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Potatoes with French Fries
October 2nd, Kansas City: About the limited mental capabilities of program directors |
Imagine, you sit in a restaurant and next to you, just a table away sits a group of men in expensive suits eating their meals consisting of boiled potatoes, french fires, mashed potates and nothing else. Each of them has exactly those three potato products on his plate. And none of them talks to each other. What would you think about those men? Words like "weird" to "idiots" come to mind. And of course, everybody is now thinking, I am ramping up to some kind of bad joke here. No, I am not. People like that exist ... we call them program directors.
Lets forget about cable for a moment, just look at regular TV via antenna. Monday at 7 p.m.: Gotham on channel 4 against Dancing with the Stars on channel 9 and the Originals on channel 29. The drama continues at 8 p.m. when Gotham runs against Scorpion, DWTS and Supernatural and it goes on at 9 p.pm. when NCIS Los Angeles is supposed to steal quota from Castle and The Blacklist. Of course, on Monday runs also The Voice, forgot about that. One could guess, we have there really some choices. But on Tuesday, the pressure decreases already. NCIS New Orleans agaist Agents of Shield and Forever against Person of Interest seem to be the tension points. Wednesday, the pressure is quite gone. Criminal Minds has a big fan following and Red Band Society can only live from those who are not into this. Stalker against Nashville, that is depsite the fact, they are both shows, just two entirely different target groups. But on Thursday, the potato and french fries people had to run Bones against Grey's Anatomy. Friday, two entertainment shows with some background, Amazing Race against Utopia and then Gotham's repeat against Scandal. Saturday ... well, Saturday if you are not in Nascar or the MLB play offs, there is no alternative to sports and Sunday has all the shows, nobody dared yet to categorize in a wild mix ... all at once. And I wonder, is there a pattern to this? No, actually, I don't wonder.
The secret behind the nasty attitude to run similiar things at the same time as others run them is called "binary decuision process". You all know what that is, if you forget for a moment about the $60 word. Two men on the Main Street, low hanging .45s and despite the fact, that both most likely will get hurt in that nonsense, both feel as the big invincible badass. The model adapted to TV stations means, everyone is more using a strategy to hurt the other one's quotas than in getting a bigger quota for the own shows. | Gotham and Sleepy Hollow are both shows not only with some element of mysticism
 New series, new seasons, braindead program planning
but also more interesting for the people who grew up with the old stories about Ichabod Crane and the Batman comics when they were still printed on that really cheap paper. They will get their auditorium, but not in the teenage target group. Neither will Dancing with the Stars and this has a tendency, the more the so-called stars are C- or even D-range. The attraction point of DWTS is since a long time the dancing and the celebrities are all too often something that is just takes as by-product. Which means, DWTS on one side and Gotham and Sleepy Hollow on the other, aim basically for the same auditorium. One that missed the Vampire hype and the whole Zombie invasion panic ... so, obviously, since DWTS is since years on the Monday spot, something like Originals or this upcoming show about brain deads "Walking Dead"Walking Dead" would make a lot more sense and give all stations better quotas. Which would raise the attractivity of advertisement spots and raise their income. But that would be too hard to understand for people eating potatoes with french fries, wouldn't it?
Tuesday on public antenna TV: NCIS New Orleans against Marvel's Agents of Shield ... well, yeah, not only has NCIS NO Bakula and the whole successful NCIS concept in the back, Shield also made it barely of the chopping block last season and the desperate attempt to rescue the whole project with more FX and an even weaker plot will not make things easier. Whoever had the idea to run it against an NCIS spot, he is not interested in making quotas or money, obviously. One can only assume a very suicidal or at least seriously limited mindset behind such decisions. Especially since there is no comedy on Tuesday while Wednesday is obviously comedy day ... three stations bring together six expisodes | of that stuff from 7 p.m. till 8 p.m. So one station swapping Tuesday and Wednesday would make a lot of sense. You could grab those who are not the avid comedy fans on Wednesday because you would be the only alternative and actually, the same can happen on Tuesday because you would be the only one with comedy there. That would help to raise your quotas and make advertisement spots more interesting for your customers. It would increase your station's income. Alas, it would also increase the income of other stations ... I guess, to prevent that from happening is worth the losses you take from your potato and french fries strategy.
