Ratings and Scheduling: Still More Numbers to Decipher

[Gigi43]

I didnt think it was possible for CBS have another way to clearly state the show is done without actually announcing it. Twice a week burnoff for 13 eps?! Wow.

...At least there's finally a date to look forward too.

[stealinghome]

Nolan and Plageman have announced that Season 5 will officially be the last:

http://m.ign.com/articles/2016/03/16/person-of-interest-coming-to-an-end-with-season-5

Boo, but the writing has been on the wall for a while. CBS just sat on it too long to make going elsewhere viable, I think.

[thuganomics85]

Not surprised, but I'm glad we finally got an official date.  But since they're pretty much just burning them off, I kind of wish CBS would just make them available On Demand to binge.

[Agent Dark]

I'm ok with this.  We all knew it was coming, especially with Sarah getting cast as a lead on a new show.  It's not like it's a shock to the system.

 

But now for sure when I get to look forward to a ripper of a conclusion to what's been an amazing story.  Every story has a finish, and I have every reason to believe that this show will deliver a fitting end.

[icewolf]

So the new season gets reduced to 13 episodes, delayed for almost 1 year, a rushed airing during the summer, and finally gets canceled.

 

Talk about getting screwed! CBS must really hate this show!

[Bort]

I bet you anything that the actor contracts all expire at the end of June, leaving some three-odd months to shop the show around to another outlet (which isn't enough time). CBS was really being a dick about this show.

[stealinghome]

I bet you anything that the actor contracts all expire at the end of June, leaving some three-odd months to shop the show around to another outlet (which isn't enough time). CBS was really being a dick about this show.

I'm like 95% sure that CBS held onto it so long precisely for this reason. Which just sucks. I know PoI never was the huge hit CBS wanted it to be, but it deserved better treatment from CBS.

[Trini]

But wasn't it a moderate hit? It was fine until CBS put it on another night.

[ppl]

Now that CBS has released their summer schedule, I've decoded how Person of Interest's airing schedule will go.

 

Season 5 Airdates

B.S.O.D. - May 3 (Tuesday)
SNAFU - May 9 (Monday)
Truth Be Told - May 10 (Tuesday)
Shot Seeker - May 16 (Monday)
A More Perfect Union - May 17 (Tuesday)
QSO - May 23 (Monday)
6,741 - May 24 (Tuesday)
Reassortment - May 30 (Monday, Memorial Day)
Sotto Voce - May 31 (Tuesday)
The Day the World Went Away - June 6 (Monday)
Synecdoche - June 7 (Tuesday)
.exe - June 14 (Tuesday)
Return 0 - June 21 (Tuesday)

 

Monday June 13, BrainDead premieres in PoI's slot so that's why .exe airs on Tuesday and Return 0 is pushed back to June 21.

 

I can't believe a new episode will air on Memorial Day. Why are they airing it on Memorial Day though? They couldn't just double up on May 31 instead of airing a new episode on May 30?

Edited March 17, 2016 by ppl

[benteen]

But wasn't it a moderate hit? It was fine until CBS put it on another night.

 

It did very well during it's first two seasons.  I think it was a Top 5/Top 10 at times in terms of total viewers.

[stealinghome]

But wasn't it a moderate hit? It was fine until CBS put it on another night.

It was a moderate hit, but I think CBS had huge expectations for the show that it was never really able to fulfill. In terms of ratings, S1 averaged a 2.87 out of a 3.27, which is solid, but S2 averaged a 2.90 out of a 3.80(!). CBS moved it after it became clear that even with pretty literally the best lead-in they could provide, it wasn't ever going to have eye-popping numbers like I think they had first hoped. And that Thursday 9pm slot was too valuable for a show that couldn't get over the hump (both S1 and S2 hit highs of 3.4 but were down to 2.4 by the season's end), ESPECIALLY one that CBS didn't own.

But I definitely think PoI would have stayed on Thursday at 9 longer if it was owned by CBS. I mean, I'm pretty sure we would be watching episode 20 of S5 now if it was owned by CBS, given that PoI outperformed most CBS dramas last season.

