I think what makes the fakeout suckier is some Lana fans and a gossip columnist claiming that KK was leaving or taking some SERIOUS time off and now I don't hear diddly about that. Considering that the end of this season felt rushed to accommodate her, I really think people are going to be really pissed off if all that stuff was done then no longer needed because she changed her mind. Also I don't feel like being manipulated emotionally. It's been done. The reveal was done before in Reckoning. It's really lost a lot of dramatic impact. A lot of people don't care. You already played the hide the Clana sausage . . . non-Clana fans don't want to see THAT again, especially w/o any realization from Clark that she's got this bitchy side that will be hers forever and ever.

I do think that freak!Chloe has the potential to be the new witch!Lana which made S4 bad and let's say 50% find it stupid or hate it, still a lot of people to irritate.

Craig - In the springtime primetime viewership does tend to go down for all networks from viewership in the Fall. That is true. However, the entire CW line-up did not all suffer *equally*. The Supernatural fans have been pretty happy about how SPN hasn't suffered as much of a ratings drop as SV has. If you visit that board's ratings thread it is brought up a lot that SPN's retention out of SV has increased as SV's ratings have dropped and SPN has been able to retain a higher % of its normal viewership. The general conclusion from that over on the SPN board has been that SPN doesn't depend upon their lead in as much as other shows do and I'm leaning towards that conclusion as well.

And I'm sure you're aware that ANTM just broke the CW's ratings record by achieving over 6 million viewers for the Spring finale. So, the audience is out there for the *right* show. OTH, while seeming to be pretty dependent upon its lead in, also hit some high ratings notes recently this Spring and got "winner" status on mediaweek's ratings summaries recently in a rather unexpected ratings success. I think they were showing some prom episode that did surprisingly well. VM and the Monday night line up have been atrocious ratings-wise all Spring, but I think a drop in quality could be argued for it by some. I know I've seen some online fans say they weren't surprised by their drops either. Like VM, the drop in SV's ratings from the Fall and Winter, have been greater than what would have been expected and much greater than other CW shows.

And what should they return for? What's the payoff? If there's no REAL payoff then *shrug*?

I also heard Gilmore Girls also had major quality problems due to the producers leaving with a lot of stuff to tie up. Flist wise people have been cranky about VM so . . . I also think quality played a factor with them. Twin Peaks, same thing. Lovely 1st season but the second was a mess and deserved to be cancelled.

Because I hate myself more...

<Dread goes off into corner to bounce a red ball against the wall>




Or I just really wish the show would get good again and I'm in denial.

Exactly. I started really getting into "Smallville" at the beginning of the fifth season, when I believe the show was at its best. I was wildly excited for each new episode. Now I hardly care enough to turn on the TV, and actually chose to miss most of three episodes this season. But there's still that hope that they can do better. I feel like the show seduced me under false pretenses, but like Dread, I hope it'll improve.

"Smallville" is like a guy who wooed me with chocolates and roses and romantic candlelit dinners. Now he's unemployed and camped out on my couch, unbathed and unshaven, bumming off me and doing nothing but watching infomercials all day long. But I still keep thinking the Godiva and roses might make a reappearance, if I'm patient and let him stay on my couch long enough...

This is the bind we're in, isn't it? IMO, there have been moments of greatness this year and I stick around hoping for more. The episodes I loved - Justice, Freak and Nemesis - I loved a lot. (And I also really liked Zod, Progeny & Labryinth and got a few chuckles out of Arrow & Fallout.)


This is it, exactly, Craig. It's overly familiar: the death fake-outs, the love triangles, have been done to death.

I don't want cockroach!Lana unless she really does become a giant cockroach. At least I could finally laugh at them going "you're so perfect and beautiful."

Best answer ever. Dread wins the internets!

They'll just all admire the shiny perfection of her exoskeleton, and the beautiful perkiness of her antennae.

Your analogy is good but in my case the guy started with roses and candlelights dinners and now beats me and robs money out of my purse!

