True Blood annoyance

[skottey]

So HBO has decided that they would skip a week of True Blood this Sunday July 5th because of the holiday weekend. So S2E4 will air next Sunday instead of this week. I understand the broadcast networks doing this, but the broadcast networks broadcast episodes once, maybe twice during the rerun season. So it makes sense and has been done since the 70s. HBO on the other hand rebroadcasts the heck out of their programming and has many multichannels that do the same. They also can offer marathons of the shows, not to mention On Demand. Nobody on vacation the week of the 4th is going to totally miss the show if they air it during its regular day and time.

This is very annoying. I cannot ever remember HBO doing this before.They normally air a 12 or 13 week season in 12 or 13 weeks.

Anybody else extremely annoyed by this? This is really one of the few weekly shows I am watching this summer. I went to watch my DVR recording of it tonight and it wasn't there. Then I looked online to see they skipped it because of the holiday weekend.

HBO never ceases to drive me nuts...

Canceling Carnivale prematurely.

Canceling Lucky Louie

No HD On Demand like sister station Cinemax and other premiums (citing the analog hole, but who is to stop recording, capturing or pirating off the main station?)

 

[ripnbigc]

My wife and I were disappointed also.

 

[jayn_j]

It wasn't just HBO. USA skipped the week on Burn Notice and Royal Pains as well. I assume others. Not consistent as Nurse Jackie was new last night.

 

[Skyhi]

I was very disappointed as well.

 

[skottey]

It wasn't just HBO. USA skipped the week on Burn Notice and Royal Pains as well. I assume others. Not consistent as Nurse Jackie was new last night.

I expect such behavior out of broadcast networks and find it acceptable if done by a cable channel like USA. But this appears to be a first for HBO and is totally unacceptable in my opinion for a PREMIUM channel.

I am a huge Breaking Bad fan and AMC didn't skip a beat for Easter Sunday. The 5th of July wasn't even the holiday, yet HBO made a decision to skip a week. I don't know what is going on this year. I use a credit union for my car and they were closed ALL DAY on Friday the 3rd. My normal bank was of course open all day Friday and the lady was shocked when I told her "Grow Financial" was closed and I couldn't make my car payments that day.

Is this a reverse trend? I remember when everything was closed on Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas when I was a kid and teenager but then in the 1990's stores started opening on holidays. Kmart was open on Easter, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas for a while. Walmart was open on Easter. I like that trend. The world doesn't need to stop because of a holiday. I hope the trend isn't going back the other way. I celebrate Holidays to an extent but the religious ones don't mean a heck of a lot to me since I am not religious. I do gifts and family get togethers on Christmas and all but I don't like everything closing. I am self employed so it doesn't mean a free day off work to me. So it is pretty much just another day. If anything, business is slow for me during holiday weeks so it is a negative, rather than a positive to begin with.

In this economy, many of us stay home and watch TV and play videogames because it is cheaper than going out. I think HBO is out of touch. Pretty much every cable system requires a digital cable box for an HBO subscription now days and most people with HBO also have a DVR.

I just cannot imagine somebody being on vacation for the 4th and not being able to catch the True Blood episode somehow. They'd have to be in a market with analog HBO only (if it still exists) with no multichannels and no DVR. They'd have to be totally busy with other things during the repeat on Tuesday or whatever. How many people would actually be in a situation where they wouldn't be able to catch the episode? I'll bet the answer would be NONE.

They should have aired the episode.

 

[MikeD-C05]

YES, Not having my favorite vampire show this week really "sucked".

 

[Jim S.]

It doesn't bother me, but it is stupid.

 

[Nebugeater]

HBO has done this on some holiday weekends for a bunch of years.

I remember it on Sex in THE City, Six Feet Under and others

 

[skottey]

HBO has done this on some holiday weekends for a bunch of years.

I remember it on Sex in THE City, Six Feet Under and others

If you say so, I'll take your word for it. I didn't watch either of those shows. I'm not the only one complaining about this. In trying to figure out why True Blood wasn't aired Sunday night I found dozens of website threads like Satelliteguys.us with people complaining. If it has been done before, it wasn't done with any of the shows I watched. I've had HBO since I went out on my own in 1994 and don't ever remember them doing this.

 

[Skyhi]

If you say so, I'll take your word for it. I didn't watch either of those shows. I'm not the only one complaining about this. In trying to figure out why True Blood wasn't aired Sunday night I found dozens of website threads like Satelliteguys.us with people complaining. If it has been done before, it wasn't done with any of the shows I watched. I've had HBO since I went out on my own in 1994 and don't ever remember them doing this.

You may be the #1 True Blood fan in the Country. I was annoyed when I couldn't watch a new episode on Sunday, but you seem genuinely angry.

 

[skottey]

You may be the #1 True Blood fan in the Country. I was annoyed when I couldn't watch a new episode on Sunday, but you seem genuinely angry.

