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Should "Lost" be a Lead-in Drama?

Posted by Bryan Jones on April 22nd, 2009 - Comments

"The Unusuals" is ABCs quirky new cop drama, but it hasn't done very well so far in the ratings, despite good reviews. The new series is on Wednesday nights following "Lost" and even features Lost alum Harold Perrineau as Detective Leo Banks (it also stars Jeremy Renner and Adam Goldberg). The Alphabet Net seems to be making a valiant effort for the new show, airing two new episodes this week, and pre-empting "Cupid", to help it find it's audience. But if ABC really wanted this series to do well, why would they set it up to fail by placing it following Lost? For that matter, is Lost still a viable lead-in series for ABC, or would the network be better off placing it in the 10pm timeslot?

Now before Lost fans start sending me hate mail, please understand that I love the show more than anything else out there, and I prefer the timeslot it is in right now, because it fits best into my Wednesday night routine. But you can't deny the facts that first of all, Lost isn't really carrying the viewership for a good lead-in series, and second, the proof is in the pudding, so to speak, with the show's track record of new series that follow it.

Lost Season 2 (2005 – 2006)

The new series Invasion premiered following our favorite island drama, and although Lost was pulling in an average of over 15 million viewers for the season, Invasion fell flat and was canceled. It did manage to put away a full season of 22 episodes, something no series following Lost has done since.

Lost Season 3 (2006 – 2007)

This season of Lost the new series was called The Nine, and it was actually a pretty well put together tv series. Lost's ratings had started to fall slightly during season 3, and was only pulling in an average of 13.7 million viewers. The Nine only made it seven episodes and pulled in an average of just 7.7 million veiwers. For the second half of the season Lost was moved to the 10pm timeslot and was therefore followed by local news.

ABC did try to give the series a second chance the following year (not after Lost) but it was too late for this series. Lost had already done its damage.

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About the Author:
Bryan Jones (aka AstroJones) is a Human Resources Professional by day, and a web designer and writer by night. Bryan is a hard core television & movie fan and also writes for MovieOvermind.com, Hyper Mosaic FlashForward site, & Walter's Lab. Bryan lives in Norman, Oklahoma with his wife and three daughters. You can keep updated on all of Bryan's writings by following him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/astrojones2 or on Facebook.

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Gusteaux

There's really a very simple solution: run two new episodes of LOST back to back for seven weeks (14 eps) and a three hour finale on the 8th week (17 hours total season).

professorstotch

That'd go by too fast for me. I like having the 5 months to watch it over and discuss things as time goes on.

ashlie

They should just air LOST twice, once at 9:00 and again at 10:00! You're right, after watching LOST, there's too much to digest, you don't want to watch something else that can't compare to LOST, so you might as well air it again for all the hardcores out there!

Kevvin

Currently, I switch to South Park right after Lost. But even that's a struggle. You're absoultely right in that after Lost ends, I need time to digest, discuss it with my girlfriend, and then see what people are saying about it online.

Another possibility is that Lost is so good, any show that follows it is bound to disappoint. :-)

Darbi

I liked having Lost on in the 10pm slot a few seasons ago, and hope the network will decide to air it next season during that time.

Kripke Owns Me

Lost should not be a lead-in for any other show. It is a little appalling that ABC does not seem to recognize what is obvious. Absolutely it belongs in the 10/9 Central slot. I adore Lost, but I think the network is killing off other shows by placing them in the slot immediately following Lost. When is ABC going to figure this out???

Jon Lachonis

The raw 10:00 LOST is my preferred flavor anyways.

BenLinus

I second that, at 10PM, the show would be grittier and inch a little closer to what you see on cable, e.g Dexter, etc.. Also, if Lost aired after something like Grey's Anatomy, the ratings would perhaps have been a tad better than what they actually are.

LOSTeph

I read M.E. interview from the NY T, I've always agreed with him for the 10 p.m. time. It's the last season - make it EXPLOSIVE

professorstotch

I usually watch South Park after Lost. This made me realize that perhaps ABC should try a comedy after Lost? A comedy/sitcom type show isn't really something you need to think about, you just kind of go with it, and laugh along. I know with a drama its tough to get emotionally invested after you just spent an hour on one of the most emotionally investing series out there. I have a proposal...

