Deanno Russo response to our petition

[Tony P Knight Driver]

I reached out to Deanna Russo, Justin Bruening and David Hasselhoff regarding the petition.

I have received a response from Deanna Russo:

She said that the cast is also very disappointed about the episode reduction, she says that with all the on location shooting and CG effects Knight Rider is very expensive to produce, and that is the reason the episodes were cut. I guess even Hollywood is feeling the crunch of the poor economy.

She said appreciates our interest in the show, and that a petition is an “admirable gesture”, but reaffirms that only a rating boost will bring about renewing of the show for season two. She also remarks that Knight Rider is in direct competition with "American Idol" for ratings. Sadly for us, as I understand it American Idol historically has been the number one ratings grabber in that time slot.

She did remark; “The best anyone can do for us is to tune in, especially if you want to see what we've done with KARR.”

She closed by saying; “Thank you again for being so passionate about our show. We're fans of it, too.”

I want to publicly thank her for her response, I think its cool she took the time to respond and offer and explanation and some insight and advice.

[KRShelby]

Very cool of her to take the time to respond indeed. Most actors don't seem to communicate outside of their world other than occasional news "posts" on their own website blogs or whatever. She has always striked me through interviews I've seen as a relatively "cool" person. Then again, most of the KR cast seem to be lol but she does stand out. Anyhow, I guess shes a bit more realistic than GST lol. But..still, we can only hope .

I never gave thought to the fact that KR will be in the same time slot as American Idol. How is it suppose to prove its ratings like that?

I'm a bit frustrated (as I've said in numerous posts) that NBC allows a retooling.. but doesn't promote this, and makes bad scheduling decisions (random hiatus for those of us who don't follow KR news), and now my realization that it will be up against American Idol..

I hope to see some floodage of NBC KR ads soon, and something that needs to STRESS that this is a retooling. Thats the only way to get the people who wrote the series off to have a second look, as I believe that was the whole point in the first place no? IMO if NBC was gonna let this thing die, it wouldn't have bothered with worrying about a retool... so lets actually make it worthwhile.

Thanks for the post TonyP.

[Antonio]

Very nice interview posted.

How can we help to boost the ratings in the next episodes?

Any suggestion?

[PHOENIXZERO]

Wow, I'm surprised you got a response, I'm not sure how you did it though but are you totally certain it was actually Deanna that sent it? I'm just curious (and possibly jealous) how you managed it! Sue is going to the set tomorrow and will probably see her and the rest of the cast (sans Justin of course) so that should be interesting.

But that's all true, as we know, the show has been quite expensive but of course everyone else is going to take the cut as a sure sign NBC is going to cancel it. I think I've mentioned the American Idol issue before but that's very true, it's going to have a similar effect that Dancing With the Stars had. Then again AI isn't as big as it was a few years ago but it's still going to do very high ratings. Hopefully it'll have less of an impact and some people will be drawn back to KR and they'll stick around if they like what they see, some proper advertising by NBC would certainly help.

If you know anyone with a Nielsen box then make sure they have the show on. That's really the only way to boost the ratings. I was thinking about doing a little local advertising with a flier to put up in a few places though unfortunately with my living in the middle of no where, it probably wouldn't matter since the Nielsen group doesn't care about us. But I think this might be a potential way to go at least at a ground/local level. Only thing is that it's something that would probably be more effective after we've actually seen the changes in action since it might not be right to advertise something we don't fully know the details of.

But anyway, I hope the KARR episode lives up to what we've heard, if NBC advertises it, it could bring in viewers as well though I'm sure we'll get a good share of people going "what the hell?!"

[neps]

Very cool outreach their Tony. I think Deanna's statements echo some of my own. While I campaign to Ben Silverman is a nice idea and should be considered at the right time, I don't think that time is now.

We need to focus our efforts on out reach. No, the overwhelming majority of us do not have a Nielson box, but in the time it would take us to draft a letter to Ben we could tell five friends to tune in or comment on a negative Knight Rider post. There are a lot of us that are fans or see the potential for the series, but the negative people will always speak the loudest which makes the people who support it quiet.

