Is ABC trying to kill Alias?
 

ABC is moving Alias to Thursday nights at 8pm for next fall. Unless CBS makes a drastic move, Alias will be up against Survivor.

Third new time slot in three years. Sheeesh.....

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/cgi/pr...=20050517abc01

Survivor and The OC, which I believe shares some of the same audience. :p

I read somewhere ABC wants to make Alias the "anchor" of its new Thursday lineup. GL with all that. Smells like one last year of Alias to me.

At least Alias gets another shot unlike Eyes. You just gotta love how ABC failed to promote that show, put it on after Alias even though Alias was hemmoraging viewers from Lost, and axed it in favor of giving renewals to stale product like Less Than Perfect and Jake in Progress. :mad:

Tuesday would have been the better night I think. It goes from my busiest night of TV to my second busiest. I do sort of like the Lost/Alias combo as it is this season though.


Is it going on in the fall or in January like this season. I like the uniterupted run and by that point Survivor would be done with it's season.

I don't think you can really compare axing a drama to renewing two comedies.

As for <i>Alias</i>, I hate that my reaction is "meh", but it's barely been interesting for 2 seasons now. I find I have a hard time caring if it even gets renewed anymore, let alone on what night it airs.

ABC has been <i>very</i> good to <i>Alias</i>. They promoted the hell out of it, renewed it when no one was watching, and gave it prime real estate after the Super Bowl. If they want to get this <i>Invasion</i> show off the ground by giving it a great <i>Lost</i> lead-in, I'm fine with that.

das

Boo to Alias' new night and time. Now I'll have 3 shows (Survivor, OC, Alias) on at the same time...heck, I'd just assume having Alias on Friday night so my Tivo would be free to record it.

Has CBS or FOX released their Fall schedule yet? The OC could always be moved...it was for this season. Or maybe they'll just do a Spring season like this year?

Will Alias even be on in Fall for sure - with JG's pregnancy and all?

i liked having lost then alias, i thought that made a great combo

I was an Alias junkie for the first two seasons. I hung in there for season3, which was weak, but about 4 episodes into this season I found myself too bored to continue. Plus having Alias on after Lost is ridiculous. After the greatness that is Lost it's impossible to get into the nonsense soap opera that Alias has become.

I'll have to decide whether or not to stick with "Alias" on Thursdays. I might consider it less important than the other shows on that night.

Alias has been doing a fine job of killing itself on its own.

rotfl

Definitely. IMO, only highlights so far was the season premiere and Sonia Braga (plus the opening credits.)


What is the story arc this season?

Both "24" and "Alias" debuted the same year...caught 24 during its second season. Of the two, I didn't think Alias was going to go downhill this quickly. 24 is still able to sustain suspense after four seasons, despite the lapses in logic.

At least the acting is better on Alias than on that other JJ Abrams show.

Fine with me. Right now I'm only watching "Joey," "Will and Grace" and "CSI" on Thursday night. Plenty of time to keep grabbing Alias.

Maybe they are just telling the writers to wrap it up a little quicker than they would like. I love Alias, but if they decided to resolve all of the show's storylines next season, I wouldn't have a problem w/ that at all - I watch too much TV as it is.

Alias, Survivor, OC, and Smallville up on the same night at the same time. Lovely. BitTorrents are going to be more and more popular next season.

Funny how the one network that dominated that night for nearly two decades (From Cosby and Cheers to Seinfeld and Friends) didn't even rate a show on your list right there.

I really don't think this is a good move for ABC. Alias is going to be getting some really strong competition next season and won't even have a strong lead-in to reel in some viewers.

I think next year I am going to be faced with a tough decision: whether to continue watching Alias. Last year was very disappointing and this year has been even worse. I think it will all come down to how the season wraps up: If it goes out with a bang, I will continue to watch; if it goes out with a whimper, then I think I might decide to just catch it on DVD.

The move doesn't bother me at all. I don't watch any shows on Thursday nights and Wednesday is just too freaking crowded so yippee.

I stopped watching this season. I was just really bored with what they were doing (I'm one of the few who really enjoyed last season), but I will probably catch up with it on dvd.

Doesn't Garner have some crazy 8 year deal with ABC though? What happens if the show gets cancelled which seems more and more likely.

Question: How exactly is Alias doing in the ratings? What is its rank? I know last season, it was near the bottom.

April 25 - May 1:

“Alias” (9:01-10:02 p.m.)
“Alias” earned its best numbers in 3 weeks among viewers (8.2 million) and young adults (3.3/8) - since 4/6/05.

Complete Primetime Weekly Ratings: 04/25/05 Through 05/01/05:
45 LISTEN UP 8770 3.2
46 YES, DEAR - MONDAY SPC 8740 3.1
47 CRIMETIME SATURDAY 8480 3.1
48 THIRD WATCH 8380 3.0
<b>49 ALIAS 8190 2.9</b>
50 RODNEY 8140 2.9
50 ACCORDING TO JIM 9PM 8140 2.9

The last 5 episodes of Alias (and really the last half of this season) have been incredibly promising for the future prospects of the show. Also, I would imagine the show will have a different dynamic next season as a side effect of having to work around/with Jennifer Garner's pregnancy. I'll definitely be watching.

The bigger question to me is how the ratings are going to do without the Lost lead-in. I'm not confident that we'll see the entire fifth season.

I disagree with Alias being a weak choice for after Lost. Now I love Lost and it is definately a stronger show this season, however these 2 shows appeal to many of the same fans. I loved that they teamed them this season and it is only going to hurt Alias next season. The last time I saw something this stupid was when the WB scheduled Angel on Sundays, ironically, against Alias. At that time, even though I had watched Angel from the start, I continued watching Alias instead and I hated missing Angel (finally catching up on DVD). With this imbecilic move they might lose me as a viewer (and I have been watching Alias since the first episode as well) since it is against The OC. Damn networks. As to Alias' quality for the past 2 seasons, I think everyone has been a little hard on it. True Season 3 faltered a little and wasn't as great as the first 2 seasons, but it was still immensely watchable. And Season 4 has climbed back up to near S1/2 level, particularly with a string of excellent eps including the Nadia episode and the entire Arvin clone storyline, but thats just my 2 cents.

Your disagreement stems from your denial that season 3 was terrible and season 4 is just average. :D

I think why he's saying it's weak is that <i>Lost</i> is (at this point) so interesting and builds such tension and anticipation that the meandering soap opera that is <i>Alias</i> just seems so damn boring when watched one after another. Frankly, I TiVo them specifically so I don't have to watch them that way. <i>Alias</i> is difficult enough to watch right now as it is. Watching something good immediately before it just makes it worse. My 2 cents. ;)

das

Exactly, das. It's hard to care about Alias after Lost. However, DVR-recorded America's Next Top Model is the PERFECT follow-up to Lost! It exercises a totally different part of the brain (i.e., none) and diffuses the tension of Lost beautifully. I highly recommend that one-two punch!