Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1043.
TV shows being renewed and cancelled.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1043.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Mo and Amy about television programs.
Let's get started.
I have some bad news.
Your favorite TV show has been cancelled.
I'm not surprised.
Ratings plummeted last season, so the writing was on the wall.
Also on the chopping block is your favorite reality show, American Idiots.
Oh no, not American Idiots 2.
I thought it was gaining ground in the ratings after a slow start.
Unfortunately, it stayed a cult favorite and never garnered a large enough viewership to be renewed.
You can watch some of my shows.
All of my favorites are being renewed, with one taking a short hiatus.
A short hiatus?
We all know what that means.
What are you implying?
The network will put in a mid-season replacement and if it does well, you'll never see your show again.
That's not true.
You're just saying that because your shows got the axe.
No, I'm not.
That show is on its last legs.
Mark my words.
Well, even if it's true, I still have something to watch for now.
What are you watching right now?
A show called Podsters.
It's a reality show where a bunch of podcasters live in a house together and are watched 24 hours a day.
I've never heard of anything so inane.
Who cares about the lives of podcasters?
They must be the most boring people in the world.
You might have a point there.
Mo says to Amy, I have some bad news.
Your favorite TV show has been canceled.
If a TV show is canceled, it is no longer going to continue to be on television.
To be canceled in general means to have something ended.
It is no longer continued.
Mo says that Amy's favorite TV show has been canceled.
Amy says, I'm not surprised.
Ratings plummeted last season, so the writing was on the wall.
Ratings, R-A-T-I-N-G-S, refer to how popular something is.
When we talk about the ratings of a TV show, we are referring to the number of people who are watching the show.
If ratings plummet P-L-U-M-M-E-T, they go down or decrease significantly.
Fewer and fewer people are watching the show.
Amy says the ratings for her favorite show plummeted this last season.
A season S-E-A-S-O-N is a period of time that occurs during the year and repeats the next year and the year after that.
We could talk about the baseball season, which begins in April and ends in October, early November.
The television season in the United States usually begins in the fall, in September, and continues to the spring, usually May or June of the following year.
During the summer.
Then there aren't as many new programs, although nowadays there are new programs all the time throughout the year.
But traditionally we talk about the television season as the time in which a show is being shown on television, when you can watch it on television.
The normal TV season was always September to June, but now things have changed and there are lots of different seasons.
We also use this word season to refer to a set of programs that go together.
Many TV shows, for example, have three four five, perhaps even six seasons and each season is Includes maybe 15 or 20 episodes, 15 or 20 individual shows.
Amy uses the expression the writing was on the wall.
The writing was on the wall is a phrase meaning that it was clear or obvious that something was going to happen, that nobody should be surprised by it, that all the indications were that this would happen.
Mo says, also on the chopping block is your favorite reality show, American Idiots.
To be on the chopping C-H-O-P-P-I-N-G block B-L-O-C-K means to be in danger of being canceled or ended.
If someone says my job is on the chopping block, he means that his job may be eliminated and he may be fired.
He may lose his job.
Anything can be on the chopping block.
To chop means to cut.
A chopping block would be a place where, for example, a butcher, someone who cuts meat, would cut the meat.
It would also be a place where you might kill an animal.
So to be on the chopping block means to be in danger of being not killed but canceled, or perhaps fired even.
Amy's favorite reality TV show is on the chopping block.
A reality TV show is a TV show, that in which supposedly, people aren't acting, that it's supposed to be real life, although usually it isn't.
Amy's favorite TV show reality TV show is American Idiots, which is not a real show, but it could be and probably will be someday.
An idiot, I-D-I-O-T, is a stupid person, a dumb person.
Amy says, oh no, not American Idiots 2.
I thought it, meaning the show, was gaining ground in the ratings.
To gain, G-A-I-N, ground, means to improve slowly, to get better, to increase.
Amy thought the show was becoming more popular, that more people were watching it.
Moe says.
Unfortunately it stayed a cult favorite and never garnered a large enough viewership to be renewed.
A cult, C-U-L-T, favorite is a show that is very popular among a small group of people.
The average person doesn't like the show, but a small group of people do, and the That often is enough to keep a television show going.
However, that was not the case for Amy's TV show.
The show never garnered a large enough viewership.
To garner means to gather or receive or collect.
I'm garnering donations for my favorite charity.
I'm getting money to give to an organization that does good things.
This television show did not garner a large enough viewership.
The word viewership just refers to the number of people who watch the show or to the people who watch the show.
To garner a large enough viewership would be to get enough people watching the television program.
This show didn't do that, at least not enough to be renewed.