This blogger sounds like a casual SV viewer (rather than a forum-frequenter or an over-invested 'shipper.) His remarks on the season are interesting, given that he's part of the male 18 - 34 demographic the CW wants to attract:
http://jasondemotte.livejournal.com/54757.html

I find it interesting that the "casual SV viewer" liked Green Arrow a lot (when many of the online fans complained about GreenArrowville) and didn't mention Chloe at all.

He doesn't seem interested in any of the female leads (Lana & Lois get dismissed and the Lana love triangle is described as "tripe") but, yeah, lots of love for Green Arrow, J'onn, action, "Nemesis" and fun.

Maybe that's a sign the show should be about Superman and not the random romances he could get into. That's one thing I was loving in Season Five - seeing the Fortress, interacting with Professor Fine - there was some great stuff.

Again, score one for Heroes - where they just kill off their romantic dalliances. Smallville has better source material, so it's sad that it doesn't come out on top.

I myself loved Green Arrow by the time he left the show. It took a minute for him to grow on me, though, mostly because I have very little trust in the producers and writers, and now view everything new on SV with suspicion and doubt. :D

I got no problem with a show focussing on a character besides the lead. But, when they do focus on something else, that something else better be interesting.

To me, Lexana took much more of the focus off Clark early in the season than GA. Then again, maybe I percieved it that way because Lexana bores me to tears, and anything you dislike tends to feel longer and heavier.

Based on one viewer's comments? What makes his viewpoint more valid than mine, or yours, or anyone else's? We can't come to conclusions about what the show should be about based on one person. The ratings, OTOH, are a different matter. I totally agree the show should be about Superman and action and superheroics, and that the romances ought to be just background, and I think the ratings this year support this conclusion pretty clearly. It's really too bad they insist on making the show into a soap. But the opinions of one viewer do nothing to support that conclusion. He's just one viewer out of millions, just like the rest of us.

I don't think having a romantic element to the show is a bad thing, but it shouldn't take over. The action/adventure and the characters heading for their destinies should be what drives everything.

It would also help if the males of the show didn't become stupid/pathetic/unlikeable around said "love interest". And that the "love interest" wasn't worshipped like she's a perfect, blameless princess when she's anything but.

Because someone on livejournal said so? Really? Not that I disagree that action is more entertaining than soap opera (especially the way SV handles it), but I wouldn't base that claim on an entry on some guy's livejournal. It's not like he was hired or is a professional in any way. It's the opinion of a random person that is no more valid than the opinion of any other viewer, like the people that post here for example. And it's not like he is famous or has a following or any influence. There are lots of SV fan groups, including a lot of shipper groups, and they all represent different viewpoints.

I find it interesting that after so many posts of yours suggesting that online fans do NOT represent the views of the show's viewership, that you would suggest one particular internet guy's post is very significant. If we're going to pick one guy in the demo whose opinion will determine what happens on the show then I would personally nominate Kahn, Resonance, Old Juan or perhaps, the big Boss himself, Omar. But, as awesome as those guys are, there would probably be other people, like Lana's fans, who would not want them to dictate what happens on the show because they're not major Lana fans. There are lots of opinions and preferences and one guy's post about liking GreenArrowville can only be assumed to represent the views of the one guy only.

I'm........touched!! :)

I thought his perspective was interesting because he seemed to fit the profile of a casual viewer, which is the viewing group that has dropped off this year. The "invested viewers" don't impact the ratings; hardcore fans keep watching regardless of what happens. Slavkin and Swimmer made this point in their recent interview: the 'net fans and the 'shippers complain a lot - but we keep right on watching. Thus, the fans who insisted that the ratings went down because of lack of Clana, came up empty-handed when "Promise" failed to even match the ratings of "Wither."

