The latest Fox animated entry debuted last night. To encouraging results.
Fox’s new animated series "Sit Down, Shut Up" was off to a decent start last night, pulling a 2.3 average overnight rating among 18-49s, according to Nielsen overnights.
That’s 77 percent of the lead-in audience from "The Simpsons" which averaged a 3.0 rating. "Sit Down" also improved on what "King of the Hill" did last week in the same 8:30 timeslot, by 15 percent.
For years I've been asked: "How's animation doing?" My answer is always the same.
"Cartoons are market driven. They get good box office and television ratings, more cartoons get made. If the box office or ratings aren't there, neither are the 'toons.
(The rule doesn't apply as directly to live action. If the latest James Bond feature doesn't perform, the studios make something else ... like a Seth Rogen comedy. But they still make live-action.)
But it's good to see the comedy has made a credible start. If ratings hold up, it means that the crew will be picked up for more episodes later rather than sooner. This is a good thing, since television animation is still not robust, and every small victory means another job will get created.
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10 comments:
Lets hope the show is cancelled as quickly as possible.
Simply put, it was horrible and the most startling testament in the history of television animation that high priced voice talent cannot carry a show all by themselves. The writing was horrendously unfunny, and from the other buzz on the internet it looks like the rest of its audience was struck by this as well.
Sorry to indict one of the few new animated shows, but shit is shit. There are other animated shows in development from Fox that are better.
Word of mouth from human being to human being is the only thing that keeps crews employed.
Ratings have only one purpose only - to get executives promoted - to the next show and the next level. They are so easily altered, bent, stacked, and cooked that they are a completely unreliable determination of progress. They are exactly like crime statistics - tools to promote (usually) complete idiots.
The only time ratings are 'accurate' is when you have a total hit or complete bomb. In both cases, the success or failure of the show is so obvious that attaching a number to it is but a footnote. The truth is always contained within the sacred and impenetrable human ritual of an eye-to-eye conversation.
Whoa! A pilot is a pilot. Most pilots do suck, so lets not jump to conclusions about the whole series based on 22 minutes. This show just hasn't found its voice yet. That takes time. It wasn't until a few seasons in that the Simpsons caught its stride and started to feel like the Simpsons.
So before we start calling for things to be cancelled lets use our "way-back" machines and think back to the pilots of the Simpsons or The Office and try to remember that those both kinda stunk too.
I personally hope Fox doesn't cancel it, or any other animated show for that matter. I also hope they develop these other great shows that are talked about in above this comment. I mean if Fox was smart then they'd have Animation Domination could take over Monday night too.
So lets not call for this thing to get cancelled because then fellow animators lose their jobs. I mean what ever happened to unity in a union?
The Hollywood Reporter said the opposite of what you wrote about "Sit Down Shut Up."
Read on:
Few stay still for 'Sit Down, Shut Up'
Sit down shut up Viewers stood up, started talking and left the room -- the premiere of Mitch Hurwitz's animated comedy Sit Down, Shut Up was the weakest link in Fox's comedy lineup Sunday night.
Debuting at 8:30 p.m., Sit Down (5.2 million viewers, 2.3 preliminary adults 18-49 rating) fell 23% from its Simpsons (6.5 million, 3.0) lead-in, then audiences jumped up 65% for Family Guy (7.4 million, 3.8). American Dad (5.8 million, 3.0) filled out the block. The Sit Down opener also was down 15% from the time period's average performance (typically King of the Hill).
Fox placed second for the evening to ABC, which featured the first Desperate Housewives (13.6 million, 4.7) and Brothers and Sisters (9.6 million, 3.3) in a few weeks, with a repeat lead-in. Housewives was a bit lower than usual but was the highest-rated show of the evening.
NBC was third with a two-hour Miss USA special (5 million, 1.4), down 18% from last year, followed by Apprentice (8.4 million, 3.1), up a tick this week.
Fourth-place CBS' The Amazing Race (10.4 million, 3.0) slipped a peg, while the two-hour snoozily titled Hallmark movie The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (9.8 million, 1.5) placed last in its time period, and fell 32% from CBS' previous Hallmark film, Loving Leah.
Also: For those wondering how Kings (2.4 million, 0.6) performed in its new Saturday time period, the NBC drama once again managed to come in last place, pulling about half its Sunday average at 8 p.m.
I seem to remember the Simpsons Christmas special being awesome.
Is that what you mean by the pilot? Because that's the first full-length simpsons I ever saw, and it was great.
Looking at wikipedia, I see that that WAS the pilot. And it was nominated for two Emmy awards.
Not to say that everything has to be awesome right out of the gate.
>Debuting at 8:30 p.m., Sit Down (5.2 million viewers, 2.3 preliminary adults 18-49 rating) fell 23% from its Simpsons (6.5 million, 3.0) lead-in, then audiences jumped up 65% for Family Guy (7.4 million, 3.8). American Dad (5.8 million, 3.0) filled out the block. The Sit Down opener also was down 15% from the time period's average performance (typically King of the Hill)
blah, blah, blah, execs. are gods, promote us, we make corporate boardrooms money, blah, blah, blah...
So much for 'WGA' writing.
I think it was IATSE. Wasn't it?
'wga' equivalent of iatse. kind of an aftra/sag argument where nobody wins.
I couldn't watch the pilot all the way through. This thing shouldn't have been shown!
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