The rumblings are already beginning, though I’m not sure where folks are getting their information, that Sci-Fi Channel is – supposedly – not going to heavily promote its newest acquisition, the #1 drama series in Britain in 2005, Doctor Who. Stand back and prepare for me to really go off here, both from a fannish perspective and from the perspective of someone who promotes TV for a living.
Okay, well, maybe go off is a bit strong. First off, it is just a rumor and I’m trying to keep that much in mind. Despite that, we’re less than a month out from the premiere – and Thursday night was the first night I’ve heard any reports of someone seeing an actual on-air promo for the show’s March 17th premiere. And we’re talking about a network that has been known to promote stuff months in advance of the premiere. So while I am skeptical of the nature of this “news,” on a certain level I can feel in my bones that it is probably true.
If it is true, then Doctor Who is falling victim to the same thing that plagued it in 1996 on Fox: even with decent ratings, no one’s going to give it the promotional TLC that will be needed to get a U.S. audience to watch a distinctly British series because It’s Not Their Product. In ’96, Universal didn’t put any great pressure on Fox to look at the Doctor’s series potential, because they only had, at best, a 50% stake in the McGann movie (and even less creative control). They were much more keen on pushing Sliders to Fox, which Universal owned lock, stock and barrel. (That info comes from the excellent book “Doctor Who: Regeneration,” by the way, by Gary Russell and and ’96 movie producer Philip Segal.)
The same thing applies here. It’s not a Sci-Fi Original, nor is it going to become one. While Canada’s CBC got into the game early enough to be labeled “co-producers” on the first season, Sci-Fi clearly dragged their asses on signing up for the new show. (But I’m not complaining here; the loss of Sci-Fi as a co-producer has killed stuff like Farscape in the past. So I’m not bemoaning the fact that Sci-Fi isn’t demanding a piece of the production pie here – the show failing on Sci-Fi in the States due to lack of promotion doesn’t kill the show everywhere in the world.)
In the meantime, keep in mind also that the BBC has exercised its rights to the Who franchise to release over a hundred novels, and, through outside licensees, dozens of audio dramas and other products bearing the logo and the likeness of the star of that 1996 movie, all of which has put absolutely nothing in Universal’s coffers. Oh, by the way, refresh my memory…who owns Sci-Fi Channel?
On the less conspiratorial side of things, the fact that Doctor Who was one of the BBC’s top ratings-grabbers in 2005 may well be working against the show in the States. It did so well in Britain, why pour a lot of promotional energy into it here? Memo to Sci-Fi: one of the reasons that it did so well was that the BBC launched a very carefully engineered promo campaign that positioned the new Doctor Who as a new series that anyone could enjoy, not the latest entry in a franchise with 40+ years of backstory and continuity wrapped up in several media. It’s just possible that Sci-Fi Channel simply doesn’t know how to promote the new Doctor Who. (When, in fact, the ample material created to promote the show on the BBC from late 2004 through early 2005 should point the way for them; simply adapting that existing material would be cost-effective, and it apparently drew viewers to their TV sets overseas.)
The new series doesn’t require a full knowledge of every episode of the “classic” series to enjoy it, but the audience needs to know that. Hell, the audience needs to know where and when the show is. I hope the rumors of minimal promotion will be proven false in the coming weeks; I’d love to find that I’m jumping the gun on this one (even if it lumps me into the craignotbond.com camp 😆 ). I’d love to see the new Who find a steady spot in the U.S. TV schedule; I’d love to be able to see it without dipping into the questionable waters of downloading or getting tapes from across one border or another. Sci-Fi could have yet another hit on their hands here, and could make Sci-Fi Fridays a year-round ratings-grabber.
But first they have to put some time and effort into it. Something more than just buying the rights. Call me, Sci-Fi. We’ll do lunch. If you won’t listen to the BBC’s marketing experts, who successfully launched this show into the stratosphere, I’d be more than happy to help.
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I have to say, I think your fondness for the show might be blinding you to a very compelling reason why Sci Fi wouldn’t put a ton of muscle behind the show. I honestly do not believe there’s a large potential viewership for the show here in the U.S. Its production values are not up to the other Sci Fi Firday originals. It’s a show aimed at more of a family audience than the rest of Schi Fi’s stuff. Its personality is distinctly British, which will help it appeal to British viewers and not so much to American viewers.
Sci Fi is burning this show off during their off-season. They probably have low expectations for it and are acting accordingly. And I honestly can’t say I blame them.
Sadly, I have to agree. I only know one friend IRL who likes the show. All the rest – and many are Sci-Fi fans – don’t care about the show. In fact some even hate it. I tried to get my sister to watch Dr. Who and she thought it was terrible. I love Dr. Who but it’s an acquired taste, IMHO.
I’ve seen enough DW promos at this point that I retract most of my original rant. However, I’ll say this – if you’re going to “burn a show off,” there are other nights of the week on which to do it, rather than on the channel’s highly-branded Friday block where they could probably still be pulling in decent numbers from re-runs of the winter season episodes.
And I’m not going to deny that, on the average day, I’m wearing blinders for Doctor Who and most of the other British SF output (see also Blake’s 7, which everyone except me and J. Michael Straczynski seem to regard as being the highest of high camp). I think I did mention, pre-rant, that I’m just a little bit of a fan. 😀
I’m wondering about the reruns, truth be told. Sci Fi took Galactica off the schedule completely during the fall break and used marathons and other stunts to try and keep things going for the Stargates.
But you’re right in that burning off was probably too harsh a phrase. I think they want the show to do reasonably well and give them some fresh programming during their off season. But I don’t think they’re holding it to the standard of the main Sci Fi Friday shows. (I kinda wonder how it will do in comparison to Firefly, myself.)
I think it’s also interesting that Sci-Fi is showing the first two episodes of Who back-to-back – though I’ll bet good money that the reasoning behind that is that we really don’t get away from Earth and London and go into space and/or the future until the second hour.
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of numbers it pops. Hopefully enough to bring the second season over here later this year.