Are you frickin' kidding me?

[katikat]

Are you frickin' kidding me? Is the CW going totally bonkers these days or what? Did the mental powers of Dawn Ostroff scramble everybody's brain up there?

"90210" spin-off on fast track"!

Yes, you read it right. The CW is planning a spin-off of Beverly Hills 90210 for next season! Like really. Honestly. I'm not kidding!

So, let me get this straight. Next season, it'll be reality crap shows like America's Next Top Model and possibly Pussycat Dolls and Beauty and the Geek and 4! teeny soap operas: Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls and the 90210 spin-off. Oh, and Smallville. And Supernatural - but that only because they could find no excuse to cancel it when it performed much better than any of their new shows and 95% of reality stuff they have.

And since I'm already talking about their badly performing shows, take a look at Tuesday's ratings:
Beauty and the Geek (new) 1.88 mil., 0.9/2
One Tree Hill (new) 2.46 mil., 1.1/3

Oh yes, their reality shows and teeny soap operas are obviously so succesful that there deserves to be a lot more of them *rolls eyes*

Comments

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Um. Okay. Yikes.

Having said that, I quite liked 90210 when I was about 12... But, um, it was definitely a product of its time, and definitely way past the sell-by date. Is that the best they can come up with? Sheesh.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Exactly my reaction. I like BH but... come on, can't they come up with anything original? And they wonder why their ratings are decreasing so much. I mean if they desire spin-offs so much, why not a series about Justice League? They could make a spin-off of SV. I bet that a huge amount of people would watch that, me included.

But I think that they are determined to be a soap opera teenage network. That's why I fear for SPN. Should its ratings be on par with their new shows, they will drop it like a hot potato. Look at what they did with Friday Night Smackdown - they let it go even though it brought them over 5 mil. viewers and it was their most watched program but it didn't fit their planned schedule *rolls eyes*

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

*sighs*

I'm now morbidly fascinated to know exactly *how* they plan to spin-off 90210. I mean, 'spin-off' implies that at least one character from the old show will feature, but with this network who can tell? If they were just going to create a totally new show with a similar premise why bother calling it a spin-off, especially since most of the age-range they seem to be aiming at would be too young to have seen the original show first time around? Why any of it?

*shakes head*

Why does everything have to be aimed at under-18s anyway? Don't answer that. I know why - advertising. It still sucks.

Madness. It's all madness.

[taintedangel80.livejournal.com]

With as much as I adored watching 90210, I can safely say I will not be watching any spin-offs. It is way past prime time to try and do a spin-off of that show. But, I guess this fits right into the bill of what Dawn wants on her network.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

I liked BH as long as the characters were still in high school. After that though, it really jumped the shark *shakes head* And to come up with a spin-off now, especially when they plan so many very similar series... I think that they should really got with more diversity. Too much of the same is bad for the teeth X( I mean, why not do the Justice League spin-off?

[jamesinboots.livejournal.com]

I've never seen the original 90210, so I'm pretty ... not caring about a potential spin-off. :D

If Pussycat Dolls is back next season, I'll eat my foot. It's bombed too spectacularly this season to warrant a third season.

Beauty and the Geek should go too, but what they should really do is drop it back to one cycle a year, spring only. That's the only way that one worked. The CW seriously overexposed it this year.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

And they have another reality show planned: Farmer Wants a Wife -_-;;

You haven't seen BH90210? O.O Girl, you have gaps in education! XD

[jamesinboots.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they'll probably air that in the summer? I'm sure it will bomb. Hopefully the CW will get the picture, and make the schedule drama-heavy again. They are suffering a pretty big loss on the reality side with SmackDown leaving (and rumor has it that it's not so much The CW dropping SmackDown as it is SmackDown not staying for whatever The CW was offering).

Eh, those types of shows aren't what I typically watch - I watch a lot of genre television. REALLY genre television. The only exception would be Everwood.

[astri13.livejournal.com]

I think the Pussycrap Dolls are not expected to return and Geek might be scaled back to summer show once again. If they could do this, I feel it would be best to have only one cycle of Top Model as well - oversaturation much?

Of all the networks CW at least might feel compelled to more scripted shows because their reality stuff is bombing so badly it`s not even funny. Whereas everywhere else I`ve seen with dismay how scripted shows sink and sink in the ratings while reality thrives. Eek.

BH90210? The CW might want to capitalize on its past fame. Problem? The "old" fans are now well past their target age. And the teenies they want will most likely not have much association with the name.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

I see one problem with their scripted shows: it's all teen soap operas. Now, they oversatured their schedule with reality shows, next season, it'll be rich kids. They bounce from one extreme decision to another. There is no diversity. I think that if they could, they would cancel even SPN - it's not teeny enough - but they would never be able to defend their decision in front of the higher-ups, considering the fact that SPN does better than 95% of their shows...

[astri13.livejournal.com]

Now, they oversatured their schedule with reality shows, next season, it'll be rich kids. They bounce from one extreme decision to another. There is no diversity.

The problem is they don`t have a business concept that works for such a little netlet. Sure, the big networks that are established they can go with their "themes", ABC is soap-heavy, CBS is crime-heavy, NBC used to be big on comedies etc but the CW, they should look more to cable channel and try to make it with "edgy" and as you say diverse. And the same old teen soaps are not edgy.

Also, they need to let go of their holy grail teen demo. Doesnb`t exist, doesn`t sustain a network. In that regard they could do some studies that in fact women are the big spenders in households and the above 30 crowd is where the money is. All the old ad studies are from the 50s or so.

For SPN, I do believe there are major management changes in the CW and Warner will take more of an interest in it. They need it to showcase their stuff while CBS is just losing money with it. And seeing as 4 Seasons mean 82 episodes yet a magic 100 is more profitable in syndication, let alone SciFi/cult shows make good money in merchandise etc, I believe chances are high we`ll get a Season 5 as well. (And then the CW will crumble anyway. :)

[bodgei.livejournal.com]

I have a feeling that a 90210 spin off will atract the market they are NOT trying to attract - the old WB market (female head of houshold 18-40)

The younger people that they SAY they want to attract can't pay the bills. It just can't.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I think that the older people will watch it out of nostalgia and the younger people won't care because they consider BH so OUT and OLD ;P

[bodgei.livejournal.com]

But since (in the US anyway) that demographic are the decision makers on money.

The upshot of that is that Supernatural gets really good adds (chevie, colgate and what not) big money adds. Other shows on CW DON'T pull in that kind of money add.

I doubt I would watch an updated 90210 - but I do (every once and a while) watch Gos. Girl - for the adult actors - they were young when I was young...LOL

[lostandalone22.livejournal.com]

I watched that show when I was younger, but I doubt it'd do well with this new generation.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

I did watch it too. I liked it as long as they were in high school. Then it kinda jumped the shark for me :(