Run, bear, run

Back when Screener TV was TV by the Numbers - and back when the site was a lot more interesting - there was plenty of talk about the cancellation bear. When a hungry bear is running after you and another guy, you don't have to outrun the bear. You just have to outrun the other guy.

In TV terms this means your show just has to do okay compared to other offerings on your network, not beat some arbitrary standard for all shows. That's why the cancellation bear didn't devour truTV quizzer Paid Off, though the show has really stunk up the Nielsen numbers. The latest run drew 105K viewers, which a test pattern could get on a broadcast network.

On GSN Paid Off would have expired after the first season. On a broadcast network it might have died after the first ten minutes. But truTV is a tiny cable outlet with a 131K total day viewer average for the latest week. So Paid Off's numbers don't look utterly horrendous by comparison, and the show got a sixteen-ep renewal.

By the way, Paid Off isn't a terrible show. Some of the humor is beyond lame, but the quizzer is competent and sometimes interesting. The heavy political message about student debt is annoying, but it may have actually helped on truTV, which has some odd p.c. leanings. (See Eichner, Billy.) But most of all, the show picked the right network to beat the bear.