Durq - We don't know which type of Nielsen viewers who use to watch SV are no longer watching. I would be an "invested" viewer mostly because I am invested in Chloe, and I was a Nielsen viewer in Season 4, but I've only watched a handful of episodes this season. I've intentionally skipped most of the episodes this season. I'd say I am a lost viewer. And most of my livejournal friends would probably have been considered "invested" fans last season and I'd say half of them no longer watch regularly like they use to. This season I've seen lots of "I've never intentionally skipped an episode of SV before, but I am going to" or "I never would have guessed I'd intentionally skip a SV finale, but I am this year" on my flist as well. I see a lot of "invested viewers" who use to be my online buddies drop off the radar this season because they were too upset with the Clana situation and the lack of follow up with Chloe and Clark so they gave up. Lots of them try to convince others to completely give up on SV and start getting into another show, like UB or The Office or Heroes to stay connected as online friends and still have something in common because they got fed up with SV and they'd rather talk about another show. I know for a fact that some hardcore fans are not continuing to watch no matter what happens because I've seen it on my flist. It's kinda sad because what use to be a fun online atmosphere turned into bitterness and then people stopped caring and moved on to something else which makes it harder to have something to talk about because talking about fandom stuff was the major part of livejournal activity. Right now, Heroes is keeping me up with a lot of people who I use to have SV in common with but no longer watch or keep up with SV.

Kahn - You're welcome. :)

What I mean is he's not part of the typical online fandom. You look at the online fandom, or on TWOP, and you'd think any character anyone gave a crap about was Chloe. Whereas Joe Public might NOT be such a fan of hers, and would laugh off notions such as Chlois.

It's the same difference as if I ran a poll on the main part of KryptonSite vs. on the forums. On the forums, Chloe would win everything by a landslide, because the diehard, internet fans like her. But the guy on the street might say "yeah that Kristin Kreuk is hot" or even have favorable things to say about the New Lois. (And yes, Chloe did win some of the polls last season on K-Site, and I DO think that was a "fair fight," because I don't think that the K-Site general homepage visitors are separated by any demographic. It was a bit more even than it could have been. I'm noticing now that there are a lot of polar opposites nominating.... for everyone who named "Progeny" as a Best Episode, there might be another who labels it the worst. Same for "Promise.")

I guess I'm also saying his opinions are a lot more like what I hear from people who don't always go online... they have their own thoughts and feelings, and they're different from what is represented online. Could be demographics, intelligence levels, or whatever.

Maybe I was wrong to imply that his feelings are more significant; but I think it's refreshing to see an opinion that is not based around the judgement of the fandom. Our reactions to what we read online DO help form our opinions.

Actually, I'm not sure this is true any more. For a while, the ratings hung steady between 4.5 and 5 million, no matter whether the episode looked good or bad, and that, I think, was the core group. But after "Promise," ratings started to go down drastically. I'm an invested viewer, certainly, yet I deliberately skipped three episodes toward the end of the season, and am thinking seriously about tuning out next year entirely. If I don't keep watching regardless of what happens, then it's quite possible that plenty of other "invested viewers" are tuning out too.



This is a bit of an exaggeration, isn't it? Sure Chloe's popular on TWOP, but the online fandom also includes Sweet and DI and sites that are pretty much exclusively dedicated to characters other than Chloe. I think the online fandom is just as diverse as the non-online fandom; it just tends to clump more. Chlark fans will tend to hang out with other Chlark fans, and Clana and Clois fans do likewise. As a result, I think online fans have a tendency to develop the idea that their ship or favorite character is the most popular and that most sensible people agree with them-- but there are a multitude of opinions out there on the Internet.

I don't want to look meddlesome but in the same vein that average joe gives us perspective on the show. Average joe is probably someone that is not going to buy the DVD's or the companion books or the merchandise or is going to follow the actors careers or even knows who writes what so to know to look for them in other TV shows. So pleasing average Joe is not a good marketing idea.
The truth is that geeks/nerds are a subculture we can reference to plenty of series and all of us know what are we talking about we can say that that Clark obession with Lana is like Gollum with the ring or that Superman is being Marvelized on the worst sense of the word and we all know what are they talking about. We are the ones that started to watch this show and we are the ones that they are losing to other better writen shows. So I think using then as model is not a good thing in the long run, IMO.

