• TV by the Numbers, Monday, May 23, 2011 3:01 PM

"Nonsense," says TV by the Numbers' Bill Gorman, responding to last week's Bloomberg piece crediting the large number of new TV shows introduced at the upfronts to the "Netflix affect," which creates more of a market for older shows.

"That effect does not extend to shows early in their lifespan," writes Gorman. "In fact, if the 'Netflix effect' were in force for new shows, you'd expect more rookie shows from this season with marginal ratings renewed, and hence fewer new shows introduced next season."

Gorman also writes: "The reason that the broadcast nets introduced 39 new programs is because a record number during the 2010-11 season were failures (or for some in CBS's case, they wanted to clear room for new shows next season, as usual)."

We were especially interested in this argument because we, too, had noticed (and linked to) the piece, which also contended that ratings mattered less than ever.

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