The Dow Is Up!

A while ago, I wrote about how WFLD, Chicago's Fox channel, replaced the 5:00 episode of The Simpsons with Yes Dear. I thought it was stupid and moronic. I encouraged everyone to email WFLD and tell them so. My reason? Yes Dear is a TERRIBLE show. I mean, it's absolutely horrible. It doesn't have one redeeming quality.

And what happened? WFLD realized the error of their ways and put The Simpsons back on. (This link will take you to the Sun-Times article that broke the news. It's hidden somewhere near the bottom.) This leaves two questions: Why did WFLD get rid of The Simpsons in the first place? And why did they bring it back.

My guess is that the ratings for the 5:00 version of The Simpsons were lagging the 6:00 and 10:00 versions. So WFLD figured they'd try a new show. For some reason, they went with Yes Dear. Then the ratings bombed. Morons like me emailed WFLD and told them they were idiots. Then WFLD realized one of two things: either fans of The Simpsons aren't adequately represented by the ratings or that fans of The Simpsons are die-hards. They don't miss an episode.

You see, if Yes Dear is on, who who watches it? I mean, besides the mentally deranged. People who can't find anything else to watch. But with The Simpsons, there are people like me who actually TiVo the 5:00 episode so I can watch it when I get home. I'm sure I'm not the only one either. So the question posed to WFLD is: do we want a whole lot of people indifferent about our 5:00 show or do we want a handful of people watching it like their life depended on it. As you can see, they went with the latter. Later, we can tackle WHY my life depends on it so much, but I don't feel like beating myself up right now.