On Tuesday April 17, the first season finale of The CW’s ‘Ringer’ aired, and many have doubted if the series will live to see a season two. Despite premiering to a strong figure of 2.8 million viewers in September, the ratings have been in a steady and ultimately precipitous decline to the point where just 1.16 million viewers watched Tuesday’s finale. The fate of the series is now in serious question.

This all marks quite a contrast from this time one year ago when ‘Ringer’ was one of the most buzzed-about and eagerly-awaited new pilots. It marked star Sarah Michelle Gellar’s return to series television after an eight-year break following a seven-year run on the critically-beloved ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, and brought together an eclectic supporting cast including Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd and ‘Lost’ star Nestor Carbonell.

Originally developed for CBS by ‘Supernatural’ writers Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder, the series features Gellar in a dual role as twin sisters Bridget and Siobhan. In the pilot, Bridget, a recovering drug addict and former prostitute, was set to testify against a murderer when fear for her own life prompted her to contact her estranged, not to mention extremely affluent, sister Siobhan for protection.

However, once reunited, Siobhan faked her own death for unknown reasons and Bridget in turn assumed her sister’s identity in an effort to escape from her predicament, but consequently placed herself in even more danger due to her sister’s own problems.

The plot itself is perhaps indicative of why ‘Ringer’ failed to connect with a mass audience. From the first episode alone, ‘Ringer’ featured a convoluted story and a multitude of storylines. As the season progressed, further twists were introduced including, but not limited to: affairs, kidnappings, murders, corporate blackmail, faked assaults, and a paternity mystery which was not resolved until Tuesday’s finale.

With every twist, ‘Ringer’ became more and more of a plot-driven series which relied on sensationalism and shock-value as a means of compensating for its under-developed characters and rushed narrative developments.

Add this to the fact that ‘Ringer’ was paired on The CW’s schedule with the younger-skewing ’90210′, and that it aired opposite heavyweights ‘The Voice’, ‘Dancing With the Stars’, and ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ which cumulatively attract upwards of 35 million viewers, and it becomes clear that ‘Ringer’ was not in the position to come out of the gate with an intricate premise which depended upon undivided attention from its audience from the get-go.

To make things even more challenging for the creative team behind the series, The CW placed ‘Ringer’ on a nine-week hiatus in the middle of its season, meaning that production on much of the second half of the season went on without any audience feedback.

Once ‘Ringer’ returned to the schedule at the end of January, it was too late to make any changes, and all The CW has been able to do is to sit back and watch the ratings drop in a year where almost all of its other series have been in significant ratings decline.

‘Gossip Girl’, ‘Nikita’, ’90210′ and newcomer ‘Hart of Dixie’ are all hovering around similarly low levels, but none had the expectations of success that ‘Ringer’ had, nor did they have the spectre of Gellar’s cult-classic ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ looming over their heads.

Now with its season wrapped well before May sweeps, a renewal for ‘Ringer’ is looking less and less likely. Even if The CW did consider giving it a last-minute pick-up, the new season would not premiere until September, meaning that the series would be off the air for at least five months, a break twice as long as the one ‘Ringer’ already went through this season and which already proved detrimental to any ratings momentum ‘Ringer’ may have had in its early weeks.

It would take a giant leap of faith on the network’s part, and an even larger creative restructuring behind-the-scenes for ‘Ringer’ to live to see another season.

The article ‘Ringer’ – TV’s Biggest Disappointment appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Long-running teen drama ‘One Tree Hill’ aired its final episode on Wednesday April 4 after 9 seasons and 187 episodes. The series premiered in the fall of 2003 on the now defunct network The WB, then in 2006 the network merged with UPN to form The CW, where the series has aired ever since.

‘One Tree Hill’ originally centred around two brothers who conflicted when they joined the same basketball team. Over the years, the series broadened to focus on their friends, family, lovers, and careers, while the producers utilised several narrative time jumps to either jumpstart new storylines or to account for numerous cast changes.

The final episode of ‘One Tree Hill’ centred around the 10-year anniversary of Tric nightclub, which had been a staple on the series since Season 2. The event saw musical numbers from acts such as Tyler Hilton, Gavin DeGraw – who provided the series’ signature theme song ‘I Don’t Wanna Be’ – and actress Bethany Joy Lenz, who has starred on the series since its very first episode.

Other storylines involved Mouth McFadden (played by Lee Norris) inheriting $500,000 from the recently-deceased Dan Scott (played Paul Johannson), Julian Baker (played by Austin Nichols) turning the characters’ lives into a TV show, and Clay Evans (played by Robert Buckley) formally adopting his son with fiancee Quinn James (played by Shantel VanSanten).

Series creator Mark Schwahn wrote and directed the finale, which featured several callbacks to previous episodes. Brooke Davis (played by Sophia Bush) visited the recreated childhood bedroom of her best friend Peyton Sawyer (formerly played by Hilarie Burton), Mouth used his inheritance to found a scholarship in honour of two characters who died in Season 3′s high-profile school shooting episode, and Haley James Scott (Lenz) told her son, “There’s only one Tree Hill, and it’s your home,” the very same line which Karen Roe (Moira Kelly) told her son Lucas (Murray) back in Season 1.

Immediately prior to the final episode, The CW aired a special retrospective titled ‘One Tree Hill: Always & Forever’, in which the cast and creator spoke about their time with the series. Schwahn said:

This was somewhat of a coming-of-age show. We met our characters as juniors in high school. To spend 9 years with those characters – you can feel so much growth.

While never a massive ratings hit – its highest rated season attracted 4.3 million viewers – ‘One Tree Hill’ developed a cult online following, and integrated enough product placement and fan involvement that it managed to win last-minute renewals year after year.