HBO just seems to get more and more out of touch with its viewers. If it was just this issue I probably wouldn't have bothered posting this thread. True Blood is the only show I watch on HBO right now (Entourage and the worsening comedy specials like Dane Cook are not my thing, with few exceptions like Jim Norton to redeem themselves occasionally). It justifies my keeping the channel I suppose, having one show to watch. Well, actually, I have the premium channel bundle of all premiums for $30 with FIOS (most in HD). I know one thing, I wouldn't pay $16 a la carte for the channel this day in age. It just seems that they are doing a lot of ridiculous stuff over the seven or eight years. They have canceled good shows, refuse to put their stuff on demand in HD, and then they pull this kind of crap. It is an accumulation of multiple factors. It is like, this show just came back on for season two and aired three episodes and they are skipping a week. A viewer finally just gets back into it again. Now I remember why I often record entire seasons of shows and watch them all in a row. I don't have to worry about interruptions to an already agonizing week between shows with a storyline I'm trying to follow. It is sometimes better just to sit and watch them all in a row in a few days.

 

[Skyhi]

HBO just seems to get more and more out of touch with its viewers. If it was just this issue I probably wouldn't have bothered posting this thread. True Blood is the only show I watch on HBO right now (Entourage and the worsening comedy specials like Dane Cook are not my thing, with few exceptions like Jim Norton to redeem themselves occasionally). It justifies my keeping the channel I suppose, having one show to watch. Well, actually, I have the premium channel bundle of all premiums for $30 with FIOS (most in HD). I know one thing, I wouldn't pay $16 a la carte for the channel this day in age. It just seems that they are doing a lot of ridiculous stuff over the seven or eight years. They have canceled good shows, refuse to put their stuff on demand in HD, and then they pull this kind of crap. It is an accumulation of multiple factors. It is like, this show just came back on for season two and aired three episodes and they are skipping a week. A viewer finally just gets back into it again. Now I remember why I often record entire seasons of shows and watch them all in a row. I don't have to worry about interruptions to an already agonizing week between shows with a storyline I'm trying to follow. It is sometimes better just to sit and watch them all in a row in a few days.

You said it. I wish I had the willpower to do that with all my favorite shows!

 

[kstuart]

I'm sorry, but the definition of No Life is when you can't wait another week for a TV show.

For example, you've seen all 100 of the ATI Top 100 movies ?

PS Carnivale was a) not canceled in the middle of a season (cf. Fox Network), and b) was starting to lose its unique appeal, I'm not sure there was any coherent place to go from there...

 

[skottey]

I'm sorry, but the definition of No Life is when you can't wait another week for a TV show.

For example, you've seen all 100 of the ATI Top 100 movies ?

PS Carnivale was a) not canceled in the middle of a season (cf. Fox Network), and b) was starting to lose its unique appeal, I'm not sure there was any coherent place to go from there...

Wow.... thanks. I start a thread to vent about something many are angry about and some d-bag is telling me I have "no life." Who the heck are you to judge me? Jerk.

As far as Carnivale, I NEVER said it was canceled mid-season.

 

[KAB]

I'm sorry, but the definition of No Life is when you can't wait another week for a TV show.

:up:up:up Plus, everybody is acting like this is the first time. Networks ALWAYS skip or repeat shows on Holidays. Geesh!!!!

 

[skottey]

:up:up:up Plus, everybody is acting like this is the first time. Networks ALWAYS skip or repeat shows on Holidays. Geesh!!!!

Yeah, the broadcast networks and some cable channels do. But we are talking about HBO, not ABC or USA.

 

[KAB]

Why would HBO want to waste the airing of one of it's top shows when the available audience is much less than usual?

 

[skottey]

Why would HBO want to waste the airing of one of it's top shows when the available audience is much less than usual?

1- They have multichannels that re-air their shows multiple times a day
2- Most viewers have a DVR to time shift
3- HBO On Demand in almost all markets free with HBO
4- A record number of people stayed home this holiday weekend. (It's the economy stupid!)
5- HBO normally does not do this.

So much for your reason why they would "waste" airing one of their top shows during a holiday weekend. Give me a valid reason that isn't address in my response here.

 

[skottey]

For those of you that think HBO does this all the time, do your research. I just looked at episode guides with original air dates for shows such as Sopranos and Carnivale. HBO typical does not miss a beat. They air their shows from E1-E12 or whatever without skipping a week.

Feb 6, 2005- Superbowl SUNDAY.... certainly more people would miss Carnivale as it aired during a Superbowl than would miss True Blood the DAY AFTER July 4th. HBO aired the show Carnivale 205 6 Feb 05 Creed, OK

Sopranos season 4 in 2002 rolled right on through Thanksgiving without missing a beat.
So much for holiday travel over Thanksgiving... many people didn't even have DVRs back then.

The point is, this is very uncommon for HBO and I don't like it. No need to attack me for my opinion.
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[jayn_j]

OK, but you've made your point. HBO sucks and has done you a great wrong. We should all take up torches and pitchforks and march to HBO headquarters to slay the monster and the evil doctor who created it.

I sympathize, but unfortunately I can't attend because I have to .... wash my hair! (yeah, that's it)