I can go on and on. The week is full of such examples. Which leaves stations fighting with the same kind of show for the same target groups while leaving other target groups the whole evening without anything. Any reasonable business is in the first interested to sell its products and services to as many people as possible. Unless of course, it's a TV station. Why?
Actually, looking a little closer, things become clearer. Stations belong to big chains. ABC for example is since years involved in a fight with Fox ... not about quotas, no, in an ideology war because both chains have committed themselves to different political camps. And suddenly, from a factor, that has nothing to do with TV shows, the urge to cripple the enemy is much bigger than the urge to make a good business. We are back to those two gunslingers on the Main Street. Both will most likely get hurt. In the TV example of the very same model, we know, both will get hurt. Still, the potato and french fry people take that as a given and accept it. Because their limited mental capacities take this suicidal behavior as natural as breathing. One can only wonder, what the stock holders will say, when they realize, the company they invested in, is willingly passing chances to increase the value of thier advertisement time to play Main Street gunslinger?
- PB - |
... back |
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Tue, May 17, 2016
12:00 AM CT
Daniel Lee Siebert
Daniel Lee Siebert is now also in our serial killer collection. A more or less garden variety strangler type who got away longer than necessary bacause some big PDs dropped the ball ... and left it to smaller ones, to get the job done.
| Fri, Dec 18, 2015
12:00 AM CT
Christman Genipperteinga
THe legendary robber along the wine road Trier-Cologne made it finally into our collection. With a total of 970 victim, including six of them his own children, he is currently the most prolific serial killer in the Collection.
| Thu, Oct 22, 2015
12:00 AM CT
Gerard John Schaefer
The allegedly most prolific Florida Serial Killer, "Killer Cop" Gerard Schaefer, finally also made his way into out collection.
| Thu, Sep 24, 2015
12:00 AM CT
Royal Russel Long
Long was quite messed up in the investigation of the Wyoming Rodeo Murders, but details show, he was another kind of animal, y typeless pedophile serial killer. Now his file is in our collection.
| Mon, Aug 17, 2015
12:00 AM CT
The Wyoming Rodeo Murders
A story of misperceptions and midnless cabinet cleaning by police authorities that ended up with someone getting away with at least two murders on young women. Now in our collection.
| Wed, Jul 15, 2015
12:00 AM CT
Joseph Vacher, the French Ripper
Now new in our collection: Joseph Vacher, the French Ripper. The first case, blood spatter analysis was used in a court trial world wide!
| Sat, Jun 20, 2015
12:00 AM CST
No new addition in June
Usually, we try to bring another case up in our serial killer collection every month, but this month, we simply had no time. Between working open cases and other activities, it was just not possible. Sorry for the inconvenience.
| Sat, May 16, 2015
12:00 AM CT
The Beauty Queen Killer
New in the serial killer collection: Christopher Wilder, the Beauty Queen Killer. A case that shows how nonsensical the disctinction between serial and spree killers really is.
| Thu, Apr 16, 2015
12:00 AM CT
Burton W. Abbott
Abbott killed only one victim, a case that caused some public attention in 1955. But he showed all hallmarks of a fledgling serial killer and thus, we added him to our collection.
| Mon, Mar 16, 2015
12:00 AM CT
Darren Deon Vann
Ha is basically the usual garden variety strangler case if it wouldn't be for the early warnings statistical data cretated about serial killer activity in Gary/Indiana. Now he is in our collection.
| Wed, Mar 4, 2015
12:00 AM CT
Apologies!
Due to technical problems, the March article was up late. Take my apologies for this glitch.
| Mon, Feb 16, 2015
12:00 AM CT
Affaire of the Poisons
We have added the infamous Affaire of the Poisons to our collection. With more than 80 offenders, it breaks a little the format, but well, it's one of the biggest cases of "organized" crime ever, so how can we let it out?
| Mon, Dec 8, 2014
12:00 AM CT
Joseph Bryan
Once he made the FBI Ten Most Wanted list, now nobody remembers the case anymore. Nevertheless, the father of all allegedly schizophrenic serial killers has entered our collection.
| Fri, Nov 7, 2014
12:00 AM CT
The Trailside Killer
David Joseph Carpenter has now become also part of the Serial Killer Collection ... complete with profile.
