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A&E's Swinging Show Cancelled After Two Episodes. Moral Pressure Or Poor Ratings?
A&E's Swinging Show Cancelled After Two Episodes. Moral Pressure Or Poor Ratings? Readers who missed the first two episodes of A&E's "Neighbors With Benefits," a weekly show that supposedly portrayed real-life swingers, won't have a chance to atone. The network has cancelled the program for the most egregious of sinful behavior -- being boring. (See Critics Agree AE Reality Show Manages To Make Swinging Boring) Seven unaired episodes remain in abeyance, although the chances of 'em appearing somewhere online are pretty good. There are questions as to why the show was pulled. According to "‘Neighbors with Benefits’ Cancelled By A&E After Petitions Against ‘Morally Unacceptable’ Series," which appeared on the Movie News Guide site, the network "decided to pull the plug on the show after it received several complaints from concerned family. [sic]" Several religious groups claimed credit: As Movie News Guide noted, Citizens for Community Values, an organization which, according to its own website, "exists to promote Judeo-Christian moral values, and to reduce destructive behaviors contrary to those values" congratulated its members, saying 'You let your voice be heard and you spoke up letting A&E know you joined thousands of other voices in urging advertisers to place 'Neighbors With Benefits' on their 'do not advertise' list in protest of this immoral show." On the Christian Post website, a post titled "Cancelled: Neighbors With Benefits" attributed the show's cancellation "in large part to an outpouring of complaints funneled through One Million Mom’s email campaign." Maybe, maybe not. There have certainly been enough shows during the years which have survived tsk-tsking, largely because they were smart and entertaining. NYPD Blue, which brought more cursing and buttocks of all varieties to prime time than almost any series before it, ran for a dozen years on ABC-TV. Cable has seen The Sopranos, The Wire, and any of a number of edgy, disturbing shows which don't exactly exemplify Ward and June Cleaver values garner applause and audiences. So what went wrong with Neighbors With Benefits? From all accounts, it was a bad show: Badly written and untitillating, it failed both as scripted entertainment and porn. It even failed as reality TV: A post titled "Is A&E's new show 'Neighbors With Benefits" for real?" (on the Starcasm site, which has a net, not a com, suffix) alleged "in what purports to be a vibrant swingers community in Hamilton Township, apparently just two of those couples live in the area. And neither one lives in the neighborhood where the show was filmed." A&E also apparently didn't make any of the participants available for interviews. Per Starcasm, "The closed-door policy–which you really wouldn’t expect from a show about sexy Cincinnati swingers–has led to rampant speculation that the bulk of the show’s cast is made up of hired actors." The show was cancelled because it had low ratings. It had low ratings because it was, apparently, pretty bad. There is a place -- and an audience -- for a smart, entertaining swinging show. The networks will find it someday. Stop in, read, and offer comments at my "swinging as seen in the media" blog, "Confessions of a Lifestyle Man" humorlife, which is also the home of the monthly virtual symposium. New post: The Virtual Symposium Returns Lets Pick A Topic |
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One can only hope... Visit my blog It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World of NaughtyInSO, leave a comment, become a watcher. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LIVE AND LET LIVE Be happy! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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One can only hope... Stop in, read, and offer comments at my "swinging as seen in the media" blog, "Confessions of a Lifestyle Man" humorlife, which is also the home of the monthly virtual symposium. New post: The Virtual Symposium Returns Lets Pick A Topic
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Its most likely pressure, not on long enough to even get a rating in my book We'll never know for sure, alas! Stop in, read, and offer comments at my "swinging as seen in the media" blog, "Confessions of a Lifestyle Man" humorlife, which is also the home of the monthly virtual symposium. New post: The Virtual Symposium Returns Lets Pick A Topic
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I never saw it on. It is always about the rating on TV.. You know they have Game of Thrones coming back on HBO that will take over the most of the shows. A few new ones coming out too.. We can only hope! hugssssssssssss V Become a blog watcher sweet_vm
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This is a good follow up post of your earlier post, Critics Agree AE Reality Show Manages To Make Swinging Boring. I suspected that the excuse for canceling the show was chickenshit as soon as you cited it. This is a corporation, and you can tell when officers of a corporation are lying because their lips are moving. Nobody is going to believe the excuse except possibly the dumber members of Citizens for Community Values, who can't amount to more than ninety per cent of the membership. I think that ninety per cent number that I just pulled out of my ass is at least as accurate as any statistics they might invent. "There is a place -- and an audience -- for a smart, entertaining swinging show. The networks will find it someday." Ever the optimist, aren't you? They might have better luck finding it if they started practicing right now at finding their own asses with both hands, a map and a flashlight. And yes, I have a negative attitude. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Oddly enough, reality TV is usually considered less of a gamble: The actors -- and certainly the writers -- aren't paid as much, there isn't the expense of sets... reality TV shows don't have to be as successful as scripted TV in order to be successful. I suspect the near-universal review of "A&E managed to make sex boring" did this one in... Stop in, read, and offer comments at my "swinging as seen in the media" blog, "Confessions of a Lifestyle Man" humorlife, which is also the home of the monthly virtual symposium. New post: The Virtual Symposium Returns Lets Pick A Topic
