When Is A Hit Show A Hit Show?

If you were to watch ABC's promos of its new sitcom "Work It," you would think that this show is a smash success.

No, they aren't showing you how many people are watching it, or even what the critics are saying. What they are telling you is that "Work It" is their new "hit series."

But is it? To me, that's like calling the book my aunt self-published last year a "bestseller."

We have become so accustomed to hyperbole (thanks, Donald Trump), that we have almost lost the meaning of what we say and what we promote. Now, any film we like is a "blockbuster film." Any book we love must be a "bestseller." And all television shows we love are "acclaimed" or a "hit."

However, there are definitions for these words, and in all honesty -- ABC's promotions should know better.

First, let's touch on "Work It." ABC says it's a hit show, but it's premiere managed just a 3.8 rating/6 share on Jan. 3. That's 7 percent less than what the now-cancelled "Man-Up" earned in that timeslot (does that make "Man-Up" a hit show, too?). It's a 24 percent audience drop from its "Last Man Standing" lead-in, and is also 24 percent lower than what ABC did in the same timeslot last year.

If the pilot had aired before the end of the year last year, it would be tied for No. 50 overall with NBC's "Biggest Loser," and right behind ABC's "America's Funniest Home Videos." It would also be ranked No. 18 of 21 shows on ABC, ahead of only "Wipeout," "Extreme Makeover" and "You Deserve It."

Labeling shows a hit, or a blockbuster or a bestseller is very important to promote a show, and convince viewers and readers that others are enjoying something, and they'll be missing out if they don't come back. But when you call shows that don't deserve the adjective those words, then all it does it make it harder the next time you want to bring people to a project. They're not going to think "hit" or "blockbuster" or "critically-acclaim" mean something. And that's not right.

We are a society that relies way too much on hyperbole. Why do you think Donald Trump uses it so much? He knows that it has an effect on people. And by the time his hyperbole gets stale, he will be retired and won't care. There are only so many times you can use certain terms to certain effect, especially if you overuse it. Once it gets stale (or unbelievable), then you have to go one more step up.

That's something I would see in advertisements for the magazine CBS Soaps In Depth, which would advertise its edition each week during the network's soap operas, always claiming that whatever the storyline they were promoting would "change" that show "forever."

How many forever changes can happen in a show before you just start to tune it out? Not too many.

So let's think about the words we use to describe something. When someone tells me that a show they love is the greatest ever, to me that means that no other show will top it. Ever. So even if you like a show 10 years from now, you can't tell me it's the "greatest ever," because you already made that declaration 10 years before, and it will mean nothing to me.

Basically, hits are hits, blockbusters are blockbusters, bestsellers are bestsellers. Everything else? Maybe it will be someday, but just not now.

Sorry, "Work It."