I'm quickly working my way out of the demo, no matter how much Xbox I desperately play. I thought Mountain Dew might help, but that just makes me twitchy.

I sobbed during the GG finale because it was my favorite show, and honestly, it still is.

I started watching Smallville in the hopes of finding a new favorite show since I was almost sure Gilmore Girls was in it's last season. The thing was, I started watching from the pilot on ABC family and I loved those seasons. Then I saw Promise (while I was in the middle of either season 1 or 2) and I was like WTF did this show turn into? Why Lexana? Why Clexana? WHY? I kept watching though, I was hooked. I understand why ratings dropped after the trainwreck that was Promise. People hate Lana, and Goughlar seem to be unable to process that through their thick skulls.

Regarding Gilmore Girls' rating drops, yes, it did have to do with ASP leaving the show (she's writing the Gossip Girl TV show! YAY!). Although the end of S6 of GG was a mess (Lorelai sleeping w/ Asshat and whatnot), David Rosenthal (the new guy) just made the mess even bigger. He gave us even more Chris/Lorelai, and people hated that. I was mad. Really mad. Two HORRIBLE marriages in one year (Lex/Lana, Chris/Lorelai). Basically, in my opinion, Christopher is the Lana of Gilmore Girls. He kills ratings. Goughlar needs to realize that Lana kills rating, so they should just kill her!

Okay. Rant over.

I'm not sure how "casual" I would tag that guy. He makes references to Tom's acting improvement from Season 1 indicating that he's been with the show a while. Second he called Jon Jonzz by his full name and correct spelling as well as using the phrase "Proto Justice League" (which it was never referred to as on-screen) as well as identifying them as DC characters.

When I think casual viewer of Smallville I think my sister-in-law who, prior to viewing Smallville, hadn't heard the name Kal-El, is apt to tune out when an episode is sucking instead of stick it out, and if you say "DC character" gets a who-wha?? look on her face. I definitely wouldn't automatically peg that guy as never browsing web sites or forums. Especially if he's running an internet blog.



I guess I have three things to say to this. They are personal observations and certainly not indicative of anything so take it for what it's worth. They also aren't intended as an insult so I hope no one takes them that way. Anyways, first thing is that in my peer group which watches Smallville if there are laughs to be had on screen it's usually something dumb that Lois did not Chloe. There is a reason that Lois ends up on the butt end of jokes on the internet and it's not because we are all some kind of weirdo's. Even casual folks spot it and yes they laugh. Like it, love it, or hate it but the fact of the matter is that the writers write Chloe as a serious character and I'm sure it's not a shock that therefore average people tend to take her seriously.

Second is that I've popped Chlois on a few people. The worst it ever provoked was a thoughtful stare. Reactions ran from either "Naw they wouldn't do that" to "Oh that would be cool!". The only time it's provoked laughter is when I relay that there are 1,000 + page threads on it with people arguing about it. To the casual fans that I hang out with the idea that people actually argue about "what's correct" in a story about a comic book is what they laugh at. Most of them can't comprehend that either side would be so rigid on what's proper as if it's some kind of religion.

Seriously. Go the local mall and stop 50 people that don't read comics and ask them what they would think if Clark Kent on Smallville didn't end up with "Lois Lane". $5.00 says the number 1 answer is "Who gives a shit"? I know lots of folks like to act as if there will be some outraged march on Vancouver by legions of Superman fans if Chlois happens (or doesn't happen) but I'll bet my house it doesn't. Worst thing that will happen is some letters and some vocal fans at a convention that Al's going to either be polite to with a platitude or give some typical Al response to...if he even bothers to show up.

