Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4196008-20160511002623/@comment-24674051-20160601033404

Farerb wrote:

CoolDudeAl wrote:

NickyHelp wrote: I gues the boyfriend thing for Qutlaw Queen and maybe for CS shipping sillyness is not working out and that the new abc network leader (Channing Dungey) demands some changes like slowly making the show back the way it was because of the ratings. We might never know. And we wonder why the former leader (Paul Lee) was fired in the first place. The head of the network does not, and will never, force the writers to do his or her personal wishes. That is a surefire way to get all the writers to quit. Not only that, but what your suggesting is that someone who probably has very little understanding of how writing and storytelling works, would get to make decisions on what the tv shows should do. I can't explain how bad that would be for all the shows. But that happens though. The network does researches and tell the producers "this is popular", "this is what your show should be about". This is actually happened (and still happening) with Regina and Hook. The Network doesn't care about "good" storytelling or any storytelling at all. They only care about the money from ad buyers. That is true, to a point. The network execs look at see things that are popular. And if the network executive is worth their salt, they know what ideas might and might not work on a particular show. And the executives are more likely to use the research data to help identify new shows to replace shows that are cancelled. Existing shows that are doing well, or at least holding their own (and Once is holding its own by all counts), are less likely to be tinkered with. the old adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies here.

I'm not saying Once is or is not broken. There are definite improvements that could be made.But those improvements are best left in the hands of the shows creators, since they (supposedly) know the plan for the story. Execs are more likely to simply pull the plug on a show that is not working than they are to try and make suggestions to fix them.

And as for the money from the sponsors, again you have a point, since running a network is a business. however, a show needs to be doing well in order to entice the sponsors to part with their hard earned money. and doing well includes not only pandering to the shows fans (which does happen) but also telling good stories. So, from a business standpoint, the execs still need to be concerned about the quality of the product they produce.