Final vindication Lost extended midseason break

last year i made a prediction and expressed my dismay about the pathetic
midseason break lost was taking. unfortunately i was confronted with a flame war
which was rather sad. eventually apologies were rendered from both sides the
dust settled and the thread was deleted which was a good thing for everyone
involved.

fast forward to present day in the eztv news section a very accurate article
was posted explaining in detail a number of reasons for the huge ratings drop.
now to elaborate on the viewing habits of america. i realize many of the users
here are from other countries so i'll try to convey in simplest terms. the
american public will just not tolerate such a huge time gap in between a
flagship tv shows season, as a whole their collective attention span is very
short. to the best of my knowledge this has never been done before,and now you
are witnessing first hand results. to make matters worse abc pushed the timeslot
forward to 10 pm which is another separate issue.

i must admit that i am tuning in and picking up where the show left off, sadly
im of the minority and many have moved on towards other tv shows. the next few
weeks lost will be at a critical stage in it's future and if the ratings
continue on a downward spiral fully expect the show not to be picked up for
another season.

one thing to note though is that the ratings were already on a downward trend
before the break.

the break however may have exacerbated the situation (it worked well for prison
break on fox) - or it could just be the continuation of the previous trend.

prison break is not the same sort of show. lost has so many holes in the
storyline and charachter backdrops also prison break airs at 8pm. we have a
system here called 'the lineup' where american viewers expect to sit down on the
couch between 8-11pm watch their favourite tv shows and retire for the evening.
for a show such as lost to air at 10 pm when many are starting to 'leave the
ballgame' so to speak only adds to the confusion and ratings drop. couple this
with a storyline even lost fanatics have a hard time following and it's a recipe
for disaster. i believe people such as myself who simply download tv shows and
watch at their leisure are most certainly in the minority here in the states.

unfortunately your dealing with a country (well nevermind)
shows such as idol, grease your the one,flourish here in america. you should be
thankful that the mpaa is using us(american citizens) as scapegoats, if not the
rest of the world also becomes the target. the problem is the sword swings both
ways and until the industry figures out they are a global commodity, and
distribute the nielson rating system worldwide. you end up with dumbed down tv
and shows such as lost,smith,kidnapped,etc, etc are doomed to fail. the network
executives are simply a product of their environment, and more importantly the
rating system, advertising dollars are at the top of the list not quality tv.
now, if lost should slip to say 7.1 million viewers within the next few weeks no
attempt will be made to move it into it's proper timeslot. i know this because
ive lived with this system my whole life and nothing really changes.

yeah - i agree with channel.

if patience and tolerance for the show had not been worn almost completely
away by the huge irritation factor of season 2 i think the break for a run
without repeats would have been a great idea.

as it was it turned out to be a disater. a big lump of the audience, feeling
like they'd been burned once too often simply said "fuck this, i'm out of
here".