HBO's "Carnivale" Season 2 premiere tanks in the ratings

[JohnL]

>I was so anoyed by this cancelling that I changed my Directv subscription to
>drop Showtime and I took Cinemax instead.

Make sure you write them and tell why you dropped Showtime.

[odinn7]

JohnL, I thought about that but decided I would be better off letting Showtime know instead so I did that. The automated response I got was a real nice, personal touch though...

[Mr_Vindictive]

Sorry about hijacking this thread, nobody.

It is good to see others p**sed off about the cancellation of Dead Like Me.  I didn't know that we had so many fans on the board.

I have missed much of season 2 being as I don't have Showtime at the moment.  I will be picking up the DVD though.

[trekgeezer]

Hey USA is doing the same thing with The Dead Zone. It's supposed to come back this summer for 22 episodes, but it will  start a year after the last new episode.

By the way Farscape fans, you know you will now get Ben Browder and Claudia Black on Stargate SG-1.  Claudia is in one episode this season and will be featured in a five episode arc next season.  Ben joins the cast as a team member next season.

[awest]

Carnivale I think is the best show on tv right now...I dont care how long I had to wait, it just makes it that much better.  As for the delay, every episode is like a mini movie so it takes time...This season has been even better than last.

[Jolie]

You know I love Carnivale but you know what I think the problem is?  As disgusting as it is and sounds (incest-yuck), the only people on the show that actually have chemistry together are Brother Justin and Iris. That's a problem I guess.

I kind of hope that maybe they aren't really related somehow because while the tension simmers when they're togther (like when he's watching her sleep), it's still yuck incest.

Oh well. LOL

[Jack Corbett]

Trust me, 1.8 million viewers in Ausralia is A LOT. If it wwas here, the ABC would probably order episodes.

[jennifer]

Carnivale sucks. It is so damn boring and has pretty poor acting in it. That kid who plays "ben" is so over dramatic with his acting. He always plays a sissy boy in almost everything he is in because he lacks diversity as an actor. I couldn't ever stand him in anything he was in. I think the show should be cancelled. I don't know if it will be unfortunetly. Because someone had said that HBO doesn't go by ratings...and that if they were set to do 3 seasons they will do it regardless of how well it does. That is a load of crap. Why would HBO NOT go by ratings? Isn't the whole purpose of a show to attract an audience? Something carnivale lacks.  The show had 1.8 million viewers on the first episode of the second season, and every episode since then has been even lower. Those aren't just bad ratings they are humliatingly bad ratings. The show is also very unknown. And almost all HBO shows are SO popular. "Sopranos" "Sex and the city" are HUGE shows that everyone knows even if they haven't seen it. Nobody I know has even heard of carnivale. And on top of that they re air carnivale literally every day, sometimes twice a day every week and they STILL have horrible ratings. I think HBO is incredibly dumb and not concious of knowing how to run a business. Carnivale is a disaster and they still are putting millions towards this crap show. Instead we could be seeing great new shows.

[Pablo]

Yes but its 1.8 million viewers in america. The TOWN that I live in has 500,000 people in it. Double that and its about the same amount of people who are watching Carnivale in the entire United States Of America. That is really really bad. I have never liked the show, i find it rather boring. I think HBO tried to make a new 'unique' show that would catch on and be a big hit ...and failed. It is so un interesting to me I could never get into it. Apparently neither can the rest of america judging by the ratings. I think the second episode of the 2nd season was even lower ratings with 1.5 million views, and the 3rd was something of 1.3 million views. So you see, its obvious people lost interest in this show...or maybe never had it.

[moses valenzuela]

hbo is a smaller network than nbc, abc, fox and cbs,  where they lack in quantity they make it up in quality in programming. not just shows like the sopranos, sexand the city, oz, the wire, six feetunder, deadwood and so on.  hbo has had only 12 episodes per season always. every series has had only 12.  also about taking too long. dont tell you're not gonna watch the sopranos when it comes back  in 2006.  yeah it ended in 2004 but loyalty to a shoe depends on the quality of writing. this is where hbo has not failed me yet.  hbo has the best written shows on television.

[blkrider]

On cable, a show can have much smaller numbers than a network program and it's considered to be very good.  The show may not be pulling in the numbers that the Sopranos and Sex and the City pull, but it may still be doing well enough to be considered a success in the cable universe.  They may be willing to give the show more of a chance since it seems to have a cult following.  HBO has killed shows that didn't catch fire with the audience...remember Mind of the Married Man, or K Street?  

Like I said above, I could never get into Carnivale, but it might be one of those things that will work better on DVD.  I'm finding that to be the case more and more.

One thing is for sure, when I want good comedy and drama, I go to the cable channels first and the networks last.

[Mike]

Carnivale is a great show you should try watching the first season and then start to follow the show in season 2 I suggest getting HBO in Demand and you can get season one without paying for the DVD's

[blkrider]

Nah, I'm not interested enough to shell any money additional money out to see it, especially since I couldn't get into the show when it was first broadcast....I'll just Netflix it one of these days.

[Rayven]

Season 2 has been amazing!  There's just so much going on in every episode that I'm just glad there isn't anything else on television to watch that would get in my way of rewatching each episode at least twice (heck some episodes I've rewatched four, five times) just to make sure that I didn't MISS any of the pieces to the "puzzle".

As for the price of the DVD's for the first season.  That's HBO for you.  So it's only 12 episodes.  Each episode is almost an entire hour, which is longer than most of the episodes of SITC (which I don't believe had a "normal" full season order until year three).  Also, there are a ton of extras (which HBO is pretty good about including in the box sets) which I was happy to see included in the set.  

I was begining to wonder about the ratings myself when I saw HBO re-airing episodes in blocks of three on Friday nights.  At first I thought it was because there is just SO MUCH going on in every episode, but after this weeks episode concluded and they previewed another re-airing of the last three episodes....I had to start looking at what might be going on.  If the numbers are down, it's not because of the writing, or the delivery of the such strong characters...

[nobody]

Since you're watching the second season right now, tell me, without spoilers- are questions getting answered, or are the writers just piling on more and more confusion?

I bought the first season box set. I just finished re-watching those last weekend. My brother is taping all of season 2 for me. I plan on diving into those tapes when the entire season has aired.