot closer to what Mr. Axegrinder is talking about than some of you might want to consider. Maybe Scripps didn\'t want to pay to keep the power hour on its network of local stations (not really a network, I know, but humor me), and as we established the last time my understanding of how revenues work is minimal at best. But I have a hard time swallowing that Scripps couldn\'t make the money back several times over with ad revenue for when the shows air as well as overall- businesses want to advertise on stations that are highly rated, no? And Wheel and Jeopardy are the two highest rated syndicated programs, or at least the two highest without being presided over by someone with the last name Sheindlin, no?


As cool that I think it is that they at least are trying to keep things going on Let\'s Ask America I really don\'t see how much longer the novelty will stay on it. There isn\'t much more that can be done.

[TLEberle]

Family Feud has been on and off the air since 1977 and whether the novelty wore off is immaterial. I think they could make some changes (faster play, dumping the play-for-money-but-don\'t-keep-it angle), but it wouldn\'t break my heart if the show wasn\'t renewed.

[PYLdude]

But the novelty obviously didn\'t wear off Feud because it has kept coming back, right?

[Joe Mello]

But the novelty obviously didn\'t wear off Feud because it has kept coming back, right?

On the other hand, the novelty did wear off because it\'s been cancelled multiple times.

 

Or perhaps novelty isn\'t a finite quantity that can\'t be recovered when lost.

[PYLdude]

But the novelty obviously didn\'t wear off Feud because it has kept coming back, right?

On the other hand, the novelty did wear off because it\'s been cancelled multiple times.

 

...which brings me right back to my argument about how Feud not losing its novelty.

 

Look at it this way. The original lasted 9 years in daytime and eight in syndication. Three years later, it comes back and spends five years in daytime and seven in syndication. Then four years after it\'s gone it comes back and is headed for a fifteenth year.

 

Whereas you look at To Tell the Truth. Inital run, lasts over a decade. Returns, lasts about a decade. The longest any of the three attempts since then stayed on the air was just over a year. Or, perhaps, Match Game 7x. Production problems aside, look at what\'s happened each of the three subsequent attempts after the syndicated daily series went off the air in \'82. 39 weeks, 13 months, one season. (I think that would probably render your second point more valid, no?)

[BrandonFG]

Match Game is probably the one example where it wasn\'t as much about the game. The panel chemistry and envelope pushing helped give that show its novelty in the 70s, and even that wore thin by 1980. Fast forward three years, and shows like Three\'s Company kinda made that kind of humor seem tame by comparison, and things got looser and looser as time went on. Unfortunately, they went a little too far in the opposite direction by 1998, and made it all about crass humor (typical of a late-90s \"comedy\").

 

I don\'t think this is so much about whether it\'s a novel concept...Wheel and Jeopardy are novel concepts, but IMO they\'ve also got close to 40 and 50 years of history because of the engaging formats and play-along value.

 

I care more about whether the show is competently-produced with very few gimmicks, and if I can play along. Let\'s Ask America isn\'t perfect, and the idea of a Skype game show is a cool hook similar to a big wheel or asking the right question. However, those original concepts get old after awhile, so you added new elements. Some worked (no more shopping, Clue Crew), others didn\'t (Double Play, Megaword)...if there are additional seasons of LAA, we shall see what they add. Right now, it\'s Trivia Night via Skype. It may need to be refreshed, it may not.

[MikeK]

Errors aside, it\'s tough to take this article seriously when they author says The List is a clip show like The Soup, when The List is more like inside Edition.  For heaven\'s sake, The List doesn\'t attempt to come across as funny.  Next time, the author might want to watch the shows he\'s critiquing.

[BrandonFG]

Remember when we discussed the blog post saying the show is in jepordy [sic]? Disregard it...here\'s an article from a slightly more reputable source that not only blows the above out the water, but also spells the words correctly! Gee...who to believe?!

 

/And by \"slightly more\", I mean \"way more\"

[Bob Zager]

I watched an episode for the first time last weekend, (Airing Saturdays, 11:30 p.m. on WXYZ in Detroit), and wondered if the producers include the same choices of answers when polling Americans.

 

I ask because one of the questions dealt with what people liked least about Daylight Saving Time.  The majority answered \"Gets dark early,\" which is not accurate.

[Jimmy Owen]

From what I\'m hearing Channel 7 in Detroit is moving LAA to prime access (thus shutting the door on CBS\'s Entertainment Tonight) in the fall of 13.

On a show like this, it\'s not about having the right answer, it\'s predicting what the majority thinks is the right answer.