| Tue, Oct 7, 2014
12:00 AM CT
The Vampire of Duesseldorf
Peter Kuerten aka The Vampire of Duesseldorf roamed the city at the River Rhine for more than two years and left behind a trail of bodies-
| Fri, Sep 12, 2014
12:00 AM CT
The Grim Sleeper
Lonnie Franklin aka The Grim Sleeper has been added to our serial killer collection
| Thu, Aug 14, 2014
12:00 AM CT
Michael Lee Lockhart
... and with a little delay, another serial made it into the serial killer collection. Michael Lee Lockhart, not so much interesting for his "achievements" but because his case appears as if he became a psychopath only after a serious head injury.
| Tue, Aug 12, 2014
12:00 AM CT
A Game of Daggers
Diane's new novel A GAME OF DAGGERS is now available at Amazon for Kindle. A story of murder, mayhem and political intrigue set up in the year of the Lord 1096.
Pope Urban II has called for a crusade, but this news has yet to reach Cornwall. And people there have anyway to deal with other problems from storms to wreckers on their coast and when some murdered men are discovered on the beach, nobody guesses, this is only the prelude to much greater events coming to the so remote shores ...
| Sat, Jul 5, 2014
12:00 AM CT
Ivan Hill
Ivan Hill, as the first of the many serial killers, who haunted Los Angeles in the 80s and 90s, is now added to our serial killer collection.
| Sun, Jun 8, 2014
12:00 AM CT
Raya and Sakina
The famous Egyptian serial killers have become part of our collection. And as so often, things are not as simple as the urban legend tries to tell us.
| Thu, May 1, 2014
12:00 AM CT
Dagmar Overbye
The infamous Danish baby farmer has been added to our Serial Killer Collection.
| Thu, May 1, 2014
12:00 AM CT
Pharaoh Djoser added to the Egyptian Collection
I finally came around to add a new pharaoh to our collection: Djoser, 1st Pharoh of the 3rd Dynasty.
| Fri, Apr 4, 2014
12:00 AM CT
The Green River Killer
This month, we added Gary Ridgway to our serial killer collection, a case, not so much interesting for the profiling but for the lessons about case organization to be learned from it.
| Tue, Mar 4, 2014
12:00 AM CT
Manson Family
The "Manson Family&quo; has been added to our serial killer collection. Especially interesting for those who think, brain washing isn't possible.
| Fri, Feb 7, 2014
12:00 AM CT
Hans van Zon
Dutch serial killer Hans van Zon joined our serial killer collection. Not entirely voluntarily though.
| Mon, Jan 6, 2014
12:00 AM CT
The Syracuse Dungeon Master
John T. Jamelske aka the Syracuse Dungeon Master has been added to our Serial Killer Collection. While not a seria killer but a serial rapist, Jamelske represents a similar psychopathology as some OCD type serial killers, for example Dahmer and therefore is some valuable object for studies.
| Thu, Jan 2, 2014
12:00 AM CT
Khasekhemwy
The last of the 2nd dynasty pharaohs, the man who re-united Egypt, is now also in the Egyptian collection.
| Thu, Dec 12, 2013
12:00 AM CT
Pharaoh Sekhemib added to the Egyptian Collection
I finally came around to add Pharaoh Sekhemib to the collection, the sixth of the 2nd Dynasty. So, with some luck, I can finish this year the 2nd dynsty, only one, Khasekhemwy is left.
| Tue, Dec 10, 2013
12:00 AM CT
The Riha disappearance
In 1969, Dr. Thomas Riha disappeared and in the subconsequent series of events, Gloria Tannenbaum was arrested for forgery and under suspicion of two other homicides. She plead not guilty by reason of insanity and got away with it. The case has now been added to our serial killer collection.
| Mon, Nov 4, 2013
12:00 AM CT
Richard N. Clarey jr.
Clarey is one of the lesser known serial killers, skirting the definition a little. Still, for some reasons an interesting case.
| Wed, Oct 2, 2013
12:00 AM CT
Now in the collection: William E. Cosden
A garden variety sexual predator, notable only because his existence shows, how wrong the idea of 1 monster at 1 time in 1 area is.
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