Watching the Eurovision Song Contest in America, Doctor Who and BBC America

So how do you watch the Eurovision Song Contest in America?  Well, you don't.  Not on normal American telly channels, at least.  Previous experience suggests that the only way to get it legally is to stream it live over the internet, by going to Eurovision.tv.  In previous years, the quality has been pretty high for an internet stream.  The main downside is a kind of eery silence where the commentary should be -- it is the direct, no-frills stream with no commentary, no phone-numbers to ring.

I have talked about this in the past over on The Americanization of Emily and so won't repeat myself here except to add that I am tempted this year to hold off a bit.  Sitting indoors and watching Eurovision live, with no British commentary, at three in the afternoon, on the first day of summer, when our pool opens tomorrow, does not somehow feel like the fun it once did, all the more so as this year, for the first time since its return, Doctor Who is not going to be cancelled on BBC1 for Eurovision.  Result!

Somewhat bizarrely, BBC America, on the other hand, which does not show Eurovision, is cancelling its showing of Doctor Who tomorrow night and instead showing repeats of previous episodes, so now creating a three-week time-lag compared to the two-week one they began with.  Who is able to explain the mysteries of BBC America?

Doctor Who and BBC America today

A year or so ago I posted on the problems Doctor Who was having getting a proper home and proper treatment here in America (Doctor Who back in America -- at last).  Well, all that has changed now, and its new home, BBC America, begins airing the new series tonight, "at 9/8 Central" as they say here, which means 9pm Eastern time, 8pm Central time.  There are lots of things to like about the way BBC America are are treating the new series:

• It is only two weeks behind the UK.  It is excellent to have the show on here so soon after its British outing.  This kind of convergence has been happening increasingly with international programme, and in the opposite direction, US to UK, too.
• It's available in HD.  Doctor Who only went into High Definition with the 2009 specials, and it is good news that it is being broadcast here in HD.  I realize that not everyone yet has BBC America HD, but we are among the lucky ones here in Raleigh.
• There has been a massive and unprecedented media blitz.  For the first time ever, the main stars (Matt Smith as the doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond) and chief honchos (Steven Moffat, the head writer, and producers Beth Willis and Piers Wenger) have been in the US promoting the show before it airs (Doctor Who in New York; Doctor Who Mania hits New York).
• BBC America are airing a Doctor Who marathon today, with back to back episodes from 2008 and 2009 ahead of the premiere of the new series tonight at 9.

Well, I for one will be watching.  I'd encourage all those who are a bit naughty and who find episodes "by other means" to tune in tonight too, and support this great effort by BBC America who will probably get an excellent audience for this new series.

Doctor Who back in America -- at last

News broke last night, in Variety (reported by Radio Free Scaro) that the five Doctor Who specials are finally scheduled to air in America, and that they will premiere on BBC America. There had been some frustration among American Doctor Who fans about the wait for these new episodes, the first of which, "The Next Doctor", aired in the UK on Christmas day and the second of which, "Planet of the Dead" aired on the day before Easter. My friend Chip, of the Two Minute Timelord podcast, has been vocal in his criticism of the failure of the US TV companies to pick up (the first two of) these five specials in a timely fashion, not least because it effectively encourages the fans to access them "by other means". He first commented in Planet of the Delayed and then guested on the Whocast 118 in the first of two programmes they devoted to gathering the assembled hordes of Doctor Who podcasts to get their impressions on the lack of Who in America, continuing with Whocast 119.

I share the frustration of other Doctor Who fans in America.  The technology is available to broadcast things in close proximity in different regions, and this is now the norm with films, which often premiere on the same day in the US and the UK.  One of the difficulties, I think, with the scheduling and marketing of Doctor Who in America is that the habits and traditions of American TV viewing are quite different from those of British TV viewing. In the UK, there is an old tradition, which people like me grew up with, of Saturday night family viewing, when everyone gathers around the telly.  My Saturday evening as a child began with Basil Brush, went on with Doctor Who and continued with The Generation Game and The Two Ronnies.  Saturday night was the big night for TV and everyone I knew was watching.  I don't know that there has ever been a tradition like this in the US, though it may just be that I am ignorant.  One of the great things about new Who is that it recaptured the Saturday night family-viewing slot, with anything between 6 and 10 million viewers, but there is no equivalent family viewing Saturday night slot in the US, and the US cable companies have struggled to know quite where to schedule it.  Sci-Fi channel, who have been the first to air each of the recent series, from 2005 to the present, settled on the Friday night geek slot, about 8pm, just before Battlestar Galactica.  But this already nudges Doctor Who towards a particular niche audience, people like me, 30-40 something family types who might be in on a Friday night, and it does not target Doctor Who's natural family audience.

There is a related problem when it comes to what they call event TV.  The biggest TV audiences in the US now gather for Superbowl Sunday.  In contrast to the UK, the major holidays do not provide opportunities for major new TV drama.  Whereas in the UK, Christmas Day TV is some of the best TV of the year, in America there is little new programming and only repeats and films.  This explains, in part, the problem that Who has found in getting its five "specials" scheduled.  There is no special TV Christmas tradition into which a Doctor Who Christmas special like "The Next Doctor" could be slotted.  Still more so with Easter.  "Planet of the Dead", the second of the specials, got an excellent audience in the UK on the Saturday before Easter, but this kind of scheduling would make no sense in the US where there is no similar tradition of Easter TV.

From my limited experience of American TV in the four years we have lived here, it seems that a lot is invested in gaining momentum.  A series is given a particular, regular slot and there are tons of episodes (21 to 24)  stretched across the key season time of September to April.  It is difficult enough to strecth a Doctor Who series of 13 or 14 episodes into this schedule, but still worse to fit in five "specials" separated by months.  

What I think is happening, however, is a steady, slight reawakening of interest in Who in America.  SciFi were getting a million or so viewers for the new episodes in series 4, and the series has then popped up on BBC America, and then PBS channels.  If the rumours of an American film ever come to anything, I supsect that there is an audience out there who could be interested -- many remember the PBS showings of the classic series  in the 1970s and 1980s, and several of the SciFi fans are already enjoying the new series.  

There is just one thing I really want to beg from BBC America as they premiere the new specials.  Please don't cut them!  Last year, Voyage of the Damned, the 2007 Christmas special, was massacred on its BBC America outing, with more than 20 minutes cut, including the Murray Gold song, "Stowaway".   SciFi were often the  same -- material trimmed here and there in order to squeeze it into an American TV hour.  I think viewers won't mind to have scheduling outside of the hour in order that they can see the whole episode.

Gavin and Stacey on BBC America

Much of the time, BBC America is a very annoying channel for British expats. Endless repeats of the same handful of programmes that we did not want to watch the first time round and badly edited versions of the ones we did. But sometimes a gem comes along. When we were back in England in April, we caught a couple of episodes of Gavin and Stacey, then towards the end of its second series, and we quite liked it. Now the first series has arrived on BBC America and we are getting the chance to catch it from the beginning. Two episodes in and we are loving it -- I had no idea it was so funny. The two biggest belly laughs so far are Alison Steadman as Gavin's mum going on the Adkin's diet and serving herself three steaks instead of steak and chips and peas, and Rob Brydon as Uncle Brian explaining the joys of route planner to Gavin:



Comedy gold.