Season six of Lost should stay at the 9PM timeslot on Wednesdays, but instead of a drama, it should be followed by...King of the Hill. ABC recently picked up King of the Hill, and last I heard they were shooting for a 2010 goal of getting new episodes on. I'm personally not a fan of King of the Hill, but I think it'd provide us with that easy-going, laid-back type show that we don't really need to invest ourselves in.

Hexonxonx

"Wednesday night's" --> "Wednesday nights"
"ex-Lost alum" --> "Lost alum" or "ex-Lost star"
"$15 million viewers" --> "15 million viewers"
"done it's damage" --> "done its damage"

I love your site(s) and I feel bad harping on spelling and grammar errors, but professionalism counts.

chris

This entry is littered with spelling and grammatical errors, but I don't really care either. He uses the numeral 7 when he should spell it out, missing some hyphens, and inand is not a word of course. Nevertheless, the author got his point across and inspired a decent conversation. B+

Will

Yeah, my buddies and I usually yell "AHHH! SOMETHING THAT'S NOT LOST! WHO CARES!?" at the TV everytime whatever is immediately after it comes on.

It's just that LOST is that good and that absorbing.

ABC would be very wise to put something tride and true in that slot rather than try out new shows there. It's a doomed spot.

Chaz

Can we have it doom According to Jim, then? Please?

(I still don't know how that show keeps getting a renew order year after year...)

Shaun

No kidding... I hate Jim Belushi. I'm sure his talented, sorely missed brother is rolling over in his grave thinking about Jim's career. Does anybody honestly watch his show?

Jim Belushi's such a bad actor that if SOMEONE ELSE makes a bad show or movie, Jim Belushi gets a royalty payment.

Jessi W

Man, I Loved The Nine. I was really bummed when it left! I confess to being part of the problem; at 10 O'clock I'm logged into chat OMGing over Lost, completely oblivious to whatever is on after. :D

professorstotch

Its ok, we don't matter anyways. We just have to get those darned Neilson homes to keep their TVs on...

MerlboroMan

Lost should have the 10pm slot and the news should follow it.
Even though I could have watched Damages after Lost, I still recorded it and watched it at a later time because I went online, sometimes to get comments about the episode, but mostly to downshift. Some will say that's too late for Lost, but check the ratings - most of you are watching it online or recorded. And those who watch it live, well, read the posts, you're still up after 10pm anwyway.

MerlboroMan

Oh, and "The Unusuals"...just another cop show. Doesn't matter how quirky you make the cops, still just another cop show.

StonewallsFootman

ABC doesn't know how to properly build their Wednesday nights, from the looks of it...or many nights, aside from maybe their dreadful Thursdays, where they go with back-to-back horrible medical drama. Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice? Those two belong together, and are probably the best combination the network's had.
Unfortunately, they can't seem to figure out what to do with their Lost night. Scrubs and Better Off Ted (its current lead-ins) are great shows, but don't really fit in with the Lost niche, plus, it makes me look forward to Scrubs a lot less, since there's Lost half an hour after it ends.
Life On Mars was not a show that should've aired after Lost. It was a well-enough done show (and if it had pushed past the first season, it might've really picked up), but didn't have the depth or writing of Lost...it could've worked as an 8 o'clock lead-in to Lost at 9, or maybe pre-Lost enhanced at 9, with regular Lost at 10...which seems the most logical solution, keep Lost enhanced, push whatever other bad choice they want to air that night to 8.
The Unusuals is a substantially worse fit for the slot than any I've seen, and the only reasoning for that spot that I can think of is that they want to hit against Law and Order...otherwise, a severe waste of a decent show.
Well, that's my novel on the subject.

briguyx

"Life On Mars" would have been a hit if they had found a more charismatic likable actor to play Gene Hunt. The casting of Harvey Keitel doomed the show. On the original British version, Philip Glenister's Hunt was a real bastard but still likable.

Kripke Owns Me

Where were you when I was fighting the good fight, in vain? I have been telling everyone who would listen that Simm/Glenister is a pairing I could watch all day long. They had chemistry, sadly, not so on American Life on Mars. I too place the blame on Harvey Keitel.

