Leaving Jericho - 21 March 2008, 11:50 pm
Arabelle's Alley was born from a desire to showcase the Save Jericho campaign in May of 2007; it then evolved into an outlet for Jericho news and information.This chapter of the Jericho saga is finished. Jericho has been cancelled by the people who can't see the future so it is time for me to move on.All content will be left online for viewing but I will not continue to post. I would like to thank everyone who contributed, commented, dugg, and those who were faithful readers.JerichoMonster will remain active but, in coming weeks, will have a different look and broader scope. Jericho will continue to be a part of the Monster.My friend, Beth, and I are happy to have a new blog named Margie and Edna's Basement. Margie and Edna are fictional characters created by Beth and myself. They have lived in Jericho, Kansas all their lives but have decided it's time for them to branch out beyond their beloved town. We hope you will follow their hilarious adventures. 

Special Announcement - 21 March 2008, 5:15 am
Special announcement:We are Margie and Edna. We have lived in Jericho, Kansas all our lives but we've decided it's time for us to branch out beyond our beloved town.We'll still keep you informed of all the gossip-I mean the goings on here in town-but we're also going to talk about anything and everything else.Please visit us at our new blog: Margie and Edna's Basement.We do love having company."Fox passed CBS as the most-watched television network after its "American Idol" singing contest topped ratings and the Hollywood writers strike limited competition from scripted shows.Fox's 6.8 rating among U.S. households in primetime for the season through March 16 snatched the lead from CBS Corp., according to Nielsen Media Research. CBS has been first for five consecutive seasons, Nielsen spokesman Gary Holmes said." 

Jericho: Social Networking - 20 March 2008, 12:37 pm
"Some suggestions on how the Jericho fans could use social networking to get the word out about their show.""Endings are hard. One of the most unusual things about American television is that success equals an endlessly deferred ending, an aspect I’ve previously discussed as the “infinity model” of storytelling. In other countries, most shows have a limited term with a clear understanding that a show ending is an important part of its run. But in the U.S., most shows keep going until the ratings erode or the producers pull the plug. One of the many things to love about The Wire is that the producers had a finite scope in mind, and that HBO allowed it to play out despite weak ratings (not that HBO cares about ratings per se)." 

Season Finale ?? - 19 March 2008, 2:33 pm
"OK, here’s my immediate thoughts on tonight’s episode.First, who else noticed that at the end of the “coming next week” promo, it called it the “SEASON FINALE”??? Are they trying to tell us the good news that way or are they just trying to keep us guessing?"**** I think CBS is jerking us around.****What is a Widget?"We're talking about small, fairly straightforward applications that can run on your desktop or online: floating clock faces, scoreboards, weather monitors and so on. Think of them as miniature, portable web experiences that can be installed on your computer or -- increasingly -- embedded in MySpace or Facebook pages, in personalized home pages such as iGoogle, or on blogs." 

Marketing TV - 18 March 2008, 3:16 pm
I'm posting early today as severe storms are supposed to arrive by afternoon.++++++++++++++++++++++++++++"Wherever people of similar interests congregate marketers are soon to follow. It happened with newspapers and radio. Then in the 1960s broadcast television ushered in the great era of advertising which was followed 25 years later by the proliferation of cable programming.The requirement to segment an audience for targeting and tailoring of message is the driver of communications. Gender…cultural background…age…income…topics of interest...these demographics and considerations influence nearly $300 billion in advertising expenditures a year in the United States.""CBS' experiment with a spring season of "Big Brother" may not be attracting huge crowds, but the network wants the reality staple back for the summer.According to The Hollywood Reporter, CBS is still planning on another installment of "Big Brother" for the summer, with the show's 10th season running essentially back-to-back with the current "Big Brother: 'Til Death Do Us Part." 

Changing Television - 17 March 2008, 5:24 pm
"Television, as we know it, is changing as we know it. Think about it. Talk to anyone who was born before Television even existed and they’ll tell you how much it’s changed since its inception. Talk to anyone who was born within the last 40 years, and they’ll tell you things have changed since even they’ve been around. Color television was only introduced into households in the mid 1950’s early 1960’s, but very few shows were actually filmed and broadcast in color, though NBC’s ‘Ford Theatre’ became the first color filmed series in October 1954."" There are so many websites with LOST theories. Almost every little detail is analyzed and each time I read a new theory I discover meaning behind things I didn’t even notice.And of course no one knows if he or she is right.What we experience is, I think, one big puzzle (”Second Degree White Belt Sudoko“). So if you want to read up on some theories and have your own brilliant ideas, you absolutely need to check first “what is already know”, unfortunately that is more than a day-task. Here is a by-far-not-complete-list of 20 LOST sites that you can scan completely for info. On these sites you will find links to dozens of other (official) LOST sites and communities." 

