Agreed, Queenbess, wrighty and Lilygil! But Al & Miles will never understand that. It reminds me of the Simpsons-in-Australia episode where Marge tries to order coffee but the bartender keeps hearing "beer." (Marge: Cof-fee? Bartender: "Bee-eeer?") The SV equivalent is:

Fans: we want more Superman mythology!
Al/Miles: Lana?

Fans: No, more interesting DC canon characters like Flash!
Al/Miles: Lana?

Fans: Or more exciting action scenes where Clark acts like the future Superman and saves people!
Al/Miles: Laa-naa!

Fans: Or at least more scenes with Lex and Brainiac? Like a Lex-iac throwdown?
Al/Miles: A throwdown about Lana!

Fans: No, no, no, no!
Al/Miles: Lana?

(My boyfriend watched exactly two minutes of "Fragile" before stalking off to the other TV and the hockey game. "Call me if Brainiac comes on...." If he represents the casual viewer, yes, SV is in trouble.)

I agree, Bad Toad. Many are the nights when Mr. kdsch123 asks: "I thought this was about Superman." during a Lana scene (or episode, like last week.) We started watching because of young Clark Kent and young Lex Luthor. I stayed because I liked some of the dramas, but Mr. kdsch123 - well, he's a season premiere and finale sort of guy. More action - and I think I'm not wrong in assuming that if the show was a little more 'comic book", their ratings might increase. But, what do I know? I'm just a nursing student/phlebotomist, not a network exec, producer or writer.

I agree with queenbess. I don't think Clana is the problem either. I bitched about Clana for 4 whole seasons, mainly because they were doing the 'She loves me, she loves me not' aspect of it. It gave off Ross-Rachel vibes, and I didn't like it one bit.

Season 5 was such a huge relief because they finally seemed like they were doing something right. Clana was angst-free (for the majority of the time, at least) and people liked it. Hell, I, somebody who hates Clana with all my heart, found it pretty cute and sweet. So yeah, I don't think Clana romancing is the problem either. Its when they start the whole love triangle thingy that things go down the drain.

You know, I think Lexana has gone on ok so far. People still hate it and are grossed out by it, but I think the major Lexana-dissing will start when Clark gets pulled into this. Clexana is not gonna be tolerable - I can feel the impending doom. Love triangles don't work all the time, AlMiles. Especially when they have Lana in the middle. Bye-bye ratings.



Kingbess is a smart, smart man. ;)

ETA: Durq, you'd think we'd all be sick and tired of the AlMiles/Lana jokes by now, but they Never. Get. Old!! This one is priceless! ;)

And damn it, you guys type fast! :P

See, I think the Clark/Maddie stuff would appeal to the more family oriented SV viewers, and there are a lot of them. But they didn't promote this episode on that *at all*. Would anyone going into this one think they were getting an episode that was 80% sweet, compassionate (dare I say Superman-ish) Clark with a little girl? Every single still of the show was Lex/Lana.

Exactly, BadToad. Neither Kingbess (card carrying comics geek) nor I (comics geek to a lesser extent) mind the romance. In fact, we actually enjoy the chemistry that Tom and Kristin have onscreen. But we never wanted it to be the focus of the show.

I mean, shouldn't all of these characters be a little bit beyond all of this trivial bullshit by now after having dealt with all the huge, dramatic events that they have? And why do I want to see Clark and Lana give each other the sad puppy eyes for the umpteen thousandth time? Just put them together, leave them together, have Lana learn the Secret, and put the focus of the conflict where it belongs, like on Clark saving the world from an alien supercomputer and his villainous human partner.

Okay, so last week Smallville received 4.2 million in the final ratings? I checked at mediaweek. Last week, Smallville received a 3.4/5 according to its HH scale. This week, while Supernatural remained the same, Smallville received a 3.1/5. Is that going to dip it under the 4 million mark? No wonder Supernatural's retention rates are looking so good. Its remaining steady at a little over 3 1/2 million in the 9 o'clock death slot against CSI and the (IMO god awful) O.C., while Smallville is falling.

Get rid of Lana. I'm sorry to be mean. Nothing personal against Ms. Kreuk, but Lana has to go.

I just don't like seeing Lex Luthor and Superman being sacrificed to prop up someone who's just the girl who is left behind. The Helen of Troy thing has never worked.

