Rene Balcer, the executive producer for "Criminal Intent," explained the innovation as "a happy accident" - and one whose moral stakes should not be taken too seriously. Wolf did not conjure the idea of viewer-sponsored resurrection or death in the first place. What this is about is that some of the audience is voting by leaving for the competition, and this is a way to get people involved and interested in the show." "Donald Trump is the one who decides who is fired, and on 'Survivor' people are voted off the island by other contestants. "On most of the reality shows, the public doesn't get involved," he said. "The viewer will always respond to a gimmick, and reality television has whetted the appetite for this kind of thing."īut Joe Saltzman, a professor of journalism at the Annenberg School for Communication, said he thought the comparison was a false one. "Dick Wolf has had an unbelievable run, in part because he always pays attention to his audience," Mr. Networks have long tested pilots with audiences, but this is the first time that viewers will decide in real time, more or less, the fate of a particular character. It is one thing to generate water-cooler conversation over "Who shot J.R.?" but it is quite another to ask the audience whether J.R. The hurricanes are blowing, and we are up against one of the hottest shows of the year." "I will say that it is not much of a leap of faith in one of the most competitive seasons in years. "This is the chance to do something first in a medium that is more than 60 years old, and you don't get that chance very often," Mr. Last season, all three "Law & Order" shows were ranked in the Nielsen top 25 the franchise is so important to the network that executives cited it as one of the reasons NBC purchased Universal earlier this year.ĭick Wolf, the creator of "Law & Order," who all but invented a genre in which narrative mystery, not stars, drive the show, often cites Shakespeare in saying "the play's the thing." But the viewer referendum tomorrow is the equivalent of asking the audience if Hamlet is "to be or not to be." The energized competition pushed "Criminal Intent" out of the top 20 rated shows on prime-time television. Last Sunday "Desperate Housewives" had more than 20 million viewers, compared with "Criminal Intent's"12.8 million viewers. The show has been lapped by "Desperate Housewives," a mordant look at life in an affluent suburb, one of the season's hottest shows for the suddenly resurgent ABC. Like its siblings, "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" delivers a just, intricate universe to viewers, but it has bumped up against, of all things, a scripted network drama that does not involve cops, lawyers or forensic pathologists. In a media environment where teenagers write their own endings on computer games, viewers vote on which "American Idol" hopeful survives and determine who rules MTV's "Total Request Live," the producers of the show, one of three "Law and Order" dramas on NBC, decided to borrow a little electoral thunder to generate excitement, and perhaps ratings, for its long-running, but somewhat fatigued series. Following the broadcast, viewers can visit and vote on which ending they prefer, and will find out when they tune in the following week whether Nicole Wallace, played by Olivia D'Abo, will live to perpetrate another day.Ĭultural critics have suggested that the fascination with reality programming would eventually lead to a live execution on television, but for the time being, the life hanging in the balance is a fictional one. Producers will not say which part of the country will see her killed. Viewers in the Eastern time zone will see one ending, while those in the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones will see another. On "Survivor," someone can be voted off the island by other contestants, but tomorrow, the tribe will consist of the audience of NBC's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." At stake is whether Nicole Wallace, a murderous adversary of Detective Robert Goren, the show's dark hero, will live to torment him again beyond the fourth episode of the show's fourth season. Confronted by stiff competition from popular reality shows and strong new scripted dramas, the producers of one of television's most lucrative franchises, "Law & Order," have decided to fight back by letting viewers vote to save or kill one of its running characters, a television first.
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