Tue 20 Oct 2009
CASTLE Picked Up, WHY? (Or How A Book Can Save A Series)
Posted by Nick C under ABC, CASTLE, Nielsen Ratings
[27] Comments
ABC announced today that it was picking up CASTLE for a complete season, in a move that was a no-brainer. Sure, the show doesn’t stack up well in comparison to the complete ABC line up. However, it does the best of any show in its time slot on the alphabet network. Still there are many who look at TV BY THE NUMBERS excellent cancel/renew index that are asking why.
Profit. CASTLE is starting to make some serious money for Disney. That is what happens when you have a book based on the series hit number 1 in sales. That’s right. The cheesy tie in book written by the fake Richard Castle called HEAT WAVE about the Nikki Heat character based on the make believe Kate Becket character on the show has gone and sold a bazillion copies, staying on the NY Times Best Seller list for the past 4 weeks, and is currently the top selling book at Barnes & Noble, and the 8th best selling book at the time I checked on Amazon.
The DVD Sales have been above average for the ratings as well.
Not bad for a book written by an unknown writer. Give the house of mouse some credit though. They went all out in promoting the book written by a character on a TV show. They totally made the incredibly weak GOD HATES US ALL book that Showtime pimped out to promote Season 3 of CALIFORNICATION look like child’s play. They are totally treating the book as if Richard Castle was real. It has worked. All they had to do was give the real writer a couple guest spots as himself for a couple episodes as well. Ego does wonders, eh? (it also doesn’t hurt that the real writer is a good one).
Given the recent huge success of the book, it was a no brainer that ABC would give CASTLE a full season. There is no better promotion for the series than a best seller. Has it worked in viewers? Some will argue it hasn’t, but the numbers state that the show has risen from a 2.2 to a 2.4 in the 18-49 category while the book has been on the NY Times Best Seller List. A 2.4 for the time slot is a win for ABC. If the show can grow to a 2.5+ they will have a solid show. If it ever hits a 3.0+ then it’s a hit.
Disney currently has plans for a follow up book by Richard Castle as well. So the future of this series may well live on past a second season despite what a certain index might show.
How much of the book’s sales does Disney see? They didn’t publish it themselves, did they?
Also, Castle beats ABC’s other 10 pm shows on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Thursday and Sunday are well ahead of it.
Julia, good catch. I should have said the other “bubble,” shows at that time slot.
Also Hyperion publishes it, which is a division of ABC which is a division of Disney.
One of the writers for my personal blog met Richard Castle (aka Nathan) a few weeks ago as he signed copies of Heat Wave at Borders. Disney did an excellent job on the synergy.
Oh, is that why Nathan Fillion was going to be at Barnes & Noble last night? Makes sense.
This is a very timely article, I was just wondering about Castle’s book sales in another thread. Thanks!
And good for Castle.
Julia,
yeah! I was working so I couldn’t attend the Borders signing
Who actually wrote the book?
Well if Fillion had actually done the signings as Castle… that would have been awesome. Instead he was just Nathan. Although that isn’t a bad thing. He’s a charismatic guy.
I was lazy and didn’t want to go to the Grove.
The book it’s already 6th at Amazon.
I really like the light-hearted buddy/cop show genre and I love Nathan Fillion. I do have to admit that the Ausiello blind item piece and subsequent rumors of behind the scenes discord on the set have made me a little jaded about the “chemistry’ of the two leads. I guess they really can act.
So he didn’t sign the books “Richard Castle”? Why would you want a book with someone elses signature in it?
On a completely different note, is that really the art work on the DVD boxset? That is awful and looks beyond cheap, did one of the executives get their six-year old to do it in photoshop or something? What person who doesn’t already love the show picks up that DVD and thinks its something they should own? Clearly ABC is missing a trick here and should use similar art work for the DVD as the cover artwork on the Castle book(s) so its incredibly obvious they’re linked.
How many copies does a book have to sell to place in the NYT best seller list for four weeks? A lot I’d guess, if they could translate just some of that into DVD sales the profits would be even bigger. If they can they should be pushing for the Castle DVD to land in book stores as well.
