Give it to us straight, Uncle Bobby
“Dallas” fans have questions about the show’s future. Dallas Decoder has answers.
1. “Dallas’s” third season has reached its midpoint. How’s the show doing?
Creatively, “Dallas” has never been better. The performances are top-notch, the writing is strong and the pacing has slowed down. The show no longer moves at the speed at light, making it easier for the audience to keep up with the stories.
Unfortunately, fewer people are watching “Dallas” this year. The series is averaging 1.9 million viewers on Mondays at 9 p.m., down from the 2.7 million who watched on Monday nights last year. However, when you count DVR users who record the episodes and watch them within three days of their debut, “Dallas’s” audience grows to 2.8 million viewers.
Last year, “Dallas” averaged 3.5 million viewers with three-day DVR playback added in. But don’t overlook this fact: Even though “Dallas’s” audience is down overall, the show is adding roughly 800,000 viewers through DVR usage each week — essentially the same number it added each week last year. In other words: DVR users are true-blue “Dallas” loyalists.
Watch them Ewings
2. OK, so the DVR numbers are encouraging. Do they really matter?
Yes, they matter. Remember: Television is a business, and the purpose of ratings is to let advertisers know how many people see their commercials.
Studies show DVR users don’t skip every ad, and so TV networks now sell commercial time based on several factors, including: 1) the number of people who watch shows when they air, and 2) the number of people who record shows and watch them a few days later.
3. How does “Dallas’s” ratings compare to other shows?
It depends on which shows you’re referring to. The most popular show on broadcast television last week was CBS’s “NCIS,” which grabbed 17.1 million viewers; on cable, the top show was HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” which snagged 6.6 million viewers.
It’s probably fairer to compare “Dallas” to the other shows in TNT’s lineup. Since the beginning of the year, the cable channel has shown four original dramas: “Major Crimes,” which averages 7.4 million viewers, including the people it picks up through DVR playback; “Rizzoli & Isles” (5.6 million); “Perception” (3.3 million); and “Dallas” (2.8 million).
4. Are ratings the only numbers that matter?
No. Ratings are important, but other factors contribute to a show’s bottom line. For example, studios can also make money by selling their shows overseas, and the 36-year-old “Dallas” brand retains a lot of international appeal.
Additionally, there’s money to be made from DVD sales and licensing products based on a show — hello, J.R. Ewing Bourbon! — and it’s worth pointing out that Dallas the city gives “Dallas” the TV show tax breaks to film there.
Does any of this make the show a financial success? Who knows? TV networks rarely discuss a show’s finances (or its ratings or the network’s programming deliberations) publicly. Nevertheless, “Dallas’s” other potential revenue streams could be part of the calculus that goes into deciding the show’s future.
5. TNT pulled “Dallas” off its schedule after last week’s episode. Isn’t that cause for concern?
Nope. “Dallas’s” third season will consist of 15 episodes; TNT always planned to divide the season into halves — eight episodes in the winter and spring and seven episodes in the summer. TNT does this with its other shows, and so do other cable channels; AMC routinely splits “The Walking Dead’s” seasons, for example.
Summer lovin’
6. But TNT won’t start showing the second half of “Dallas’s” third season until August 18! What’s up with that?
Yeah, that news was kind of unexpected. Fans like me were hoping “Dallas” would return in June or July and regain some of the glory from its first season during the summer of 2012, when the show averaged 4.2 million viewers on Wednesday nights.
By holding the show’s return until mid-August, it might be harder for “Dallas” to stand out. If TNT runs one episode a week for seven weeks beginning August 18, “Dallas” will spill over into the fall TV season, when the competition is much tougher.
On the other hand, if “Dallas” shows its third-season finale in September and begins televising Season 4 in January or February 2015, that’ll amount to a four- or five-month hiatus — which is a lot better than the 10-month wait we had to endure between the second and third seasons.
7. What’s the deadline for TNT to decide if it wants to renew “Dallas” for a fourth season?
This isn’t clear. TNT announced “Dallas’s” third-season renewal on April 30, 2013, about two weeks after the second-season finale. The show traditionally begins production on each new season in September or October and wraps up filming six months later, and so if TNT wants to stick to a fall-to-spring production schedule, it probably needs to decide whether to renew “Dallas” soon so scripts can be written, sets can be built, costumes can be created, et cetera.
One date to watch: Wednesday, May 14. This is when TNT and sister channel TBS will hold their “upfronts,” the annual presentations where they pitch next season’s shows to advertisers. If TNT decides to renew “Dallas,” this could be a good place to announce it.
8. So will TNT renew the show?
Golly, I hope so. But I’m hardly an unbiased observer, so I took this question to one of the smartest guys I know: Marc Berman, editor in chief of TV Media Insights, a top industry news site. Berman is a “Dallas” fan too, but he promised to give us his honest viewpoint.
His prediction: Yes, TNT will give “Dallas” a fourth season. The fact that the show adds almost 1 million viewers through DVR playback is a plus, and so is “Dallas’s” status as a recognizable commodity in an increasingly cluttered media environment, Berman said.
9. OK, you seem to have a lot of answers, Dallas Decoder. So what’s going to happen to Pamela after her overdose in the midseason cliffhanger?
Beats the heck out of me, but I can’t wait to find out.
What did I miss? Share your questions or concerns about the future of TNT’s “Dallas” in the comments section below and read more Dallas Decoder news coverage.
