My Network TV to make schedule deviation on Monday

[jal41]

In what appears to be earth-shattering news, My Network TV is going to preempt one of it's soaps, "Desire", on Monday.

The catch...it will replaced with an episode of the other soap, "Fashion House", making back-to-back showings of it.

I wonder how bad they are hurting. Fox is making no money from this venture whatsoever (affiliates do not pay for MNTV, and they get 9 out of the 12 minutes available for commercials). I wonder how much longer this waste of bandwidth will last?

I think MNTV better reactivate their backup plan...and fast.

 

[Braves2005]

Want to make any wagers that the MY Network will fade into oblivion by Christmas? If I would make any other wagers,their ratings are below 1.0,and the reason is no one wants to watch cut and paste soap operas in which the only name actress on board is Morgan Fairchild. Hey,show reruns of Dallas,Dynasty,Knots Landing,and Falcon Crest if they can't do any better than that. Start showing some comedies on there and maybe things will get better. Otherwise,I think the MY Network will become the biggest network failure EVER.

 

[TexasTom]

I wonder how bad they are hurting. Fox is making no money from this venture whatsoever (affiliates do not pay for MNTV, and they get 9 out of the 12 minutes available for commercials). I wonder how much longer this waste of bandwidth will last?

Slight correction here: 9 minutes out of 14 in each hour go to the stations; NewsCorp sells the other 5 minutes in each hour.

 

[arnoldevns]

Want to make any wagers that the MY Network will fade into oblivion by Christmas? If I would make any other wagers,their ratings are below 1.0,and the reason is no one wants to watch cut and paste soap operas in which the only name actress on board is Morgan Fairchild. Hey,show reruns of Dallas,Dynasty,Knots Landing,and Falcon Crest if they can't do any better than that. Start showing some comedies on there and maybe things will get better. Otherwise,I think the MY Network will become the biggest network failure EVER.

We know that Desire and Fashion House will be gone by Christmas. They only run 65 episodes and should be done by then. They'll be replaced by two new "short dramatic series" which are currently in production.

I think Fox is going to give this venture more time than most might think. It's not like they've got a huge pipeline of great shows to choose from. If they did, the shows would go to Fox, not this venture.

 

[upn38fan]

You know, with the merger of UPN and the WB, there was supposed to be 5 networks this Fall, which meant a decrease in bad ratings. Networks not going with CW would become independent and run their own schedules. MY was a big mistake and is another pre-made disaster for many affiliates like WWOR that are too lazy to be on their own. WWOR just got worse this Fall with MY. Prime-time is boring, they took away sitcoms like 'Who's The Boss?' and 'Charles In Charge', and added more crap that would go well with these "soaps". I'm sorry, but I hope that MY TV Network is gone by the New Year.

 

[MarcB]

On the Saturdays Cops and AMerica's Most Wanted gets pre-empted by the MLB Playoffs, THey should've put COPS and AMW on MNTV. After all the Saturday runs of Desire and FH are just hilights to get people caught up on what they may have missed during hte week.

 

[notalkallstatic]

On the Saturdays Cops and AMerica's Most Wanted gets pre-empted by the MLB Playoffs, THey should've put COPS and AMW on MNTV. After all the Saturday runs of Desire and FH are just hilights to get people caught up on what they may have missed during hte week.

I was disappointed when I turned to Fox, and didn't see "Cops" on...usually watch "Cops" before going out...IF MNTV did put it on their channel while Fox had MLB Playoffs, I would of tuned in...

 

[TexasTom]

Networks not going with CW would become independent and run their own schedules. MY was a big mistake and is another pre-made disaster for many affiliates like WWOR that are too lazy to be on their own.

MY Network TV was an attempt by Fox to fill the primetime hours on several major market UPN affiliates that they own (NYC, LA, Chicago, Washington, and Houston). So the decision really wasn't made by the folks at WWOR, but rather by their corporate bosses at Fox.

As for how this is going to turn out, I can't help but wonder if Fox wouldn't have just been better off digging into their film library to create a primetime movie package for these stations. That would have given them breathing room to figure out what to do with these stations -- and the ratings probably wouldn't have been any worse.

 

[RALfan]

Is it too late for all pessimists out there to register an "I told you so" to Murdoch? : Personally, I still predict (or rather hope, if you will) that My Network will crash and burn after a year. Both shows have drawn harsh reviews and very low ratings and it doesn't sound like IMO any future so-called English-language telenovelas will be any better.

