TV Worth Blogging
by David Thiel, Program Director for WILL-TV
An insider's view of public television programming and the issues that help determine what and how you watch
More Ratings Goodness for WILL-TV
Our copy of the February 2008 Nielsen ratings book arrived last week, showing strong audience growth at a time when most television channels are in decline. Each week an average of 129,000 households tuned in to WILL-TV at least once. That's up 9% from the same time last year and represents our largest audience for the February "sweeps" period since 2001. In prime-time, an average of 78,000 households watched each week.
Our top series was, as always, the Monday night Antiques Roadshow, with an average rating of 5 and one episode attaining an 8.5! (Again, one rating point is equal to one percent of the total potential TV audience.) An average of 21,500 households tuned in for the ever-popular collectibles show. Fueled by the high-profile "Complete Jane Austen" dramas, Masterpiece was a surprise hit with a 3 rating and 13,000 households watching. WILL's own Illinois Gardener was planted in fertile ground with a 2 rating and 9,000 households on average. Other top shows included our Saturday night lineup of Lawrence Welk, Antiques Roadshow, As Time Goes By and Keeping Up Appearances. Nature, American Experience, This Old House and America's Test Kitchen were also viewer favorites.
"10 Sisters" Rock Memphis, Spook Erie
When Tim Hartin and Alison Davis Wood's documentary 10 Sisters: A True Story debuted on WILL-TV in February 2007, it was a huge hit with a Nielsen rating of 8.5. (A rating point is equal to one percent of the total potential audience in a given television market. In the 500-channel TV universe of today, an 8.5 rating is very, very good.)
What's even more surprising about 10 Sisters is how well this Central Illinois story travels now that it's airing on public TV stations across the country. It had Memphis all shook up when it recently aired on WKNO-TV to the tune of a 2.5 rating. While that's a solid performance, it was downright scary in Erie, Pennsylvania when the sisters scored a 4.9 rating for WQLN-TV!
Congratulations to Tim, Alison and the cast and crew of 10 Sisters: A True Story!
Your Opera House of the Air
One of the things that continues to distinguish public television even in the 500-channel universe is our ongoing commitment to fine arts programming. While Bravo and A&E have ceded the field in favor of endless reality TV, WILL-TV regularly takes Central Illinois viewers to Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera. This Thursday at 7:00 pm, you can enjoy a live performance of "Madama Butterfly" by the New York City Opera, as James Valenti and Shu-Ying Li sing Puccini's tragic tale of culture clash. But that's only a taste of what opera buffs can expect in the months to come.
Over the last several months, selected area theaters have been presenting live digital video screenings of Metropolitan Opera productions, and these have proven to be popular events. For those who were unable to make it to the multiplex--or who want to experience them again--WILL will be offering a second season of Great Performances at the Met featuring all eight operas.
The first, "Hansel and Gretel," airs Wednesday, March 26 at 7:00 pm on WILL-TV, and will be simulcast in high-definition on our HD digital channel. The remaining seven are scheduled for select Sundays at noon over the next several months, and again, these new productions will air simultaneously on WILL-TV and on our HD channel. They include:
April 6: "Romeo et Juliette"
April 13: "Macbeth"
April 27: "Manon Lescaut"
May 18: "Peter Grimes"
June 1: "Tristan und Isolde"
June 15: "La Boheme"
June 29: "La Fille du Regiment"
These presentations will vary in length from two hours for "Hansel and Gretel" to four-and-a-half for "Tristan und Isolde." Obviously, they present a scheduling conflict for viewers of our regular Sunday fare, but the length of the programs and the lack of suitable evening time slots suggest that the best option will be to present them at the time of their national satellite feed on Sunday afternoons. On the above dates, our usual afternoon public affairs shows will temporarily shift to late Sunday evenings, with The McLaughlin Group airing at 10:00 pm, followed by Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, Foreign Exchange and Motorweek. I know that that will make some viewers of those programs unhappy, but I hope that they understand that this will be a temporary change made necessary by unusual circumstances.
In addition to the above new productions, several Metropolitan Opera shows from last year's season will be repeated on Sundays at noon on our digital high-definition channel only. (They will not air on our primary channel.) They include:
April 20: "The Magic Flute"
May 4: "I Puritani"
May 11: "The First Emperor"
May 25: "Eugene Onegin"
June 8: "The Barber of Seville"
June 22: "Il Trittico"
The New "Doctor Who" Makes a House Call This Sunday
For months, fans of the long-running British adventure series Doctor Who have been asking me, "When is the new Doctor coming?"