Writing letters to NBC is like saying it's over and it's the only fight we have left. Now is the time to rise up and show our support.

[AngeliaxKARR]

Getting a response from a cast member?? Now that's cool!

Say...

What did they do with good ol' grouchy-as-stirred-up-hornets KARR?

[BlueChaos]

That's cool of you to get a response from Deanna, Tony.
Now we got to do everything we can for Knight Rider to be picked up for a second season.
At least we know Justin, Deanna and co is doing their best and we should do so too.

But it's kinda sad that NBC stays cool while we, the fan base, and the actor get all fired up to make sure that the show can continue. As I said in another thread, I think we did more promotion for the show than NBC.

[Tony P Knight Driver]

yes Pheonixzero,
I am sure the response is from her.
Lacking anyway to directly contact the actors, I used the contact info on their websites and went through thier agents.

[Stealthwalker]

I reached out to Deanna Russo, Justin Bruening and David Hasselhoff regarding the petition.

I have received a response from Deanna Russo:

She said that the cast is also very disappointed about the episode reduction, she says that with all the on location shooting and CG effects Knight Rider is very expensive to produce, and that is the reason the episodes were cut. I guess even Hollywood is feeling the crunch of the poor economy.

She said appreciates our interest in the show, and that a petition is an “admirable gesture”, but reaffirms that only a rating boost will bring about renewing of the show for season two. She also remarks that Knight Rider is in direct competition with "American Idol" for ratings. Sadly for us, as I understand it American Idol historically has been the number one ratings grabber in that time slot.

She did remark; “The best anyone can do for us is to tune in, especially if you want to see what we've done with KARR.”

She closed by saying; “Thank you again for being so passionate about our show. We're fans of it, too.”

I want to publicly thank her for her response, I think its cool she took the time to respond and offer and explanation and some insight and advice.

And she mentioned "K.A.R.R." that's what's up!!!!!!!!!!!

[Andyuk]

If knight rider is expensive to produce with all the CGI like green screen driving e.t.c then surely it would be better to actually film real driving scenes like they did in TOS.

[PHOENIXZERO]

Actually, it's green screen at this time might in some ways be not only easier but cheaper since you don't have to go through a bunch of hoops to do it like you do with real driving, especially when it includes having to shut down streets.


I just noticed the Deanno thing instead of Deanna in the title.


Anyway, she's right, a petition isn't going to save KR, the only thing that will will be the ratings going up.

[the original KITT]

If knight rider is expensive to produce with all the CGI like green screen driving e.t.c then surely it would be better to actually film real driving scenes like they did in TOS.

I've been taught in media that green screen is actually cheaper thats why they do it. But i think that making it as real as possible (i.e driving) is important. This is because it's better for the actors as they are not sitting in a green room and can actually experience and see what/where they are driving. And we as an audience know that it is real.

Furthermore, getting rid of attack mode (which i personally hate) will considerably lower spendong beaause modifying the Mustang costs money, buying the parts cost money and creating the CGI for the transformation mode from normal to attack then attack to normal also costs alot of money.

Personally all i want is fast high octane speed, high octane speed chases, powerslides etc. Most importantly Turbo Boost SKI mode and lots of cool gadgets.

Wonder whats happening with KARR - Wicked

[Knight007]

I really hope KR getts aboost in ratings

[necrophilissimo]

By the way, do the digital distribution versions (i.e. Hulu, Amazon, Xbox Live) count in the ratings?

If so, I know one thing that would give a signifficant rating boost; How about removing the damn IP address locks from at least ONE of the digital video providers? It's so damn frustrating to watch this show suffer from low ratings and not being able to do a damn thing about it

I even tried to by the episodes from Amazon just for support's sake, under belief the video itself was region locked with DRM, but IP lock prevented me from donating some $$$ for good cause.

[Lexicon]

Digital distribution counts but every studio and network looks at it a different way. It's hard to say what NBC's stance on it is but they seem to have embraced it as a secondary market.