The Truth about Competition

Today, the L.A. Times and other news sources decried the decreased viewership of ABC's season premiere of Lost. But what really happened?

In a word, competition. American Idol played head-to-head (with more than double the number of viewers), as did Wednesday night church activities (for many Christian viewers of the show), plus the ever-competing Wii, Xbox, Playstation 3, text messaging, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, DVDs, NetFlix, and about 10,000 other competing life events used by Lost's core audience.

(CONFESSION: I just finished the premiere this morning from my laptop.)

What the L.A. Times fails to mention is that TV, for the audience that watches Lost, is an on-demand activity. In other words, viewers watch it when we want to watch it. The only exceptions are live events, which includes American Idol (kind of), the Inauguration, sporting events, and many reality shows.

(Many of my friends even watch their favorite football teams via DVR and try not to see who really won to make it "feel" live.)

Lost's creators are probably not too worried about the premiere's rating. Why? Their competition is not really just American Idol. If it was, they could have changed the time of the premiere long before the broadcast.

After about two weeks, they'll see how many people watched it at ABC.com (a significant revenue stream for the series), see online comments from people who watched it over the weekend from their Tivo or DVR (sources not typically included in TV ratings), see how many times it was purchased in iTunes or on Amazon, and look at how many people in their audience are really still watching.

Competition is only competition if it's your competition.

Huh? In other words, competition only counts if the categories are the same. In real life, if I compare myself to someone else, I will feel either proud or insignificant, neither of which is a healthy attitude. Competition is fun on the football field or the basketball court, but stinks in most areas of life.

For those who follow Christ, our goal is to become more like Jesus. This is a far healthier goal than competing against one another. Or getting upset about how many people watch your premiere.

Plus, in real life time travel doesn't work (even if it does on Lost).

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DILLON BURROUGHS is a writer on issues of faith and culture. He also likes Lost so much he co-wrote the book What Can Be Found in LOST? He lives with his wife, Deborah, and three kids in Tennessee. For more info, see readdB.com.

LOST Returns Tonight!

LOST returns tonight! Are you ready for the launch of Season 5?

It all starts tonight at 8/7 central on ABC.

And, of course, it wouldn't hurt to know about the spiritual implications of LOST by reading my coauthored book (with Dr. John Ankerberg), What Can Be Found in LOST?

In other news...

• My official website www.readdB.com is now live with its new 2.0 look (Thank you, Josiah!). I guess I'll now have to update my events and Twitter feeds.
• Sunday night at 9-10pm Eastern I'll be talking about LOST on M88 Radio in Albequerque, NM. Listen live at M88.org.
  
• Monday night at 7-9pm Eastern I'll be on Atlanta Live TV on WATC 57. If you're in the Atlanta area, please check it out. It also re-airs at 8am Eastern the following morning for those of you with DirecTV on the NRB Network.
• And if you're in Nashville Feb. 7-9, let me know as I'll be there for the National Religious Broadcaster's Convention. I'd love to connect in person.

Please keep me in your prayers and share any prayer requests you'd like to pass along as well. We're in this together.

I love and appreciate all of you.

Ready for LOST?

Ready for LOST? Only nine days and counting. Until then, you can get caught up on all of spiritual insights in What Can Be Found in LOST?

My friend Daniel Hall took a moment during his recent trip in Israel to peruse its pages. If you have a picture of you checking out this book or one of my other written works, please upload it to my Facebook page. Do it by January 17th (my birthday!) and you could win a free autographed book.

In other news, some of you have been asking about my recent interviews. I'm keeping the most current list on my Facebook page along with links to listen live online when possible. I do my best not to send you email every other day, so go here if you want to listen or even call in on live shows to ask a question.

This Wednesday, I'll be on Chris Fabry Live at 3pm EST talking about LOST. Check it out online or any Moody Radio station.

If you think of it, please keep me in your prayers. I've been asked to share on several stations recently (at least 12 this month!) and really want to do my best to speak truth on issues of faith and culture. Pray that God would give just the right words to speak and that listeners would respond to God with a heart that seeks to follow Jesus.

Please let me know if I can do anything for you. Thank you for all you do.