 

[genius]

Is it too late for all pessimists out there to register an "I told you so" to Murdoch? : Personally, I still predict (or rather hope, if you will) that My Network will crash and burn after a year. Both shows have drawn harsh reviews and very low ratings and it doesn't sound like IMO any future so-called English-language telenovelas will be any better.

Well, Betty the Ugly has shown it can be successful; however, Fox was not thinking, gave us some cheap looking shows and called it a network. This isn't 1987 when you didn't have that many channels to compete with.

They do have more shows coming up, the ones debuting after Christmas starring Sean Young(I think) and Maria Conchita Alonso, but from what we've seen so far, it's worthless.

 

[Nertz!]

I think what ABC did was more of a cultural translation, instead of Fox's literal translation.

 

[FightingIrish]

WWOR-TV (then WOR-TV) came up with a brilliant idea back in the 70s after constantly losing the better syndicated programming to the competition. They went across the pond to Great Britain and got a bunch of shows from Thames. Stuff like Benny Hill and various Britcoms. And a few years later, they went up in space and became a Superstation.

But I thought the British import thing was a great idea. It really put them on the map. Unfortunately, stations these days would rather fight over the rights to "According To Jim" reruns than think outside the proverbial box.

There's a lot of good stuff being made in other countries. Perhaps they should tap that resource (although we do see some Canadian shows in syndication from time-to-time). After all, there are private networks in many countries that rely primarily on U.S. shows.

As for MYTV, I'm sure these shows are pretty cheap to do and it gives their O&O stations a brand, which I think is their main objective. And they've got the deep pockets to do it.

 

[Markxxx]

But I thought the British import thing was a great idea. It really put them on the map. Unfortunately, stations these days would rather fight over the rights to "According To Jim" reruns than think outside the proverbial box.

There's a lot of good stuff being made in other countries. Perhaps they should tap that resource (although we do see some Canadian shows in syndication from time-to-time). After all, there are private networks in many countries that rely primarily on U.S. shows.

As for MYTV, I'm sure these shows are pretty cheap to do and it gives their O&O stations a brand, which I think is their main objective. And they've got the deep pockets to do it.

I agree with this, but I think the overseas may be more appealing to urban audiences. As for Soap Opera like fair, Australia is a well known source for nightly soaps. For instance in Chicago on WGN-TV in the late 70s and early 80s. Prisoner: Cell Block H (called Prisoner in Aussie) did exceptionally well here in Chicago, at 10pm and at 12 noon. But everywhere else it was dismal and quickly cancelled.

I often wondered why no one uses Canadian or other English comedies. I used to love BBC America for their comedies, though I will admit, the humour may not work here.

As for low ratings, well Pax or "I" has been going strong on nothing (well not strong but you get the idea) for years. And FOX has very deep pockets.

All MY has to do is keep slightly above the profit for an infomercial.

 

[Braves2005]

But what about the stations that changed their call letters to air this drivel? In San Antonio,they changed the call letters from KRRT to KMYS. What would happen if My Network decided to shut down its doors? Will the station go back to KRRT or stick to the new KMYS call letters?

 

[dhett]

Consider Woods Communications station KUPT, serving Lubbock TX. They changed their calls to KWBZ-TV last December to reflect their WB affiliation, one month before the announcement that the WB would cease to exist. They're now KLCW-TV.

Speculating on if your scenario actually came true, KMYS would take whatever call letters they see fit, so long as they're available. As of today, they are. Was there any special meaning to KRRT or any affinity to those calls? If so, the company might go back to them (KRRT-TV is still part of their licensee name), but if not, they might find other calls to use.

I always thought it was ill-advised for all those stations to take calls with the network in them. A network change, like WB/CW, or more likely, an affiliation change, like KAZW (Azteca)/KCWK (CW) in Walla Walla WA, means that station's calls are rendered irrelevant.

 

[Braves2005]

Consider Woods Communications station KUPT, serving Lubbock TX. They changed their calls to KWBZ-TV last December to reflect their WB affiliation, one month before the announcement that the WB would cease to exist. They're now KLCW-TV.

Speculating on if your scenario actually came true, KMYS would take whatever call letters they see fit, so long as they're available. As of today, they are. Was there any special meaning to KRRT or any affinity to those calls? If so, the company might go back to them (KRRT-TV is still part of their licensee name), but if not, they might find other calls to use.

