The Storybrooke Daily Mirror: OUaT in the Media, Cons and Other Real Life Encounters

[Souris]

2 hours ago, Camera One said:

Rhonda Shimes just jumped ship to Netflix, so does that mean A&E has moved up on the hierarchy of ABC's special assets?

Except Carlton Cuse just jumped back onboard, keeping A&E where they were.

[Rumsy4]

1 hour ago, Souris said:

Except Carlton Cuse just jumped back onboard, keeping A&E where they were.

Verrrry interesting...

[KingOfHearts]

37 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

Verrrry interesting...

Coming this fall, "Lost... Again!"

[ParadoxLost]

So I just saw an ad for the new season of OUAT.  I'm kind of floored that they are advertising it and this early.  I thought they'd just let it sit on Friday and not push it that hard in favor of spending ad time on other new shows.

Edited August 21, 2017 by ParadoxLost

[Camera One]

The Ratings and Scheduling thread got sucked into the portal of doom, so I'm assuming this is the new catch-all place for that category of discussion.

So this year on Sunday at 8pm, instead of acclaimed drama "Once Upon a Time", you can watch... "America's Funniest Home Videos".  The originally planned program, game show "To Tell The Truth", is being moved to mid-season.

[KingOfHearts]

What is replacing AFV at 7pm?

[Camera One]

Not sure... I wonder if the article meant to say ABC has not confirmed what will air at 7pm instead of ABC has now confirmed what will at at 7pm.

This past Sunday, the live+same-day ratings were 4.96 million with 0.9/4 for "Celebrity Family Feud".  More people would rather watch that than "Once".

[sharky]

Ratings thread is in Past Seasons/S06. I hope we can move it back once the season starts. It was a little talking in circles this summer, but we are quite the ratings gurus on this board. :)

As for the moves, the Family Feud numbers are fine for the summer, but I'm assumed they wanted something better if they were moving Once to another slot. And as we mentioned, people may get burned out on game shows when the fall arrives. So who knows what ABC is thinking. It's a mess. 

Edited August 25, 2017 by sharky

[formerlyfreedom]

Discussion of ratings and scheduling for OUAT will take place here in the Media topic going forward.

If you have questions on moderation decisions, please PM the moderators.

Thank you.

[Writing Wrongs]

For those of you who bought the Season 6 blu-ray: In the episode "The Black Fairy" do you get subtitles whenever Fiona sings? I can't figure out if it is a glitch or intentional.

Edited August 27, 2017 by Writing Wrongs

[KingOfHearts]

https://twitter.com/NY_Comic_Con/status/902200387863810048

Adam, Eddy, and Lana will be at NYCC, doing a panel just a few hours before the premiere on October 6.

Edited August 29, 2017 by KingOfHearts

[Souris]

Cost-cutting and layoffs coming to ABC TV Group. I wonder if it will have any effect on Once and show development.

[Camera One]

I suspect the budget of "Once" has already been pared down significantly, despite their hiring spree.  I am curious how this will translate in terms of what the new neighborhood will look like.  How will they handle the cost of location shoots?  Or will they shoot it in a different way?  I am assuming their new setting costs less than Storybrooke.   I doubt they could afford to spend too much on building new sets.  Will they have a smaller collection of recurring extras?  On the old show, we usually had Granny and Grumpy plus a dwarf or two hanging around in most episodes.  We already had Jane saying she had to rewrite to reduce the cost of CGI and effects.  

Edited August 31, 2017 by Camera One

[KingOfHearts]

Quote

We already had Jane saying she had to rewrite to reduce the cost of CGI and effects.  

When I think of costly CGI/effects, I think beasts or dragons or really big things, such as the Camelot castle or Pleasure Island. They've reused old models for backgrounds before, such as using the Darling's home for the Dr. Jeckyll/Mr. Hyde episode. Then there's the usuals, like Rumple's Dark Castle or Knifington Palace.

Spoiler

With all the indoor shooting, they're probably opting for cheap CGI sets.

