Joxerfan found this blurb and it has me puzzling what specifically Eick is referrring to, if anything specific, (season and plot ideas).
"And...a fascinating comment from Rob Tapert's former protege, David Eick, now Exec. Producer of "Battlestar Galactica," from SciFi Wire:
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This is the broadband age and it's harder and harder to find any time or place where you don't have immediate access to the world's information and opinions which may not necessarily be a good thing. Having a little time and distance away from something before judging it is often a much closer barometer of the thing's value (or non-value) than knee-jerk reactions, and so I tend to take most of what I hear and read with a grain of salt. If I'm told there is a definite trend a great number of bulletin boarders loving something or hating something then I might check in to see what all the fuss is about.
But I'm reminded of the early days of the Internet craze. We were doing Hercules and Xena at Renaissance Pictures, and reading fan opinions on bulletin boards was a big novelty. But then we all freaked out the fans seemed to love certain things that surprised us, hated things we thought they'd love ... and so we began correcting. Adjusting. Allowing the boards to influence how the shows were written and produced.
About a month later, the fans seemed to be in ecstasy they loved everything, they felt heard, they felt a part of the process. In the meantime, our ratings were nose-diving I remember drop-offs in our Nielsen numbers that were unparalleled. To this day, I wonder if those shows might've lasted another season or two had we not overcorrected and in the process marginalized their appeal. We often forget that the vastly larger percentage of "the fans" never bother to offer their opinions on the Internet, and so as showmakers we're wise to be careful how much, or little, we allow ourselves to be influenced by vox populi.
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If Steve Sears is hanging around, we'd love to hear his thoughts on this.
"You were right Gabrielle, I do have a soft spot for bad boys."
"And...a fascinating comment from Rob Tapert's former protege, David Eick, now Exec. Producer of "Battlestar Galactica," from SciFi Wire:
Quote:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the broadband age and it's harder and harder to find any time or place where you don't have immediate access to the world's information and opinions which may not necessarily be a good thing. Having a little time and distance away from something before judging it is often a much closer barometer of the thing's value (or non-value) than knee-jerk reactions, and so I tend to take most of what I hear and read with a grain of salt. If I'm told there is a definite trend a great number of bulletin boarders loving something or hating something then I might check in to see what all the fuss is about.
But I'm reminded of the early days of the Internet craze. We were doing Hercules and Xena at Renaissance Pictures, and reading fan opinions on bulletin boards was a big novelty. But then we all freaked out the fans seemed to love certain things that surprised us, hated things we thought they'd love ... and so we began correcting. Adjusting. Allowing the boards to influence how the shows were written and produced.
About a month later, the fans seemed to be in ecstasy they loved everything, they felt heard, they felt a part of the process. In the meantime, our ratings were nose-diving I remember drop-offs in our Nielsen numbers that were unparalleled. To this day, I wonder if those shows might've lasted another season or two had we not overcorrected and in the process marginalized their appeal. We often forget that the vastly larger percentage of "the fans" never bother to offer their opinions on the Internet, and so as showmakers we're wise to be careful how much, or little, we allow ourselves to be influenced by vox populi.
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If Steve Sears is hanging around, we'd love to hear his thoughts on this.
"You were right Gabrielle, I do have a soft spot for bad boys."
It just sounds too nave to make sense to me. 
As I said, its hard for me to believe that producers actually do that.