Lana Lang is like viewer Kryptonite. Turning this show into "Lanaville" always spells disastrous ratings. They need to stop advertising "Lexana" as their main draw and start utilizing the storylines that people are actually interested in, ie., Milton Fine/Brainiac, Superman mythos, DC characters, etc.

Seriously. I don't get it. The 'Hypnotic' trailers were all about the Clark/Simone make-out session. Nada about Brainiac or Lex or Honduras. I think the entire Brainiac plot trailer came out a day or two before the episode aired. I can think of a lot of people who would've gone, "Ah, crap. Its the same old angsty bullshit again. I think I'll skip this one." And the sad part about that is that there was a pretty great Brainiac/Lex plot going on in that episode, that people would've definitely tuned in for, had it been advertised properly. And 'Fragile' was all about Lexana. Hello? What happened to the A-plot? Or was the Lexana it?

What is it with these people? Do they not know how to prioritize? :-/

This is why a real life fan I once talked to strongly believe that someone high up insists on pimping KK no matter how much it hurts the show.

Thank you for the numbers, queenbess. I wish the eppy did better too. I don't want to say it's because of Lex/Lana :(, but I do think it's a good idea for them to promote all the storylines. I thought the trailer from "Void" was very good, showing clips from all three shows to come. I'd also like for them to show more of Fine and Lex!, like the AOL promo at the end of "Fragile" - something like that. Maybe we'll see more. Hopefully, and maybe they can start with the promos for the season finale as well. How early did they start promoting "Reckoning"? If they go by the same timetable, maybe we're close to getting finale promos too. Michael in his Adam Carolla interview said to watch the finale, that it would be big. So, maybe it will start soon - and more people will find their way back. I hope so. Come back! :)

And see, I think they made a huge, major mistake with this promo in 2 areas...1. starting if off with Clark moping that Lana won't talk to him anymore, and 2. Ending it with Lex/Lana kissing. Basically, bookending this whole promo with "Clexana Angst!". Huge, huge fucking turn-off.

Simply put...Because she is the one that gets the make-up commercials. She's visible beyond Smallville. That's why they do it.

Well the finale will draw big because something tells me we are getting the Superman returns trailer at the end of the show(ala Batman). There should have been a new trailer by now but holding it off until the beginning of may coincides with Smallville's season finale. I mean there has been nothing in the news about when the new trailer is coming out so me thinks they are waiting. It's not like people don't know there is a Superman movie coming. So delaying a bit doesn't really hurt them.

I have a question, based solely upon the episodes shown thus far and the promos (no online spoilers) what would you be excitedly anticpating for the upcoming episodes?

Anything? It's not a rhetorical question. Based upon what the WB is putting out, I honestly don't see anything exciting about the upcoming episodes. What are they pimping? The only thing I can see is Lex/Lana/Clark angst. Maybe others see it differently.

The season started with Jor-el, the FOS, the Daily Planet, the ship, Brainiac, a Zod mention, Chloe finally telling Clark she knows, some is going to die, Clana finally getting together, Clex finally breaking up for good...things were finally happening. Since Reckoning, I don't see any big build up to anything and that more than anything I think is to blame for the ratings decline. Nothing seems to be moving forward storywise in any significant way except for Lexana. They aren't even using any gimmicks anymore like pimping the heck out of this episode as TW's directing debut.

BTW, I'm sorry for TW that his episode will likely be one of the lowest rated. I don't think it is a reflection on the job he did. He was pretty good, especially for a novice.

If that 3.1/5 from mediaweek holds up, it is the lowest rated.

Oh, viola, I don't think the low ratings lie solely at the feet of Lex/Lana, but just romantic angst in general. It's beyond old. I couldn't agree more with all those who have said that the promos need to be more properly focused on the mythology stuff that's upcoming.

Given the name of this thread, I hope TW won't be too upset about the ratings. After all, ratings are no indication of quality.

Exactly. And I think after 4 and a half years of Smallville, TW must know how much of the ratings to take seriously. Well, at least I hope he does, 'cuz I wouldn't want something like ratings to deter him from directing in the future.

Good actor and decent director. And a knock-out in the looks section. What are the odds? ;)

I know I don't, but I think that might be b/c, for me, I'm so distracted and annoyed by this stupid, contrived triangle, I can't see the forest for the trees. It is so damned unnecessary. I've been upbeat about the show all year, and Lexana+Clark angst comes along and the air totally went out of my balloon. I want to get excited about the Lionel stuff, and Brainiac, and the virus. But I just sit here dreading how much muck they're going to drag Clark, and to a lesser extent, Lex through so they can get their big angsty triangle. And the worst part of it is that I think the Clana has been beat to death, and I think the Lexana is forced and creepy.