Edited March 17, 2016 by stealinghome

[stealinghome]

FWIW, thefutoncritic now has this as PoI's schedule:

 

B.S.O.D. - May 3 (Tuesday)
SNAFU - May 9 (Monday)
Truth Be Told - May 10 (Tuesday)
Shot Seeker - May 16 (Monday)
A More Perfect Union - May 17 (Tuesday)
QSO - May 23 (Monday)
6,741 - May 24 (Tuesday, 9pm special airing)

Reassortment - May 24 (Tuesday, 10pm)
Sotto Voce - May 30 (Monday, Memorial Day)
The Day the World Went Away (100th episode) - May 31 (Tuesday)
Synecdoche - June 6 (Monday)
.exe - June 14 (Tuesday)
Return 0 - June 21 (Tuesday)

 

If this is true...really, what crack is CBS smoking? They're very determined to give PoI the worst possible scheduling all the time!

[kieyra]

Now that CBS has released their summer schedule, I've decoded how Person of Interest's airing schedule will go.

 

Season 5 Airdates

B.S.O.D. - May 3 (Tuesday)

SNAFU - May 9 (Monday)

Truth Be Told - May 10 (Tuesday)

Shot Seeker - May 16 (Monday)

A More Perfect Union - May 17 (Tuesday)

QSO - May 23 (Monday)

6,741 - May 24 (Tuesday)

Reassortment - May 30 (Monday, Memorial Day)

Sotto Voce - May 31 (Tuesday)

The Day the World Went Away - June 6 (Monday)

Synecdoche - June 7 (Tuesday)

.exe - June 14 (Tuesday)

Return 0 - June 21 (Tuesday)

 

Monday June 13, BrainDead premieres in PoI's slot so that's why .exe airs on Tuesday and Return 0 is pushed back to June 21.

 

I can't believe a new episode will air on Memorial Day. Why are they airing it on Memorial Day though? They couldn't just double up on May 31 instead of airing a new episode on May 30?

 

Sorry to butt in, but I was skimming and I misread this as being a listing of CBS's 'summer schedule' of shows, and I was thinking that this was the weirdest list of television show names I'd seen in my entire viewing career. I was looking at '.exe' (and some others) and thinking someone went crazy with trying to clone the weird success of mr. robot.

 

I'll see myself out. 

[janeta]

Ah poop. :(

Well, at least it's at ten; i should be able to see it. Thx for the schedules, folks.

[33kaitykaity]

So the new season gets reduced to 13 episodes, delayed for almost 1 year, a rushed airing during the summer, and finally gets canceled.

 

Talk about getting screwed! CBS must really hate this show!

It's all about the money.  CBS doesn't own PoI (Bad Robot/JJ Abrams does) the way it owns Blue Bloods, so CBS doesn't stand to make millions of dollars off of any broadcast syndication rights deals like one they did with ION and WGN for Blue Bloods.  

[Agent Dark]

I'm no programmer, but doesn't "return 0" mean "exit?" -- If so, nice touch.

Sort of.  From what I understand (which is not very much!) it's used in C/C++ and it basically signifies that the program has successfully executed.  Which is an interesting way to title the last episode of the show.

[Netfoot]

I'm no programmer, but doesn't "return 0" mean "exit?" -- If so, nice touch.

 

return is a programming statement used by several languages to stop execution of a sub-routine or function, thereby resuming execution of the code that called it. The "return value" following the keyword (in this case, 0) is the result computed by the sub-function.  Therefore return 0 would indicate that the function produced a zero-valued result.  If the function produced no result at all, not even zero, then we would expect to see return null instead.

 

Note that the main function (the program itself) can also return a value to the operating system, to indicate a completion status.  By convention on many systems, the completion status of zero indicates normal completion, with higher values indicating some sort of error status.  

 

Therefore, return 0 could indicate that a part of the program produced a zero-valued result.  Or, it could indicate that the entire program itself completed normally, and without error. I choose the latter interpretation.

Edited March 24, 2016 by Netfoot

[stealinghome]

It's all about the money. CBS doesn't own PoI (Bad Robot/JJ Abrams does) the way it owns Blue Bloods, so CBS doesn't stand to make millions of dollars off of any broadcast syndication rights deals like one they did with ION and WGN for Blue Bloods.

