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***Official Utopia Thread*** Fox Cancels Series :( (1 Viewer)

this show is interesting to me as well. i will continue to watch. but its fading fast. Now that dave is gone and the crazy religious guy. Its gotten boring. I cant see it lasting much longer but i hope it does last until the initial vote off.
why? can you elaborate?

I don't see this as any different than any other reality show, from the little I watched, so am curious if there's something else going on. And for me- I got tired of that format years ago; I also don't like seeing people act like #######s and don't find any humor or joy in it. Jersey Shore was the point at which I realized- ugh- no thanks.
That's fair. It's not for everyone. If the format of reality TV is something you don't like, then I would assume that this has no appeal to you. It's not ground breaking by any means. And it's not different enough to get people who hate reality TV to watch it.

But I don't think that was their intention. People like myself who enjoy reality TV are probably more who they are targeting.
yea for me, i like to people watch which is generally why i like reality tv as well. sadly most of it is either scripted or the characters are actors playing a role these days. this doesnt seem much different in that regard. But the drama is what sometimes keeps people hooked or coming back. there really isnt any drama. So at some point it just becomes watching people mill around. There doesnt seem to be a clear purpose here. without that most people arent going to tune in.

 
One of you guys still in on this... nutshell of why you're watching? What do you like about this?
The live feeds. I like to people watch, and I like to learn about sociology/watch social experiements. This is just one of those for me, and I will probably stick with it for as long as I believe it is "real", which I still do. I'm not in it for the fighting or drama, that just goes with it.

I'm one of the few who have stuck with this Big Brother season to the end. It's been a pretty dull season as far as game play goes, but I still enjoy watching the live feeds.
This is probably my biggest reason for watching reality TV. I love seeing how people react in certain situations. Who cares if those situations are manufactured? It's not so much the situation I care about as much as the reaction by the people in that situation.
this! if you ever watch big brother uk. That is probably the perfect mix of not scripting, and manufacturing drama. awesome tv. the current celebrity edition going on now is outstanding.

 
Thanks for the answers, guys.

I went in thinking there might be more to the "Utopia"/ build our own society aspect to this- and that had some appeal.

As it is, and based on your comments, it seems like it's just another reality show which holds no interest for me- so I'm out.

 
Thanks for the answers, guys.

I went in thinking there might be more to the "Utopia"/ build our own society aspect to this- and that had some appeal.

As it is, and based on your comments, it seems like it's just another reality show which holds no interest for me- so I'm out.
The TV show, yes. I DVR'd the first couple TV episodes, but don't really have any interest in watching them going forward (maybe because I've already seen it all on the feeds or read updates about what happened). Last night instead of watching the TV show, I watched the feeds.

The live feeds come across as much more believable and less contrived than the show itself. When you see the arguments in context, they make a lot more sense than simply seeing fight after fight on the TV show and thinking that's all they're doing. I think the live feeds are awesome, and are only getting better, and I hope they continue on regardless of what happens with the TV show.

That said, the live feeds can be a big time commitment. I listen in to them while at my computer working, that's how I do a majority of my live feed "watching". It's similar to listening to music or a podcast for me. A half hour conversation about this bird that keeps snatching fish from their lake and dropping them just outside their gates makes the work day melt away for me. I don't know why, but it just does :shrug:

 
these are all actors right? I tried watching the first episode but after the convict exploded and acted all tardish I deleted my subscription. feels like the Joe Schmoe Show

 
PinkydaPimp, on 17 Sept 2014 - 09:02 AM, said:PinkydaPimp, on 17 Sept 2014 - 09:02 AM, said:this show is interesting to me as well. i will continue to watch. but its fading fast. Now that dave is gone and the crazy religious guy. Its gotten boring. I cant see it lasting much longer but i hope it does last until the initial vote off.
Why is he crazy? Him and the lawyer were by far the sanest one there.

 
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PinkydaPimp, on 17 Sept 2014 - 09:02 AM, said:PinkydaPimp, on 17 Sept 2014 - 09:02 AM, said:this show is interesting to me as well. i will continue to watch. but its fading fast. Now that dave is gone and the crazy religious guy. Its gotten boring. I cant see it lasting much longer but i hope it does last until the initial vote off.
Why is he crazy? Him and the lawyer were by far the sanest one there.
I'm not a big religious guy but I found myself liking Jon.I thought he handled himself really well in a very chaotic first week and never forced his beliefs on anyone.

