Though Whedon's show tend to attract large masses of rabid fans, they do not traditionally do extremely well in the world of television ratings. Here is a rundown of Whedon's shows and how they fared on their respective networks.
All data unceremoniously ripped from Wikipedia.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (The WB 1997-2001; UPN 2001-2003)
| Season 1 - | 3.7 million viewers - | #144 nationwide - | #6 on network |
| Season 2 - | 5.2 million viewers - | #133 nationwide - | #3 on network |
| Season 3 - | 5.3 million viewers - | #133 nationwide - | #2 on network |
| Season 4 - | 4.7 million viewers - | #122 nationwide - | #2 on network |
| Season 5 - | 4.4 million viewers - | #120 nationwide - | #3 on network |
| Season 6 - | 4.6 million viewers - | #124 nationwide - | #3 on network |
| Season 7 - | 3.6 million viewers - | #140 nationwide - | #4 on network |
As can be seen from the crudely stolen table from Wikipedia, Buffy was often near the top of network ratings, but it never broke into must-watch TV territory for the greater masses of America. Seasons two and three had the highest ratings, and they gradually fell off until the show was eventually ended. The show was, however, a great success for both the now deceased WB and UPN networks.
Angel (The WB 1999-2004)
| Season 1 - | #123 nationwide - | 4.9 million viewers |
|---|---|---|
| Season 2 - | #125 nationwide - | 4.1 million viewers |
| Season 3 - | #127 nationwide - | 4.4 million viewers |
| Season 4 - | #138 nationwide - | 3.65 million viewers |
| Season 5 - | #162 nationwide - | 3.97 million viewers |
As you can tell from the numbers, Angel had almost its entire time on TV overlapped with Buffy. Also, the viewer numbers are extremely close, as are the national rankings. This shouldn't be incredibly surprising, though, as it was very likely the exact same individuals watching both shows. It would be interesting, though, to know if there was a division between those who only watched Buffy or those who only watched Angel. Angel was eventually canceled for no good reason.
Firefly (Fox 2002)
| Season 1 - | 4.48 million viewers - | #125 nationwide |
On top of only have one season, the episodes were aired on Fox out of order. The reason is unknown, and three of the episodes were not even aired during Firefly's run on Fox. The first episode of the series, for example, was the eleventh episode of Firefly shown on TV. This is not conducive to gathering a loyal audience.
Somehow, though, the show did gather a large audience, and they took the internet by storm with incredible amounts of rage that supported the show long after it was taken off air. Whedon continually supported his fans and searched for a new home for Firefly after Fox took it away, but no networks would have it.
Eventually, though, in what was an unprecedented measure, Universal picked up movie rights for Serenity, which is a movie continuation of the Firefly story.
So what is to be gathered from this rambling and slightly informative post? Whedon has loyal fans. Though viewership numbers rise and fall over the years, they do not vary that much. When their shows are taken off of the air, they don't give up on them, nor does Whedon himself. He looked for a home for Firefly until a movie was made. He has continued the Buffy/Angel saga through a series of comic books that are still being released.
Whedon is god.
Browncoats unite.
2 comments:
Is there something controversial about the content of Firefly that would make Fox want to take it off the air?
Absolutely not -- Firefly has the standard little guy vs. big guy story going on. The setting and the casting was what made the show great.
Fox just didn't see a fit for it among the quickly rising tide of reality show TV popularity that was sucking the souls out of viewers at the time.
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