I always thought it was ill-advised for all those stations to take calls with the network in them. A network change, like WB/CW, or more likely, an affiliation change, like KAZW (Azteca)/KCWK (CW) in Walla Walla WA, means that station's calls are rendered irrelevant.

Originally,KRRT was named after the town where the transmitter tower was at the time,Kerrville Texas,thus the call letters KRRT. Even when they moved the transmitter tower closer to San Antonio and more people started from different parts of South Texas to watch KRRT,it was still named KRRT,even when it was a independent station, a FOX station before it moved to KABB,briefly a UPN station,then finally as the WB station for many years before the merger changed from WB to CW and now the only way you can see the CW station KCWX is in San Antonio where you have cable or a high powered antenna because the main station of KCWX is in Austin and its transmitter is in Fredricksburg which is about 100 miles north of San Antonio. I live 40 miles south of San Antonio and I still have yet to have KCWX to come to cable where I live or pick it up on a portable TV.

In also a quite ironic twist,KMYS is also the spelling of the Express-News and KENS-TV website which is www.mysa.com

 

[MarcB]

Channel 59 in New Haven signed on in 1995 as WTVU primarily simulcasting the OJ Trial from KTLA. They became affiliated with The WB Network and eventually became WB59 WBNE in 1996. "Warner Brothers New England". When they swapped affiliations with WTXX and became UPN in 2001 they became WCTX "You're watching The X WCTX". Last summer they dropped The WCTX branding to be come UPN 9. (59 is on cable 9 on most systems). And as of July 2006 they're branded as MY-TV 9 still with the WCTX calls. The swapping of affiliations from WB to UPN for 59 wasn't theire choice. Tribune (owner of FOX 61) had been LMAing WTXX the UPN affiliate known as Connecticut's 20 and they bought the station outright in 99. The affiliation agreement with their respective networks expired on 12/31/00 and since Tribune was already in bed with The WB Network so they put The WB on 20.

 

[JohnL]

But what about the stations that changed their call letters to air this drivel? In San Antonio,they changed the call letters from KRRT to KMYS. What would happen if My Network decided to shut down its doors? Will the station go back to KRRT or stick to the new KMYS call letters?

I found it totally ridicoulis for stations making the jump to call letters. At least the folks in my TV market Milwaukee were smart enough to stay away from changing their call letters. WVTV is CW and they've had those calls since 1967. WCGV which is MNTV has had them calls since they signed on the air in 1980.

-John L.

 

[FightingIrish]

But what about the stations that changed their call letters to air this drivel? In San Antonio,they changed the call letters from KRRT to KMYS. What would happen if My Network decided to shut down its doors? Will the station go back to KRRT or stick to the new KMYS call letters?

I found it totally ridicoulis for stations making the jump to call letters. At least the folks in my TV market Milwaukee were smart enough to stay away from changing their call letters. WVTV is CW and they've had those calls since 1967. WCGV which is MNTV has had them calls since they signed on the air in 1980.

-John L.

And that was a smart move by them (both owned by Sinclair). Both stations have historically been fickle about adopting new networks. When FOX moved from 24 to 6 in the New World shuffle, 24 was slow to pick up UPN, and even dropped them for a time in the late 90s. Channel 18 was pretty slow in picking up WB, but they were a pretty successful independent.

Flash-forward a few years. Granted, 24 picked up MYTV almost immediately, but left CW hanging for a bit, even though everyone knew 18 would eventually grab it. I also notice that 18 is one of the few CW affiliates to use their channel number in their ID (CW18), as opposed to geographic location like many others (conventional wisdom would make them "CW Milwaukee"). Probably because both 18 and 24 are seen on those cable channels respectively, and therefore don't see the need to ID without channel numbers.

 

[arnoldevns]

But what about the stations that changed their call letters to air this drivel? In San Antonio,they changed the call letters from KRRT to KMYS. What would happen if My Network decided to shut down its doors? Will the station go back to KRRT or stick to the new KMYS call letters?

Changing call letters is fairly simple. I think the risk to stations in identifying with My Network is pretty small. The network won't cease to exist anytime soon. My Network is there because Fox needed programming to fill the prime time hours on its former UPN affiliates. They're going to try real hard to get this telenovela thing to work. If it's not working out in a year or so, they'll try something else. This is cheap programming (in oh so many ways) that doesn't need huge ratings to be a financial success for both the network and the stations. CW can't say that. Their overhead is much bigger and the stations get far less advertising time. The good news for CW (at least for now) is that the ratings are fairly strong.