Ahem, back on topic, no one was going to find American Life on Mars when it was after Lost. Or at least not enough people.

Marc

I actually really started to like Life on Mars, Gretchen Mol was adorable! The Unusuals is not that bad, ok so far. But of course none of the shows (or any show on tv right now) come close to LOST!

AstroJones

I loved Life On Mars before they put it after Lost. It was probably my favorite new show of the season. But once they moved the show behind Lost I knew it would be canceled and had a hard time continuing to watch. I still DVRed it, and stayed moderately caught up, but its hard for me to stick with a show when I know its going to end early.

Dale

In my opinion, on NBC and ABC it's nothing but shows about the law and shows about the medical field. THAT'S IT! I think why The Unusuals suck because it's nothing original. It's another LAW show.

Shaun

How do yo say that Lost isn't "really carrying the viewership"? I mean, it's still a top 20 hit each week, isn't it? I haven't seen the ratings in a while, so I don't know, but it's still one of ABC's top programs overall, and it's even mroe successful when you consider the key, coveted demographics the show kicks-arzt in. We can discuss all the other things too, like DVR viewing, people who stream the show online, people who download it on iTunes (isn't it usually #1 there?), DVD sales, strong viewership worldwide, etc., but that's not the point here.

The point is what else would ABC use as a lead-in show? Most, if not all, of the shows ABC's tried after Lost (or, in the case of Day Break, used as a mid-season replacement for Lost) are all shows that probably have more in common with Lost than with, say, Grey's or Housewives, or certainly Dancing With the (C-List) Stars. OK, maybe not Eli Stone. But aside from that, pairing the shows with Lost would, on the surface, seem like a good idea.

The problem is that, after an episode of Lost, most of want to talk about the show with friends and family, go online and read/chat about it, listen to podcasts, WATCH THE SHOW AGAIN (or at least go back and watch certain parts over again for clues and Easter Eggs), or maybe even get ready for bed. Sadly, I find myself doing the latter most of the time (I gotta be up early for work). :-(

So that's the real problem... Lost fans (many of them, anyway) aren't looking for another show to watch. They're (naturally) hung up on the one they just saw. Well, that and maybe none of the shows ABC's tried out have been very good? Not as good as Lost, at least. Talk about a "Lost" cause... I meant to try out Life On Mars, but I never did. Oh well.

donuteyes

it's not that big of a deal. i can remember another marginally successful show that had a string of forgettable shows on after it for a few years, i think it was called seinfeld. big time shows usually seem to overshadow what is on after them.

Merve The Perve

They need to move Lost to 10/9C so it doesn't have to go up against American Idol. That way Losts ratings will go up. I never watch what they put on after Lost for a few hours so I can get on the net to talk about it or rewatch it.

chris

Just wanted to expand a little on Invasion because it was this show that if it weren't for ABC screwing up the marketing and positioning of this series, I think it could have been the perfect hit to follow Lost. It would have been a two hours of powerful scifi TV. I for one thought it was good fun and suspenseful as well. It also featured three extremely SMOKING BABES! This from Wikipedia...According to Nielsen Ratings, the series premiere was able to attract 17 million viewers from another ABC show, Lost. After the 10th episode, the series lost a total of 7 million viewers over nine episodes with the November 30, 2005 episode garnering only 10 million. In order to get the viewers back in for the 2nd half of 2005-2006 TV season, the show was put on hiatus until January 11, 2006, and it was replaced with another show already scheduled for cancellation, Alias.

For the episodes shown on January 11th, 18th, and 25th the Nielsen Ratings only reached 9.7 million, 9 million and 9.3 million. It had lost nearly half of the first episode's audience and was way behind CBS's CSI: NY, which had 13.7 million, 15.5 million and 14.9 million for the same period.[1][2][3] The show was then put on hiatus for the second time, during which time it was replaced with The Evidence.

Some fans of Invasion have attributed poor handling on the part of ABC as one reason for the show's continued problems, citing two hiatuses and a three-week break all within one season—periods in which no repeats were aired. Throughout the show's run, these incidents became a topic of speculation and concern among its fanbase.