Ratings for 'Breaking Bad' in Holland are going down ...
It's now the second season for 'Breaking Bad' on Dutch TV and, to my dismay, all of a sudden, ratings are dropping.
I must say that the 11 p.m. slot on Sunday night is far from the best, because obviously most people will have to get up early on Monday morning and DVR programming each week is apparently too much of a bother, but VPRO-programmers say no other time slots are available for a 'cult series with a limited audience'. Apparently, this is public broadcasting for you nowadays. Around prime time, it caters for the lowest common denominator, just like any other commercial channel.
It started with 181,000 viewers for the pilot, which is reasonable enough for Dutch viewers, and then vacillated between 150,000 and 200,000, but for the past two weeks, viewers have gone down to 133,000 last week, and now just 98,000 last Sunday. So numbers are lacking in spite of uniformly rave reviews.
I've read about viewers who are giving up because of the late hour, because there are alternatives on torrents and DVDs, and because they are losing track of the various story threads, and find the suspense lacking - not because of the series, but because one week in between is too slow when there are other options.
This doesn't bode well for the remaining seasons, and VPRO may be reconsidering their decision. Damn, this almost feels like a personal blow. Still, I dont see what can be done right now, given the unholy hour and the, at least for many, readily available alternatives.
Geez, it must be a terrible dilemma for, by now, traditional TV programmers to choose movies and TV series which look like old news to all the Internet-savvy buffs.
Rich