 
PinkydaPimp, on 17 Sept 2014 - 09:02 AM, said:PinkydaPimp, on 17 Sept 2014 - 09:02 AM, said:this show is interesting to me as well. i will continue to watch. but its fading fast. Now that dave is gone and the crazy religious guy. Its gotten boring. I cant see it lasting much longer but i hope it does last until the initial vote off.
Why is he crazy? Him and the lawyer were by far the sanest one there.
I'm not a big religious guy but I found myself liking Jon.I thought he handled himself really well in a very chaotic first week and never forced his beliefs on anyone.
Yeah. And I think that showed when the Jersey guy told him how much he impacted everyone when he was leaving. Made me tear up a little.

 
I don't think she's shown up on the TV show much, but Amanda is also one of the more sane level headed members of the group. She acts more like an unbiased mediator amongst all this chaos. Surprisingly one of my favorite pioneers.

 
PinkydaPimp, on 17 Sept 2014 - 09:02 AM, said:PinkydaPimp, on 17 Sept 2014 - 09:02 AM, said:this show is interesting to me as well. i will continue to watch. but its fading fast. Now that dave is gone and the crazy religious guy. Its gotten boring. I cant see it lasting much longer but i hope it does last until the initial vote off.
Why is he crazy? Him and the lawyer were by far the sanest one there.
to be fair, i did actually like the religious guy. he was a bit over the top about stuff like when the girls were bathing in the nude. But he seemed to get over it. and i will agree he didnt really push his views on anyone. I think he was really good for Dave. I wish they had given him another chance. Dave and his interaction with the group was by far the most fascinating of all the characters to me.

 
PinkydaPimp, on 17 Sept 2014 - 09:02 AM, said:PinkydaPimp, on 17 Sept 2014 - 09:02 AM, said:this show is interesting to me as well. i will continue to watch. but its fading fast. Now that dave is gone and the crazy religious guy. Its gotten boring. I cant see it lasting much longer but i hope it does last until the initial vote off.
Why is he crazy? Him and the lawyer were by far the sanest one there.
to be fair, i did actually like the religious guy. he was a bit over the top about stuff like when the girls were bathing in the nude. But he seemed to get over it. and i will agree he didnt really push his views on anyone. I think he was really good for Dave. I wish they had given him another chance. Dave and his interaction with the group was by far the most fascinating of all the characters to me.
I was worried at first when the girls got naked and it bothered him. But I really admired the way that HE removed himself and didn't try to make others change to appease him. I respect that. As a person who is religious, I like seeing other religious people that don't try to push their religion on others. Just gives us all a bad name.

And I agree about Dave. Wish he would have stayed. Them voting him out may have been the nail that gets this show cancelled.

 
I hit up the EP from Utopia and actually got a reply regarding last nights ratings.

Jon Kroll ‏@hippykid 2h

All we care about is the 18-49 number, and we were up 14%!
:clap:

The Taylor/Hex bromance will save the season!!!
Nailed It! :hifive:

The stuff on the TV show, is not the show. The live feeds are the show. Just run it 24 hours on HBO-5 or something, uncensored.
Would love to see them go that route.Feeds have been outstanding,show not so much.

Hard to cram everything into 40 minutes without leaving things people want to see out.

 
See i would watch the feeds, but my problem is, i dont have time to watch it all the time. As a result i feel like i will miss a ton of stuff.

I wish that there was an uncensored version of the show where producers edited it differently. I feel like im missing tons. But i just dont have the time investment to watch feeds all the time.

 
See i would watch the feeds, but my problem is, i dont have time to watch it all the time. As a result i feel like i will miss a ton of stuff.

I wish that there was an uncensored version of the show where producers edited it differently. I feel like im missing tons. But i just dont have the time investment to watch feeds all the time.
I listen to the feeds for about 2 hours a day at work, occassionally watch on weeknights for an hour to get a sense of the vibe, hardly at all on weekends. I read update blogs for about 5-10 minutes, kinda part of the morning routine now. All that's missing is the ability to go back and watch the good stuff. Plus Tom and I give each other updates in the spoiler thread. It's not hard to keep up. Whether you're entertained by it is another story. Kinda like reading a book versus watching a movie.

 
Yawn. Another boring episode.

SIde note. Here is some of Reds other TV work

And...I think that means I'm out. Put me down as one that liked the concept, plus I enjoy some people watching to see how people act and react in situations, even manufactured ones. But while I figured some people were recruited, I had hoped it was from people that actually wanted to be on the show for the "right" reasons (i.e. the one's being put forth by the show itself). It's been pretty boring lately, it doesn't seem like they are going to stumble onto some scalable new form of gov't (not that I expected them to, but wanted to see some cool ideas at least).