Lastly is that I think people would be awfully surprised at just how often "Joe Public" is on the internet these days and who "Joe Public" might be. I was a double letterman in swimming and volleyball typical cocky jock that didn't own his first PC until I was 19 and needed a word processor for college. I didn't get on my first web site until I was almost 25 yet here I am not even one of the generation that's been raised on this stuff. My sister the dentist with a I.Q. of 145 that hates computers with a passion uses the internet daily for entertainment reviews because it's faster than going to by a paper or cheaper than suscribing to an entertainment magazine. More jobs each day require internet familiarity to operate. As for message boards heck just World of Warcraft alone has exposed millions of people to what they are and the information/community potential in them. That's actually how I got into boards in the first place since it's almost required to keep current on new patch features. I think automatically dismissing on-line posters as irrelevant is a serious mistake on marketers parts. You can't trust polls any further than you can moderate them but if you read a post from someone with a clearly educated grasp on the language and social awareness just why on earth wouldn't you take that seriously?

Apologies for the off-topicness.

ETA: One last thing. I'm guess I'm just surprised at the idea that if an interet base of fans happen to prefer Chloe to Lois at a ratio of 3 to 1 (I made that up) that it's somehow impossilbe for that ratio to carry over to a "casual" audience who's following every episode. To me that's almost like saying you have to pick and chose your exposure level to like Lois which sounds a little strange.

There are millions of new people using the Internet every month, according to a study I read at the start of the year. Once upon a time, you could say less than 10% of TV fans went online. (A snippet I picked up from a news report about this new show called, of all things, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.) But you can't say that anymore. Yet, I hear people talk all the time as if that's still the case.

By the way, that report was talking about how strong Internet support was one of the reasons the WB renewed the show, and how much more influential online fandom was going to become on the television industry. And I definately think that's happening, and the industry can no longer view Internet fans as a miniscule portion of the fanbase that is somehow vastly different from "regular" fans, so shouldn't be factored in when analyzing fandom in general.

Well, let me use my dad as an example as Joe Public. Now this is a man that has watched the show from the beginning. We would always talk about what happened on the show after it aired. Now? He actually missed the finale...He forgot it was on. This is a man that NEVER misses a big episode, or any episode for that matter. If he can't watch it live he records it.

Now he watches the show for the Superman aspects and even though he is a die hard Young and the Restless fan (I know..WTF?) he really got sick with the story lines after PROMISE...He thought the actual episode wasn't bad, he is just sick of the "romance shit"...Or as he said after that episode "When the hell is he going to become more like Superman and less like a 15 yr old in heat?"....He loved NEMESIS and liked PROTOTYPE....But he forgot about the finale because it wasn't appointment TV. The only reason he watched NEMESIS and PROTOTYPE was because I reminded him. *Didn't think I would have to remind him about a finale*

I think that is probably the general reaction among the non online fans. Is my dad's opinion any more important than ours? Nope...But his attitude has mirrored the decline in ratings..

Oh...he also isn't a Chloe fan...We have nice "discussions" about Chloe. :)

I think this day and age it's a very small segment of the public who are fans and not on-line. Computers are so prevalent whether it's at home, work, or school. And this is going to sound very classist (please don't judge me), but the people who don't have access to computers probably aren't the desired audience anyway. We're the ones with the disposable incomes. We're the ones who buy cars, cellphones and Ipods. (And, besides movies, that seems to be the majority of commercials during Smallville.) So, to discount the on-line community doesn't seem very smart.

At the same time, those of us who post on message boards aren't casual viewers. We're fanatics. We feel strongly enough about the show to think about it when it's not on. We're much more likely to get mad and skip an episode on purpose. But we're also less likely to simply forget about the show and watch something else.

I think the entire on-line fandom is probable a pretty good representation of all the Smallville viewers, except when a percentage of us says, "I hate, hate, HATE the show right now," the same percentage of casual viewers is saying, "Eh, the show isn't really doing it for me." And when a percentage of us says, "Omigad, I LOVE this show more than anything," the same percentage of casual viewers is saying, "Oh, that's right, Smallville's on this Thursday."

