I don't know what the target demographic of commercial TV is now, but I'd guess the most important market share now is around 15 to 35 year olds. If a significant share of that group doesn't tune in, the show is unlikely to last long.
Exactly. I said this back in '04 and it's only truer now: today's networks are not really interested in attracting the age group of DS' original fans, so whether original fans like whatever take Mark Perry comes up with can be a moot point.
It's the CW again and I for one will be surprised if it airs at all, but who knows.
Though the people running the CW are very different than the people who ran the WB back in '04...
All I can say is that if the pilot script moves forward and if Rob Bowman is given the assignment of directing it, he'd better not abandon it in favor of directing a feature, which is what he did back in '04. That didn't work out for anyone concerned.
If DS takes off the way recent cult shows such as American Horror Show and Sabrina have done, then it could go gangbusters. One way those shows succeeded was by doing shorter seasons of only 10 or so episodes at a time, and I'd think the same will be true of the new DS if it is ordered to series. Just seems to be how the decision-making players run the game now.
The CW uses both models. They have shows with fewer than 20 eps as well as shows with 20+ eps...