Boycott Fox? You've got to be kidding.

POSTED BY: Thrawn
UPDATED: Friday, April 9, 2004 13:37
VIEWED: 16792
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THRAWN

Sunday, April 4, 2004 11:52 PM

So, especially after Wonderfalls, there seems to be a HUGE number of people with the general thought "That's it. I'm done. I'm never watching a single Fox show ever, period."

I ask you - what are you hoping to accomplish? You think you're going to drive Fox out of business? You have no chance. No CHANCE. If everyone that ever watched Firefly or Wonderfalls never watched another Fox show again, we'd still barely make a dent. Fox's general audience is so completely different from those shows that us boycotting them isn't going to accomplish anything useful.

It will, however, accomplish one thing very well - the NEXT time Fox buys a Firefly, or a Wonderfalls, the audience that would watch it, the audience that would keep it on air, will be boycotting the network, so it will fail AGAIN. And the exact same thing will happen. All you're going to accomplish by refusing to watch anything Fox ever produces is help prevent Fox from ever producing anything interesting. Which, it seems to me, is exactly the opposite of what you'd want.

There is no conspiracy here. The only reason Fox cancels shows is because they tank. If you look at the Wonderfalls ratings, they fell sharply, from an already fairly bad first number. Granted, Fox is worse than most at promoting these shows and placing them in positions where they will be watched, and it's likely that they made a mistake by cancelling it early, but it's not because they're evil malicious conservatives or because they have a death feud against Tim Minear. It's because they don't understand how it takes a long time for cult followings to develop, and aren't willing to grant the time it takes for that to happen.

If we're ever going to get a show like this to stick around, we're going to have to show them that it's profitable for that to happen. Which means, first and foremost, that we have to actually watch it. Fox may be an unusually pathetic and incompetent network, but that's two good shows in a row they've been interested in and bought, and that failed because not enough people watched them. It's mostly their fault, but it's partially ours, too.

Don't boycott Fox, and don't assume that we'll never get one of these to work. All you're doing is causing more harm than good, and reducing the possibilities for more creative shows in the future. By all means, don't watch the bad ones - avoid any and all reality TV like the plague - but if you see one that looks interesting, watch it. And if you like it, get other people to watch it.

You never know what we can do when we try hard enough.

KALIMEERI

Sunday, April 4, 2004 11:58 PM

How can they tell if my TV is off or if it's on, what channel I'm watching? Do they care?

Jen dao mei.

THRAWN

Monday, April 5, 2004 12:05 AM

Obviously, they can't tell. But that works against the argument, too - if they can't tell you're not watching their network, what good does it do if you boycott?

AURAPTOR

Monday, April 5, 2004 12:18 AM

Why does Fox put forth such effort to go w/ a show like Firefly, John Doe, Wonderfalls ,etc.. and not promote it? It's such a waste of talent to put forth these great shows and then just cancel them after as little as 4 weeks.

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. Worked that out myself. "

CALHOUN

Monday, April 5, 2004 12:29 AM

I'm sorry but Fox has done its dash with me! We may not be able to hurt Fox by blacklisting them but to me its the principle that counts. They have shown far too much incompetence and ruined too many good things. So I had my Fox cable TV disconnected and when they begged me to leave it on I said BRING BACK FIREFLY YOU BASTARDS!

It felt good and I am not missing any of the TRIPE! they continue to show.

SLOWSMURF

Monday, April 5, 2004 12:48 AM

Actually I found the promotion, at least before it aired, for John Doe quite good.

In fact, it was so good(compared to Firefly's) that it was the only reason I even saw firefly! Then within a few episodes I lost a good portion of my interest, firefly becoming why I tried to watch. As soon as firefly was canceled, I never even bothered trying to watch John Doe.

I think thats quite good evidence what the marketing can do for a show however.

RKLENSETH

Monday, April 5, 2004 12:54 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Calhoun:
I'm sorry but Fox has done its dash with me! We may not be able to hurt Fox by blacklisting them but to me its the principle that counts. They have shown far too much incompetence and ruined too many good things. So I had my Fox cable TV disconnected and when they begged me to leave it on I said BRING BACK FIREFLY YOU BASTARDS!

It felt good and I am not missing any of the TRIPE! they continue to show.

Note, FOX Network TV is a different company run by different people. I would be pretty sure that FOX Cable is a different company as well as there is FOX News, 20th Century FOX, and probably a few more. Don't screw all of FOX companies because an idiot executive in FOX Network TV screwed up. Screw FOX Newtork TV and I won't care but the rest of it shouldn't be. It was 20th Century FOX that was nice enough to put the show onto DVD and it was them that sold the movie rights to Universal Studios.

Oh, and play Cantr II at www.cantr.net.

ZOID

Monday, April 5, 2004 1:04 AM

I have been boycotting not only Fox, but their show sponsors as seen in TV Guide and fishwrap ads as well, since they canceled Firefly. I sincerely hope they don't enlist Boddington Pub Ale as a sponsor, 'cause I'd miss it, but...

I don't believe my actions will cause Fox to go broke or shut its doors. That's not what I'm shooting for.

I'll start watching Fox (soft 'u' sound) primetime TV again, the very same day I see an announcement stating their programming team have been FIRED... Sorry for shouting, but those idiots need to be flipping burgers some place. It'd also be nice to get a blurb from Fox stating that they 1.) needed to go in a new direction, with 2.) people who knew something about quality programming, and that they 3.) had placed an strict ban on hiring the board of directors' immediate family members to positions where intelligence was essential.

The person or persons responsible for cancelling Firefly, in particular, have no business being in the field of entertainment. As soon as I hear they are no longer working at Fox, I'll tune in their shows again.

'Til then, not. It's not so much about a desire to hurt Fox as it is not to get screwed by these ignoramuses again. To quote Mr. Scott, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Respectfully,

zoid

_________________________________________________

"River didn't fix faith. Faith fixed River."

- Senator Richard 'Book' Wilkins, Independent Congress
author of A Child Shall Lead Them: A History of the Second War of Independence

INFRA172

Monday, April 5, 2004 1:28 AM

Want to know how you can hurt the networks who cancel your shows? DONT BUY THE DVDs! Don't buy the Wonderfalls DVDs when they come out. Download pirated versions.

GHOLA

Monday, April 5, 2004 1:41 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by infra172:
Want to know how you can hurt the networks who cancel your shows? DONT BUY THE DVDs! Don't buy the Wonderfalls DVDs when they come out. Download pirated versions.

Of course then Fox can't see that people will actually pay for Wonderfall's downloading pirated versions of Wonderfalls instead of buying the DVD's hurts Wonderfalls and it doesn't make that much difference to Fox.

I agree with the original poster completely. I watch what I like(now that's just 24) on Fox and avoid what I don't(everything else). I'm not going to boycott Fox because that won't do anything as I don't have a nielsen ratings box and even if I did that'd just be more of a reason to watch the (what very little of it there is) quality programming on Fox. I don't like it that Firefly and Wonderfalls got cancelled but it's honestly not that big of a deal to me either if I'm going to start boycotting someone I'd rather it be a company that I have a actual moral problem with not a company that just cancelled a TV show (however good it may have been).

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