Edited August 31, 2017 by KingOfHearts

[KAOS Agent]

Looking at the few promo photos they've released from the new season, it's pretty obvious where they repurposed sets. Snowing's loft is now something else, but it was clear to me what it was when I saw it. I suspect other sets will get the same treatment. The biggest evidence of extreme budget cuts is that Jane said she had a rewrite that included removing a wardrobe change. That says Once's budget has been significantly reduced if they've gone from Regina wearing multiple extravagant outfits per episode to having to rewrite things to remove a change in costume.

In other news, I was looking at Once's Facebook page (something I don't normally do) and the comment section on the S7 promo stuff is full of general audience members asking where Emma, Snowing, Belle and Zelena are. There was no indication in the finale that it was the final show for most of the cast, so the audience is in for a huge surprise when they tune in and find all of these characters gone. That's gonna be a challenge for the premiere when people turn on Once (if they can find it on Fridays) and see that Once is not the same. Will they stick around to watch S1 redux now starring Adult!Henry?

[Camera One]

3 minutes ago, KAOS Agent said:

There was no indication in the finale that it was the final show for most of the cast, so the audience is in for a huge surprise when they tune in and find all of these characters gone. That's gonna be a challenge for the premiere when people turn on Once (if they can find it on Fridays) and see that Once is not the same. Will they stick around to watch S1 redux now starring Adult!Henry?

That's a good point.  There really was nothing in the finale which indicated it might be the last we see of them.  Many viewers are casuals, and so they won't realize half the cast is gone until they see the first episode.  The subtlety of the "new book" in the trailer won't get through.   It will be interesting to see how these people react.  The fact that the show will be airing Friday night... that alone pretty much guarantees that some of them won't be tuning in.

[daxx]

Who are these general audience members that just tune in on sunday night?

I've used a dvr for awhile and haven't been general audience for anything for some time.

I can't imagine not seeing some of this info on social media.

[Rumsy4]

28 minutes ago, daxx said:

Who are these general audience members that just tune in on sunday night?

They apparently also use facebook, and yet are still unaware of the changes? It's odd!

I do think that most of the GA won't make it over to the Friday night timeslot. They'll just be confused on Sunday night, and then perpetually forget to find the new airtime, or won't remember to tune-in on Friday. Abc's only prayer is the tenacious fans, and A&E have managed to piss of half the fans who are intending to watch. 

[Shanna Marie]

26 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

They apparently also use facebook, and yet are still unaware of the changes? It's odd!

It depends on how they use Facebook. If they only use it to keep up with friends and family members and not as a fandom interaction point, and if they just follow the official FB page or if they just see posts from the official page that have been liked or shared by their friends, they may not have any of the news. I don't recall the official page announcing the departures. They've announced the new characters, but not the departures. Plus, FB throttles the reach of "page" posts. You can follow the page and not see everything they post in your feed unless ABC pays extra to boost posts, and even then there's no guarantee. To see everything they post, you have to go to their page. Or people may not even follow the page but just see posts that have been liked, commented on, or shared by people they follow. So I can see someone who's a casual viewer who gets on Facebook to check in on friends and family being aware that there will be new characters but not yet knowing that most of the original cast will be gone.

[Camera One]

Some of the casual fans won't bother to click a link to read about "Once".  Looking at the posts for the "Once Upon a Time" official page, even if someone subscribes to that, there's nothing that says outright certain cast members are leaving.  They even had a post on August 10th with a photo of Rumbelle and a "What's next for Rumple and Belle?" headline.  The trailer also has Emma and Snowing.  

Edited September 1, 2017 by Camera One

[orza]

General audience includes all those viewers who watch the show live, via dvr or streaming, maybe discuss it a bit the next day with a friend or coworker and then go back to their lives until the next episode is available. They don't seek out news, articles and spoilers about the show and actors or follow them on social media. They may or may not pay any attention to random TV stuff that pops up on their Facebook. They are not involved in a fandom and don't turn their favorite show into a time-consuming hobby or emotionally draining obsession. The majority of viewers of any show really do just watch to be entertained and that's it.

Also, viewers are not stupid. People check the listings to see what's changed in the schedule from the previous season. Shows move to new time slots all the time and have been doing so for years. People are used to that and adapt.

[CCTC]

1 hour ago, orza said:

Also, viewers are not stupid. People check the listings to see what's changed in the schedule from the previous season.

