More wins

[innocent_lex]

Supernatural has apparently won more awards. Is it just me who finds it wholly amusing that these awards that allow internet voting are being loaded with SPN votes? Are there actually people out there who still don't understand the enthusiasm of fans? Heh.

The boys seem quite amused by it, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHwjWzSb5rU

Comments

[innocent_lex]

Oddly enough, my understanding is it's not about getting the show more well known by potential viewers, but by the tv industry because the channel it's shown on doesn't bother with publicity for it. I'm sure there are detailed reasons, but I wasn't interested enough to look around.

On the awards, the statement made and comments from the folks at SPN seem to sum up to: the award has always been given out before, but they decided not to give it out this year. They told SPN they weren't inviting them as they weren't handing out the award on air, and when asked why, the awards folks said they could still come and sit in the audience if they wanted but gave no explanation for the change. Since they know the results in advance of the show (which struck me as really weird) it came across as a deliberate snub to an awful lot of people, and the only real explanation anyone could come up with was the genre - which, of course, doesn't surprise anyone.

It sounds like the whole thing was a disaster, though, with adverts actually in the show itself taking up a lot of time instead of handing out awards. I was a bit bewildered by reports, really - it sounded horrendous for a professionally produced programme.

I don't think I've ever voted for these things. Mostly I don't hear about them, and when I do I tend to stare at the lists and realise I don't watch / haven't heard of / haven't listened to whoever / whatever is on those lists. Not much point, really, and there's always the total lack of scifi except as a rare exception. It's odd, because I do watch quite a lot of things that aren't scifi, but that tends to be my go to interest. SPN sneaked in there due to a lot of badgering, but I love it. My history of 'I absolutely can't miss this!' has been a lot of Star Trek, B5, SG1 and so on. Then we'll add in the West Wing, but for someone from England that's pretty out there too *g*.

[rynogeny]

Huh. I don't get the significance of the TV industry knowing more about the show? Who in the industry? The execs at other networks? The ones I follow seem quite aware of the show, referencing it as a competitor? (All rhetorical questions!)

Hollywood always comes down to money. There are three types of TV shows - ad-supported, subscription supported, and mixed shows. Ad-supported are shows on what's called the broadcast networks (Fox, ABC, CW, etc. - there are five or six) - these are the over-the-air networks that people can use antennas to pull in, or they can pay their cable company for them. Since we don't pay the government for TV here the way you all do, those networks are all completely dependent on ads.

An hour long show is 43 minutes long, allowing for 34 30-second spots. The companies paying for the ad time pay for the show. There's no other source of revenue to pay the network/studio/writers/actors. None. And the amount the advertisers pay is determined by the ratings, time of day, etc.

For example: fewer people watch TV on Friday night, so the networks don't charge the ad companies as much for their spots on that night as they do other nights.

Cable shows divide into those airing on basic cable networks (included in most packages, like TNT) and the premium channels, like HBO and Showtime. Although we pay for TNT when we pay the cable company, we're not paying extra for it, so shows airing on those channels have ads, the same as the broadcast networks. The premium channels we pay extra for, on top of our cable bill - usually an extra $20-30 a month. But shows that air on those networks (Game of Thrones, Dexter) don't have ads.

Since SPN airs on a broadcast channel, it's the ads that pay for it, and the money the network gets from ads is determined solely by ratings. So how in that mix having other industry people acknowledge them makes a difference, I don't know.

(I'm not saying it doesn't - just that I don't see the connection. Would love to, actually, because while I'm sure of what I do know, I also know I don't know everything about the behind-the-scenes stuff in Hollywood. LOL.)

As to the award shows...they bore me absolutely brainless. The PCA had something like 90 categories (or that's what it felt like) and for most of them, I had no knowledge of any of the nominees. (And for one or two, I remember not voting because I did know the nominees, and didn't want to contribute to any of them winning.)

Even with Bones in 3 categories, I didn't watch the show. I figured if they won, the clip would be all over You Tube, and I'd watch it then. Of course, that's probably why the ads were so intrusive - they knew people would be doing that.

As to shows - I'm watching five shows live right now (Bones, Fringe, White Collar, Justified, and NCIS...sometimes. SPN, no, because I'm still making my way through earlier seasons.) Everything else is British (Sherlock) or older shows I'm just now discovering.