Preliminary numbers indicate at least 9.1 million people watched the debut of Halle Berry's Extant on CBS last night.
The show means, for this community, the Whitney bloggers return to ensure that men who hate women for sport don't get to define a show with their own personal bias and hatred passed off as criticism. Betty's "Halle's Extant," Marcia's "Extant" and Ann's "Extant" are the first in many posts the three women plan to write about the show this summer.
If you missed the show or would like to see the first episode again, CBS currently is streaming it at the show's webpage. However, it's CBS. A friend (at CBS) asked me to note it and I immediately asked, "Are you going to stream the entire show?"
If you're late to the party, CBS hasn't yet made it into the 21st century.
For example, they've angered Big Brother fans (I don't know if this has been covered, I don't watch Big Brother, or follow coverage of it, I heard about this sour reaction from the CBS friend) by pulling all past episodes off iTunes and Amazon.
It's not like they're physically shipping the episodes. It made no sense to pull them -- but it has angered viewers and maybe that explains the hostility to Big Brother this summer.
Last summer, with Under The Dome, they had a hit. They were going to keep it online. Not the entire serious but four or so of the most recent episodes.
And everyone was happy and streaming -- some new viewers learning about the show, some viewers who watched at night on TV and streamed to get further into the Under The Dome experience.
And when they were thinking of pulling it, I told three suits at CBS that they would be making a mistake.
They didn't want to listen, they never do.
Almost immediately, strong reaction to the show went soft.
They alienated viewers.
The easiest way for the suits to understand the change in viewership is to grasp that TV shows are now treated the way songs were when the suits were kids.
Fans want to hear their songs when they want to. Not just at a certain time.
Allowing them to watch as they please builds the bond between the show and the audience.
That makes them more dedicated viewers.
CBS is the penny pinching network. They destroy goodwill repeatedly with decisions based on, "If they love watching it whenever, let's pull the streaming and then they'll be forced to watch it Wednesday nights! We'll be adding more TV viewers!"
No, they won't be.
Some current viewers will just be ticked off and write the show off.
Some will continue to watch but the experience has turned negative and so will their opinion of the show.
CBS is an idiot network. They at least have artistic taste which is why they're not in the ratings dump that NBC is. But they don't understand the world they're living in.
Extant, Under The Dome, Reckless and Unforgettable should be used repeatedly and regularly -- on TV and streaming at the CBS website -- to promote fall offerings. Stop being so greedy and be grateful you have an audience to roll out your fall programming to. Build interest in that and keep the shows online.
Anyway . . .
halle berry
extant
cbs
