NOTE: A portion of this musing also appears today on our sister site, Leblanguage. Please visit it regularly for coverage of media, sports, politics and life.
Early on in my career I learned the importance of what Nielsen monickered “Gold Card” viewers–those that fall into the upper right hand corner of four-quadrant splits that disproportionately watch at least 45 per cent of a schedule for at least 45 per cent of its total running time. That may sound boring to some of you but it’s people like them that essentially allow folks like me to pay their mortgages and afford their lifestyles. In gaming parlance, they’re called “whales”, and anyone who’s spent any time around casinos know full well how they’re treated. They’re the ones getting the free drinks and limo rides, and the high roller segment are further lavished with complimentary suites and discounts on in-room adult entertainment if desired.
Looking at such viewers and appreciating them through the cold lens of numbers is one thing; dealing with them IRL is another. Spend even a few minutes at a -con and you quickly learn why so many of them are spending so much time obsessing over what you decide to provide them with in their rooms (not necessarily their parents’ basements, to be fair). You wouldn’t want to run into many of them in a dark alley, and in the extreme you’d go out of your way to avoid them even in a well-lit one. And online they’re the ones who are consistently giving you unsolicited advice on how they think you should be doing your job, sometimes with the threat of boycotting your network or platform if you don’t heed their sage advice.
These days I happen to be a part the Fans of ME TV, the diginet that was once one of the few viewing destinations that could be agreed upon in my household. For those not quite ready for their AARP cards, ME TV primarily carries a schedule of reruns of shows produced in the 60s and 70s that were once ubiquitous on broadcast stations and actively competitive cable networks to extend their familarity and popularity into younger generations. Yes, I’m a fan of many of their shows and on occasion will still stop in and watch a few myself. But it was the person no longer in my life that was our household’s “gold card”; hell, that person was platinum with diamond inlays. So I wasn’t quite as involved in the hubbub and furor that developed over the holiday weekend when the network dramatically urged its followers to tune into Monday night’s EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND rerun for a “huge announcement that four new shows were coming to ME TV”.
What followed was a seemingly endless serious of speculations on what they would–or at least SHOULD be. The majority were titles ranging from obscure 1950s black-and-whites to ones from the 80s and 90s that never garnered much of an audience by the standards of the times they originally aired in and frequently underperformed in reruns compared to those enduring classics. There was practically no consensus except for those veiled threats of leaving forever if their wishes weren’t met.
So when METV’s grand announcement turned out to be merely the return of two titles that once were part of the network –CHARLIE’S ANGELS and the OG HAWAII FIVE-O–plus a couple of once-a-week deployments of Sony stablemates HART TO HART and FANTASY ISLAND new to this network but no strangers to those watching its competitors– disappointment and second-guessing was palpable and persistent. And the fact that a decision that to them was as huge as when Lebron James took his talents to South Beach came during a run of RAYMOND was especially galling. After all, RAYMOND actually produced original episodes in THIS century, which to a substantial portion of these gold cards has been seen as blasphemy.
I dealt with many similar debates and colorful opinions when I was programming Game Show Network, so I often take it upon myself in this group as I did that network’s fan board to try and educate them on the particulars that go into making these decisions for a living. I’ve tried to take the high road in thinking that if someone loves TV that much they deserve to at least be let in on what goes on behind the scenes into making those decisions they consider to be so important. After all, at one time (and, apparently, once again am) one of them myself. I took the opportunity to actually learn and pursue a career in it; perhaps there could be someone else out there who could follow suit.
Alas, that doesn’t seem to the case here. Even after we learned what these “new to ME” shows were, the bitching and moaning continued to crescendo. At times, it’s disturbing to see exactly how determined these folks are to make their thoughts known, actual facts be damned. I suppose in this day and age I shouldn’t be all that surprised; after all, I see this played out on social media in unavoidable political posts. At least there doesn’t appear to be a diagnosis out there of “Raymond Derangement Syndrome”.
But I would offer to my fellow group members the same answer I was forced to give some of my former network’s more aggressive e-mailers. Get a life, and no, it shouldn’t be your grandfather’s.
To his credit, the mastermind of METV belongs to this group himself. Like me, Neal Sabin’s a student of television and has forged a brilliant career out of it. This 2014 CHICAGO TRIBUNE profile by Robert Channick tells how he went from fan to mogul. I’ve shared my own personal musings about him before. Bluntly, he’s about the savviest and canniest strategist and deal-maker I’ve ever known, and has often inspired me to up my own game. Sabin rarely weighs in himself but he’s astutely aware of everything that is offered up; our private exchanges confirm that. We both feel it’s one’s responsibility to be as tuned in as possible with vox populi, and since he’s still very much in the game he has a lot more to gain that I do.
But what Sabin also has are Nielsen ratings and balance sheets, and they both conclusively show that his approach continues to work. RAYMOND is on the schedule to give it a tad less ancient an audience in the heart of prime time; the fact that the reunion special on CBS last week reached over 6 million live-same-day-viewers in its debut airing alone won’t hurt. Shows like M*A*S*H that air in extended blocks continue to warrant it; it’s consistently the most-watched show and its audience is greater than dozens of competing cable networks’ and in some markets even larger than those of local indepedents’. And via its extended partnership with Paramount on several businesses, and with Sony’s motivated sales force looking more than ever to milk as much revenue as they can out of its library, I have little doubt that these recent moves on Sabin’s part have minimal downside. Compare that approach to what a typical streaming platform takes these days.
Any objective investor would conclude Sabin’s way is superior. I’d like to think at least some of his viewers could figure that out. That said, I’d rather find your discourse here than on Bulwark or Forchan.
Until next time…