Hi queenbess. Oh no, I know - aw, thanks. IA; I wish the show would promote a bunch of storylines, and then everyone (hopefully) would tune if for what they're interested in. I think that's awesome marketing; I wish someone in the promo department would bring it up at a meeting or something *lol*. I can't wait to see a finale promo. I'm psyched, and hope that by the time the finale airs, fans will have returned. I think it's going to be so good. I have my fingers crossed! :)


Me too. I hope he knows how much people liked what he did. I thought it looked beautiful and I loved the movement of certain scenes. He had the camera moving, which is one of the reasons why I find "Commencement" so good - I love how that eppy moves. Like in the mansion scene with Lex and Lionel, after Lionel gets zapped by the stone. When MR is kneeling next to him, he's not moving, but the camera is. I love it! And in "Fragile", I thought it was really nice, when Clark and Maddie first visit the barn, and the camera is following them and then swings around I believe, to get to another side of Clark. Very nice. Go TW!


Me too. I want him to direct again, and when he does, I hope the promo department shouts it so that everyone knows.

ETA: typos (found late!) *g*

What I wonder is how the deflating ratings for SV are going to affect Aqualad. I can't imagine that a lot of the people disgruntled with SV are going to give Aqualad a shot and Aqualad isn't as huge as Superman is.

I've thought from the very beginning that making an Aquaman series is a big mistake. A one off appearance on Smallville that did well doesn't necessarily provide material for a whole series. Aquaman just isn't popular enough. It's not a wise decision. Bedford Diaries and Pepper Dennis both bombed. The track record for new series isn't good.

Never mind Clana, maybe the poor ratings are down to lack of Clex? I bet if they started really playing up the enemies vibe in trailers and promotion, it would help. Casual viewers are more likely to get invested in talk of a legendary friendship hitting the rocks, maybe clips of Clex fights in Mortal, Splinter, and Hypotic to make one super-cool trailer. And then actually have the two of them on screen together to really play up the angst and hatred of the rift

Season 5 is supposed to be the big mythology season, and both the last two episodes have lacked Clex again. Clana wasn't the only couple that featured more in the first half of season 5. Clark and Lex were getting up to two scenes an episode to share on average (Aqua, Exposed, Mortal). Now they've been forgotten yet again, when they could draw in comic book fans just as much as Brainiac

Hiatuses are HORRIBLE for the WB. They need to do something about it and FAST.



Word. This is the kind of episode that I know my aunt and uncle would love to show to their kids. Forget the Lexana kiss crap. That is NOT what people want to see. They want to see Clark acting like Supes, Lex on the path of becoming a great evil villan, a non-angsty but not dominant romance, and just plain ol' good storytelling.



The ONLY thing I saw appealing was Clark visiting his father's grave because I thought it was a nice touch. Even then, he was talking about Lana. The WB promos department is doing an absolutely DREADFUL job of promoting SV. Is this some sort of self-sabatoge? Have they all just thrown their hands up in the air because the WB will be no more in the fall? I'm just...fustrated.



So much WORD. The only thing that is remotely exciting about it is the Chlark will become closer because of this (not necessarily talking about romance).



Heeee. So true, romantic idiot. I'd take lesser ratings and a better quality episode over a higher rated bad quality episode. TW knows he did a good job.



The best quality episodes since Reckoning have been Vengeance and Cyborg, IMO.

Fragile was a great Clark episode, though.

They need to hire the promo people for Supernatural. The promo for its final three episodes was absolutely terrific, piquing the viewers' interest. Supernatural gained from last week in the 18-49 demographic and in total viewers, while airing in the 9 p.m. death slot. Smallville looks to have lost total viewers (.3 of a ratings point) and lost in the 18-49 demographic (.1 of a point). If that trend continues at this pace, Smallville will end up with lower numbers than its lead out 2 weeks from now. It shouldn't be that way, but Smallville isn't putting out its best material after the episode in which Jonathan died while SN gains steam and improves its quality. At least its PTB can put an exciting promo together. Smallville was excellent like that once. Before it became the Lana show.

How would you feel about Lana as a non-objective for romance? But then, what could she possibly do in the meantime? Become independent? I think we could count the minutes of her independence on one hand. Hm, well, no, I don't see any fingers moving out of the fist here...

