Whether there is long-term viewer demand will determine if they keep at it.
Even so, the challenge for a finishing script is to leave fans satisfied and with some moments that repay the attention of long-term viewers.
The hotel motif is something familiar to long-term viewers of a show that has changed a great deal since its first onscreen outing.
"We're sisters and sisters keep secrets," she remarked of her fraught relationship with Lady Edith, as close as long-term viewers will get to an acknowledgement that she was in the wrong.
Still, it will be weeks, if not months, before it is known how many long-term viewers Ms. Couric has lured to the CBS broadcast, which has trailed NBC and ABC in the ratings for more than a decade.
Long term, though, the repeat viewer will be drawn in by the quality, too (think "SNL isn't funny" vs. "Bill Hader/Andy Samberg/ Fred Armisen/Kristen Wiigcracks me up, dude").
The show's experimental format broke new ground in animal documentary filming techniques and allowed viewers a long term, intimate look into the lives of its meerkat stars, breaking the traditional wall between viewer and subject found with most documentaries.
Why can't they see that this story may be a short term viewer builder but long term, this is going to lead to much greater hate for America, increased terrorism and worsening balance of trade?
This is a canny strategy, because building passion among viewers over the long term is now the smartest play out there, wherever scripted television surfaces.
"Walkabout" comprises a significant chapter in Losts history, persuading viewers of the series' ability to exist in the long term.
"Think long term," he said.
