The Death of Bones

Bones is a crime drama that involves a scientist, Temperance Brennen and an FBI agent, Seeley Booth, working together to solve murders. I have been watching Bones since I was in high school. The first episode aired in 2005 and currently continues into its ninth season. I am a huge fan of this show but something that has saddens me about this show is that over the past three years Bones has been dying.

There may be many reasons that Bones is a dying TV show. There are many other crime dramas that may draw the attention of more viewers than Bones. Currently the most watched television show of 2012-2013 is NCIS, which is a crime drama. (Schneider)

At the end of season six Brennen tells Booth that she is pregnant, and the child is his. Once that closure happened, once the couple finally gets together, the anticipation is gone. The need to watch the show, and the need for the characters to get together goes away. After that moment happened, I no longer felt the need to watch the show any longer. I knew that the two characters that I hoped would get together finally did and there would be no reason to continue watching the show.  There was closure in the show even though it did not actually end. After Booth and Brennen get together the shows ratings dropped quite a bit.

During season 6 of Bones there were 10.09 million viewers (Bones-2011-2012), season seven had 8.07 million viewers (Bones-2011-2012), season eight had 7.75 million viewers (Bones-Season Eight) and finally season nine with the move from Monday to Friday is already down two million viewers. (Bones-Season Nine)

Fox must have thought that Bones was struggling because they have tried to help the show by putting it behind a different, thriving show. This move is known as a lead-in. Bones was put behind The X Factor in hopes that viewers from The X Factor would stick around and watch Bones as well. (Bones-2011-2012) Another tactic that networks employ when they know a show is dying is switching it to Friday nights. As learned in class, Friday nights are known as the ‘Friday Night Wasteland’. It is typically where shows go to die. FOX had realized that Bones was struggling and could no longer survive. As of November 15, 2013 FOX moved Bones to Friday nights. (Bones-Season Nine) Because Bones switched from Monday nights to Friday nights it has already lost 2.2 million viewers, (Bones-Season Nine) which is a forty percent drop in viewership. (Bibel)

Over the years Bones has occupied different time slots, eventually airing on every weekday. When the series started to thrive it settled onto Thursday nights. After season six Bones was moved to Monday nights for the remainder of season seven and stayed there up until its recent move to Friday nights.

There may be other causes for Bones decline, but there is evidence of this similar pattern in other TV shows. When characters finally solidify their relationship the audience has nothing left to watch for and anticipate. The audience is finally satisfied with the storyline of the show and they no longer have a desire to watch. Scrubs, Glee, Dawson’s Creek as well as Chuck are all shows that declined after main characters got together.

At the end of season three of Scrubs, Carla and Turk got married. The TV ranking of Scrubs went down forty spots (ABC Medianet) (Primetime Series) spots after season three. I believe this is due to the fact that the audience got closure on two of the main characters’ relationship. They no longer needed to wonder what would happen to Carla and Turk.

Season two of Glee ended with Kurt and Blaine declaring their love for each other. The second season’s finale ended with 11.8 million viewers. (Gorman-Tuesday) But when the show started up again for its third season it only had 9.21 million viewers.  (Seidman)

The season finale of Dawson’s Creek ended with Joey and Dawson finally sharing a kiss. After four seasons of the audience desiring them to be together it finally happened. However, after this anticipated kiss, the ratings for Dawson’s creek dropped twelve rankings. (Bibler) (USA Today)

At the end of season four of Chuck, Chuck and Sarah get married. After this season finale Chuck went from the 101^st spot in the TV rankings to the 138^th spot.

(Gormnan-2010-2011) (Gorman-Complete List)

I can not conclude that the only reason for Bones’ downfall was the solidification of Dr. Brennen and Agent Booth’s romantic relationship. Personally I feel like that is when I stopped being as intrigued in the show. If I feel this way about one television show that I was constantly watching for years, then I believe that other viewers may have felt the same way about other shows as well.  I hope that one of my favorite shows can make a come back but I think it is time to say good-bye to Dr. Brennen and Agent Booth.

Works Cited

Bibel, Sara. "TV Ratings Friday: 'Bones' Falls in New Timeslot, 'Raising Hope' Returns Low, 'Grimm', 'Hawaii Five-0' & 'The Carrie Diaries' Up, 'Dracula' Flat." TV by the Numbers. TVbytheNumbers, 16 Nov. 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

Bibler, Frank. "TV Ratings 2000-2001." TV Ratings 2000-2001. Futon Critic, 26 July 2002. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

"Bones: Ratings for the 2011-12 Season." TV Series Finale. TV Series Finale, 16 May 2012. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

"Bones: Season Eight Ratings." TV Series Finale. TV Series Finale, 1 May 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

"Bones: Season Nine Ratings." TV Series Finale. TV Series Finale, 12 Nov. 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

Gorman, Bill. "2010-11 Season Broadcast Primetime Show Viewership Averages." TV by the Numbers. TVbytheNumbers, 1 June 2011. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

Gorman, Bill. "Complete List Of 2011-12 Season TV Show Viewership: 'Sunday Night Football' Tops, Followed By 'American Idol,' 'NCIS' & 'Dancing With The Stars'" TV by the Numbers. TVbytheNumbers, 24 May 2012. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

Gorman, Bill. "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'American Idol,' 'Dancing With The Stars' Adjusted Up." TV by the Numbers. TVbytheNumbers, 25 May 2011. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

"I. T. R. S. RANKING REPORT 01 THRU 210 (OUT OF 210 PROGRAMS) DAYPART: PRIMETIME MON-SUN." ABC Medianet. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., 2 June 2004. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

"Primetime Series." THR.com. Nielsen Business Media, Inc., 27 May 2007. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

Schneider, Michael. "America's Most Watched: The Top 25 Shows of the 2012-2013 TV Season." TV Guide. CBS Interactive Inc., 10 June 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

Seidman, Robert. "Tuesday Finals: 'New Girl,' 'Glee,' 'NCIS,' DWTS Results Adjusted Up; 'Body of Proof' Adjusted Down." TV by the Numbers. TVbytheNumbers, 21 Sept. 2011. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

Seidman, Robert. "Tuesday Finals: 'New Girl,' 'Glee,' 'NCIS,' DWTS Results Adjusted Up; 'Body of Proof' Adjusted Down." TVbytheNumbers. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

"USATODAY.com - How Did Your Favorite Show Rate?" USATODAY.com - How Did Your Favorite Show Rate? Gannett Co. Inc., 28 May 2002. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.