Since the beginning of the year, negotiations have played out in the press Hollywood style, with everyone playing the wounded victim. That would effectively double the cost. But viewers are royally displeased when their shows are uprooted, even if they are replanted on a different time or day on the same network. Viewers are often settled into their nightly routines, and asking them to upset the balance is often asking for trouble. Researchers routinely conclude that we're creatures of habit, and that our evening regimen often shifts slightly every fall, just when new television shows arrive in bunches.
Viewers often have an allegiance to a network, depending upon their taste.
Shows have moved before, but usually while on their last legs, picked up by a network desperate for their old magic for at least one more season. All upped their antes by testing the free-agent waters, although gently, knowing NBC would cave in. Whedon fired back, saying for the first time that he is now willing to leave the network that took a chance on a weekly series adapted from a poorly reviewed feature film. All this means little to Myra, of course. The question is whether she and others like her will follow the series to Fox or ABC or HBO or Boise, Idaho, or protest with their absence and basically kill the show.