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Now don't ask me why, but I thought I needed to chime in on the cancellation of the Birds of Prey television series. Before I start my rant I should say two things. First, I don't read the BoP comic. I am familiar with the characters, but that's all. Second, while I did have a few gripes about the show I did enjoy it. So, now you can take my words as you see fit based on these two points.
The Concept
The concept of Birds of Prey the television show, as I have come to understand it, is that three females have come together to fight crime in New Gotham. The first is a woman called Huntress. However, this Huntress concept is from waaaaay back, and not the one from the comic. This Huntress (real name Helena Kyle) is the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. As I said before the character DID exist in this concept (well, close to it) once, but she went the way of the dodo during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Also, in order to "tweak" things a bit more Huntress is now a "metahuman" (mutant if you're in the Marvel universe). She's fast, strong, acrobatic, and stubborn, which is a good base for an action character.
Next up is Oracle. This character is pretty much straight from the pages of the BoP comic. Oracle is Barbara Gordon, who formerly fought crime as Batgirl. After being shot and paralyzed from the waist down by the Joker, Barbara decided to keep up the fight as Oracle. She's become the ultimate information gatherer through a combination of her detective skills and a whole lot of computer savvy. Oracle is the brains of the outfit, plain and simple.
Finally there is a young woman by the name of Dinah Lance. Now, in the comic Dinah is better known as Black Canary and has a sonic scream at her disposal (well, she did the last time I checked), but in the television series the character is just known as Dinah. Also, for some reason Dinah was given telepathic and telekinetic abilities for the show, instead of a sonic scream. For some this may have been too much of a change for the character, but since I don't read the comic I was fine with it. Dinah is the hero in training, learning about her powers and how to fight the good fight.
The rest of the cast is rounded out with three other characters. First, there is Alfred Pennyworth, the former butler to Batman who went to work with/for Oracle once Batman vanished. Next up is Detective Reese, who is both Huntress' romantic interest and new friend in fighting crime. Finally, there is Dr. Harleen Quinzel, who is lined up to be the nemesis of the Birds of Prey. Most know the good doctor as Harley Quinn in the pages of actual comic books.
There you have all the characters of the television series, and the concept. Yes, that single sentence that started this section off was the concept as I've come to see it to this point. Simple? Definitely. However, we're only looking at eight episodes so far folks. In today's world of anthology series that's barely enough time to start laying some groundwork for the rest of the season. Of course I don't know if BoP was going to be such a series, but I guess we're not going to know now. Also, this did seem like "The Huntress Show" most of the time, but I'd like to think that would change in the future. Not much use for a team if one person is taking 3/4 of the screen time right?
Now, let's say that people who read the comic, and comic fans in general, decide to stick with the show despite the changes to the characters and concepts from the comic. I mean, Smallville is doing pretty well, so there is a chance, right? Anyway, imagining these comic readers in front of the television what else is there left to deal with to have a successful show? Apparently too much.
The Competition
Birds of Prey is on at 9:00pm, Wednesdays. For the most part this night has never really been too major for shows to me. It's South Park at 10:00pm and that's about it. However, this year was a mess for attention. There is West Wing at the same time, but that's a very different genre of show. The way I saw Birds of Prey succeeding is pulling from two specific audience pools. Those two pools are guys looking for some decent action and good looking women, and women looking for a show that intrigues them. I think BoP could work for each group, but not when each group had a "better" option.
The guys who are looking for some decent action are most likely checking out Fastlane on FOX. I've seen the show, and it's got the action, the good looking women (wearing much less than the BoP ladies), and it's got the director of Charlie's Angels attached to it. I'm sorry, there just isn't a contest there. The women who are looking for a show that intrigues them unfortunately had The Bachelor. Now, I'm not saying that just women watched it. With the ratings it had there were definitely a lot of sick people out there. I did mention I thought the concept of the show was laughable and degrading to both men and women who make an honest run at relationships right? Anyway, I'll save my heavy disgust rant for my therapist and get back to the show comparisons.
