Second Season?

I agree,

Most of my friends are really into Friends but now that its over i'll have a better chance at changing them into loyal TC fans. So the ratings will go up a little, hopefully a tun to keep the show an the air for the next year or so.
 
TV is weird about scheduling. They're often not smart enough to say "I should put my best shows against the other network's crappy shows so that I can own certain nights and get killer ratings." Instead they say "I'll put my best shows up against THEIR best shows and we'll see who wins!" Kind of unfortunate, since you can really only watch one thing at a time (channel flipping and TIVO'ing notwithstanding).

Tru Calling has a lot of potential, though it has little chance of doing well against established powerhouse shows (like Friends, Survivor, CSI, etc.). Fortunately, Fox did not put it in the Friday night slot o' death. TC may never be able to attract the audience of a show like Friends, simply because it is kind of dark on the serious side. Not serious in an "Oh my god, little Timmy has cancer!" kind of way, but it deals with death which is kind of a downer or turnoff for a lot of people. Anyway, I think the show is on the right track and I can't wait to see what they do with it next season <hopeful>.
 
Well F*R*I*E*N*Ds is over, which is sad for Friends, but good for Tru Calling! Yay!
 
I was watching some entertainment tv show this morning and the presenter said that the Joey spinoff will be getting the old Friends time slot.
 
Thursdays won't be any less competitive next year. And TC will be at a disadvantage again because of Fox's fall schedule issues with baseball.

TC's ratings went up when ABC canceled Threat Matrix and showed only reruns of Extreme Makeover against TC. The WB was airing junk as well.

Joey is going to be on at 8pm on Thursdays. ABC and the WB will be agressively targetting Thursday. The WB will probably have a teen drama up against Tru. ABC will have some new show on targeting Friends' audience.

The bad news today is that the Cops special that aired in TC's timeslot against the Friends finale did about the same as Tru did last week. And all that was was edited together best of clips of old Cops shows (ie dirt cheap reality programming)
 
There's another huge strike against Tru Calling picking up new audience -- it's highly episodic, and despite appearances a subtle and complicated premise.

Imagine someone watching the Season Two opener as their introduction to the show. Their heads would explode. They'll have to recap and explain the show premise and the whole first season -- and that wouldn't be a fun episode to watch, "too complicated." Word to the wise: issue season one on DVD before season two premieres.

Fox would be wise to emphasize the crime-story nature of the show in some promos -- after all, crime drama is still hot. How does a Buffy-Meets-CSI show not find an audience? CSI types never hear of it, that's how.

The best we can hope is that the show is relatively cheap (as dramas go) and slowly builds a cult-like audience among the Revlon/Tampax set so Fox can sell the ad time and make money.

!Chet
P.S. I hope "Joey" does as well as "Time of your life."
 
Might be Second Season?

I was looking at the internet and I asked about if Tru Calling will have a second season and at first it sayd it won't but now its saying maybe!

..I hope there will be a second season!
 
Earlier in the year, I also thought that the end of 'Friends' would help Tru Calling in the ratings, if it lasted for two seasons. Now, I'm not so sure. Fact is genre tv's ratings are down everywhere. Angel was canceled, Fox pulled the plug on Wonder Falls very quickly, and reality tv keeps on trucking.

As far as Eliza appearing as Faith again, at least in the mentioned 'Angel TV movies,' the latest is that it's looking like those aren't going to happen. So unless TC is picked up, it's looking like we won't see her on TV too much in the near future!
 
Chet said:
There's another huge strike against Tru Calling picking up new audience -- it's highly episodic, and despite appearances a subtle and complicated premise.

Imagine someone watching the Season Two opener as their introduction to the show. Their heads would explode. They'll have to recap and explain the show premise and the whole first season -- and that wouldn't be a fun episode to watch, "too complicated." Word to the wise: issue season one on DVD before season two premieres.

Fox would be wise to emphasize the crime-story nature of the show in some promos -- after all, crime drama is still hot. How does a Buffy-Meets-CSI show not find an audience? CSI types never hear of it, that's how.

The best we can hope is that the show is relatively cheap (as dramas go) and slowly builds a cult-like audience among the Revlon/Tampax set so Fox can sell the ad time and make money.

!Chet
P.S. I hope "Joey" does as well as "Time of your life."
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I generally agree. There is a lot of subtle background info that newcomers will miss out on, although as long as people understand that someone dies, they ask Tru for help, the day rewinds, and she tries to save them, they'll probably pick up pretty quickly on Jack's deal, even if all the intricacies aren't known. The opener for Season Two may have to "stand on its own" a bit if they have it in mind to attract new viewers that way. There are ways to do reintroduction while keeping it subtle (call everyone by name early on, also refer to what they are "Harrison, you're my little brother, I can't let you..." or "Davis, just because you're my boss doesn't mean...", bring up something old when something new is mentioned "Again? Well...he's not the first criminal you've had to save."). If it were up to me, I'd almost do the Season Two opener as a two hour movie on a Sunday night, just to rope in more viewers and potential fans.

I'd like to see Season One on DVD before then also, but it's hard to say if it'd happen. I think with proper promotion, Fox could sell a whole ton of Tru Calling DVDs to people who never got around to watching the show or wanted to watch something else instead on Thursday nights. I'd also really like to see some reruns over the summer/early fall, even if it's Friday at midnight or weekdays at 1pm or something weird like that. It costs them nothing to rerun, but it gives another chance for people to pick up the show and see how good it is.

