MovieChat Forums > Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) Discussion > Why Wasn't Homicide Top In Ratings?

Why Wasn't Homicide Top In Ratings?

posted 13 years ago by tammytkspr
13 replies | jump to latest

Really, with most police dramas actually faring well in the ratings, or at least doing well enough to compensate for their budget,why did Homicide struggle to find it's audience? It was spun off of a well liked novel, was constantly showcased in entertainment magazines, had cross overs with multiple shows (everyone wanted to be a part of Homicide it seems, all of the Law and Orders, even Chicago Hope and The X-Files) the cast and characters were diverse and had something and someone for everybody. So what the hell happened??????

The only thing I can recall, was most people weren't aware of the show. Friends and family members I would run into decades later, the conversation would fist start with The Wire, and that's when I would pipe in about how my favorite show, Homicide, was it's predecessor, and after I show them some episodes, they all love Homicide, and immediately it shoots to their top 5 shows of all time. Not enough advertisement? Or are TV audience as a whole, even back then, just too dumb to realize what they had?? What if NBC pushed for more Emmy and Golden Globes nods, would the show have been better received?

Or maybe the show was a little too diverse. Top rated shows that are scripted according to Nielsen's this year has been NCIS, and it's very vanilla on there. Back in it's time, E.R., Seinfeld and Friends were the tops.

PUNK ASS DECEPTICONS

[–] mollys-lips 13 years ago

This is not your mom's police procedural show. Although it was out around the same time as Law and Order and NYPD Blue this show was much more gritty than the others. And part of what you say is true...NBC DID NOT market it well. They tended to shove it in whatever timeslot was open so there wasn't much continuity in the scheduling.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mollys-lips 13 years ago

You are exactly right...as with Oz and The Wire these producers were into depicting "real Police". I loved the Night of The Living Dead!

[–] Ftaren 13 years ago

It was too smart, too well done, too realistic and too poorly marketed and supported by NBC-despite getting 7 seasons-to ever really succeed. It is a miracle that the movie got made to help wrap things up. I treasure my dvd collection. The audience was starting to favor much less intelligent fare and combined with the above, well...it didn't stand a chance in hell of becoming a major hit. Just a minor success, mostly of prestige. Oh well. Still a top 10 alltime series, for me.

[–] Saltstorm2000 11 years ago

Some factors;

1. Might have been a Baltimore thing too. I imagine procedural shows set in the likes of New York, LA & Chicago tend to fare better.

2. Another thing (memory-wise) is that no casual tv fans seem to remember it. It didnt really leave a mark on pop-culture.

3. Homicide also had a lot of black characters (both main cast and victims/murderers). Shows are generally happy to have 1-2 black cast members for token reasons, but scenes consisting of G, Pembleton & Lewis discussing something may have seemed alien to some more northern viewers.
This part of the reason The Wire wasnt that popular during its run, and why Treme is completely ignored comes awards time.

4. Exacerbating the racial ratio, the only female cast member early on was Melissa Leo, who isnt seen as particularly attractive. Similarly, there wasnt a focus on office-romance early on, and if there was romance, it was Bolander lol.

5. An episode like 'Three men and Adena' wouldnt get many viewers during prime-time, especially people who didnt see the previous episodes.

6. Some of the previously known actors that headlined this show arent heart-throbs (ie. Kotto, Beatty & Polito)

7. Homicide preceeded the HBO era, where lots of actors popped up in several different programs, creating some crossover appeal. Homicide had to fend for itself on the networks, maybe came up against juggernaut shows, and I recall it getting the friday night slot at some point.

8. We never really went home with the Homicide characters, especially early on. They are mostly enigmas outside work, unless they have a big storyline. Pembleton, who arguably gets the most screentime, is a complete enigma early on, we barely even see his wife in the first 3 seasons.

9. A lot of cynical characters, especially Munch's monologues. There was no focus on making the squad room a happy place to be, or ending episodes on a cathartic note.

10. The box. It's really the main selling point of the show, but also refused to use intuition in favour of cold, hard selling of a "product to a client with no need for it".