True - if they are still into the show.  If they have been watching it the last few years more out of a Sunday evening habit, they might not make the effort to find out where it moved.  They might lose some of the more luke warm watchers due to the move.

[jhlipton]

2 hours ago, orza said:

They ... don't turn their favorite show into a time-consuming hobby or emotionally draining obsession.

You say that like it's a Bad Thing!

[superloislane]

16 hours ago, KAOS Agent said:

That's gonna be a challenge for the premiere when people turn on Once (if they can find it on Fridays) and see that Once is not the same

If they don't know about the cast not returning then I highly doubt they'll know it's moved to Friday! Hell, they've actually done very little to promote it's moving to a new night - I'm just comparing it to Gotham which is also moving to a new night but they keep repeating that aspect a lot so no one who watches it is in any doubt that it's moving to Thursday. I think Once has too many changes and too many things to get across in a trailer that it ends up not promoting anything at all - except maybe confusion

[Camera One]

17 minutes ago, superloislane said:

I'm just comparing it to Gotham which is also moving to a new night but they keep repeating that aspect a lot so no one who watches it is in any doubt that it's moving to Thursday.

That's interesting because I think I would be considered a casual viewer of Gotham and I had no idea it was moving nights.  I watched the first half of last season and then forgot to check when it would return from the winter hiatus.  By the time I got around to it, the next episode I had to watch was off the network website.  

[superloislane]

2 minutes ago, Camera One said:

That's interesting because I think I would be considered a casual viewer of Gotham and I had no idea it was moving nights.

Gotham have a 'Move to Thursdays' promo and they talked about it at Comic Con and in several interviews I've seen. If you haven't even seen those then there's really no hope for Once since Once isn't even doing those things!

[Camera One]

I think I saw a link to the promo a while back but I never clicked on it, and I didn't look up any of the interviews.  I guess I know what it feels like to be a very apathetic viewer.  

[Camera One]

Someone pointed out to Adam on Twitter that the ABC Press Site for "Once" has removed all previous episode lists/descriptions and taken away all cast photos except for those of Rumple, Hook and Regina, with the addition of the new cast.  Adam is saying he has nothing to do with the press site, which is true.  People are bombarding him about how other shows on the Press Site have kept their previous seasons' information and Adam is madly placating them.

I suppose from ABC's perspective, it makes sense to clean house so the press doesn't use misleading photos with Emma, Snowing, Young Henry, etc. when they publish articles about the upcoming fall season.  But it makes it look more like they're starting fresh.

EDIT: Adam has just deleted all the tweets saying he has nothing to do with the press site and reassuring them the site is just for the press, so don't worry.

Edited September 2, 2017 by Camera One

[Serena]

I cannot believe he's still doing the tweet-and-delete thing. Does he have no impulse control?! He's a grown ass man in charge of a multimillion business!

[scenicbyway]

As for casual viewers, I suspect many set their dvr's years ago and the show will just continue to record.  My husband is a very casual tv watcher, he has no idea there are "seasons."  He expects every episode to be new no matter what time of year.

I do think many viewers will be surprised that most of the cast is gone.  It won't help that Emma and Belle will be back for an episode each to wrap their characters.  I think most will be confused that Emma (the main character) is no longer on the show but her husband (that she married 2 episodes ago after 4 years of waiting, still is).!

[Camera One]

This is what a dialogue might look like in November 2017 in the home of casual fans.

CASUAL FAN 1:  I can't believe Anita and Ryan cancelled on us tonight.  Now, what are we going to do?

SPOUSE: Let's watch TV.  Oh look, that fairy tale show is on, whatever it's called.

CASUAL FAN 1:  It started 10 minutes ago, but sure, let's watch it.  

SPOUSE: Oh look, it's Cinderella.  I thought she didn't look like that last time.

CASUAL FAN 1: I'm pretty sure she did.  

SPOUSE: Where's the blonde lady?  Has the Evil Queen and Captain Hook gone undercover?

CASUAL FAN 1: Maybe she's captured in this city and they're trying to save her.

SPOUSE: Where's Snow White?

CASUAL FAN: Remember the last one we watched?  She was in a sleeping spell with her husband.  

