Women Aren't from Mars

On the CW series Veronica Mars, the sharp-tongued eponymous college detective manages to get the best of–among other people–the pretty young airheads who get in her way.

That’s how you can tell it’s a TV show. In the real, meta-world of TV ratings, things don’t always work out so nicely. This week, Mars went on hiatus to make room for America’s Next Top Skank, a.k.a., The Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll, in which young women compete to become the next member of the burlesque-cum-singing group. The show did better–a lot better–getting over a third more women 18 to 34 than Veronica Mars did. (Thanks tvtattle for the link.)

Does this mean young women would rather be admired for their bootays than their brains? That’s probably going too far, especially based on one week’s ratings. For starters, Next Doll was up against mainly rerun competition. And as I’ve said before, just because people like to watch reality contestants doesn’t mean they want to emulate them–often, just the opposite. And there’s the simple fact that a demanding serial like Mars is simply more work to watch than a reality show. Still, not great news for Mars fans.

On the other hand, The Wedding Bells had a pretty mediocre first night, so it’s not as though selling women stereotypes of themselves automatically means big ratings. Maybe David E. Kelley has a dramedy script about hot-pants-wearing girl singers in his desk drawer.

TV Tonight: The Loving Story

For Richard and Mildred Loving, their marriage was a pretty simple matter. They grew up in a small Virginia town where everyone pretty much knew everyone, fell in love (not without some obstacles; she found him “arrogant” at first) and got hitched.

For the enforcers of Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws, their marriage was also a simple matter: Richard was white and Mildred was black.

Mel

I am a woman, and I can say that shows like The “Search for the Next Doll” are absolutely degrading and I refuse to watch them. To answer your question, yes there are some women that prefer to be admired for their “body parts” than their brain. But there are also women like me that rather be admired for their intelligence than anything else.
Chaddogg

If Veronica Mars gets cancelled (which I guess it will), it will be the second most depressing television event in my life (behind the cancellation of Arrested Development).

James, I understand that networks are in it for the ratings and money – but aren’t certain shows so critically acclaimed and loved by a die-hard fanbase (Arrested D., Veronica Mars, and Buffy come to mind) that the networks should bite the smaller ratings for viewer goodwill/critical appreciation? Also, add in the potential boosts to popularity from syndication (maybe not captured by the network, but if a show is still on the air when it gets to syndication, there can be a ratings boost to the new episodes as new viewers get hooked), and the lack of any reasonable replacement show (really, does CW have anything in development that could reasonably approximate even VM’s small numbers? Ditto for Fox, which didn’t have a single good half-hour comedy in development when it cancelled A.D.), and is there any reason to cancel these shows?

Maybe I’m hopelessly naive, but if I ran a network that was struggling (like the CW), I’d keep critically acclaimed (if small audience) shows and build my brand there, in the hopes that these audiences would eventually support a “hit” show when I launch it.