If a television show is renewed R-E-N-E-W-E-D, it is continued into the next year or the next season.
So if it is a popular show, the people who make the show and the television channels that broadcast the show will continue it.
They'll continue producing that program.
To be renewed is the opposite of to be canceled.
Moe says... that this television show that Amy likes, American Idiots, was not renewed.
Amy says, I'll have nothing to watch next season.
Next season refers to probably, in this case, the following fall and spring.
Mo says, you can watch some of my shows, my favorite shows.
All of my favorites are being renewed with one taking a short hiatus.
A hiatus, H-I-A-T-U-S, is a short break.
When a show takes a hiatus...
It is not canceled, but it is stopping production for a short amount of time.
But it will be continuing again in a few months or perhaps next year.
Amy says, a short hiatus?
We all know what that means.
The expression, we all know what that means, is used to indicate that...
Everyone understands the real meaning of it, that it isn't what is being told to you.
There's some other meaning involved.
Moe, however, says, what are you implying?
To imply I-M-P-L-Y means to say something indirectly, to speak in a way that isn't direct, that is, communicating the message but not saying it explicitly.
Amy says the network, the television network, will put in a mid-season replacement and if it does well, you'll never see your show again.
Sometimes what happens is during the middle of the year.
If a television show perhaps isn't doing very well, the television channels will put in a different show, what's called a mid-season replacement.
Mid, M-I-D, means in the middle of.
So in the middle of the regular September to June television season, the television network, the group of television channels that all show the same shows, We'll put in another show and say that this first show is on hiatus.
It's on a break.
But if the replacement show does better than the original show, they'll often cancel the original show and you'll never see it again.
Mo says that's not true.
You're just saying that because your shows got the axe.
To get the axe, A-X, means to be canceled or to be fired.
My friend got the axe at work, at his company.
He got fired.
Amy says, no, I'm not, meaning I'm not saying that just because my shows were canceled.
Amy says, that show is on its last legs.
We're not sure which show Amy is talking about, since Mo mentioned that all of his favorites were being renewed.
So apparently Mo and Amy understand which show she's referring to.
Amy says that show is on its last legs.
If you are on your last legs, L-E-G-S, you're very tired.
If we say a television show is on its last legs, we mean it probably will be canceled soon.
It's about to die, if you will.
Amy says, Mark my words.
That expression.
Mark M-A-R-K.
My words is used to get someone to pay attention to what you are saying, especially when it refers to a prediction what might happen in the future.
Mark my words, the Dodgers will win the World Series this year.
Well, I hope.
The World Series is the...
U.S. championship for professional baseball.
Amy is telling Mo to mark her words that this show will be canceled, whatever show they're talking about.
Mo says, well, even if it's true, I still have something to watch for now.
Amy says, what are you watching right now at this minute?
Moe says There is no show called Podsters in the US, but there are shows in which people are put on camera for the entire day and the TV shows show them during parts of the day.
Big Brother is an example of a show like that.
But Mo is watching a show in our dialogue called Podsters.
Amy says, If something is inane, I-N-A-N-E, it's stupid, it's foolish, it's silly.
Amy thinks that a show about podcasters is inane.
Mo says, you might have a point there.
If you say to someone, you might have a point there, you mean that the other person may be right.
Maybe what the other person is saying is true.
Moe then is agreeing with Amy that a show called Podsters is indeed inane.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I have some bad news.
Your favorite TV show has been cancelled.
I'm not surprised.
Ratings plummeted last season, so the writing was on the wall.
Also on the chopping block is your favorite reality show, American Idiots.
Oh no, not American Idiots 2.
I thought it was gaining ground in the ratings after a slow start.
Unfortunately, it stayed a cult favorite and never garnered a large enough viewership to be renewed.
I'll have nothing to watch next season.
You can watch some of my shows.
All of my favorites are being renewed, with one taking a short hiatus.
A short hiatus?
We all know what that means.
What are you implying?
The network will put in a mid-season replacement and if it does well, you'll never see your show again.
That's not true.
You're just saying that because your show's got the axe.
No, I'm not.
That show is on its last legs.
Mark my words.
Well, even if it's true, I still have something to watch.
For now.
What are you watching right now?
A show called Podsters.
It's a reality show where a bunch of podcasters live in a house together and are watched 24 hours a day.
I've never heard of anything so inane.
Who cares about the lives of podcasters?
They must be the most boring people in the world.
You might have a point there.
There's nothing inane about the wonderful scripts written by our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Saye.
She won't be getting the ax anytime soon, I'm sure.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2014 by the Center for Educational Development.