SPOUSE: Oh yeah.  That's where she is.

<Phone rings>

CASUAL FAN: Anita just called.  It's back on.  Let's get out of here!

Edited September 2, 2017 by Camera One

[Shanna Marie]

For casual viewers like my parents (they quit watching this show in season 2, but they're casual viewers about most everything), the likely scenario is that I get a phone call on the original night the show aired asking what happened to the show they're used to watching in that slot. Or if I mention looking forward to watching a show that's starting up that night on Facebook or my blog, I'll get a lot of comments to the effect of "wait, that's tonight?"

For this show, I'm likely to post something during the week about hoping my flight gets in on time Friday for me to watch the season premiere, and I bet I get at least one comment of something like "isn't that on Sundays?"

[oncebluethrone]

So Jen randomly interacted with fans for like an hour on twitter, which isn't like her at all. 

[jhlipton]

1 hour ago, oncebluethrone said:

So Jen randomly interacted with fans for like an hour on twitter, which isn't like her at all. 

And one of her tweets retweets an artwork without crediting the artist!

[Camera One]

It must be unsettling to reply to people who have your photo in their twitter profile (some even changed their profile pictures to the selfie that she posted).  

[KingOfHearts]

New S7 Poster

Edited September 14, 2017 by KingOfHearts

[jhlipton]

4 hours ago, KingOfHearts said:

New S7 Poster

Is it mean to say that I hope she Isadora Duncan's herself?

[Serena]

That is one of the best posters they've ever had, second only to the S2 Emma with a sword poster. Too bad I'm already annoyed at how hard they're pushing this chick.

Edited September 15, 2017 by Serena

[RedKeep]

The promo material they've released so far is definitely much better than anything they've coughed up for the "original" show from seasons 3 to 6. That poster is a great example of how it doesn't even need all that much extravagant Photoshop work to come up with something that captures the themes and spirit of the show. I don't even mind them putting Cinderella/Ramirez at the forefront of their promotional efforts, I'll take her over adult Henry or yet another, only slightly edited take on the Hook or Regina posters they've had in previous years.

[Rumsy4]

The abc advisory board is closing. They've stopped pretending to care about viewer feedback. I've no idea about the other Shows, but the OUAT forums had devolved into ship-war territory by the end of S5. I stopped bothering to go there at some point in S6. 

[MadyGirl1987]

Viewer feedback can be a double-edged sword. You want shows to take into account feedback and what viewers are saying, but there are so many times where viewers want different things that are incompatible with each other(such as with shipping). If you try to accommodate it all, the show will be a mismatched mess.

That reminds me of a scene in the Simpsons episode where they add Poochie to Itchy and Scratchy. They are doing a focus group for the show.

Quote

Man: How many of you kids would like Itchy & Scratchy to deal with real-life problems, like the ones you face every day? 

Kids: [clamoring] Oh, yeah! I would! Great idea! Yeah, that's it! 

Man: And who would like to see them do just the opposite -- getting into far-out situations involving robots and magic powers? 

Kids: [clamoring] Me! Yeah! Oh, cool! Yeah, that's what I want! 

Man: So, you want a realistic, down-to-earth show... that's completely off-the-wall and swarming with magic robots? 

Kids: [all agreeing, quieter this time] That's right. Oh yeah, good. 

Milhouse: And also, you should win things by watching.

Edited September 21, 2017 by MadyGirl1987
Put incomparable instead of incompatible.

[Delphi]

It's so strange that that quote actually pretty much sums up the entirety of Once.   Going into this,  that is pretty much exactly what I wanted. 

[KingOfHearts]

More promo pics

[Camera One]

The Canadian network that airs "Once" still has Ginny, Josh and Jennifer on the show's cast page.  No rush... only 9 days until the premiere, LOL.

[Shanna Marie]

11 hours ago, Camera One said:

The Canadian network that airs "Once" still has Ginny, Josh and Jennifer on the show's cast page.  No rush... only 9 days until the premiere, LOL.

That's okay, one of the online TV listings guide services still uses a graphic from the Frozen season -- not the frozen apple, but Elsa zapping something with ice -- to go with the show's listings. It makes it look like The Frozen Show.

