I remember that Smallville episode, Bill. You're right, it was terrible.
I actually like to play Spot the Product Placement on shows. Sometimes, you're right, it's just part of a natural conversation and sometimes it's just something sitting on a desk or whatever. I don't mind those, they're kind of fun to look for.
There was an episode of the Office,though, where they were playing up a Staples brand shredder. And Dwight was all about shredding everything in the office. I think, in that case, they overplayed it on purpose and made it part of a running joke during the show.
Anyway, you're right about the commercials. They can't sell commercial space based on DVD playback, it's on first run shows. From a business standpoint I see why the networks and Neilsen don't count it, but from a practical standpoint, if your show is getting a large viewing between first run and DVR, instead of cancelling based on a lower live viewing, maybe they should try to figure out how to bring the DVR crowd to the TV set to watch live.
I record a lot of stuff in a given week and there are still some days where there are more things on at a given hour than I can watch and record. That's poor scheduling IMO.
But we're talking about FOX. They don't have any loyalty to anything, really, with the possible exception of 24. Since American Idol is such a powerhouse, it helps them finish first for the season every year so everything else they put on is incidental. It shows in the way they treat their shows. The ones that succeed, succeed in spite of FOX. Bones, for example, I can't count how many times that's had its timeslot moved do different hours or different days. Even House is like that. FOX has no loyalty to TSCC because they know they're still going to get their coveted viewership out of Idol.
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