Program Schedule Consistency

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Kunmui

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Is anyone else getting frustrated at how inconsistent schedules are on most channels?

Cartoon Network, Syfy, Nick Toons, DX among others just to be having nothing but trouble having anything remotely resembling a consistent schedule.

I understand that Marathons bring in ratings, I understand that replaying a new show over and over builds interest but much of what these networks are doing has been on the air now a few months.

I am starting to wonder if Adult Swim and Boomerang are the only channels that know the term "consistency" :shrug:.
 
Cartoon Network (which includes their Adult Swim block...and I don't want to debate the issue) is of course the worst offender. OTOH, (and FWIW), the other networks you mentioned are not nearly as bad about it. "Programming.." is of course "...subject to change without notice", but the rule is that this only happens rarely, and usually because of unforseen circumstances. TOON/AS is the exception, as it happens much too frequently for this to apply; this even happens to the point where a schedule will say one thing is airing, but something else airs instead (e.g., The Garfield Show was supposed to premiere this past October, but "Foster's..." aired instead). Perhaps the worst example of this was when .hack//ROOTS just...RANDOMLY premiered one day with no news of its acquisition, let alone its broadcast, AND there was no advertising for the show either.

Off hand, I can't think of any other networks like this, but IMO, no one should have to. Schedule inconsistancies are the result of lack of professionalism, and us viewers shouldn't have to "suffer" because of it.
 
No, I meant DX as in Disney DX.

FX is an offender of bad scheduling too though.



Adult Swim really isn't bad consistency. I just don't like how the network completely moved away from anime.

From my experience, CN, DX, Nick Toons, Syfy, Spike and I'm sure many other networks just don't have any kind of consistency to their schedule.

Theres a couple of good examples over the last few months. Lets take one of Nick Toons major programs, Wolverine and the X-Men. I want to be able to tune in and watch the premier when they claimed they were running for quiet a while, 11P on Fridays. The network is plastered with the series and premiers are getting woven in and out with no rhyme or rhythm.

Disney seems to be taking the same approach with Spectacular Spiderman even though the premier is supposed to be on before Naruto.

Spike and Syfy have been driving me nuts with Star Trek. They have a fixed time slot for Enterprise and Voyager respectively but they'll pre-emp it at the drop of a dime. In both channel's cases, its usually because of something else thats been in re-run for ages, such as some random CSI or Star Gate marathon.

I really dont know about anyone else, but it seems to be the only way consumers can actually watch waht they want to watch anymore is either:

#1.) Tivo it
#2.) Steam it / On Demand it (Provided you can)
#3.) Pirate it
 
Program scheduling is always changing, but the reason such inconsistency annoys me is because it means premiere inconsistency. I miss so many premieres because channels will spread a season across a year or more to save money or because they make a mistake. How am I supposed to watch a channels shows when I don't know when they're on? It's frustrating.
 
I wish that some channels like CN have a more consistant schedule. Like they can have two schedules, one for weekdays and one for weekends with minor variations such as Har Har Tharsdays and then change them once every couple of months.
 
In my perfect world, save special events, (Thanksgiving, Xmas etc) schedules would be largely frozen for 3 month periods.

It seems like only Boomerang and Adult Swim are like that currently and likely because William Street probably does the programming for both.

Heck, even networks like Comedy Central which used to be solid consistent on Daily Show, the Colbert Report and South Park now is also becoming very unpredictable.

To qualify it a little more, I really dont care if a network chooses to have something in their rotation when they say "Ok, we have Marathons this day and Movies on that day", but it's just not predictable like that anymore.

Sci-Fi used to have daily marathons of a given series between 8 - 4 every day. They still do it, but theres no rhyme or rythum to what days they do it on anymore.

It's just rather annoying =(
 
Well Disney XDs a newer channel so i guess they're experimenting with the schedule to see what works. As for Cartoonnetwork they're just lost.
 
Marathons used to be special, meant to grab maximum ratings. Now, networks like CN, DXD, and Nick run marathons on a regular basis because their programmers are too lazy to actually bother with a regular, cohesive, consistent schedule. The suits want the ratings and the ad revenue that goes along with it, and to blazes with the people that actually care about how a network should actually serve the public interest!
 
I think it's quite annoying these days that certain shows get their seasons aired in its entirety in other countries, but here in America, were forced to sit through the whole on again-off again scheduling of the TV networks, for whatever reason I've still yet to figure out. I know this happened with Avatar & Wolverine & the X-men off the top of my head.

Honesty, it's really difficult to stay attached to a show when new episodes only come a handful at a time & we are bombarded with reruns of the same 5-6 episodes during the wait. I remember KidsWB used to be the worst offeneder back then. If you only knew how many times I got excited to watch Superman only to catch the "My Girl" episode (That one with Lana Lang) nearly every time I got a chance to watch it. :shrug:
 
Another method that works is to watch the show on DVD, provided that there's any DVDs released to said show. The other methods work too, but I don't recommend method #3, since that's illegal.

Anyway, I don't watch much TV through cable/satellite, since I think that TV is lacking variety these days. Heck, it probably won't be that big of a deal to me, if my parents ever decide to cancel our Direct TV service.

Most of my TV viewing comes from my DVD collection and Netflix.
 
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