Their version of romance IS angst.

Yes it is, because it's all about angst, inescapable angst.

I find them boring together, but truly insufferable when they're angsting. So, from that view, yeah, it was a relative relief. :\

And Lana's big OMG. Yeah, I mean, if they'd promoted Lex and Finiac heavily, people might come away bitching that he was really only in 5 minutes of the episode, but at least maybe they'd watch to find that out. Will they even bother when they only see Clexana in the trailers?

From Hypnotic:

Lex: "I know who you really are."
Fine: ...*spike*

That would've been a fun clip to see in a trailer.

Yeah I'll agree. Although for me the previews for SN always look better than the actual episode. It's always nice when a preview foreshadows the coming of return of the ubervillian, the one that's more difficult to defeat than the freak of the week.

I really hated the recent batch of episodes and I'm not suprised the ratings are down.

Perhaps, but KK hasn't done a make-up commercial in, what, 3 years? She doesn't make herself all that visible, she's not out being seen like others who bank on their look and are heavily promoted by networks. She's not dropping in on Modern Men or Living with Fran. She doesn't do talk shows, lives quietly enough to stay out of the tabloids, and she seems to be a grudger when it comes to doing photo shoots.

Which means she's not feeding the brazier of popularity. She seems to be dropping on the hot lists in the men's magazines as well, probably because it's been years since she was in a photo session they'd like to publish. Like the Arena deal that made her cry.

She's done a minor cameo in one movie and will soon be starring in another. She seems to be treating the period piece like her chance to be taken seriously, but I'm doubtful it's going to make her a bigger "thing."

Anyway, since she's not too keen on competing for the crown (your clever term here), I wish the promo departments or the DOMOS could give up on it. I wish they would put more emphasis on the ensemble and mytharcs. Surely they can find more impressive crises to make hysterical promos out of than "OMG! Clark kissed another girl! Lana's dating Lex Luthor!"

How about a promo where Lionel says, "I have returned." Well, at least AOL is wisely utilizing Finiac for their promotion.

That's what I was thinking lol. Partly because of Clark and Lana's personaltiies when they get together, the hamster wheel of repetition and angst simply sums up all that Clana has been for four seasons. Early season 5 was refreshing in that it actually wrote the two of them as a happy normal couple for a few episodes, but then it's back to Lana again accusing Clark of secrets, Clark not wanting sex, taking two or three times for the break-up to stick.

I mean I'd like Clana, except for the loft conversations going in circles, but then that means I actually don't care for that couple at all. Saying you like Clana without the secretch and lieth angsting, and never making a decision to just do anything (whether date in season 2, or break up in season 5) surely means you don't actually like Clana because that is pretty much all Clana is

Well YMMV...

I blame the promos. All the episode promos since the hiatus has been Lana, Lana, Lana.

Hypnotic: Clark making out with HH with Lana going "Oh god".

Void: Lana with her parents

Fragile: Lana charging into Lex and giving him a kiss.

Here's what I want to see in a episode preview;

Promo Guy: Next Thursday......

Clark: He's back!

*Shot of Fine eyejaculating*

Promo Guy: In the season finale of Smallville....

Chloe: Clark you can't take him on alone, it's suicide!

*cut to*

Lex: Where's Lana?!

Lionel: What makes you think I know where she is? *smile of bastardtude*

*cut to FoS*

Fine: We meet again, Jor-El. Eyejaculates and destroys FoS

*Cut to*

Promo Guy: The Unthinkable Happens!

Clark: Chloe, it's the only way...

Chloe: CLARK NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

VESSEL! 5.11.2006! The WB!

Oh dear God! I saw 'HH' and immediately thought Holly Harold. Then I read the rest of the sentence keeping her in mind. Ew. So ew.

Anyways, I have hope for the season finale. They almost always bring in all the characters in the end for the big cliffhanger, and I'm pretty sure they'll give us glimpses of what each character is upto in the promos. It'll add to the tension and make a super-cool finale trailer.

Or maybe I'm just entirely too optimistic.

And the geniuses at the WB don't have a link to promote the AOL blog. I went to the WB looking for a direct link because I figured it'd be easier than than trying to navigate AOL's unfamiliar landscape. Wrong! There's nothing on the WB pages about it. I also noticed that a lot of the WB content hasn't been updated since last season.

Don't worry, because that's exactly what I thought. Thank God I kept reading the sentence.

