Poll Results

Another high as far as voter participation with 17 votes. I asked how long it took you to decide whether you liked a new show. The question was spawned by a couple of summer series Dancing With The Stars and The Inside - both of which I like. One had stellar ratings right from the beginning, while the other hasn't seemed to have emerged from being in the dark so to speak. Why did people like one almost immediately and not pick up on the other?

Of the people who responded six of you (35%) said that it took you just a few minutes to decide. Four of you (23%) said that it took you about three episodes. Three people (17%) said that it took a couple of episodes. There was a tie for fourth with two people (11%) each saying that they needed most of an episode to decide, and that they new from the previews. Surprisingly - given what happened to House between the time that it was following Rebel Billionaire and when it was following American Idol - no one admitted to just watching whatever was on at the time.

As it happens, professional critics (which is to say people who write for newspapers and real websites, not amateur critics like me) usually get tapes or DVDs of shows, often with three episodes of a new show from which they can write a review of the series. (Of course whether a critic can make or break a series on his or her own is another question; I suspect not but it probably depends on the critic.) I do know is that before I started this blog I found myself amongst the majority who either knew from the previews or from watching a few minutes of a show. I "knew" that Seinfeld wasn't for me without watching a minute of it and it only took a few minutes of Everybody Loves Raymond to turn me off of that. However, my own personal rule for criticism is that as often as possible a critic shouldn't base his evaluation of something based on seeing part of it, and I have pretty much lived up to that standard. I give most of the shows that I've reviewed a complete episode for me to like them. The sole exception was Fire Me Please which turned me off half way through its first episode - well sooner really. So if I were to answer my own question now I'd say it takes me most of an episode to evaluate it critically - although I still probably know within a few minutes of seeing it whether I'll keep watching.

New Poll later today - once I figure out a question.