I agree that PoI being a non-CBS-owned show is the root cause of this, but it's still unusually shitty treatment even given those circumstances. Contrast it with what CBS did for The Mentalist last season--they've treated PoI notably worse.

I suspect it's all to do with trying to block PoI from going elsewhere (read: Netflix) after CBS inevitably canceled them. The whole "we don't want you, but we don't want anyone else to have you either" syndrome.

[fastiller]

I suspect it's all to do with trying to block PoI from going elsewhere (read: Netflix) after CBS inevitably canceled them. The whole "we don't want you, but we don't want anyone else to have you either" syndrome.

But, but, but: couldn't CBS hand it to the sister (child?) network Showtime?  That'd be nice; I think the show would fit nicely on Showtime.

[calguy]

I suspect it's all to do with trying to block PoI from going elsewhere (read: Netflix) after CBS inevitably canceled them. The whole "we don't want you, but we don't want anyone else to have you either" syndrome.

 

 

I keep reading this on a couple of sites and it's absolutely wrong. There are real people who worked on both sides in order to get a 5th season. If CBS wanted POI dead it could have just cancelled POI and that would be the end of it.

[Bort]

I keep reading this on a couple of sites and it's absolutely wrong. There are real people who worked on both sides in order to get a 5th season. If CBS wanted POI dead it could have just cancelled POI and that would be the end of it.

 

Not necessarily. Since CBS doesn't own the show, the production company is free to shop the show around somewhere else once the network cancels it. If CBS had aired season 5 in October, announcing it as the final season, that would have left the production company at least 8 months to find the show a new home before actor contracts expired in June. CBS waiting until March left them only three months.

[calguy]

Not necessarily. Since CBS doesn't own the show, the production company is free to shop the show around somewhere else once the network cancels it. If CBS had aired season 5 in October, announcing it as the final season, that would have left the production company at least 8 months to find the show a new home before actor contracts expired in June. CBS waiting until March left them only three months.

These deals don't take 8 months to negotiate and I suspect most companies would get cold feet if they actually had that long of time. It amuse me that CBS would offend key and powerful partners, and creative talent like WB, Bad Robot and Jonathan Nolan just to squash a low rated series.

[stealinghome]

Mods, is it possible to get a pinned note at the top of this board that includes a link to the schedule for this season? Since the airing schedule is going to be so wonky, it would be a nice resource shortcut, and might save some non-regulars from having to constantly ask when the next episode airs. The link is here.

[tessaray]

That is a weird schedule.  Thank goodness for dvrs and the option to record a series. 
 
http://thefutoncritic.com/showatch/person-of-interest/listings/
 

date (day) time network episode title
5/3/16 (Tu.) 10:00 PM CBS (#POI501) B.S.O.D.
5/9/16 (Mo.) 9:59 PM CBS (#POI502) SNAFU
5/10/16 (Tu.) 10:00 PM CBS (#POI503) Truth Be Told
5/16/16 (Mo.) 10:00 PM CBS (#POI507) 6,741
5/17/16 (Tu.) 10:00 PM CBS (#POI504) SHOTSEEKER
5/23/16 (Mo.) 10:00 PM CBS Episode 6
5/24/16 (Tu.) 9:00 PM CBS Episode 7
5/24/16 (Tu.) 10:00 PM CBS Episode 8
5/30/16 (Mo.) 10:00 PM CBS Episode 9
5/31/16 (Tu.) 10:00 PM CBS Episode 10
6/7/16 (Tu.) 10:00 PM CBS Episode 11
6/14/16 (Tu.) 10:00 PM CBS Episode 12
6/21/16 (Tu.) 10:00 PM CBS Episode 13

Edited April 25, 2016 by tessaray

[fastiller]

I think this is the most appropriate place for this:

I'm wishing there were a new episode tonight.  I've pre-ordered the DVDs. (The full series will be out on 07.17.2016.)  If anyone's interested in doing a full series re-watch, I'm game. If the mods don't want to have threads for each episode, perhaps we could create a single one for each season and discuss within each?

[Gigi43]

I would be up for a rewatch.