Netflix's Ted Sarandos Says Firefly has "a fraction of the original audience."
POSTED BY: micjwelch
UPDATED: Saturday, May 18, 2013 05:12
VIEWED: 17111
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Quote:
Certainly, Michael Cera and Jason Bateman (among others) have gone on to pretty big movie careers following ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, but neither has demonstrated a particularly strong following or the ability to "open" a movie on their own. Nathan Fillion, though, has similarly expanded his fan base with CASTLE.
Yes, but to be fair - not a one of the actors from Firefly has had much of any success in film. Cera and Bateman might not be mega starts - but they are pretty well known.
And Im guessing that this guy is just referring to how much the respsctive shows are viewed on Netflix, and they've said for a long time that Arrested was one of their most-streamed shows.
And as for why they'd bring back one low rated show and noth another... there are LOTS of factors (remember, even Joss has said that its not feasible to relaunch at this stage, even if the money was there), but cost would be a big one. One show is set mostly in a couple houses, the other.... in outer space. That's a huge cost differnece.
Excuse me while I soak in all these sweet, sweet conservative tears.
"We will never have the elite, smart people on our side." -- Rick "Frothy" Santorum
"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"
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FOX is a fairly conservative company, and they didn't like the dark nature or the anti-government slant in Firefly, and they may have consciously sabotaged the project, but not for one minute would I ever think that our own government had anything to do with the show's demise. There were plenty of people at FOX that were stupid enough to do it on their own.
There is no doubt in my mind that the audience for Firefly is much bigger than when it was on the air, and you can see that with new fans signing on here on a regular basis, the response at last year's Comic-Con, and the near perpetual mention of the show on numerous sites and blogs. Sarandos' comments are more likely just his own opinion and also a way to pat himself on the back for the Arrested Development deal. They're not doing Firefly simply because it would cost too much, end of story.
wo men ren ran zai fei xing.
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Just adding my own 2 cents worth, we just had a con here (Denver) and I saw "Adam Baldwin" hats more than I have ever seen them, there were quite a few folks dresses as Mal & Jayne and the dealers room had so many "Firefly" themed T-shirts for sale that I was amazed! So (JMHO) the PTB are so out of touch as usual,...
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Don't believe this for an instant. Have personally introduced dozens to the 'verse who'd never seen the show or the film. PTB out of touch indeed.
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The number of Netflix subscribers watching Firefly on that service and the total number of Firefly fans are two entirely different things. There is absolutely no way that the show has fewer fans now than when it was broadcast on FOX.
As Jayne would say, "That's just crazy talk."
wo men ren ran zai fei xing.
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Quote:If a Firefly fan is anyone (dead or alive) who watched and liked it, the number of fans will grow forever. But Netflix would use a businesslike fan count – anyone who rented two episodes in the last 365 days. This number will fall unless new episodes are made or there is a wonderful Whedon renaissance ignited by Avengers 2. I can imagine the trailer saying that you must also see Firefly because it is from the mind of the genius/creator of Avengers 2, to be in theaters in May 2015.
Originally posted by ecgordon:
As Jayne would say, "That's just crazy talk."
The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity," where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by WUBWUBWUB:
I hate to bust your filter bubble, guys, but he's not an "out of touch TV executive." He's exactly the opposite – do you know how much information Netflix has access to? They know what shows you're watching, they know when you watch them, they know whether you finish the shows, and at what point you stopped watching. They have 29.2 million subscribers ( http://news.yahoo.com/numbers-netflix-subscribers-205626746.html), all of which are feeding them the above information on what shows they're watching. You have access to... your circle of friends. He's not basing this on supposition, he's basing it on cold, hard facts: he's run the numbers, and the number of Netflix subscribers who've been watching Firefly doesn't justify the expense of a series.
I actually agree that this is probably what the guy was trying to say, but it's very poorly worded. Either that or the articles quoting this took it out of context.
Fans and netflix subscribers aren't the same animal. The mistake here is saying that the number of FANS has gone down since the original broadcast. For that to be true there would have to be less new people finding that they like the series, adding to the existing base, than there are people who have grown to dislike the series and are lost from the existing base. That loss is itself different from people who have become inactive but who still consider themselves fans. All of the inactive browncoats would enthusiastically embrace new Firefly, so they're still fans, but they could only wait so long before they moved on to something else.
With Firefly you might have increasing inactivity, but you don't really have a lot of fan loss over time. People don't really start out liking the series and then grow to dislike it, the trend is that you see the series and you either love it or you think it was overhyped and hate it.
What he MEANT is that the number of netflix subscriptions for Firefly has gone down from the original numbers when they first posted it. Which is a rather obvious end result without new episodes.
But to conflate those numbers with fan numbers and conclude fan numbers have gone down is basically erroneous. Apples and Oranges.
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It is time for the Two Minutes Hate video. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Minutes_Hate
Loose your fury!
The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity," where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two
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Ok, I'll Hate. I have sharp pointy things, where do I put them?? 
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One can be a fan of other shows without having to give up being a Browncoat. I've seen all of the rebooted Doctor Who, I've seen Game of Thrones, The Wire, Breaking Bad, Veronica Mars, Freaks and Geeks, Arrested Development, Dead Like Me, Battlestar Galactica, and quite a few other shows they didn't mention like Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Middleman, Eli Stone, Joan of Arcadia, Odyssey 5, Chuck and Fringe, just to name a few off the top of my head.
I'll go on record that only one of the above shows is better than Firefly, and that's The Wire. Everything else is great too, else I wouldn't have mentioned them, but no matter how long it has been since the cancellation, Firefly will always inhabit a special place in my heart. If it never comes back I can live with it because what we got was extra special. But there is nothing wrong about continuing to hope.
wo men ren ran zai fei xing.
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