Fox Reality Failures on PPV

[Matt Ottinger]

First, this from Marc Berman's Mediaweek.com Programming Insider:

The final eight unaired episodes of last season's Playing It Straight on Fox, which features a female contestant trying to figure out if her potential mates were gay or straight, will be offered as a pay-per-view event effective this week at www.FOX.com/playingitstraight. The final five unaired episodes of My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss is available free at www.FOX.com/bigfat.

I fixed his original links, which were wrong.  Each episode of Playing It Straight is two bucks, or you can watch all eight for ten bucks.  He says My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss episodes are free, but the website just says they're coming soon.

[DrBear]

It's simple, when you think about it...Fox is just following the pro wrestling model.  Develop the rivalry-building bouts during the free shows, show the superstars against designated losers (Hulk vs. The Very Capable Kenny Jay) to get folks interested, then have the rivalry payoff on the big pay-per-view extravaganza, as well as starting a new storyline or two so that people who skipped it feel they'll have to watch the next pay-per to be in on the beginning of the story.

Hook enough people with a so-so reality show — there will always be some under Barnum's Law of what is born every minute — and cancel it in mid-run. The 1 percent of the population that really cares and HAS TO KNOW who won the damn thing will pony up. And Fox (or whatever network follows this trend) will keep upping the price until they reach a level of diminishing returns.

Yes, it's taken almost 48 years, but I have become a cynic.

[Jimmy Owen]

If GSN had a PPV channel and offered NYSI or 70's TTTT or even "Camouflage: The Entire Series,", I think I'd plunk down a couple bucks.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Jan 18 2005, 03:38 PM\']First, this from Marc Berman's Mediaweek.com Programming Insider:

The final eight unaired episodes of last season's Playing It Straight on Fox, which features a female contestant trying to figure out if her potential mates were gay or straight, will be offered as a pay-per-view event effective this week at www.FOX.com/playingitstraight. The final five unaired episodes of My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss is available free at www.FOX.com/bigfat.

I fixed his original links, which were wrong.  Each episode of Playing It Straight is two bucks, or you can watch all eight for ten bucks.  He says My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss episodes are free, but the website just says they're coming soon.

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The question is:  Are they going to offer the five never-to-be-aired eps of "Who's Your Daddy?" online?  I know, as if...

Hey, they'll show up in odd hours on the Fox Reality Channel, most likely--gotta pay for those suckers somehow...

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Jan 18 2005, 10:12 PM\']If GSN had a PPV channel and offered NYSI or 70's TTTT or even "Camouflage: The Entire Series,", I think I'd plunk down a couple bucks.

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If it was the Don Morrow era, you're darned right. I'll pass on the overhyped Tom Campbell edition.

[Brig Bother]

Funnily enough, I think broadcasters are missing a MASSIVE trick here from interested people internationally.

I'd happily pay $2 to watch decent quality streaming episodes of Survivor and The Amazing Race, for example, rather than leaving my computer on all night to download them from other sources, thereby singlehandedly destroying the television industry.