 
TheIronSheik, on 12 Sept 2014 - 06:21 AM, said:

I'm confused why people keep saying these people are so stupid that they must be actors. Do you guys not go out in the real world? Our planet is filled with about 99% stupid people. And about 75% of those are beyond stupid. I don't think it would take more than an hour to find 14 dumb people to be on a reality show.
 
Jon Kroll@hippykid · 2 hrs2 hours ago

Viewership for #Utopia up last night! Thanks, everyone. We're growing.
:o :thumbup: :headbang: :pickle: :clap: :suds:
I'm actually liking this now. Seems like it's finding it's groove.

My GF still thinks the host is Anderson Cooper wearing a disguise because he's ashamed to be affiliated with the show. She's not as high on this show as me and my kid. :lol:
How old is your kid?
Probably not old enough to be watching. But I need someone to watch crappy TV shows with. :shrug:

 
Pulled from Tuesdays effective immediately, to be replaced by Masterchef Junior starting November 4. In the interim, baseball and Simpsons/Family Guy reruns will fill the Tuesday slots.

Will still air on Fridays.
Saw this too and found it odd. Since they tweeted out earlier in the day that the ratings were up.

Either way, this could be a good thing for Utopia. Friday night has always been the bottom for TV shows. But shows like Shark Tank have proven that Friday is not a death sentence. If Fox really wants to see how this thing plays out for a while, Friday night may be a good place to let it sit and settle.

Overall, I still think it's doomed. But I hope it lasts as long as possible.

 
Pulled from Tuesdays effective immediately, to be replaced by Masterchef Junior starting November 4. In the interim, baseball and Simpsons/Family Guy reruns will fill the Tuesday slots.

Will still air on Fridays.
Yep, bad sign.

Fox is dumping half of Utopia from its schedule.

The idealistic-sounding series with the hellish ratings is being yanked from Tuesday nights. From now on, Utopia will only air on Fridays. The move comes just hours after we predicted this very move in EW‘s first canceled shows post. While Utopia is not canceled, the decision marks a major demotion for the series.

Instead, Fox is going to launch the second season of Masterchef Junior in the Tuesday at 8 p.m. slot. starting Nov. 4. Next week, Fox will encore its Family Guy/Simpsons crossover episode in the time period, then have animated repeats the following week. Then Fox’s World Series coverage will take over the night until the premiere of Masterchef Junior, which was originally intended for Friday night.

Fox had a very ambitious plan for Utopia, which was originally announced as a yearlong show. Though the series was originally intended to eventually segue to one night a week, that night was supposed to be the higher-profile Tuesday nights after running for six weeks on the air. Utopia has struggled hugely in the ratings. The reality experiment where 13 “pioneers” build a new society had only 2 million viewers Tuesday night and a 0.8 rating among adults 18-49, which wasn’t helpful for Fox’s 9 p.m. comedy block of New Girl and The Mindy Project.
http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/10/01/fox-pulls-utopia/

Drop the TV show, keep the feeds going, I won't miss a thing. Let's consider this "season 1", a failed season in which FOX learns a lot, changes things up, and before you know it we're watching the hugely successful 25th year long season of this show, airing in primetime 5 nights a week with the season premier preempting a presidential speech :o

Jon Kroll@hippykid · 18 hrs18 hours ago

Streams at #Utopia not my area, but just met with that team & made some suggestions for improvements. May take a bit, but hope it will help.
Us feed watchers know exactly what suggestion Jon made, she entered the compound last night (topless maid) :thumbup:
 
Seems like production is getting more involved. They're bailing on the social experiment and shooting for entertainment and ratings now.

 
Ratings suck and I get the sense production is letting the cast know they're on a sinking ship. Now the Utopians sometimes talk of ideas in terms of how it will affect ratings, wondering what they could do to up their ratings. This show could disappear during the world series and not return and nobody would remember it ever happened.

I still think it's an amazing concept for a show, execution just has not been there.

 
Ratings suck and I get the sense production is letting the cast know they're on a sinking ship. Now the Utopians sometimes talk of ideas in terms of how it will affect ratings, wondering what they could do to up their ratings. This show could disappear during the world series and not return and nobody would remember it ever happened.

