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Ramsay B.

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14 minutes ago, Dragon in the North said:

Viewership numbers are used to measure a show’s popularity. That’s their entire purpose. Viewership numbers go up and down depending on how the audience receives the particular show. That’s the way it’s always been.

This is your problem.  You're asserting that because people kept watching it that necessarily means most of them liked it, and you have no way of knowing that.  You are confusing the unit of analysis (how many people watched it) with the variable (how many people who watched it actually liked it), which is completely nonsensical.

19 minutes ago, Dragon in the North said:

I asked you if you ever heard of a situation where a show receives record breaking viewership numbers yet is disliked by most of the viewers.

For most shows, viewership generally goes up for season finales, let alone series finales, regardless of how those viewers felt about the episode.

44 minutes ago, Dragon in the North said:

All the reasons given for this make no sense, because lots of shows lose viewership numbers in their final season. GOT is not one of those because people liked what they were seeing. The facts support this.

No, the facts don't, you are asserting a spurious relationship.

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30 minutes ago, DMC said:

This is your problem.  You're asserting that because people kept watching it that necessarily means most of them liked it, and you have no way of knowing that.  You are confusing the unit of analysis (how many people watched it) with the variable (how many people who watched it actually liked it), which is completely nonsensical.

For most shows, viewership generally goes up for season finales, let alone series finales, regardless of how those viewers felt about the episode.

No, the facts don't, you are asserting a spurious relationship.

I’m asserting it because it’s true. The vast majority of people continue to watch shows that they like and drop shows that they don’t. That’s why some shows viewership numbers increase while others decrease. If people continued to watch shows they disliked, viewership numbers would never decrease.

 

Incorrect. It is quite rare for the series finale to be the most watched episode of the show. Breaking Bad was one, GOT is another.

 

No, all I’m asserting is the truth.

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Personally past a certain point I'm locked in, provided the end is in sight. There was nothing Game of Thrones could have done that would have made me stop watching in the final season.

I also just forced myself to finish season two of Picard for some reason, despite thinking it was quite terrible.

 

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13 minutes ago, Dragon in the North said:

I’m asserting it because it’s true.

LOL, no, it's not.  There are plenty of credible alternative explanations for why viewership increased in the final season -- and really the viewership jump took place in Season 7, not Season 8.  (One obvious one is Dany finally set sail for Westeros in the Season 6 finale.  Another is that between Seasons 6 and 7 Benioff confirmed that there were only two seasons and 15 episodes left.) 

This illustrates why your proposed relationship is spurious.  If the relationship was actually causal, then that would mean much more people liked Season 7 than Season 6 for some reason...not to mention Season 4 compared to Season 3 -- let alone Season 1.  All of which is absurd, which is why using ratings trends as "evidence" for how viewers felt about the quality of the episode/season is completely unfounded.

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32 minutes ago, DMC said:

LOL, no, it's not.  There are plenty of credible alternative explanations for why viewership increased in the final season -- and really the viewership jump took place in Season 7, not Season 8.  (One obvious one is Dany finally set sail for Westeros in the Season 6 finale.  Another is that between Seasons 6 and 7 Benioff confirmed that there were only two seasons and 15 episodes left.) 

This illustrates why your proposed relationship is spurious.  If the relationship was actually causal, then that would mean much more people liked Season 7 than Season 6 for some reason...not to mention Season 4 compared to Season 3 -- let alone Season 1.  All of which is absurd, which is why using ratings trends as "evidence" for how viewers felt about the quality of the episode/season is completely unfounded.

You keep insisting that there are multiple reasons why people would have continued watching, yet I’ve only heard one, that it was the final season and people were going to stick with it to the end. However, precedent does not support this as there are plenty of shows where viewership went down the final season. Sorry, but you’re argument simply does not hold up. Viewership numbers have always been used to determine a show’s popularity. I’ve said this before and you’ve been unable to counter this claim. It’s insane to think that millions of people had nothing better to do than to watch a show they hate. You seem to think hate watching is a common practice. That simply is not true.

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9 minutes ago, Dragon in the North said:

You keep insisting that there are multiple reasons why people would have continued watching, yet I’ve only heard one, that it was the final season and people were going to stick with it to the end.

I just gave you two other reasons for why there was a ratings jump from Season 6 to Season 7.  The Season 7 finale was the third highest episode of the series, btw, after the last two episodes.  Another reason I've already mentioned is because the last season was a pop culture phenomenon (indeed, probably the last TV show to reach those heights) that everyone was talking about, so people wanted to continue to watch to continue the conversation (again, almost all of it, in my experience, negative).

9 minutes ago, Dragon in the North said:

However, precedent does not support this as there are plenty of shows where viewership went down the final season.

This "precedent" means nothing to the topic at hand.  Just because a show's viewership goes down does not mean a smaller proportion of those viewers liked that season than previous seasons.  How you can't grasp this is beyond me.

9 minutes ago, Dragon in the North said:

Sorry, but you’re argument simply does not hold up.

My only argument is that your argument is baseless and fallacious.

9 minutes ago, Dragon in the North said:

Viewership numbers have always been used to determine a show’s popularity.

Of course!  Why you think popularity = viewers opinions on the show remains a mystery.

