‘Bates Motel’ season 2 pushed back an hour; ‘Those Who Kill’ pulled, will find new home
For a network that is still trying to cultivate some original content, A&E is not exactly showing that they have a great deal of patience at the moment. Two weeks into their new seasons, the cable channel has completely remade their Monday-night lineup, and is putting “Bates Motel” back at a place that it performed for them in season 1.
From here on out, new episodes of the show will air at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time, which, strange as it may be to say, is not really that much of a marked improvement for it. What’s the reason for that? Thank along the lines of the fact that at 9:00 p.m., it was up against “The Bachelor” (soon to be “Dancing with the Stars“), “The Following,” comedies, and “The Voice.” Only one of those is even remotely similar. At 10:00, you have to worry about “Castle” and “The Blacklist,” which both have a large audience of adult viewers who may also like this show.
As for “Those Who Kill,” the biggest mistake that A&E made was airing it in the 10:00 p.m. spot to begin with, and then putting a “Bates Motel” aftershow on after that. Didn’t the network watch AMC this past summer? Pulling a “Low Winter Sun” does nothing more than make viewers resent you for shoving a show down your throat, regardless of whether or not it is good. The better strategy is to give a new show its own night and promotional campaign, and then hope over time that it develops an audience. You have to be patient when you are a network not really known for your scripted fare; if AMC had pulled low-rated shows after two episodes like this, we wouldn’t have had either “Breaking Bad” or “Mad Men” to talk about.
A&E say that they are going to move “Those Who Kill” to a new timeslot, that way those of you who do enjoy the show want an opportunity to still watch it in the future. We’ll let you know more on that soon.
For now, just be sure to share your thoughts on this move below. Like it? Hate it? Let us know! You can also sign up at the link here to get more courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter in your email every Sunday.
Photo: A&E