Now with it ending, ‘Supernatural’ is the only remaining scripted series on The CW which crossed over from The WB, and thus, the passing of ‘One Tree Hill’ marks the end of a specific era for teen drama series.

The article ‘One Tree Hill’ Ends After 9 Seasons appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Even though the chance of an upcoming NFL lockout is a possibility, any teams that have a serious chance of contention for the Super Bowl should sign ex Pittsburg Steeler and New York Giant Palxico Burress the minute he becomes available. It is anyone’s guess how long such a lockout would last. Currently, an eight game season is being discussed; a shortened season would no doubt give Burress enough time to get in playing shape.

Although many people are questioning whether Burress is worth signing after his recent stint in prison, his past team’s (the Giants) stats potentially give reason to believe that he was a giant contributor to the Giants’ success. The Giants’ stats during Burress’s three and a half seasons with the team prove that he had a positive impact on the team’s performance, both during the regular season and the playoffs. ESPN’s Matt Ehalt, displays these stats in detailed manner, in a recent blog of his. According to the stats on Ehalt’s blog, the Giants’ record without Burress was a bleak 19-17 with a record of 0-1 in the playoffs. The Giants’ record with Burress was a major improvement at 40-20 and a record of 4-2 in the playoffs. The Giants record was undoubtedly better with Burress in the lineup. The Giants were twenty games above the 500 mark with Burress compared with just two games above the 500 mark without him. Additionally, against both the NFC and the AFC the Giants had a grim mark of 500 without Burress.

Clearly, there are those people out there who might not take these team stats as direct proof of Burress’s individual talent as a player or of his ability to be a valuable contribution to an NFL team. However, Burress’s personal stats also speak volumes about his worth and his presence as a deep threat receiver.

Burress has been quite durable during his nine seasons in the NFL; between the Steelers’ and the Giants’, Burress has played in at least fifteen games or more, six out of the nine seasons. The three seasons in which Burress played fewer than fifteen games were in 2000-01, 2004-05 and 2008-09. Burress played in at least 10 games during all three of these seasons.

In terms of his presence as a deep threat receiver it is important to stack Burress up against the best deep threat receivers in the game today. Despite both entering the decline of their career, arguably the two best wide receivers to ever play the game are Terrell Owens and Randy Moss. Owens and Moss are undoubtedly two of the best deep threats to ever play Football. Although Owens’s and Moss’s speed may be on the decline as they continue to age, their physique in regards to length, strength and athletic ability are still difference makers for any team.  Burress definitely has the length, strength and athletic ability to be a deep threat receiver even if he is in a similar stage of his career to Moss and Owens. In regards to Burress’s skill set, former NFL scout Russ Lande of SportingNews.com says in a recent article,

“Burress has always relied on his 6-5 size and very good all-around athleticism—and that will not change in his re-entry. In the past, he had the body control, balance, coordination, jumping ability and hands to make acrobatic catches look routine. He did an excellent job of using his size, strength, athleticism and ball skills to catch Giants quarterback Eli Manning’s passes even when a cornerback was draped all over him. ”

In the article, Lande also adds that Burress’s skills were never based on his speed, saying, “the thing that affects aging receivers most—loss of speed—won’t be a big issue for Burress because speed has never been a key component in his game.”

There is no doubt Burress has had better years than others for the Giants. However, if you look at his individual contributions during his last full seasons in 07’- 08’, before he was suspended mid way through the 08’-09’ season, his capability to produce is undeniable. 07’-08’ was Burress’s best year since he entered the NFL.  The website advancednflstats.com, which is run by noted football researcher and analyst Brian Burke, demonstrates that Burress has the talent and capability of being one of the top five receivers in the NFL if he performs like he did in 07’-08’. The website clearly displays Burress’s tremendous impact on the Giants’ 2007 season, in which they won the Super Bowl. As shown on advancednflstats.com, for the 2007 season, Burress ranked fourth best among receivers’. Burress had a Success Rate (SR) of 48.9 percent during the 2007 season. As defined on Burkes website SR is “the proportion of plays in which a player was directly involved that would typically be considered successful”. Burress’s Catch Rate (CR) for the 2007 season was 48.4 percent. As defined on the website CR is, “the proportion of plays in which a player was directly involved that would typically be considered successful”. In 2007 Burress’s SR and CR were almost 50 percent! Though Moss, the best player in 2007, blew Burress away with a SR of 59.3 percent—about 10 percent higher than Burress’s, Moss’s CR was 53.0 percent, only 5 percent higher than Burress’s.

Another interesting category on Burke’s website that shows Burress’s huge impact in 2007 is Win Probability Added per Play (WPA/P). As defined on Burkes website WPA/P is, “The average Win Probability Added per play in which an offensive player is directly involved. WPA/P is a measure of an individual player’s impact on the outcome of his games, on a per play basis”. It is important to mention that the scale for WPA/P includes negative and positive numbers. More specifically if the number zero represents an average player, any player below would be below average and any player above would be above average. Burress’s WPA/P for 2007 was one of the four best in the league at 0.09, a huge leap from his WPA/P in 2000 his first year in the NFL, which was a terrible -0.07! Randy Moss, the best player in 2007 had a WPA/P only four points higher than Burress!

If Plaxico Burress can recapture his 2007 performance he will be an invaluable piece to any team that is just on the cusp of being a championship contender. There is little doubt that Burress will have something to prove to all his doubters and naysayers. If Burress’s talents that were on display in 2007 are combined with go-getter attitude this could result in a perfect storm for his opponents. If Burress ends up going to a team as formidable as the Patriots or the Packers, look for him to be wearing his second Super Bowl ring at the end of the season.

Alexey Stiop / Shutterstock.com

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