Some shows have it easy — one look at Joan Holloway wiggling across the office, and you’re tuning into Mad Men for the rest of the season. But what if you’re one of the many spin-offs, supernatural dramas, or crime shows that debuted this fall? How do you wiggle and hook an audience? Some clever strategies are behind the frontrunners — and lacking in the others.
Be smart when spinning off
When NCIS opened a Los Angeles office, the drama had an audience waiting. Not only did it follow the original on Tuesday nights, but a second show was believable.
“Clearly, there’s an appetite for CSIs and Law and Orders and NCIS. These things feel organic,” says Dan Manu, site director of TelevisionWithoutPity.com. “It’s conceivable that there are more police stations, more cases.”
As for the new Melrose Place, audiences had to make a leap with new stars and producers 17 years after the original. “They’re going with the Hail Mary pass in bringing in Heather Locklear,” says Manu. “But with the younger audience they’re going for, how many people even know who Heather Locklear is?”
Timing can make or break
We might have fallen for the Glee kids without slick marketing moves, but airing the pilot after American Idol didn’t hurt. “Fox did something really smart,” says Mickey O’Connor, senior editor of TVGuide.com. “That audience really gets into the music.”
As for ABC’s The Middle, O’Connor predicts it might go down with the less successful Hank, which the half-hour comedy shares an hour timeslot with.
Stick to the recipe
If you want to stand out among the hordes of supernatural shows, you better do it right. Vampire Diaries took a tried and very true path: bloodsuckers, an established book series, high school drama.
“It had a built in audience,” says O’Connor. “The same thing happened with True Blood — the readers tuned in.”
The long view
Just because a show makes all the right moves in Season 1 doesn’t necessarily mean it will live past its infancy. Tasha Oren, Associate Professor of English and Media Studies at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee cites Web streaming as cutting into profits, and also points out that trend-driven, teen-centric shows such as Glee and Vampire Diaries aren’t even designed to stick around.