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I mean, this is only anecdotal, but I'm still reading this thread, even though it's gone down in quality since it jumped the shark once I mentioned watching the Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers movie earlier in the week and no one else commented...but the thread keeps rolling on, so someone cares about some of it to keep reading...

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5 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

I mean, this is only anecdotal, but I'm still reading this thread, even though it's gone down in quality since it jumped the shark once I mentioned watching the Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers movie earlier in the week and no one else commented...but the thread keeps rolling on, so someone cares about some of it to keep reading...

To be fair, I'm invested in 3 pages worth and I just want to see how it ends!

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52 minutes ago, DMC said:

I just gave you two other reasons for why there was a ratings jump from Season 6 to Season 7.  The Season 7 finale was the third highest episode of the series, btw, after the last two episodes.  Another reason I've already mentioned is because the last season was a pop culture phenomenon (indeed, probably the last TV show to reach those heights) that everyone was talking about, so people wanted to continue to watch to continue the conversation (again, almost all of it, in my experience, negative).

This "precedent" means nothing to the topic at hand.  Just because a show's viewership goes down does not mean a smaller proportion of those viewers liked that season than previous seasons.  How you can't grasp this is beyond me.

My only argument is that your argument is baseless and fallacious.

Of course!  Why you think popularity = viewers opinions on the show remains a mystery.

Fair enough, but those two reasons don’t really mean anything either. It being a pop culture phenomenon means very little. Maybe my workplace is different than yours, but those conversations about the previous night’s episode lasts two or three sentences at most.

 

 The precedent shows that just because it’s the final season doesn’t mean people will stick it out to the end, which is what other people have been arguing. It shows that if people lose interest in a show, regardless of how far along it is, they will stop watching it.

 

The reason something is popular is because a lot of people like it. Ok, let me put it another way. If someone wears a specific sports team paraphernalia and attends their games frequently, would you not see that they are a fan of that sports team? If someone goes to a movie theater to see a sequel, would you not see that they liked the original? If someone eats out at the same restaurant once a week, would you not see that they enjoy the food there? I’m guessing you would, so how can you not see that the reason that most of the 13 million people who watched the finale did so because they were still enjoying the show? 

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3 minutes ago, Dragon in the North said:

 The precedent shows that just because it’s the final season doesn’t mean people will stick it out to the end, which is what other people have been arguing.

Agreed.  The problem is your argument is that because people did stick it out to the end, that necessarily means they liked the show, and there's no way of knowing that (without, again, conducting a scientific study/survey).

5 minutes ago, Dragon in the North said:

If someone wears a specific sports team paraphernalia and attends their games frequently, would you not see that they are a fan of that sports team? If someone goes to a movie theater to see a sequel, would you not see that they liked the original?

My response to these analogies is that just because sports fans continue to support their team does not necessarily mean they approve of the quality of their team.  Similarly, just because someone goes to the theater to see the next entry in a film franchise they are fans of does not necessarily mean they enjoyed the movie.  I refer you to the Star Wars threads for further demonstration of the latter.

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4 minutes ago, DMC said:

Agreed.  The problem is your argument is that because people did stick it out to the end, that necessarily means they liked the show, and there's no way of knowing that (without, again, conducting a scientific study/survey).

My response to these analogies is that just because sports fans continue to support their team does not necessarily mean they approve of the quality of their team.  Similarly, just because someone goes to the theater to see the next entry in a film franchise they are fans of does not necessarily mean they enjoyed the movie.  I refer you to the Star Wars threads for further demonstration of the latter.

Not all of them, for sure, but as most of television audiences are made up of casual viewers who don’t have the patience for watching shows they’ve lost interest in. Precedent also dictates that because they did stick it out in the end means they were enjoying themselves.

 

Fair points to both. The analogies worked better in my head.

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4 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

I walk away for five minutes...

Are you assholes still re-litigating the final seasons of GoT? Assholes? 

Look at your name, dawg. Who are you to adjudicate when things should wrap up?

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1 minute ago, Dragon in the North said:

Precedent also dictates that because they did stick it out in the end means they were enjoying themselves.

What precedent?  What evidence proves (or even exists, frankly) that TV shows that don't have a drop-off in ratings are more well liked by their viewers than shows that did?

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8 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Are you assholes still re-litigating the final seasons of GoT? Assholes? 

Hey man I haven't done this in years but it's just like riding a bike, don't be a buzzkill.

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Alright here's a question that I think is kinda related: If The Simpsons announced the current or next season would be it's last, would the finale have any cultural impact? Would you tune in just because of what the show once was?

It was once my favorite show but I can't imagine catching up with all the later seasons.

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7 minutes ago, DMC said:

What precedent?  What evidence proves (or even exists, frankly) that TV shows that don't have a drop-off in ratings are more well liked by their viewers than shows that did?

Because people tend to continue to watch shows that they like. That’s a well known fact that you have been trying and failing to refute. You admitted that viewership means popularity. Something is popular because it’s well liked by a lot of people.

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5 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Alright here's a question that I think is kinda related: If The Simpsons announced the current or next season would be it's last, would the finale have any cultural impact? Would you tune in just because of what the show once was?

It was once my favorite show but I can't imagine catching up with all the later seasons.

Firm no and I say that as someone who looks fondly back and smiles that as a kid I would break the rules and watch it before my parents got home after school in the mid to late 90's.

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