So, it makes sense to listen to us (all of us, not just the intelligent, sexy people who post on TWoP), but to also turn down the volume because we have tendency to yell.

This is where I disagree with you...Because while most of the viewers have a computer and may look for info on the show every now and then, the percentage of fans that engage in forums and talk about the show until their fiance has to yell at them to get off the fucking computer or he will never see her naked body again is still quite small...ahem.....Bye!!!

Oh, I agree with you Kahhhn. We're not casual viewers. We're fanatics. But I think a very large population of Smallville fanatics are on-line.

Depends on your level of devotion to the show, right? I've watched 3/4 of this season of "Lost" but have never ventured into any forum about it. I don't care about the "Lost" 'ships and only loosely follow the mythology. But if I hear an ep is supposed to be good - like the finale - I make sure to tune in. I expect lots of viewers (well, possibly less since "Promise") watch SV with the same casualness.

Looking at the ratings this year I'd say the hardcore fans are all thats left at this point and even that number is slipping. The show drove away all the casual, and potential new viewers with all the soap opera bullshit.

As for advertising, as has been said before advertising only goes so far and really this has the most profound affect on the casual and potential new viewers bracket. Most of the rest of fans were still watching regardless. Let me stake for the record: Historically speaking the advertising for this show has been cheesy at best and embarrassing bad at worst. Despite that I still watched the show because I knew better, that the show really wasn't as retarded as the network seemed to be implying at the time. Now is a different story, the shows level of quality IMO is right at par with the shitty promotion it gets. I've deliberately skipped episodes this season because I refused to watch the crap I knew was coming up on Thursday night.

As far as network interfering comes into play. Guess what? All television programing has to deal with this issue, all tv shows that have ever been on network tv have had this issue. I simply refuse to allow this be an excuse for the shoddy quality that Smallville has brought forth this year on the whole. Al/Miles and all the writers on this show are supposed to be professionals and true professionals rise above these kinds of challenges and can still bring forth a quality product. It's been done before and the simple truth of the matter is that Smallville's writing crew isn't stepping up plain and simple. They consistently take the easy and lazy route because they simply don't want to put in the effort it takes to churn out a quality product with the challenges they face. What they've done with the show this year, especially the second half is all half assed "we don't give a shit" anymore crap that could have been put together by no talent hacks.

The truly sad thing about all this is that there are great writers out there struggling to get by while these people are getting paid truck loads of money to churn out this garbage and are actually getting away with it.

Ummm ....hello...I'm a new fan since early April....guess I came for the bs. Bought all the DVD's, almost watched all of them now. Love the show. Understand the rants. When you watch back to back from pilot to Vessel, you can see both subtle shifts and lightswitches without benefit of forum discussion and extra info (interviews, media talk, etc...). I understand why people are bummed about certain plot lines and characters. I do see the missed opportunities (Clark intellectual development....cause the biceps have grown), and repetitive issues (e.g. barn scene). Having said all that, I guess that Season 6 looks fairly good-to-"par" for me. They introduced more mythology. Ran us thru the background simmering Clexana story (it was there for two or three seasons, it needed to run it's course IMO) and are setting up Clark to accept his destiny without Superwhining. I'm looking forward to Season 7 being much larger than life. BTW, I still can't see anyway this Clark ever slips into a costume with tights. Jor-El must still partially lobotomize him.

I doubt many viewers of the show object to more mythology, although there were some complaints about the way they tended to focus on Green Arrow and marginalize Clark. But yeah, more mythology is good. Unfortunately, they totally dropped that in the middle of the season and went for soap opera stuff.



I don't think it's Clexana so much as the way Clexana was handled. The abrupt change from "Clark doesn't have any scenes with Lana" to "Clark loves Lana more than life itself!" was poorly handled. More than anything, I think people object to the way Clark was regressed as a result of Clexana. So it's not Clexana itself, but the way it was written and the effect it had on the characters. (I can imagine Lana saying, "I'm not bad... I'm just written that way.")



