Knights' ratings were what I'd call "pretty okay" last week. Yeah, not mind-blowing, but good enough. See, there was some concern on our part because Fox Execs came into National Geographic and completely cleaned house right after they picked up our show. Luckily, the new Fox Execs seemed to love Knights of Mayhem, but they are also notorious for canceling shows before they get a chance to prove themselves. Tons of ads had gone up for the show:
We had great preview press coverage.
We constantly had promos all over television.
We had posters in the New York subways.
Print ads in major magazines.
We even had an ad behind home plate during the World Series.
On my end, I was getting a little nervous because, you know, I'm mildly neurotic. But, honestly, I just hoped we could justify all this advertising. Coming from the grassroots, indie world, it was almost terrifying to imagine the amount of money we had behind this project. It's still just insane for me to even think about.
And as the premiere date drew closer, nerves only increased.
We weren't too happy with the sport segments of the pilot (or those of episode 2 which aired immediately after), but picture was locked. Also, as I began to tell friends and family about the show, a lot of people told me that they don't even get National Geographic Channel. It hadn't occurred to me that it was a premium channel in many areas. Hopefully, this had occurred to the Fox Execs.
But then, it just happened. The show premiered. Our stars live-Tweeted from a San Diego sports bar (they were driven to in limousines) and their fan feedback was blowing up. I started getting personal texts and Facebook messages too. People were watching. It was exciting to just sit there with the rest of America and watch.
When all was said and done, the show did "average" traffic for National Geographic Channel. The twist was that half of those viewers were new to National Geographic and they were predominantly younger (13-25) demographics. So, that was actually great. Whether or not that justified the advertising blitz, it's hard to know, but things seem to be going well.
A review from France.
We're getting some great reviews (see the past few blog posts). I especially like the review from the New York Post. Minus the cheesy title, "Lancing with the Stars," it perfectly articulates and summates my own feelings about the show.
So, tonight, we'll get another glimpse into the impact of the show. Will people come back? There were plenty of online haters that think Charlie is too macho, too egotistical and too mean to be watchable. But isn't that the bread and butter of reality TV? People love to hate reality shows with rough, egotistical main characters like Paul Teutul on American Chopper, Gordon Ramsey on Hell's Kitchen, Donald Trump on The Apprentice, and Simon Cowell on American Idol. I'm thinking maybe Charlie and the Knights of Mayhem will be okay after-all.
By the way, if you are having trouble finding the show (I know that I did at first), "Locate TV" can help you find every episode! Also, if you've been wanting to tune in, but don't have cable, you can download the eps for a small fee from iTunes (although you could get NatGeo for a month for the same price it would cost to download these first three episodes).
