A Few Words From CBS’ Nina Tassler

Back in July 2006, Nina Tassler was attending the TV Press Tour 2006 and discussing closed-end and serialised dramas (and their “failures”) with critics. Of course, many of these questions were uncomfortable. However, some challenges/questions were answered.

One critic is quoted as saying, “To put it succinctly, you’re [angering] people, 2 and 3 million at a time. How often do you build that up before it really hurts you and the genre?”

Nina’s response “That’s a very legitimate question. No programmer wants to p*ss off their audience. When that happens it’s unfortunate. [With] the many different changes that are happening in multi-platform there may be opportunities to provide resolution for audiences in other platforms on shows that don’t continue on broadcast. I completely respect the question, and we respect our audience. When you build that kind of loyalty and you have an audience with legitimate questions about resolution it behooves us to find a way to provide those answers.”

Unfortunately, it seems as though Nina Tassler does not respect the audience.. Jericho was cancelled and, with up to 9 million viewers in the US alone, surely more than a 2-3million have been “p*ssed off”. Even a made-for-TV film (movie) or mini-series won’t appease fans. After all, the reality is that Jericho was a success and no reasonable reason for cancellation has been offered.

Perhaps viability will be argued… a show such as Jericho may be be more expensive to produce than a simple and rather dull closed-ended family drama and that advertising revenue is not what it used to be; however they only have themselves to blame as they hold on to out-dated rating systems such as Nielsen’s Ratings. Sooner, rather than later, they need to catch up with new media and find ways to generate revenue from this if they want loyalty whatsoever rather than more viewers ditching CBS due to the lack of respect shown.

A good time to start would be with Jericho. A sure international success. NUTS to CBS. P.S. Nina, if you really don’t want Jericho why not give it away?! $2 about right for a packet of NUTS? It’s more than will be made doing nothing with it.