Smallville: Somebody Save Me
Wed, November 25, 2009 
When a show has been on for nine seasons it is hard to argue it's place in television history. You could say a show on for nine years has staying power and you wouldn't be wrong. The quality of a show through its run will always come from a place we like to call opinion. However, numbers never lie. That is why webmasters, reporters, and other such keyboard tapping jet setters, look to the ratings when judging the success or failure of a show. Studios will always spin the numbers when given the chance. A studio rep might say, "The show is successful in the 65 - 81 year old females who love "Cocoon" and Quaker Oats demographic even if the show is losing to reruns of "Knot's Landing" and finishing last in the ratings. That is their job and you can't really fault them for attempting to do it. Even fans of a show play a small role in the spin cycle once a show is nearing the end of the line. They'll swarm into blogs and forums across the world wide web and pull excuses out of their almost empty pockets as if they were gigantic balls of lint. You can't fault them either, they just want their favorite shows to stick around for even one more half season even if the ratings have dipped and the storylines have faded into some kind of "All In The Family" spin-off limbo.
If it wasn't evident by my attempt at wittiness in my title, the show I'm going to throw into the fire is "Smallville". The elders statesman of the CW, "Smallville" remembers when the network was originally WB, yes it's been on that long. The show has had its ups and down, from the tired and played out love connection involving Clark Kent and Lana Lang to black pleather coat and hanes t-shirt wearing Bizzaro Clark-Man, most fans have managed to stay on board. Smallville's better days are behind it and when CW moved the show to Friday for Season 9, the writing was on the wall and unless you are completely blind or in denial you could read it just as well as me. Fridays are where shows go to die. Shows do not get moved to Friday to steal ratings and become the next big thing. It's like when you're seventy-five years old and move into a retirement community, you're not going to suddenly become president or run a half marathon. You'll play some shuffleboard and enjoy an early bird special, but your prime isn't walking through that door. Before you start pointing to shows like "Ghost Whisperer", this show debuted on Friday and has held steady in that time slot. Apples and oranges.
The CW is obviously going in a different direction and trying to present a more female friendly line of programming and "Smallville" is becoming the odd man out so to speak. "Gossip Girl", "90210", "One Tree Hill" and "Vampire Diaries" are targeting the demographic that CW hopes to suck into their world of the rich, bloodthirsty, and sexy. Look at "Melrose Place", that show has been an epic fail since the beginning and is still hanging around because CW wants it to. The worst thing that could have happened to "Smallville" was the cancellation of "Dollhouse", that was the only show that "Smallville" was beating overall viewership wise on Friday in the first run show category. On top of that, "Smallville" is routinely losing to reruns of "House" on Fridays. Not good. If "Melrose Place" gets chopped, "Smallville" will have the distinction of being the show with the least viewership on the CW network. That is like being the fattest contestant on the "Biggest Loser" and going home first. As I said, executives will point to demographics and continue to call the show a success, some might even resort to DVR numbers which is like pointing to a film doing well in DVD sales despite not even coming close to making up its budget during its theatrical run. I even saw fans on some forums blaming "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" for Smallville's 2.4 million viewership this past weekend. Desperation is starting to set in.
It is pretty obvious that some shows are not returning to CW next season considering the pilots that are being lined up by CW for next season. The most likely candidates are "Smallville" and "Melrose Place", there is already an empty slot due to the quick cancellation of "The Beautiful Life". WB is looking at "Spy School for Girls", "Nashville", "Plymouth Rock", 'Confessions of a Back Up Dancer", "The March Sisters", "Bitches in Britches", "HMS", and "Global Frequency" among other shows. "Gossip Girl" which the network has pushed and pushed along with the media, has not even come close to the hype and is getting beaten by "One Tree Hill" on most weeks. Obviously there are some slots to be filled but not all of these pilots will make it. I wonder if CW is kicking themselves for not picking up "Privileged" or that Brittany Snow Gossip Girl spinoff, instead of wasting their time with "The Beautiful Life". CW isn't in position to make any more major mistakes in regards to their programming. Keeping a show around too long is just as bad as dropping a show to early. "Smallville" has expired and the network realizes it is time to move on. Fans are hoping the "Smallville" two hour special titled "Justice Society", which is being called a "movie" by some will somehow save the show. My opinon, look for "Global Frequency" to essentially take over for "Smallville" next season:
Miranda Zero, the mysterious leader/benefactor/recruiter of Global Frequency is a woman with a mission. She saves people. She and 1,000 others make up the most diverse team of specialists the planet has ever seen. Their job? To save the world, usually before anyone else notices there's a problem.
Sounds like a possible replacement. What do you think?
Reader Comments (3)
I'm fine with Smallville taking its bows at the end of season 9. I've enjoyed the ride, for the most part, but they're dragging this out too far. It's time for Clark to become Superman and send the characters on their way. I just hope it is not rushed, and they give the show a "super" send-off.
Maybe another network can pick it up as the new "Lois & Clark," or maybe WB/DC can get the ball rolling on another Superman or JL type show. It would be nice to have a new Superman (actually about Superman) show, and even better to have a new film. We'll see.
I wouldn't be surprised if you see another Superman related television show pop up in the not to distant future. There certainly have been enough of them, and it could possibly be a way to get around or through this lawsuit.
Decent Read.
The question is, would cancelling Smallville & replacing it with something with no real established fanbase actually benifit The CW on Friday nights & overall? I don't think it would, the likelihood would be they'd take an even bigger dent in viewing figures on Friday night & The CW would lose out on whatever cut of the Smallville DVD/itunes/merchandise it gets for another season.
With the exception of the "Pandora" episode the ratings for Smallville have been on the rise in recent weeks, making 3m live viewers look like a realistic target.. which would be good for a Friday night, for a network like The CW, should they achieve such numbers.
As you mentioned, the DVR numbers might seem like they mean very little, however the fact that Smallville's audience is growing by approx 50% each week in DVR numbers should not be overlooked.
Also, for (I'm 90% sure) every episode this season Smallville has been in the top 10 itunes downloads for TV episodes, beating out much more popular/mainstream shows on far bigger networks like The Office, Fringe, Stargate & V to name a few.
I'm sure The CW will take everything into account before making a decision on whether or not to bring the show to an end now, according to what was said at Comic Con they only have 1 more seasons worth of story to tell so theoretically should the show get a 10th season, it will definatly be its last no matter how many episodes long it is..