[Camera One]

Fixed:

ABC's "Marvel's Inhumans" got ratings between 3.47-3.74 million and A18-49 varied from 0.9/4 to 0.8/3 (for the first half hour to the last half hour).  

So I wonder how "Once" will compare with that.  

Edited September 30, 2017 by Camera One

[MadyGirl1987]

57 minutes ago, Camera One said:

On Tuesday, ABC's "Marvel's Inhumans" got ratings between 3.47-3.74 million and A18-49 varied from 0.9/4 to 0.8/3 (for the first half hour to the last half hour).  

So I wonder how "Once" will compare with that.  Of course, they had the advantage of Tuesday nights.

Um, Inhumans was on last night, Friday...  They are going to be on right after OUAT.

As for how they will compare, I think they will probably end up doing about the same, if not OUAT doing better then Inhumans. It really could go either of those two ways, unless Inhumans gets much better after what was premiered last night and is better received then this season of OUAT. One one hand, Inhumans has the novelty of being new and connected to Marvel, but has had bad word of mouth reception so far. One the other hand, OUAT has more of an established following, and the novelty of seeing what the new set-up is like, but has been dropping in ratings in general and there is the general hesitation from many fans with all the departures and changes after last season.

Honestly though, I think Friday is a good spot for both shows. The expectations are lower on Friday and I feel genre shows like these rely more on OnDemand and streaming services. Viewers are also more dedicated to shows like these and will be more willing to follow or seek them out then if it was just a sitcom or police procedural like Law and Order where the average viewer might not care if they miss an episode, they are just at home and looking for something to watch.

Edited September 30, 2017 by MadyGirl1987

[Camera One]

11 minutes ago, MadyGirl1987 said:

Um, Inhumans was on last night, Friday...  They are going to be on right after OUAT.

Thanks for clarifying.  I was confused when I saw Tuesday on another website... I probably mis-read the date.

Edited September 30, 2017 by Camera One

[Camera One]

Kudos to the promotional department yet again.  The Henry gif makes him look like he's Count Dracula with bats flying around him.  Click at your own risk.

https://twitter.com/OnceABC/status/914535397824258048

Edited October 1, 2017 by Camera One

[cappoe]

On 9/30/2017 at 3:31 PM, MadyGirl1987 said:

Um, Inhumans was on last night, Friday...  They are going to be on right after OUAT.

As for how they will compare, I think they will probably end up doing about the same, if not OUAT doing better then Inhumans. It really could go either of those two ways, unless Inhumans gets much better after what was premiered last night and is better received then this season of OUAT. One one hand, Inhumans has the novelty of being new and connected to Marvel, but has had bad word of mouth reception so far. One the other hand, OUAT has more of an established following, and the novelty of seeing what the new set-up is like, but has been dropping in ratings in general and there is the general hesitation from many fans with all the departures and changes after last season.

Honestly though, I think Friday is a good spot for both shows. The expectations are lower on Friday and I feel genre shows like these rely more on OnDemand and streaming services. Viewers are also more dedicated to shows like these and will be more willing to follow or seek them out then if it was just a sitcom or police procedural like Law and Order where the average viewer might not care if they miss an episode, they are just at home and looking for something to watch.

OUAT is not going to do better then the Inhumans. OUAT is going to get horrible ratings.

OUAT S6 finale got a 0.9 and that was heavily advertised as the end of many of our characters. People are leaving the show in droves when they left, that established following, many are leaving. The show is airing on Fridays, no one watches TV on Fridays. OUAT will get lucky if they can even get a decent rating. The show heavily promoted the musical episode and that got a 0.8. They've been heavily promoting this as well and I honestly just think if people stopped watching OUAT already or have not ever seen it they're not gonna start watching it when it aires on Friday nights.

I think a more realistic rating for the season 7 premiere of Once Upon a Flop would be a 0.8/0.7

They have nothing helping them, they have a lot of bad buzz and controversy, and nobody cares for the new characters. It's gonna flop. By mid season finale this trash will be getting like CW low ratings like a 0.5. It's gonna be bad. But hilarious at the same time because Adam and Eddy really need a nice wake up call and what better way to say that then their reboot tanking which it will.