I also agree about the CSI connection. I've heard Tru Calling mentioned as sort of a "procedural crime show" many times, and I don't know why they don't play that up more. Most things seem to focus on the supernatural aspect of the show, which will not draw a mainstream audience. What will is the CSI style, working backwards to solve the crime aspect, the intense, race against the clock 24-style aspect, and even the relationship aspect where the characters are all closely working with or against each other with a lot at stake.

I think the show has the potential for a cult following. I think Fox thinks it is potentially the next Buffy and wants to give it a chance. They don't really have much (any?) other sci-fi right now, so it makes sense to keep the show, at least for a while. Eliza and Jason lend a bit of star power as well, so that's another reason to expect the audience may grow over time. I say it gets an order for 10-13 episodes to start mid-season. If it does well or gains "cult hit" status, it gets a complete second season, and probably a couple more after that. If not, it's cancelled after the filmed eps run. If they bump TC to Fridays, they basically guarantee it'll die - if the demographic is females 18-34, they're out having a good time on Friday nights, not in watching TV (for the most part).

edit: as a weird aside, I'm a programmer/geek, so to me, !Chet means not-Chet 🙂
 
I Hope!

I am a huge Tru Calling fan. I really liked how Jack's character put a new twist to things. I really hope we get a second season. But what is left for us to see... Tru try to save while Jack tries to stop her? And by saving that person someone else dies...! WEll i'm sure the writers have already thought about that!

I also love CSI... and I'm not too big into the whole, Buffy & Angel bit.. Tru Calling is a very impressive show, I just wish more people see that as well.

Patti
 
The huge reason to release Season One on DVD before Season Two starts is not who'd buy it, but who'd rent it. Rentals let people catch up on their own schedule to shows they might have intended to watch it but didn't get around to it. (Like, just maybe, they were watching Friends.) People are more likely to tune in to Season Two if they know that Season One is available.

Is Tru Calling a Fox studios show? I think this affects whether it could have another life on another network, should Fox or America be stupid about it.

As for another rerun, I believe there's a limited number of repeats the network can show; the rest is reserved for syndication. Recall that they already ran a marathon of sorts to pick up new viewers (and it worked -- that's how I got hooked) so they may not be able to do another full recap. Though I think they do still have one showing of the second half of the season (even some pre-Jack) left in the tank for a late-summer warm-up-for-the-new-season run.

And I wouldn't worry about seeing no repeats in May. May is sweeps, and Tru repeats wouldn't get sweeps-worthy ratings. Better to run specials, repeats of higher-rated shows, or cheap sensational reality TV in that slot.

Let's just hope Fox makes the right call, and orders up at least a half-season with a definite non-kick-me slot on the schedule. I rather like it right where it is. It makes a great CSI lead-in. Not that I particularly care, since I'm a resident of the Tivo Nation.

And !Chet is not accidental. Chet is not my given name. 🙂

!Chet
 
I hadn't really thought of rental, mainly because I haven't rented a movie since before DVD existed. Not that I wouldn't or don't like movies, I just haven't gotten around to it (Netflix is on my to-do list). That probably would be a good idea to get the first season on DVD and out to Blockbuster and so forth, but I doubt it could be done in time since I don't think DVD production is even planned yet. You'd want the discs out by mid-summer probably so that people would have a couple months to watch them and catch up before new stuff airs.

I think Tru Calling is Fox Studios or Twentieth Century Fox or whatever, but I read a discussion in regards to Firefly that suggested it didn't matter. The studios are somewhat independent from the networks, and do produce shows for other networks. You COULD have a 20th Fox show over on Sci-Fi or UPN, but network jumping is rare because nobody wants to pick up a failed or discarded show.

I don't remember the marathon - wisht I knew about it because I would have watched. You're right that it wouldn't hurt to re-show a few of the late season eps as a warmup/catch up for people who missed it the first time around as season two is getting close to the opener. I think I'd like to see The O.C. followed by Tru Calling (at 8/9) on Thursdays, I suspect that might do ok since The O.C. was kind of a surprise hit and has a similar audience (but not a similar premise) as Tru Calling. I think Fox made some big promises to Eliza and want desperately for Tru Calling to succeed. I think Eliza is in love with the character and concept and wants desperately for it to continue (she passed up some other stuff and got over her fear of the multi-year commitment that comes with television for TC). Because of that, I think they will give it a chance again next season unless every one of their new shows is a big hit - which will never happen (my magic 8-ball already predicts cancellation for Method & Redman).

re: !Chet, I'm glad I'm not the only !! Calling fan of that particular geek persuasion 🙂
 
Fox would be wise to emphasize the crime-story nature of the show in some promos -- after all, crime drama is still hot. How does a Buffy-Meets-CSI show not find an audience? CSI types never hear of it, that's how.
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That's one of the major problems with possible cult shows on Fox, they just don't know how to handle them. I was looking over some theings I had on tape from a couple of summers ago and saw the ads they had for Firefly. They were atrocious! If Fox is going to try airing off-beat or cult-type shows, they need to know how to advertise them. If all people know about these shows are what Fox puts in their ads, no wonder no one is tuning in!
 
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