Less Commercials On Fox For Fringe And Dollhouse : Is It Good ?
By fred | May 16, 2008
During their upfronts, Fox announced the new series that would be added to their schedule, including the two most-awaited new series of the season : J.J. Abrams’ Fringe and Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. Those two shows are the ones I’m most excited about, and they both are sci-fi shows.
Sure, many many shows are going sci-fi next season it seems, but this is Fox we’re talking about here, and sci-fi on Fox often dies rapidly. Which is why I get a little worried when I hear that those two shows will be presented in what Fox calls the “Remote-Free TV”.
What is that ? Simply less commercials. In the words of Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori, “It’s a simple concept and potentially revolutionary. We’re going to have less commercials, less promotional time, and less reason for viewers to use the remote. We’re going to redefine the viewing experience.”
Yeah, right, I’m sure it’s that simple.
Of course it make sense they’d try new things, and reducing commercials is one good way to try I suppose. And it makes sense they’d start with new shows, as they would right the start have to produce episodes of 55 minutes, something you might find on HBO already, but not on the main networks where episodes are usually about 42 minutes long. Asking House to go to 55 minutes is though : more material, different way to write and construct a story, it could hurt the show.
Also, should the experiment fail, they’d have to go back to 42 minutes afterwards, whereas here they could just cancel the shows, which is what worries me a little.
The other thing that worries me, is that while obviously they’ll charge more the advertisers who gets to be picked up, calling it premium, to compensate they also go the NBC way, and go heavy on product placement. Sure, when it’s a comedy and you got Tina Fey and her staff writing it, it works. But when you end up with Lipstick Jungle or Heroes, no thank you.
I mean, isn’t that what they did in the past with 24, and some cars ?
And let’s face it : in our time of DVR, if people don’t watch commercials, they won’t start now just because there are less of them. And one thing that could make people stick around and watch commercials is not to reduce their time, but increase their quality. Ever wonder why so many people do watch commercials during the Superbowl ? Or even, why some actually only tune in to watch the commercials, not that whole “sport-event” in between ?
It’s not because there are less, or more, of them; it’s because the commercials are better : they’re actually good, interesting, funny, simply put : worth being watched.
What do you think of this ?
