Once Upon a Time

Is anybody else watching this show? I never even
heard of it till 3 hours ago, I stumbled across it
on Netflix. I saw the pilot and 2nd ep and am very
intrigued. Plus, I'm a huge fan of the gorgeous
Ginnifer Goodwin. My god she's talented.

The premise of the show is fascinating. Fairy tales
are real, and the characters are caught in a
time out. Trapped in mundane life, waiting for
a hero. ABC is producing it, and its a good mix of
computer graphics and real acting. The 4th season
is all but guaranteed.

My concern is that it might be another Lost, getting
bogged down in meaningless minutia to sell soap.
62 episodes have already been shown, it must have
lost its center by now..

Right?

Quote: Evenbob

Right?

Pretty much nailed it. The show was beautifully done in the pilot, and the show was ABC's highest rated drama in it's first year (by total number of viewers). But ratings have slipped severely by the end of the 3rd season. It becomes increasing convoluted as more and more characters are introduced from movies and books. A spin-off concentrating on Alice and Wonderland characters failed this year.

PILOT: 4.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 12.93 million total viewers
YEAR 1: 3.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 9.92 million total viewers
YEAR 2: 2.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 8.46 million total viewers
YEAR 3: 2.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 7.18 million total viewers

Snow White and Prince Charming actors marry in real life.

Despite the ratings slip it is still ABC's 5th highest drama, which means it will certainly be renewed for at least one more season so it can be syndicated. Releasing previous seasons on Netflix boosts viewership for the current time on TV, but it reduces the value of syndication.


To be fair to Once Upon a Time almost no TV shows are increasing ratings. The only one on ABC that is skyrocketing is SCANDAL, which despite the beautiful Kerry Washington, is still illegal to watch if you are a straight man. Chicago Fire on NBC is showing some improvement, and How I Met Your Mother got a ratings boost on CBS for it's heavily promoted final season, but pretty much across the board all scripted broadcast shows are losing viewership.

We watch the show.

I think the first season was the best one. We still like it, though.

There is another fairy tale themed show on Friday nights on NBC, called GRIMM. Grimm is much lower budget, and attracts a much smaller viewership. It's also a family show, but one more aimed at guys (particularly younger viewers).

YEAR 1: 1.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 5.02 million total viewers
YEAR 2: 1.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 5.18 million total viewers
YEAR 3: 1.43 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 5.44 million total viewers

Networks expect much lower ratings on Friday night, so this show has already been renewed for a fourth season.

Quote: Pacomartin

Pretty much nailed it. The show was beautifully done in the pilot, and the show was ABC's highest rated drama in it's first year (by total number of viewers). But ratings have slipped severely by the end of the 3rd season.

I don't usually care for shows where the
main characters are women. 2nd episode
and I'm already tired of the evil queens
rants, and the yuppy sarcasm of Emma,
the queens enemy. You get this when
you have women written to act like men.
It never works, it just ends up looking silly.

I'll watch a couple more, but I don't see how
it can have legs.

Quote: Evenbob

I don't usually care for shows where the main characters are women.

Once Upon a Time is on ABC.

Television viewing is widely dominated by women — every broadcast network but Fox has a majority female audience, as do the vast majority of cable networks. When Disney made the decision to move Monday Night Football to ESPN, the gender imbalance became most acute at ABC

The top five most popular broadcast shows among women are on ABC. All of those shows have an audience that is more than 70 percent female. (No. 1 is “Grey’s Anatomy” with an audience just under 76 percent female.)

The bottom line is that Disney has a sports gold mine with ESPN, so they can afford to make ABC female oriented.

Each network concentrates on their specialty. For instance there are 7 scripted shows (4 are animated) where the viewership in the 18-49 age group is more than half the viewers. All of these shows are on FOX.

The Mindy Project (renewed) FOX
Family Guy (renewed) FOX
American Dad! (renewed) FOX
New Girl (renewed) FOX
Bob's Burgers (renewed) FOX
The Simpsons (renewed) FOX
Brooklyn Nine... (renewed) FOX


These are the 10 scripted shows with the greatest percentage not in the 18-49 age bracket. All of them are on CBS
CSI (renewed) CBS
Intelligence CBS
Person of Interest (renewed) CBS
NCIS: Los Angeles (renewed) CBS
The Mentalist CBS
Unforgettable (renewed) CBS
The Good Wife (renewed) CBS
NCIS (renewed) CBS
Hawaii Five-0 (renewed) CBS
Blue Bloods (renewed) CBS

But women don't necessarily like watching shows
about women. They find them boring, just like men
do. Unless women are written to act like men, they're
boring. Men are action, women are talking. Men
get it done, women talk about it in a group. It's not
unusual to see a hit movie with an entire male cast,
you seldom see an all female cast.

I can talk to a woman one on one, but get a bunch of
them together and I'd rather be giving my dog a bath,
and I hate that. Real life women are boring, many women
even find them boring. It's a fact of life.

Only one movie ever had all women in it (and so did the remake).

Quote: Pacomartin

Only one movie ever had all women in it (and so did the remake).

Mostly male casts make up the majority of
hit movies and always have. Men were the
cops and soldiers and fire fighters and private
eyes and lumberjacks and you name it. Women
were housewives. Even today it's tough to take
a 5'5 110 pound woman cop seriously. When
I had the cab co, some of the cops I knew
hated the women cops because they always had
to have back up for every stop they made.

One of the few movies I enjoyed with a female
lead was GI Jane. But her role was written like
she was a man. She talked and acted like one.
I liked the Tomb Raider movies, but again, she
was more of a man than most men. Ridiculous.

Where women do well is in movies like 'Doubt'. A
strong woman is playing off of an even stronger
man. It has the ring of truth to it. As a rule, women
aren't ruthless and power hungry, so they come
across as silly when portrayed that way in movies.

By the 5th episode I'm sure I'll be tearing
this show apart, I'm very hard to please.
Or easy to displease. It's already bothersome
about the kid. He's 11 when the show starts
and 3 years in he's now 14. Whatever he
had going for him in 2011 has to be gone.

Like 2 1/2 men. The best shows are when the
kid was little, and as he grew it became less
and less funny. They're at the point now where
he's pretty much gone from the show. Like I
watch it anymore anyway..