'Californication' Renewed


by Paul William Tenny

californication.jpgDavid Duchovny's new series on Showtime has been renewed for a second season, according to early-morning news from Variety. I've seen a lot of criticism of this series from professional writers, especially right after it debuted, but apparently it has been playing better with regular viewers than it has with Hollywood scribes.

After a strong debut last month, "Californication" has impressed Showtime execs by adding viewers. Its last three Monday premiere telecasts have averaged 18% more viewers than the show's Aug. 13 debut, scoring Showtime's best ratings for a new series since 2004.

As Variety says, Showtime has to be really pleased with this. While 2 million viewers may not sound like very much, apparently it's pretty good for pay-cable, and is matching up very well with Weeds, which set a series-record with its (third?) season debut a few weeks ago.

I'd like to note that this early on, the big networks would never renew for a full season - they don't have the guts. They order six to production and scripts for six more. If the show does well, they order six more. If those do well, they order the second half of the season and then sit on their hands until the upfronts. Personally I think that system is about as self-destructive to fostering creativity for your own shows as you could possibly get. Rewarding people for a job well done early is the best thing you could do if you want them to keep it up over the long haul.
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3 Comments

Adam Hobson
September 7, 2007 11:21 AM | Reply
I'm still not sure what to make of Californication. I only started watching it because I had nothing better to do after watching Weeds. I keep coming back for more, but I'm not sure if that is because it is actually good, or just because Duchovny is an enjoyable actor, plus all the naked women.

Also, you need a better captcha. This is now my third time trying to post this.
Paul William Tenny Author Profile Page
September 7, 2007 11:27 AM | Reply
I'd like to watch both shows but there's only so much money in the world and Showtime just doesn't offer enough to warrant the extra cost. Maybe I'll download an episode or two if they show up on Amazon Unbox.

As for the captcha, I'll turn it off and see how it goes. If the attempts at comment spam are anything like the amount of trackback spam I'm getting, it's going right back on though. I don't have the interest in hand moderating 50 a day.

Are either shows worth paying individually to check out? I'd never had much of an interest in weeds until I pissed off the creator, now I'd kind of like to see what all the noise is about.
Adam Hobson
September 7, 2007 12:41 PM | Reply
I used to really like Weeds, but since the last few episodes of season two and all of season three, it is doing too much crappy drama/suspense and not enough comedy. I can recommend all of season one and most of season two. They also aren't all that expensive on DVD either.

Californication, I just don't know... I'll keep watching it for now, but I can't recommend it yet.

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