According to kryptonsite the ratings for Fragile are 3.1/5. Does that make it the lowest rated SV episode ever?

Unfortunately I believe it does.

Awww. That's so sad. I really wanted for Tom's episode to do well in the ratings department. :(

Anyway, I hope he doesn't place too much importance on this. He did a pretty decent job for his first time, and he should definitely think about directing some more. :)

It's not Tom's fault TPTB won't get rid of Lana and focus more on Clark/Lex antagonism and the Marvel characters.

You mean DC characters.

Whoops. I'm not well versed in comic lore. I just remember thinking this show was kind of clever once upon a time. That was a while ago. I grew weary of the whining girl very quickly.

Understandable. Other than Batman, I'm not really into DC comics. Marvel is my genre. But like you, I didn't get into this show for Lanaville.

The only way I think it would be a problem would be if it's at regular ratings for the first minute and once they showed that "This is Tom Welling's directorial debut" promo, that's when "lightning hit the transmitter."

Every single piece of advertising for this episode focused on one thing, and one thing *only*, Lexana. I really think the ratings speak for themselves. They might have done better to more heavily promote TW's directing debut. Or at the very least diversify their advertising of this episode.

I highly doubt Lexana was what the majority of the viewers waited to see.

norahcynthia - It's too soon to know. Both "Hypnotic" and "Void" came in with 3.4/5 but the viewers were vastly different. Hypnotic had 4.8 million, Void had 4.2 million. As I've mentioned before, the final numbers don't come out immediately and they can paint a different story if a major market included in the fast national or overnights preempted a show for some reason which can skew the results. But, to compare, here are some final numbers for episodes from last season:

11.Unsafe......... final number 4.2 million viewers.
16. Lucy.............. final number 4.5 million viewers.
17. Onyx........... final number 3.9 million viewers.
21. Forever........final number 4.0million viewers.

Now AlMiles will think the ratings dropped because of the Clana breakup.

LilyGil, I doubt Smallville will end up with lower numbers than Supernatural. With the higher numbers that Wb's shows recieved this Monday I expect the ratings woes for all the Wb shows especially Smallville to get better. I expect Smallville to return to the numbers it got from when it returned from hiatus and I expect it to grow back to its pre-hiatus numbers. I really do think Smallville will grow but I am not so sure about Supernatural. The first time they aired new episodes together they did not seem to have that much compatibility. With that said I expect Smallville to recover this Thursday while I think Supernatural will remain with the same low numbers.

Tiablue - Why do you expect Smallville's ratings to go back up? I noticed that all the ratings for last Thursday night were down (people were probably traveling on Thursday to take advantage of the long holiday weekend) so that's probably a good bet. However, you specifically mentioned Monday night ratings on the Wb went back up. Are you attributing the decline in Smallville ratings to something on the network level, and if so, what?

The final numbers for last week are finally up at abcmedianet.com. The final numbers for Smallville had better go up. They keep going down down down.

abcmedianet.com

Final number of viewers for Smallville was 3,940,000. That's definitely a season low. It may tie for a series low. Gilmore Girls also decreased slightly from last week. Its final numbers were 4,130,000. Supernatural's were 3,620,000 with St. Louis preempted for hockey. Everwood's were 3,630,000 with no preemptions, so its basically in a dead heat with Supernatural. Nobody is going gangbusters at this point. Supernatural's numbers since it came back from hiatus March 30 have been right at the same place--3.59 million, 3.67 million, and 3.6 million last week. People are taping Supernatural and watching CSI. Moving to Thursday was supposed to help Supernatural with the "compatible" Smallville lead in, but Supernatural earned higher numbers after "incompatible" lead in Gilmore Girls. So much for the genius of the network bean counters and planners. Smallville's numbers have dropped like a rock since March 30--4.78 million, then 4.2 million, and now 3.94 million last week. That's what you call a precipitous plummet. I know what's happened to Smallville. Too much Lana angst, not enough Clark story. TPTB really need to fix that. What was Smallville's highest rated episode this season? 6 million?

Pepper Dennis earned 2,240,0000 after Gilmore Girls. Supernatural's last first run episode after Gilmore Girls earned 4,225,000. Its producers probably aren't dancing a jig anymore about being moved to be a lead out for Smallville. The O.C. is limping along at 4,330,000. Everybody's numbers are down down down.

Just like last season, I think the numbers will go up a little for the finale.

What were last year's numbers at this time? Does anybody know?