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I never saw it on. It is always about the rating on TV.. You know they have Game of Thrones coming back on HBO that will take over the most of the shows. A few new ones coming out too.. We can only hope! hugssssssssssss V Stop in, read, and offer comments at my "swinging as seen in the media" blog, "Confessions of a Lifestyle Man" humorlife, which is also the home of the monthly virtual symposium. New post: The Virtual Symposium Returns Lets Pick A Topic
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This is a good follow up post of your earlier post, Critics Agree AE Reality Show Manages To Make Swinging Boring. I suspected that the excuse for canceling the show was chickenshit as soon as you cited it. This is a corporation, and you can tell when officers of a corporation are lying because their lips are moving. Nobody is going to believe the excuse except possibly the dumber members of Citizens for Community Values, who can't amount to more than ninety per cent of the membership. I think that ninety per cent number that I just pulled out of my ass is at least as accurate as any statistics they might invent. "There is a place -- and an audience -- for a smart, entertaining swinging show. The networks will find it someday." Ever the optimist, aren't you? They might have better luck finding it if they started practicing right now at finding their own asses with both hands, a map and a flashlight. And yes, I have a negative attitude. Now, Kzoopair, did you just say that the Citizens for Community Values partake of a "Lake Woebegon Syndrome" in reverse -- that all of its members are below average? For shame, sir, for shame! Even though it is probably true... And yeah, I am ever the optimist about a smart show on swinging... because someday someone is going to demonstrate that a really good show about it will make money, and when that happens said show will be produced. Stop in, read, and offer comments at my "swinging as seen in the media" blog, "Confessions of a Lifestyle Man" humorlife, which is also the home of the monthly virtual symposium. New post: The Virtual Symposium Returns Lets Pick A Topic
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And this, boys and girls, is, in a nutshell, why the show got cancelled. Networks can weather any form of protest except for economic, and advertisers go where the viewers are. And the viewers weren't. Stop in, read, and offer comments at my "swinging as seen in the media" blog, "Confessions of a Lifestyle Man" humorlife, which is also the home of the monthly virtual symposium. New post: The Virtual Symposium Returns Lets Pick A Topic
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Well, the "Married and Dating" reality series did go two seasons, so there is an audience for this sort reality show. It just goes to show anyone that a show has to be entertaining enough to find an audience. That show got pulled because of issues surrounding the individuals in the cast, along with losing its audience's interest. Reality shows are hard to sex up. And as another writer you do understand that a reality show on swingers shouldn't need to be sexed up but to find an audience there has to be enough; enough drama, enough interesting personalities, enough pretty faces, enough resolution for the audience. Maybe in the future someone will be able to show run a show on swinging but this just wasn't it. Kk The observant make the best lovers, I may not do right, but I do write, I have bliss, joy, and happiness in my life, Kitkat Come check out my blog KItkat1415 check out this post by me Adventures In Body Grooming #39 April Topic Link: What Lies Beneath If April Showers Oh Bloody Hell What Kind Of Weather Turns Me On Bloggers Symposium 40
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Well, the "Married and Dating" reality series did go two seasons, so there is an audience for this sort reality show. It just goes to show anyone that a show has to be entertaining enough to find an audience. That show got pulled because of issues surrounding the individuals in the cast, along with losing its audience's interest. Reality shows are hard to sex up. And as another writer you do understand that a reality show on swingers shouldn't need to be sexed up but to find an audience there has to be enough; enough drama, enough interesting personalities, enough pretty faces, enough resolution for the audience. Maybe in the future someone will be able to show run a show on swinging but this just wasn't it. Kk The role of writers on reality shows is a tricky one on many levels... part of the reason these shows are cheaper to produce is that the writers technically aren't writers, and don't have to belong to the various Hollywood writers' unions. And once you start account for interesting personalities and situations, when does it stop being a reality show? Me, I think with the first contrivance, which is why I generally disdain reality TV. But I'm no yardstick: With very few exceptions, I eschew TV in general. Mayhap we need a series based on the blogosphere here... for whatever reasons, this particular group of degenerates has no problem keeping my attention... Stop in, read, and offer comments at my "swinging as seen in the media" blog, "Confessions of a Lifestyle Man" humorlife, which is also the home of the monthly virtual symposium. New post: The Virtual Symposium Returns Lets Pick A Topic
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Ah, I suspect that's a pretty common sentiment... Stop in, read, and offer comments at my "swinging as seen in the media" blog, "Confessions of a Lifestyle Man" humorlife, which is also the home of the monthly virtual symposium. New post: The Virtual Symposium Returns Lets Pick A Topic
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