Nutty Nielsens - 16 March 2008, 4:31 pm
More on Nutty Nielsen ratings."Nielsen recently announced time frames for two major data initiatives, including a new "enhanced weighting" procedure that has the potential of generating differences in ratings estimates effective with the next television season. Nielsen said it will revise the algorithms it uses to weight national ratings beginning in September 2008, and that the revision would likely have an effect on both program and average commercial minute audience estimates."+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++"Nielsen's calculation systems are so complex, especially since they've weighted people in the database so that a person is not a simple person. A person is 1.1 on one day and 1.5 on another day," Brooks explains, adding, "Therefore, when they do multiple calculations they run the risk that people who were heavily weighted in the 'live' sample, may not be in the playback sample." 

Nielsen Out-Of-Home - 15 March 2008, 7:57 pm
"The Nielsen Co. has begun to get some traction for its newest research services that are designed to analyze TV viewing beyond the traditional home-bound TV screen. In a first-of-its kind agreement announced Thursday, Zenith Media Services has signed for three new Nielsen services, becoming the first subscriber to the Nielsen Out-of-Home Report.Set to launch next month, the Out-of-Home Report is a joint service of Nielsen and Integrated Media Measurement that uses a cell phone-based methodology to track TV viewing outside the home in bars, hotels, airports and other locations. ""Most Lost fans have a favorite character, or even a few favorites. Now all of the Locke fans, Kate admirers, and Ben disciples can settle their differences--March Madness-style. Since March 7th, the Washington Post has been hosting Lost Madness, a bracket-like poll to determine the best all-time Lost character." 

Lost and Moonves - 14 March 2008, 7:59 pm
Thanks, Amy, for the Lost recap."So more lies and more coverups, people. Some are speculating that maybe Jin is still back on the island, presumably with the other survivors, but given that this gravesite visit was a private one, I’m guessing that Jin is really, truly dead in the future.The question is: What happened to him? And why did Sun have to lie about him dying in the crash?And, oh yeah, WHO THE HECK ROUNDS OUT THE SIXERS?!? Is it indeed Claire’s son, Aaron? Or were the writers teasing us, and is another member yet to be revealed? Producers Cuse and Lindeoff have some explaining to do…""Speaking at the Bear Stearns Media conference in Palm Beach, Fla., CBS CEO Les Moonves said he's surprised by Rupert Murdoch's slowdown comments. If CBS has seen any ad sales drop, he says, it's been offset by political spending.On the eve of the Hulu launch, Les also criticized his competitors' attempts to go online, though he didn't call anyone out by name. He said he doesn't want to see just a regurgitation of programming on the Web. CBS should put interactive programming on the Web, not just replays of TV shows. This sounds an awful lot like what CBS digital boss Quincy Smith has been saying.Three to four years from now we'll have $750 million in digital revenue primarily from CBS properties spread out across the Internet. Online is going to grow in leaps and bounds, but certain things work better in certain mediums. Says he doesn't want the Internet to just be TV on a smaller screen.Psychologically people are saying that Showtime is the new HBO." 

Charter Goes Nielsen - 13 March 2008, 5:58 pm
"The Nielsen Co. has struck a deal with Charter Communications to analyze set-top box data from 330,000 homes in the Los Angeles area, the parties said today.Nielsen has similar agreements with other undisclosed MSOs but the Charter deal goes a step further in that it licenses the ratings company to also create ratings reports from the data that it can then sell to clients. Nielsen said such reports would be available to clients starting in the second quarter of 2008. Adweek is a unit of Nielsen.Charter struck a similar deal in November 2006 with Nielsen competitor TNS Media Research, which sells reports based on the Charter set-top box data to clients via a syndicated package it calls TotalView. Publicis Groupe's Starcom was the first media agency to sign up and other buyers and sellers of TV time have signed up since then.Set-top box viewing data has attracted a lot of interest from agencies and their clients who are looking for more detailed analyses about the TV viewing patterns of the consumers they reach with ads. Set-top box data has the potential to offer more detail because it offers a second-by-second look at how viewers watch, as opposed to the minute-by-minute view offered by the current Nielsen national ratings service."