The Doctor, you see, is an alien Time Lord with the ability to "regenerate" into a new physical appearance each time he faces imminent death. (This also proves to be convenient for the show's producers whenever their lead actor moves on to other work.) Since the show premiered in 1963, ten actors have played the part, the latest being David Tennant (photo, left). WILL's viewers will be familiar with him from his star turn as Casanova on Masterpiece Theatre, and "Harry Potter" followers will recognize him as the villainous Barty Crouch, Jr. from the film adaptation of The Goblet of Fire.
And this Sunday at 6:00 pm, his Doctor arrives on WILL-TV, when we present a special episode entitled "The Christmas Invasion" as part of our March fundraiser!
Yes, it's Christmas in March as the newly-regenerated Doctor crashlands in London just as a monstrous alien warship hovers over the capital. The Time Lord and his friends Rose, Mickey and Jackie face robot Santas and a killer Christmas tree on their way to a fateful meeting with the leader of the Sycorax invaders. Penelope Wilton (Calendar Girls) guest stars as recently-elected Prime Minister Harriet Jones, who must make a terrible decision in the face of this interstellar threat.
I hope that you'll tune in this Sunday at 6:00 pm for "The Christmas Invasion," and that you'll show your financial support of WILL-TV's showings of Doctor Who. To my knowledge, we will be the first US public broadcaster to air this episode. Furthermore, we're one of fewer than two dozen public TV stations that have purchased the first series of episodes featuring David Tennant's Doctor, and you'll see them right here on WILL, beginning April 20!
Image: David Tennant as the Doctor, © BBC
Letters, We Get Letters
The Monday morning after a pledge drive weekend often means that there'll be an e-mail waiting for me reading something like this:
Every Saturday I wait patiently until 7 p.m. so I can watch Antiques Road Show and then As Time Goes By which happens to be my favorite Brit Com. I also really like Waiting for God. You can imagine my disappointment when I tuned in to find all my shows had been preempted once again by one of your constant bids for money. It seems to me you could find other ways to achieve your goals without hounding people to death on TV. I am an avid watcher of WILL and would be more than happy to donate, but your mindless jabbering (is) a huge turn off. Tonight, your programming not only stunk, but it was an insult to an intelligent person's intelligence.
There has to be a better way of soliciting funds. It seems to me, mailing letters to people or advertising once or twice a day in a commercial format would be much better than the endless rambling you do while trying to raise money. This is the main reason I have not contributed. Just ask. I'd be happy to donate. But please quit insulting me with these goofy ramblings by people who...very often just keep repeating themselves.
I trimmed a bit of this to remove the personal invective, but you get the idea. While I think that most viewers understand our need for an occasional pledge drive, I offer this as an example of the frustration that some feel when they tune in and find that their favorite program isn't on this week. I do understand it; much of our schedule tends to be more consistent from week to week than that of the commercial networks, so it's perhaps more of a surprise when we preempt regular programming.
Here, in part, is the response I sent to the viewer in question.
I would strongly disagree that we "hound people to death." To the contrary, WILL-TV conducts fewer days of on-air fundraising than the national average for public TV stations. Furthermore, while many stations conduct a pledge drive in August/September, we do not.
That said, the brief periods of the year in which we do conduct our pledge drives are absolutely vital to our continued ability to bring you "Antiques Roadshow" and "As Time Goes By" the other 47 weeks out of the year. As a matter of fact, we do find other ways to raise money throughout the year, including mailings, phone solicitations and short on-air messages. Pledge drives are still the best way to reach out to people who aren't currently members of the Friends of WILL.
The people who appear in front of the cameras during pledge breaks are either members of our staff or devoted volunteers who are passionate about WILL. We feel that having real members of our community sincerely express themselves in their own words about the value of our service is better than having prettied and polished presenters reading a script from a teleprompter.
Yes, we do repeat ourselves over the course of the evening. That's deliberate. We assume that people will be joining the program in the middle, so we need to inform those new viewers why they're seeing us instead of Hyacinth Bucket.
As an avid watcher of WILL-TV, I'm sure that you understand we depend upon viewers like you for the largest part of our operating expenses. These programs aren't inexpensive to purchase, and they wouldn't be here without those who've taken the next step of becoming Friends of WILL. You don't need to wait for a pledge drive to make a donation. We accept them year-round, day or night, and you can find all the information willpledge.org.
The Winner
The winner of this year's Great Britcom Vote was Are You Being Served? with 60 ballots cast in support by WILL-TV viewers. Next up was To the Manor Born with 38 votes and My Hero with thirty-one. Ronnie Barker's Open All Hours made a solid showing for a newcomer, garnering 29 ballots. Last year's runner-up, Mulberry, turned in a surprising last-place finish with only 20 votes.
Eighty-five viewers called in with pledges of financial support this evening, for a total of $6,986. Thanks to everyone who participated in this year's event, and especially to those who became Friends of WILL!
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