I still think it's an amazing concept for a show, execution just has not been there.
A lot of people seem to think casting and marketing was the issue but I totally agree with what you said here,Fox had something that could have been really good and turned it into something only a few would even like which spells doom for it.I doubt it returns after the World Series from everything I've heard but at least the feeds were really good if that counts for anything.

 
Ratings suck and I get the sense production is letting the cast know they're on a sinking ship. Now the Utopians sometimes talk of ideas in terms of how it will affect ratings, wondering what they could do to up their ratings. This show could disappear during the world series and not return and nobody would remember it ever happened.

I still think it's an amazing concept for a show, execution just has not been there.
A lot of people seem to think casting and marketing was the issue but I totally agree with what you said here,Fox had something that could have been really good and turned it into something only a few would even like which spells doom for it.I doubt it returns after the World Series from everything I've heard but at least the feeds were really good if that counts for anything.
It was doomed when Fox decided to cast the show from the regular cast of wanna be actors/actresses that plague many reality shows rather than actually spending the time to find people that might actually want to do this experiment justice. Now that it's one night a week, I keep watching, but not sure why - just hoping they stumble onto something interesting. Again, not even sure why I think they might at this point.

 
I keep thinking the show has found something that will save it (the replacement process in action, or this new Utopian they have who looks like he is here for the right reasons, etc), but all the scheming they do kinda let me down. Not scheming in the 'game' sense of let's rally to get this person out, but the lying/cheating each other for personal gain (and of course the idea that some are here as a springboard to getting rich/famous).

I wonder why the Dutch version is doing well (nearing 300 days, TV show 5 days/week from what I read). Do they cut a more entertaining show there? Less quality TV to compete with? Maybe their cast is there for the right reasons?

Part of me wants to say that even if the US version did bring on a fame-whoring individualistic group of people, that that pretty much still is indicative of a decent size of the US population (every other person has a youtube channel trying to get attention). So maybe what we have here isn't far from reality afterall? I keep trying to justify sticking with this show.

 
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Walking Boot said:
TenTimes said:
I wonder why the Dutch version is doing well (nearing 300 days, TV show 5 days/week from what I read). Do they cut a more entertaining show there? Less quality TV to compete with? Maybe their cast is there for the right reasons?
European TV hits are very different. One channel broadcast a 12 hour feed of a train going down the tracks and millions watched and it was one of the highest rated programs in the country. It was followed up with a 134 hour live broadcast of a boat going down a river and half the country watched it. They have different sensibilities.
I haven't seen either but from what I read there seems to be much less fighting on the Dutch version.

 
Walking Boot said:
TenTimes said:
I wonder why the Dutch version is doing well (nearing 300 days, TV show 5 days/week from what I read). Do they cut a more entertaining show there? Less quality TV to compete with? Maybe their cast is there for the right reasons?
European TV hits are very different. One channel broadcast a 12 hour feed of a train going down the tracks and millions watched and it was one of the highest rated programs in the country. It was followed up with a 134 hour live broadcast of a boat going down a river and half the country watched it. They have different sensibilities.
I haven't seen either but from what I read there seems to be much less fighting on the Dutch version.
The thing is, you'd expect some fighting, right? Hamilton/Burr and all that. When people have different ideas of what "Utopia" is, something has to give.

I really think it's all in the cast. Bri and Aaron are the biggest examples of what's wrong with this show in my opinion, and as such, were the top vote getters for eviction from the live feed subscribers. Even the most die hard fans aren't going to want to watch a year of their BS.

 
did anyone ever watch a show on Discovery called "The Colony"? kinda similar to this, but instead of trying to create a BS "utopia", they were just trying to survive after a fake worldwide catastrophe. that show always had an element of danger/chance to it (roaming marauders, deadly virus, finding hidden treasures, etc.) that this one is missing.

 
did anyone ever watch a show on Discovery called "The Colony"? kinda similar to this, but instead of trying to create a BS "utopia", they were just trying to survive after a fake worldwide catastrophe. that show always had an element of danger/chance to it (roaming marauders, deadly virus, finding hidden treasures, etc.) that this one is missing.
Watched a youtube trailer for this, it looks more like what Utopia should have been. People who know what they are doing and doing it, rather than people who don't know what they're doing and deferring to veteranarians/farmers so they can instead make jewelry or whatever to sell.

They could just change the name of this show to "Ugly Charity". Watch 15 people fail at surviving, struggling to scrape by while scheming to get a bigger piece of the generous donations Utopia is receiving. There may come a time when (as Spock says) "the needs of the many outweight the needs of the few", but they're pretty far from that at this point.

 

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