Looking at the Wednesday lineup, and you believing me about those two pools BoP were likely to pull from, you can see BoP was set up to fail. Don't believe me? That's good. I didn't believe me either at first. Then I made the silly mistake of hunting up ratings. I have to say that even with the standard statistical rule of "correlation does not equal causation" I found the following rating information interesting:
| Week Of | Ranking - Show | | |
| 09/16-09/22 | 32 - Fastlane (Premiere) | | |
| 09/23-09/29 | 53 - Fastlane | 48 - Bachelor Revealed (Premiere) | |
| 09/29-10/06 | No Fastlane | 34 - Bachelor | |
| 10/07-10/13 | No Fastlane | 25 - Bachelor | 76 - BoP (Premiere) |
| 10/14-10/20 | No Fastlane | 29 - Bachelor | 85 - BoP |
| 10/21-10/27 | No Fastlane | 17 - Bachelor | 92 - BoP |
| 10/28-11/03 | 76 - Fastlane | 18 - Bachelor | 104 - BoP |
| 11/04-11/10 | 71 - Fastlane | 15 - Bachelor | 87 - BoP |
| 11/11-11/17 | 75 - Fastlane | 12 - Bachelor (S) | 109 - BoP |
| 11/18-11/24 | 83 - Fastlane | 3 - Bachelor (F) | 101 - BoP |
| 11/25-12/01 | 79 - Fastlane | | 82 - BoP |
So what does all of this mean? Well, first keep in mind that when Birds of Prey premiered it was the number one show that night for men 18-34 and male teens. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. "Why weren't they watching the Bachelor?" Probably because they have taste. Well, MAYBE because they wanted that whole action and good looking women thing. Me, I'll go with the taste thing. Anyway, looking at this information you can see that the first time BoP really bombed was the night Fastlane returned to the air after the World Series was over with. Coincidence? Maybe, but I'm guessing the guys out there knew where they should look for more testosterone driven action and more scantly clad women.
For some reason the week after Fastlane returned BoP bounced back, but after that it bombed twice more. I figure the reasons were that extra people tuned in to the Backelor during the week of 11/11-11/17 to watch the ladies the Bachelor rejected tear into him, and many of the same people tuned in the week of 11/18-11/24 to watch who he chose. Hey, we're all voyeurs at heart right? Now, I was thinking this was all complete coincidence and my theory of these shows pulling from similar pools just happened to look very possible due to the way things happened. Needless to say I really didn't expect what happened next.
Thanks to a personal vacation and some convention attending by my editor I'm getting this last bit of my rant typed up with that last week on the list. That information came out today, Tuesday, December 3rd, 2002. Look at that rating on Birds of Prey folks. That is the highest BoP has been since its premiere. What happened? Fastlane is still there, and I'm sure the guys are still watching it. Oh, it looks like some folks (perhaps ladies?) got some sense of reality back now that the so called "favorite guilty pleasure" known as The Bachelor is gone. Am I tooting my own horn here because my theory MAY be correct? Oh you bet I am, because I think the WB made a big fat mistake in canceling Birds of Prey. I may be wrong about why the ratings fluxed, and I can live with that, but for the next week I get to live with the idea that my theory may be right and that the WB may have jumped the gun with their decision.
The Conclusion
People like super heroes folks. Look at the related movies coming out, look at the success of Spiderman, look at the success of Justice League, look at the success of Smallville. When you wade through the excuses about what was going on behind the scenes with the Birds of Prey production, and look at the big picture of ratings for the time period I have laid out for you something doesn't seem right. Personally I think the cancellation of Birds of Prey can be summed up in three words. Bad - time - slot. There were just enough shows with crossover audiences that Birds of Prey came out the loser. The WB knows it, they just weren't willing to see if a better time could be found for the show. Soon Angel is going to be dropped into the 9:00pm Wednesday slot that BoP once occupied, and you know what? It's going to do fine. The shows Angel will be up against (West Wing, PrimeTime, Fastlane) are all very different. They don't have the same core audiences, so people can just go with what they like.
With Birds of Prey, The Bachelor, and Fastlane all going on at the same time something was bound to give. Shows based on comics are prime to make a killing in my eye, but the people selecting the times they're going to be shown need to have some idea of the competition. When that next show comes around, give people a heads up if you see a scheduling train wreck up coming up. Maybe next time we can keep the suits from jumping the gun.
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