Save Swingtown

As the world (or at least a few of us) await word of the renewal of Swingtown, the network Bravo has announced that it has acquired re-run rights to the show, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

And while its good news that fans can catch their favorite Season 1 episodes again, it doesn’t necessarily help renewal efforts. Unless, of course, Swingtown’s repeats have a Criminal Intent-esque surge to such a degree it inspires Bravo or another network to pick up the series for Season 2. Not counting chickens here.

Bravo will likely air the first 13 episodes, but the Reporter says the second-season is a ‘very long shot’, continuing that “The off-network sale essentially closes the door on the possibility of the show continuing with new episodes on CBS or another network.”

The first repeats will appear on Bravo in the fall.

• Read the Full Hollywood Reporter/Reuters Report Here
• TV Squad: Is There Hope for Swingtown
  

TV Week tips us off today that CBS is bring back “Flashpoint” for another season. Fans may remember this show as the one that kicked Swingtown out of its 10 p.m. Thursday slot into the Friday basement.

The crime drama had been in that Friday night slot first, but showed promise according to TV Week, justifying the switch with Swingtown in the middle of the summer. The ratings for both shows went in opposite directions.

Despite buzz a few weeks ago that CBS may have been shopping the show around to cable networks, not much on that recently.

TV Week told SaveSwingtown.com that while there was no word yet on Swingtown,  “Because of the first announcements, though, it doesn’t look too good.” Their article was even more blunt, calling renewal of the show a ‘long shot.’

Read the full story on TVWeek.com here.

TVbyNumbers.com’s Robert Seidman has a great post today inside the efforts to save Swingtown.

Leading with a mention of the the online efforts (like this site) to save a show that ‘hardly anyone seems to watch’, Seidman notes that there has been no formal word on a decision and its possible there could be NO word.

Among his comments:

• Seemingly, renewal would not be an option based on the ratings alone, especially after being ’shipped off to the ghetto that is Summer Friday nights’
• On the upside, CBS did sign the show’s creator/producer, Mike Kelley, to a seven figure deal two-year deal, along with co-produced BiCoastal taking the stage on CBS-owned Showtime.
• The ‘buzz’ is that CBS execs ‘really like’ Swingtown, but not the numbers (obviously)

While Seidman would normally say ‘uh … no’ to the renewal based just on the numbers, the other factors may in fact keep it alive, noting the simliar circumstances for NBC’s 30 Rock.

There’s more to his post, so just click here and read the entire thing.

The TV Addict has an interesting post today on the season finale of Swingtown, noting that Swingtown Executive Producer Alan Poul told TV critics earlier this year, “The season ends with a cliffhanger, but it’s also a completely satisfying ending.

I have to agree that the cliffhangers left in Friday night’s wake were not truly ’satisfying’ … everything is a loose end so the only way we’re all satisfied is to know what happens next.

TV Addict’s main point:

Mr. Poul is going to have to explain to millions of fans across the country what exactly was ‘completely satisfying’ about ending off the season and quite possibly the series with Susan, Bruce, Roger and Janet’s marriages on the brink of destruction?

Read the Full TVAddict.com Post Here:

Ducky Does TV has a great recap of the season finale, calling it ‘a show that deserved so much more attention than it received’.

Among the highlights:

Swingtown surpassed it’s randy premise and proved to be a show about change on the cusp of the bicentennial and it only got better as the summer went on.

On the downside, Ducky suggests Swingtown is better off in the viewers’ minds thinking what could be for Season 2, rather than leaving it in the hands of network executives.

There are 13 near amazing hours of television under Swingtown’s belt and barely a misstep to be found. That’s hard to duplicate especially for a show that will be forced to make severe changes in the second season in hopes of drawing in more viewers. When a network or a studio is worried about ratings, it can mean really bad things for a show that is so character driven and so much about the emotional storyline. That’s everything a network fears because it isolates the kind of viewer it attracts.

Read the Full Post on Ducky Does TV Here.

According to TV by the Numbers, Swingtown’s season one finale clocked an estimated 3.62 million viewers in the initial overnight ratings from Neilson.

“The season (and perhaps series) finale of CBS’s Swingtown limped home with but 3.62 million viewers and a demo 1.2 rating / 4 share. There has been no announcement yet about renewal or cancellation, but I cannot imagine it coming back with the kind of numbers it has produced,” the site’s Bill Gorman wrote.

Given the summer run and mid-season timeshift/day move, it isn’t all that shocking that the show dropped from the initial 6.0 rating and nearly 9 million viewers that tuned in for the pilot in June. But if the numbers stay put, it does place as one of the lowest rated episodes of the series, but not quite the under 3 million that tuned in for Episode 10, the aptly named “Running on Empty.” 

Of course, the lead-in wasn’t exactly thrilling either — it was a one hour preview of the CBS Fall line-up.

An article on BroadcastingandCable.com last month discussing the show’s possible move to cable also mentioned the ratings impact of the timeslot move in July: 

“CBS demoted the show at the end of July from its Thursday 10 p.m. time period to Fridays at 10 p.m. Prior to the move, the show averaged 6.7 million viewers and a 2.3 rating in adult 18-49 demo. Following the time-period relegation, the show predictably fell to an average of just 3.9 million viewers and a 1.3 average rating in the demo.”

Here’s hoping that move to cable happens — premium or even basic. Just like Criminal Intent reclaimed some glory moving from NBC to USA, perhaps the same can be said for Swingtown. Those numbers, however, on basic cable (TNT, USA, etc) wouldn’t have placed the show in the Top 15 last week.

Blogs are pretty much filled with comments that either love it or hate it … the latter mostly being religious folks who perhaps think its a reality show where everyone sleeps around, apparantly.

If it does end, it will certainly leave open so many season-ending plot possibilities that we might have to wait until the 80’s to find out what happens.

At least it still beat Dateline. 

Here’s the full post of Friday night’s ratings from TVbytheNumbers.com: Click Here.

Broadcasting and Cable is reporting that CBS Paramount, owners of Swingtown, is shopping Swingtown to cable outlets … which would also give the show more creative freedom without the FCC broadcasting rules.

The show, produced by the CBS Paramount Network Television studio, has had disappointing ratings in its debut run on CBS this summer. But it has many fans within the company who want to see it return, either on CBS or somewhere else. So, sources say, the drama is now being shopped around to potential cable buyers in the event CBS gives it the ax. CBS declined comment.

Read the Full Story at B&C Here:

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6589617.html?talk_back_header_id=6551098

This Friday CBS will air the last episode of Swingtown, but the question of the future for the show still remains unanswered. Is this the series finale or just the season finale? Fans are concerned and I’ve been contacted by one who has started a petition online to present to CBS, beseeching the network to give Swingtown a second season.

Read the Full Post Here:

http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/09/02/fans-unite-to-save-swingtown/

So: Are Susan and Roger finally going to sleep together? Will Bruce and Melinda make it past the make-out stage? Will the Deckers become parents? Will Janet really stay behind if Roger takes the Cincinnati job? (And will he really take it?) And will we ever find out the answers to these questions? If not, will you be upset?

Read the Full Post Here:

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/09/swingtown-recap.html

The summer’s officially over on Swingtown, marked by Tom’s Labor Day clambake at the shore, which turned out to also be a key party.

Now that the first season of the show has come to an end, it’s clear that while they explored hot topics like open marriage, wife-swapping and group sex, the essence of the show was not titillation or a guide page by page through The Joys of Sex. Swingtown was about the characters, three families and the changing times in 1976.

Read the Full Post Here:

http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/09/06/swingtown-take-it-to-the-limit-season-finale/