Ad giants stay away from FX's 'Shield'
Program 75% sold for first 13 weeks
Move follows a press release last week from Parents Television Council's Brent Bozell cheerleading the fact that several advertisers have pulled out of the show, which has pushed the language and violence envelope.
Whether or not the pull-outs are related, the defections, piled on top of the ratings slippage each week during its first month, have caused some nervousness at FX, which has treated "The Shield" as its first signature series.
But a spokesman for FX said the program is still 75% sold out for its first 13 weeks.
"While a handful of advertisers have opted out of the show," the spokesman said, "new ones have come in to replace them." He declined to reveal specific companies, citing FX policy, but Miller beer will buy time as successor to Anheuser-Busch.
After kicking off with a spectacular 4.1 in its premiere episode on March 12 (Tuesday at 10), "The Shield" slipped to a 3.7 rating in cable homes March 19 It then plunged on March 26 to a 3.1 rating, tumbling even further to a 2.2 on April 2.
The spokesman attributed some of that decline to the cutback in promotional dollars in weeks three and four as FX conserves its resources to market other programming on the network. To try to stem the erosion, FX has earmarked extra dollars to promote today's edition, including a big ad in TV Guide.
Even though the household numbers have fallen precipitously over the four weeks, FX said 65% of the total viewers to "The Shield" are adults 18 to 49, a robust percentage that -- if it continues -- should keep lots of advertisers interested in buying spots.
Most advertisers buy rotations on FX, getting spots in "The Shield" as part of a total package of rating-point goals agreed to by the parties in their negotiations.
