Death Warrant

Alright, here's the ratings scoop on last Friday. NBC with the Olympics scored a 11.2/18 while Arrested Development only got 2.0/3. I have no idea what that means, but it doesn't look good. I'm not really sure about wikipedia's explanation, let me ask Nielson.

Ok, that the first number is the percent watching the show out of all American Households with a TV. Meanwhile the second number is the percent of active TV's that were tuned to the station. Alright, so 3% of people watching TV last friday were watching Arrested Development. Not good, as expected, kill it.

And I've come to grips with that. Its over and its not coming back. At this point I think I'd prefer that than Showtime or ABC picking it up. Some people have said that the writers were running out of steam; that's fabrication, but I do admit that much over three seasons is stretching the format of the show. Its a documentary, so time is passing with every episode, and interesting things happen to the characters, yet they remain the same. Think about how they deal with that on the Simpsons. Mostly there is no acknowledgement of previous episodes (ok, once in a while) but that's one of the basic premises of Arrested Development, recursion without growth. Whether you agree or not I think three seasons was all the characters could take without growing or moving somehow.

That said I'm still pissed off at Fox. Three Seasons means three seasons, not one season a short season and a really short season. Basically the only thing that can console me is for Fox not to have screwed with the show during its entire tenure. I realize, impossible. I'm like the girlfriend who says the only way she can trust you again is if you hadn't cheated in the first place. So screw off Fox, you're dead to me.

Zap2it - TV ratings - NBC Rings in Friday Win with Olympics