“‘Desperate Housewives’ may be ABC’s most popular show on the small screen, but ‘Lost’ is the winner on the REALLY small screen,’ The Associated Press reports. “After one month of offering downloads of ABC’s two favorite shows for viewing on iPods, ‘Lost’ has sold the most, said Stephen McPherson, ABC entertainment president. He had no sales figures, but Apple has already said it has sold more than a million copies of ABC shows.”
“‘Desperate Housewives’ pulled in just under 26 million viewers on TV, while ‘Lost’ had 20 million last week, according to Nielsen Media Research. Contrary to the fears of some ABC affiliates, McPherson said he believed selling iPod downloads drives more viewers to the shows on ABC because it gives fans who may miss episodes a chance to keep up with intricate plotlines,” AP reports. “So far, the results contradict McPherson. Three ‘Desperate Housewives’ episodes averaged 27.2 million viewers before the iPod announcement, while four episodes since then have pulled in 25.2 million viewers. For ‘Lost,’ it’s 22.7 million pre-iPod and 20.7 million after downloads went on sale, Nielsen said.”
Full article here.
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Is that toast we smell? Probably not, yet. The fact that both “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” are showing ratings declines could simply be an anomaly and only partially or not at all due to iTunes availability. “Lost,” for example, had how many repeats during the period of “decline?” Until what’s going on with those two shows’ ratings becomes clearer to ABC and other networks’ executives, expect a lot of fear and not a lot of additional content being signed to Apple’s iTunes. “Old guard TV” has to get a handle on what is happening here, understand what Apple + Disney-ABC have wrought and also what they offer, and then really get going quickly to catch the wave.
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Yeah, I’m sure the ratings decline had nothing to do with the fact that they showed three weeks of reruns just three weeks into the new season! Way to kill the momentum ABC!!!
I’m talking about “Lost”, of course.
I agree, the 2 re-runs must have hurt the ratings. I don’t ever recall a series running back to back re-runs this early in the season.
I love how people make these bogus cause and effect conclusions. I watch the show religiously, but i didnt watch ANY of the episodes in question because they were REPEATS.
geesh, amazing the stupidity.
Just look at the numbers. How could selling 1 million ABC shows create a 4 million viewer drop? Perhaps people got busy with the holidays approaching or the story line lapsed. Certainly TV watching has dipped in the past which was no way related to iPod video saled.
to the contrary, I’d never heard of Lost before. Now I own every episode and am hooked.
MDN word: wall
And add to that the fact that Lost has become hopelessly boring. Every show is just 40 minutes of pointless filler time, then two minutes of intense drama-cliffhanger action to keep people on their toes for the next show.
Network producers seem to be killing Lost slowly but surely – If they think this storyline is good for more than 2 seasons, 3 tops, then they’re seriosuly deluded.
I’m not surprised that Lost is losing momentum, I’m seriously considering not to watch another show, because it’s going nowhere slow.
I had never seen an episode of “Lost” last season OR this season. So far, I’ve downloaded the first 3 episodes from last season and began watching the show. Making the episodes available for me to watch on my own time created another new viewer for the show!
I agree, the purported cause-and-effect relationship of ITMS availability of these shows and their decrease in the ratings over 3-4 weeks is RIDICULOUS! ABC should jump at the chance to offer more programming on iTMS!
40 minutes of pointless filler time? you need to stop smoking whatever you’re smoking before you turn on the tube…. THC tends to dull the mind
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bought the pilot on the first day…got hooked….went out and bought season 1 on DVD
then bought eps 1-5 of season 2 to catch up…now I’ve got the PVR recording…
never dawned on me to watch the show until iTunes gave me a chance to sample the show first
I may even start on desperate housewives too.
Two factors touched on already here to some extent:
“Lost” has run a few re-runs in October. The new episodes so far have been solid, however, especially the season debut.
“Housewives” just isn’t as good as it was last season and may be experiencing a sophomore slump.
More broadly, I cannot imagine watching an entire one-hour show on an iPod or similar device. I like a big screen, particularly for a cinematic program such as “Lost.” And there are easier ways to watch a show on your own time if you cannot tune in for the actual broadcast.
Wow, what a jump to conclusions we have here! Of course (as has been mentioned) it might have had a little bit to do with the fact that ABC was running re-runs of Lost for most of the last month now! Geez, give me a break…
Entertainment Weekly gave this season of Desperate Housewives just average reviews, says it’s getting stale, compared to the highly rated previous year.
random theory… every household has 4 members on an average watching the show!
