Baby boomers will never forget the TV show, Hawaii Five-O, with the high-pitched trumpet blasting out theme song music, in their childhood and teen years. People glued to the TV and excitedly anticipating what the new TV episode would show that evening. Now, the new version of this popular police classic "Hawaii Five-O" is airing on US TV and drawing an average of 40.9 million overall viewers in the 18-49 demographic with 14.12 rating in primetime.
It is not too bad for a re-born again TV action classic. Giving it another life, CBS is betting that there are still plenty of people left who still love this show. This means plenty of audience and a nice package to sell to advertisers.
Some critics believe CBS has less maneuvering room to mount series that might work only if the right audience tunes in. Unlike NBC, ABC and Fox, which are owned by larger media conglomerates, the CBS television network is the showpiece of its owner, CBS Corp. As such, CBS's revenue is more heavily reliant on traditional advertising than competitors and less insulated from the vicissitudes of the advertising market.
That means the network has less tolerance for oddball fare that takes time to find its audience, focusing more heavily on launching broad crowd-pleasers that draw solid ratings - thereby creating a demand for the programs on DVD, overseas and for re-airings on cable and in syndication. In years past, CBS would test more questionable fare, such as "Jericho," a drama set in a post- nuclear era, or "Swingtown," a drama set in the spouse-swapping 1970s. While these shows garnered cult audiences or critical applause, their ratings weren't necessarily of the level needed to mount a thriving business.
CBS has experimented in this re-born direction for a while. Its freshman drama, " NCIS: LA," a spinoff of the original " NCIS," has been one of the biggest hits of the 2009-10 season.
"Hawaii Five-O" certainly wouldn't be hard to introduce to the public. The original version of the drama ran on CBS from 1968 to 1980. CBS then re -ran episodes of this cop show in previous season in late night under the title "McGarrett picture," based on the name of the series' central handsome sheriff character.
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新版的「檀島警騎」開播嘍！
嬰兒潮的一代，也就是在台灣所謂的四五年級生，都不會忘記伴隨著他們自己青少年時期的電視節目「檀島警騎」，也必定對那首以小喇叭吹奏的主題曲有深刻的印像。播出的那一晚，大家興奮的守著電視機在期待新的劇集。現在美國的電視頻道正在播出新版本的經典警匪劇「檀島警騎」，且在黄金時段吸引到平均將近四仟一佰萬個在18到49歲年齡層的觀眾，同時也達到了將近14.12的收視率。
對於一個舊瓶裝新酒的經典警匪動作影集來說，這個結果應該還不賴。哥倫比亞廣播公司除了賦予它新的面貌之外，還賭定應該有大批觀眾仍然喜歡這個節目。當然這也意味著可以帶來可觀的廣告收益。
一些電視評論家則認為哥倫比亞廣播公司仍不敢在沒有找到對的觀眾群時就大胆的去製作新的節目。不像國家廣播公司、美國廣播公司和福克斯廣播公司等擁有媒體企業集團的廣播公司，哥倫比亞的電視網是它的母公司哥倫比亞廣播公司主要的搖錢樹，傳統廣告業績對哥倫比亞廣播公司來說是比其它競爭對手更為重要的，所以它的策略就不太能跟上廣告市場多變的腳步。
這也意味著哥倫比亞電視網對要花時間出怪招去發掘真正觀眾群的耐力是有限的，所以他們就專注於大量發行能取悅廣大群眾來創造實際收視率的方法，例如拉抬節目性DVD的需求和發行海外版或是在有線台重播等各種行銷的組合。哥倫比亞廣播公司在過去幾年裡已對有爭議性的節目試了下水温，如描述經核子攻擊後時代的電視劇集「小鎮危機」或是以70年代交換配偶為主要劇情的「小鎮春色」。不管這些節目只是吸引到少數異類的觀眾還是獲得了一般大眾的青睞，它的收視率都不足以創造可觀的利潤。
哥倫比亞廣播公司已經朝舊瓶裝新酒的方向進行實驗了一陣子，像那個從原始的「海軍犯罪調查局」而發展出的新生戲劇「洛杉磯的海軍調查處」，就已經在2009至2010年的季度中造成了轟動。
當然「檀島警騎」是一個很容易擄獲觀眾的節目。因為原始版本早在1968至1980年(民國57年至69年)間就已在哥倫比亞電視網播出。哥倫比亞電視網也在之前季度的深夜裡重播了這個警匪節目，而劇集名稱就是以那個高大帥氣的警長主角「麥加雷」為名。
＜文章結束＞
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