I wish I could see that. Unfortunately, after the last half season, it looks to me more than ever like Clark will NEVER stop being a Supermope. I don't see him moving away from Superwhining-- I see him moving toward it. And that's too bad, because there was some significant character growth in the first half of the season. But then it all fell apart *sigh*.

Interesting, SueB, in that I'm in a similar situation as you (just started watching at the beginning of January, caught up on DVDs while they were on winter hiatus) and I feel more or less the same way.

Now, I didn't think S6 was amazing, or anything, but I'm certianly not as bothered by it as a whole as most longtime fans here seem to be. Apparently, there's some correlation to when/how you started watching the show to how you view things and you and I seem to be fairly well representative of "new" fans.


Oh, lord, IA. I know we'll never see him in the costume, but I would love to at least get a reasoning as to why this Clark decides tights are the way to go.

IA. I think Clexana had some potential to have some very good story lines. The problem with it for me was that it played out just like Clana with the secrets and lies bit. I would have much prefered if they had gone full steam ahead with a Lana that was all for 33.1 and experimentation on meteor freaks as hinted in Static only to have an attack of concinece later. From there they could have had her start small with trying to convince Lex to stop the experimentation leading all the way to full out sabotaging his plans when he wouldn't back down.

It's his second greatest power after the ability to hurt Lana.

For myself, as an older fan (started watching in season three), there is definitely a burn-out factor at this point. It is easy to joke and say "Back in my days, that Kent boy was quick as a whip! And Young Master Luthor? Never was right, I tells yah. " But after awhile, it gets harder and harder to hope the show will eventually get better and live up to it's potential. Season one was strong, season two less so, and season three had some outsnatding episodes and Chluthoropolis. Season four was a mess, but season five got better... until Al and Miles found out the show had been renewed. Season six started aoff well, but all of the goodwill from Justice has long since been used up. After the pink script and hearing KK is back for next season, I have zero hope and limited interest in season seven.

If you want an interesting perspective on this, check out the Chlois and Chloe threads. Maryliz48, a new viewer, has tons of hope for Chlois, Chlark and Chloe's new power to turn out well. Most of the other posters (with notable exceptions like Kahhhn, stinaNYC and tabbymarie) are predicting gloom and doom for the blond sidekick. Maybe viewing the show in a short period of time has helped you see the show and enjoy it for what it is (fun fluff) as opposed to getting frustrated for it not living up to what the early season suggested it would become (Clark and Lex's epic journeys towards their Iconic roles?) If I am wrong, apologies, and I'm glad you like the show.

I do agree with Old Juan, though, that the show is driving off its old viewers, and the "Everyone Loves Lana" sopa opera focus will not draw in enough new viewers to make up for it, especially this late in the game. The crashing ratings back up that analysis.
It's been six years. How much more set up does Clark need?

For me, it's a mixture of both. I had actually deliberately avoided the show, much as I had LnC, because I have such love for Christopher Reeve and I didn't want my love of the movies (okay, I & II) ruined in any way. But I heard about Justice, got interested and got hooked - but I admit my expectations weren't high.

I will say right now, though, I watch more or less for Clark so yeah, I'm in for S7. But I can absolutely understand where longtime fans are coming from: I got all the BS in about a month; you've been putting up with it for 6 years.

Lana tells him to wear them, duhhh. =P

Trends to ponder.

Craig - First, you seem to think the appeal of Chlois is limited to the people who post on the forums as if people who post on the boards are so different from other viewers or perhaps only like it because of the influence of other fans. That isn't the case and I have proof of that from two men who posted about wanting Chlois to happen this past season.


http://www.thetvshowblog.com/archives/2007...ast_member.html



I have no reason to believe either of those men EVER posted on any of the main SV boards, so their opinions are not the result of peer pressure. Yet both of them INDEPENDENTLY of each other and independent of board influence, came to the same opinion that Chloe being revealed as Lois Lane is what should happen on SV. So, just because you see familiar names supporting Chlois here one shouldn't assume that the appeal is limited to the people who post or what Joe Everyman would think about it or the likes and dislikes of online fans are so different from offline fans.