@Mary- Do you really think that’s who that’s who he’s referring to? I went back and re-read that item, and it seems unlikely that they’re referring to the leads in Castle. Among other things, Ausiello talks about a “torrid affair” that makes me a little suspect.
Any show that can migrate as a money maker across Disney’s divisions has got to be something they’re excited about. Pretty good idea to launch the book, and one that’s not half bad, based on the reviews. Looks like fans are embracing it on Amazon. The book description doesn’t let on either that the book is based off the TV show.
I’ll be curious to see if the book buzz helps the ratings at all. If it does I’m sure they’ll release all kinds of “Rick Castle” novels.
If they can they should be pushing for the Castle DVD to land in book stores as well.
Interesting idea. I was just in Blockbuster a few days ago, for the first time in a long time, and noticed that they now sell books that movies are based on. Bookstores could do the same.
Julia,
Have you been to a Borders book store? They do exactly what your talking about. Heck so does Walmart and Bestbuy to some degree.
Most people have no idea how many movies are based on books and short stories. Some movies barely skate over the original content while other go out of their way to associate the two.
Go to IMBD and look at the best movies of all time list
http://www.imdb.com/chart/top
the top 3 are based on books (#1 is actually a short story), and the rest of the list are plenty of literary classics brought to the screen.
heres a link to books turned into movies just this year
http://www.chasingthefrog.com/books/movie-books.php
@ Mary; I don’t think that blind item was referring to Castle at all and I haven’t heard any subsequent rumors of on set issues…where did you get that from?
John,
First of all, two links will get you trapped in the spam filter. Second, of course I’ve been to Borders. I’m well aware that they, and many Barnes and Nobles now, have CD/DVD sections. What I have never seen is DVDs promoted right next to the books they are based on. I’d like to see a display set up with the book and the DVD right next to each other.
I’m sorry if I so greatly offended your sensibilities by suggesting that this doesn’t exist currently.
So what I’m wondering is…
is that sexual tension between Some Guy Named John and Julia?
Castle DVD sales were pretty bad (around 50k the first week). I got Season one for review a month earlier but have yet to have a chance to even go through it as there has been very little demand for a review of it.
I have to wonder if part of the problem with DVD sales is there are none in the store. I wanted to at least read up on the extras, but the Best Buy near me had no copies.
It came out several weeks ago so its possible they sold out and have yet to replenish inventory. Amazon is always a sure bet.
In an interview, Fillion said that there would be two reasons not to sign each book “Richard Castle”.
One is that he can sign his own name very quickly, which helps to keep the line moving.
Two, he said that it’s automatic for him to sign his own name and the extent to which he would have to concentrate to sign Castle’s name would detract from his ability to pay attention to each fan.
Nick,
there is no tension, just a bit of internet rivalry, HAHA.
Maybe I can put a word in about media retail, as it was my job for quite a while.
DVD box sets are rarely carried in mass quantities in stores. Exception to the rule is the Winter Holiday Season. A high volume store might get 50-100 copies of a popular TV show, and sell most of them within a few hours, a small volume store will get maybe 10 copies and have them sold out in a few hours.
Julia,
Lets not makes this personal, but in my experience books and movies, and or whatever else ties in are always put on display together, I have set up these displays for countless promotions. Like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Superman, Batman, John Grisham novels with movie tie ins, I bet you right now there is a store display of “where the Wild Things Are” in a bunch of stores, selling the music sound track and the book, and maybe some plush toys or movie tie-in lunch boxes. Cross promotion is huge in mass-media.
Some Guy Named John, you may be right, but I’ve yet to see Barnes & Noble do it locally or otherwise. Definitely many stores aimed at things besides books do it.
I’m with Nick on this one, more general stores tend to embrace the idea of the mass media cross promotion but in my experience more specialised stores aren’t so keen, so whilst they might stock the book and the DVD they tend not to cross promote them as much which is a shame. Like I said I think ABC is missing a trick by not using similar art work on the Castle book and DVD and I think they’re missing a trick by not getting the DVD stocked alongside the book in book stores.
And I repeat my point that as it is the art work on the Castle DVD is horrible.