A lot of these factors were rectified later on to more mainstream the show. This is seen first with Polito leaving, Russert coming in, and the Russert-Beau love affair, and each 1st episode of later seasons attempts to bring the show closer to the mainstream.

Wide viewing audiences would be turned off by a lot of the above points.

[–] jackfrusciante80 11 years ago

And let us not forget what the NBC executives were quoted as saying : where are the life affirming moments ? Apparently they thought thats what people wanted to see.

[–] Noir-It-All 10 years ago

During its run on NBC, the title of the show put me off at first but then I read about the show in an issue of TV Guide about the top four detective shows of the time. The article made Homicide sound intriguing and unique which indeed it was. The show aired on Thursday or Friday nights at that point. Three fellow female congregants at my church who watched the show discussed the latest episode with me every Sunday. Some of them were in their 80's! They understood that the show followed no formula. I am watching Season 5 on YouTube now. I really must buy the DVD of the entire series.

"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne

[–] pooka5472 9 years ago

Originally, Homicide was supposed to have been scheduled in its third season at Thursdays at 10:00 PM, which, at the time, was considered one of the best time slots on the network's schedule. Unfortunately, however, ER tested so well, that the executives at ER's production company, Warner Bros. Television, campaigned NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield to give that series the prized Thursday slot.

[–] pooka5472 9 years ago

I wouldn't call the above factors "rectified". It could well have survived had it been given a better time slot, rather than the slot it actually got, Fridays at 10:00 PM opposite Nash Bridges on CBS.

[–] Petronius Arbiter II 8 years ago

Absolutely. Friday evenings are one of the absolute worst times to put a TV show. So many people out of the house when this show aired in those years meant it never caught on except among those who had seen enough episodes, usually at least two, to get a feel for the show's unique excellence.

"I don't deduce, I observe."

[–] pooka5472 8 years ago

Indeed, that's why it's frequently called the "Friday night death slot." The only exception to this rule that I can think of is ABC's long running TGIF lineup consisting of Full House, Perfect Strangers, Family Matters, and Step by Step.

[–] greenegg 8 years ago

I had a few friends who watched Homicide; several of my family members watched it, as well. The Friday time slot was a disadvantage at a time before DVRs. One could tape it with a VCR, though that sort of thing wasn't as common as it is now.

I grew up in a medium, integrated city near Philadelphia, so I'm not sure what you mean about Northern viewers being unused to black characters. I have friends who live near Baltimore. My grandfather had kept his boat at Chincoteague, VA, when I was a kid; we went to the beach at Assateague, MD, as well as traveled to Baltimore many times. Most Northeastern and North-central cities are pretty diverse. I was living in Metro NY during Homicide's run, so I often saw filming of shows such as Law & Order (multiple franchise shows), Third Watch, etc. Those shows also had integrated casts. I never thought of the racial make-up of the Homicide cast; it just seemed natural.

I've never understood the Melissa Leo isn't attractive bit. I found her gorgeous, but then I've always loved redheads. Leo did a phenomenal job as Kay Howard. Unlike all the detectives in tight outfits and heels types on other cop shows, Kay felt much more believable. Hofmann and Forbes, as well as Toni Lewis and Michael Michele were lovely women, who could also act.

Not everyone is so shallow as to demand eye candy on every show, though I found many of the actors good-looking (Braugher, Johnson, Diamond, Secor, Esposito). I also appreciated the gradual way in which the characters' home lives were revealed. That just felt like a natural progression. I adore enigmas and cynical characters, just as much as I loved all the scenes in the box.

Put puppy mills out of business: never buy dogs from pet shops! 

[–] mousalope 8 years ago

why did Homicide struggle to find it's audience?

Speaking for myself, I ignored the show for several seasons simply because I assumed it was just another formulaic cop show. Like pretty much every other cop show at the time. I just didn't care to subject myself to yet another of that sort.

I only caught the show when it was in syndication. I believe it was pre-realitry show A&E where I randomly tuned in and found the school sniper/hostage episode. The realism and across the board high quality of the show simply blew me away and I was hooked.

Sometimes general network mediocrity hides the actual quality goods from view.