Second, I don't know why you think there is such a big distinction between Chloe's popularity among board posters and the general public. What is this based upon? You say if it was a board Allison Mack and Chloe would have won by a landslide because she's popular among posters as if she is not popular among the public in general and then you contradict that all by yourself by admitting that she won the polls. Allison Mack won best actress at ksite with more than 50% of the votes - more than the other three women combined. How is that not a landslide? And Allison Mack (Chloe) & Tom Welling (Clark) won best couple as well. So, I don't see where there is any evidence that there is this big difference between her being popular among people who post and people who don't.

Now, the episode polls, I will grant you might show some taste difference between posters and casual fans, but that may be because casual fans don't think about the episodes and therefore notice the plot holes posters do which can influence feelings about an episode. But, I don't see any similar schism about the actors/characters being liked.

This year, I see a lot of Chloe fans (especially those who were Chlark shippers) on my flist have stopped watching and participating in online activity related to the show. I think that is probably reflected in offline fans who likewise have given up on the show delivering for them. I have seen some non-shipping Chloe fans just get fed up with how out of character she has been and that without her drive she became less interesting. I have seen Clark fans say here that they had to delurk to say how turned off they were by his childish behavior this spring and I would bet money there are more people out in the general viewing audience that feel the same way. Ditto Lex fans who have lost interest in him because he has seemed so weak, flaccid and ineffectual that they lost hope that Lex would be the great villain he should be. Just because an opinion is posted online doesn't mean it is not held by people offline. I'd find it very odd if views expressed online didn't reflect the views of other people.

So, to me, if people here hated Clexana and delurked after Promise to say they felt that it was a huge turn off or the straw that broke the camel's back for them and ratings after Promise started to decline sharply, it is likely that there is a strong correlation between the two.

If they know the term "Chlois," they're internet fans. How else would they have heard of the Theory?

This reminds me of all the "Facts of Life" fans and how they attributed the drop in ratings on that show to the "Cloris" theory.

It takes like five minutes of research to find the fandom term for it; Entertainment Weekly linked the site back so that pretty much answers that. And that is in no way the same as being an active, online board member. It's just not.

Personally the biggest indicator of the internet to ratings, IMO, was Prototype. TWoP was dead. KSite was dead. The LJ comms I usually lurk at? Also dead.

And ratings sunk like a stone, bringing in the worst rated episode ever.

I just don't think there is a huge divide between internet fans and lurking fans and casual fans at this point in terms of interest. My friend who lurked, stopped - because of Clark, Lex, and Chloe no longer being interesting to her. My friends who were casual fans stopped for the same reason, and yes they liked Lana. I'm a die hard and, yes, I'm still here but not without vocalizing problems with the lack of focus and the characters.

I've said it since I took NMT, when fandom is looked at as a whole (from SWEET to TWoP) it pretty much shows what opinions/group types are out there. And people haven't been that happy. And we see the ratings fall, and fall, and fall with only minor stop gaps in the demos. I think it's pretty easy to look at how fandom as a whole is reacting and go "Oh. People aren't happy with X, Y, Z" and see that reflected in the ratings by people leaving.

Actually, the lowest-"rated" episode as far as forum comments this season on KryptonSite is "Progeny": http://www.kryptonsite.com/forums/forumdis...amp;forumid=216

One could argue that the higher post counts would be of people complaining, but from my view, if an episode has higher post counts the discussion must not be dead.

I know that DTS's episode discussion forum traffic is not that large as Ksite, (ehh in fact is like a 10% of the posts that K-site has per epsiode, the "heavy" episode discussison happens at the shipper forums) but same thing happened there "Noir" and "Progeny" both are, so far, the less disccused episodes.