All TV outlets ‘stunt’ during the November Sweeps. This is when more detailed viewer ratings for ad rates are set. Otherwise– more comp.
Reruns reruns!! Not to mention the show has not gone anywhere this season, apart from a computer that needs to be reset? There is information on the characters pass. Nothing new seems to be happening, hopefully things will change soon.
It’s the Sony rootkit that’s hurting these shows. People have been so preoccupied with trying to get their computers working again they forgot to watch the tube
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Sizewell, wake up. Lost is incredibly drawn out and tiresome at the moment. In fact, they have always been to a certain extent, but it was perfectly understandable in the first season since they were introducing the characters and their background stories to viewers. It’s so obvious what is happening with the writing in the second season – Network executives are pressuring writers to make more content, so tedious flashbacks to the past are introduced and the connection to the events on the Island is in the form of moral issues the characters have to deal with.
They can churn out these moral dilemnas for decades but they can’t go on with the storyline too much – because they have to keep this show going as long as possible. If you find this hard to grasp, check out what happened to X-files, exactly the same thing.
Btw, I’ve never smoked anything in my life, I don’t even drink alcohol and never have, My living brain cell count is abnormally high thank you very much and I’m fully aware of what’s happening in the show. And it’s not a lot.
IMO Prison Break is far superior to Lost at the moment and a lot more fun to watch.
The popularity of the show on iTunes is probebly due to the fact that the regular TV schedule is not convenient for people to watch Lost, so they can just download it, and Desperate Housewives is at a better air time on TV. Besides, this is highly scientific, if the shows decline ratings on TV, and they are not picked up on itunes, then it means the people would have not watched it at all anyway.
Sorry if you took offense… it was a joke… hence the smiley.
I tend to enjoy the moral dilemmas. I don’t see how the storyline could ever evolve in this case without them. Otherwise.. it’s just a plane crash with people trying to survive on an island.
But then again, that’s just my personal opinion… I tend to like strawberry ice cream, you may prefer vanila or chocalate… or something completely different.
As usual, MDN gives us its totally stupid and inept and uninformed opinion and conclusions….
Sheesh, give it up Bozos, just post the news and let us discuss it.
I guess the question would be how much revenue did the downloads bring in for ABC. It will be a complicated analysis cuz there will be a delay in the effect but if it is more than they would have made with advertising then who cares? They make more money and that is what they are in business to do.
If they make less money eventually cuz the number of viewers goes down and they can’t get as much from advertisers then they might have to rethink the system.
I don’t know what the average ratio is for number of viewers to advertising revenue is so I can’t do the numbers but someone at ABC will be able to.
I would never have watched Lost had I not downloaded an episode from iTunes. I am totally addicted to the show after downloading all the episodes. Now I have even watch it on the TV, looks like reverse marketing to me.
Remember the good old days, before the writer’s strike, when the networks would only show new episodes for the entire season. Not this BS of re-running episodes only weeks into the season and not waiting until the summer? I tune out when I see an episode I only saw three weeks ago already being repeated, and with a show like “Lost” which has a continuing storyline its really stupid to do that!
For those of you apparently unfamiliar with American TV, it is very normal for network shows to air re-runs in mid-to-late October, after the initial new-season episodes and just prior to the start of the November ratings sweeps period. There are usually 22 new episodes of most shows in a season typical TV season that starts in mid-September and goes to mid-May (a period of approximately 35 weeks), leaving room for over three months worth of re-runs or other programming. You’ll usually see re-runs or alternative programs (ie: specials) airing in late October; most of December; and sporadically in January and March through early April. February and early May are ratings sweeps periods.
I strongly doubt that the availability of downloads for ipods have had any effect at all on recent ratings for Lost or Desparate Housewives. No more or less than the availabilty of the 1st season’s being for sale on DVD. People are still going to watch these shows via cable, satellite, or over-the-air on full-size TV’s. Downloading is a nice option to have when you miss a show and forgot to record it on the DVR, but it’s a costly and cumbersome effort for the average TV viewer. DVR’s and upcoming VOD options will have a far greater effect on viewing patterns than downloading ever will.
Correct, Rob.
Maybe you should write the opinions for MDN, those boys haven´t got the smarts to take off their Apple-tinted glasses and see the real world.
To MDN, everything in the world revolves around Apple products.