[911lonestarscreentime]

Temporary [i hope] Hiatus

I’m sure most of you that follow my main account have seen my announcement that I won’t be around as much. That unfortunately does extend to this project as well. At first I was hoping to finish the things I was working on (and wanted to get done before the new season) — which include the last few screen time meta posts, and the recalculating of season 2— but unfortunately I don’t think I will be able to. It’s a lot of work and I have too many other things going on right now. I hope that I can start this back up once I get settled into a new routine, and I really hope I’ll be able to do the calculations for season 3 as it airs. But at this time I cannot make any promises because I don’t even know what’s happening tomorrow, let alone what’s happening in January. Thanks for following and hope to update you soon! 💞

[911lonestarscreentime]

Small (fun) announcement: Season 3’s data color has been picked by none other than Mr Ronen Rubinstein himself. What is it? Guess you’ll have to wait until January for 3x01 and 3x02 to air and find out 👀

[911lonestarscreentime]

Season 1 Screen Time New Method Complete!

I think I may have mentioned it on this blog but just in case I haven’t; I developed a new method for calculating the screen time that’s more accurate than the method I was using before. Of course this method also takes longer but that’s the price you pay for accuracy.

Anyway, I just completed my re-do of season 1 and I wanted to share the changes. There wasn’t much difference, but going forward* I will be using this data for any posts so I wanted to have a record of it, both for your reference and mine. *(with the exception of the meta posts because I’m over halfway done so it wouldn’t make sense to change it now.)

I was going to make new charts but the differences aren’t that big so instead I’m breaking down the key differences below the cut. First going episode-by-episode to show which characters screen time was affected, and then breaking down the change in totals for season 1, and finally sharing any changes to the average screen time for each character.

Just want to say before I get into it, again a reminder that these are rounded up or down accordingly. 0:53-0:07 is 0:00, 0:08-0:22 is 0:15, 0:23-0:37 is 0:30, and 0:38-0:52 is 0:45. That’s why a lot of the changes are only by 0:15, because the change is right on the cusp of up or down so the shift is minimal.

1x01 “Pilot” Owen - 21 minutes (+15 seconds) TK - 8:45 minutes (+15 seconds) Judd - 8 minutes (+15 seconds) Michelle - 4 minutes (no change) Paul - 3:15 minutes (+15 seconds) Grace - 3:15 minutes (+15 seconds) Marjan - 2:30 minutes (+15 seconds) Mateo - 2:30 minutes (+15 seconds) Carlos - 1:15 minutes (no change) Tim - 1 minute (+15 seconds) Nancy - 0:45 seconds (+15 seconds)

1x02 “Yee-Haw” Owen - 10:45 minutes (+15 seconds) Michelle - 6:30 minutes (no change) Judd - 5:45 minutes (no change) TK - 4:30 minutes (+15 seconds) Carlos - 4:15 minutes (+30 seconds) Marjan - 2:15 minutes (+15 seconds) Paul - 1:45 minutes (no change) Grace - 1:30 minutes (no change) Mateo - 0:45 seconds (no change) Tim - 0:30 seconds (no change) Nancy - 0:15 seconds (no change)

1x03 “Texas Proud” Owen - 7:30 minutes (no change) Michelle - 7:00 minutes (-15 seconds) TK - 6:00 minutes (+15 seconds) Judd - 4:00 minutes (+15 seconds) Marjan - 3:45 minutes (no change) Carlos - 3:45 minutes (no change) Paul - 2:15 minutes (no change) Mateo - 1:15 minutes (+15 seconds) Tim - 0:30 seconds (no change) Nancy - 0:30 seconds (no change) Grace - 0:30 seconds (no change)

1x04 “Act of God” Owen - 10:00 minutes (+30 seconds) Judd - 5:45 minutes (+15 seconds) TK - 4:30 minutes (no change) Michelle - 4:00 minutes (no change) Marjan - 3:15 minutes (-15 seconds) Grace - 3:00 minutes (no change) Mateo - 2:45 minutes (-15 seconds) Paul - 2:15 minutes (no change) Tim - 0:45 seconds (-15 seconds) Nancy - 0:45 seconds (-15 seconds)

1x05 “Studs” Owen - 8:30 minutes (+15 seconds) Paul - 6:45 minutes (-15 seconds) Judd - 4:15 minutes (no change) Grace - 4:15 minutes (no change) TK - 3:45 minutes (-15 seconds) Carlos - 2:30 minutes (no change) Michelle - 2:15 minutes (no change) Mateo - 1:15 minutes (-15 seconds) Nancy - 0:30 seconds (no change) Marjan - 0:30 seconds (no change) Tim - 0:15 seconds (no change)

1x06 “Friends Like These” Owen - 11:45 minutes (-15 seconds) Mateo - 5:45 minutes (no change) Marjan - 5:15 minutes (-15 seconds) Judd - 4:00 minutes (no change) Paul - 2:45 minutes (no change) Michelle - 2:30 minutes (no change) TK - 2:30 minutes (no change) Grace - 1:15 minutes (no change) Tim - 1:00 minute (+15 seconds) Nancy - 0:30 seconds (-15 seconds) Carlos - 0:15 seconds (-15 seconds)

1x07 “Bum Steer” Owen - 10:45 minutes (no change) Michelle - 8:45 minutes (+15 seconds) Judd - 6:45 minutes (no change) TK - 4:15 minutes (no change) Paul - 3:00 minutes (+15 seconds) Marjan - 2:45 minutes (no change) Carlos - 2:15 minutes (-15 seconds) Mateo - 2:15 minutes (+15 seconds) Grace - 1:00 minute (no change) Nancy - 0:30 seconds (no change) Tim - 0:15 seconds (no change)

1x08 “Monster Inside” Michelle - 11:15 minutes (-45 seconds) Owen - 7:15 minutes (-15 seconds) TK - 5:00 minutes (-30 seconds) Grace - 3:30 minutes (-15 seconds) Carlos - 2:15 minutes (no change) Judd - 2:15 minutes (no change) Paul - 2:00 minutes (no change) Marjan - 1:45 minutes (-15 seconds) Mateo - 1:30 minutes (no change) Nancy - 1:30 minutes (no change) Tim - 1:30 minutes (no change)

1x09 “Awakening” Owen - 8:15 minutes (+15 seconds) TK - 7:30 minutes (+15 seconds) Judd - 7:00 minutes (no change) Marjan - 3:30 minutes (no change) Paul - 3:00 minutes (no change) Grace - 2:30 minutes (+15 seconds) Mateo - 2:00 minutes (no change) Michelle - 0:15 seconds (no change) Nancy - 0:15 seconds (no change) Tim - 0:15 seconds (no change)

1x10 “Austin, We Have a Problem” Owen - 8:00 minutes (-30 seconds) TK - 7:15 minutes (-15 seconds) Michelle - 5:15 minutes (+15 seconds) Marjan - 3:30 minutes (+15 seconds) Mateo - 3:15 minutes (no change) Paul - 3:15 minutes (-15 seconds) Grace - 3:00 minutes (no change) Judd - 3:00 minutes (-15 seconds) Carlos - 2:15 minutes (no change) Tim - 0:45 seconds (no change) Nancy - 0:30 seconds (no change)

Totals Owen - 1:43:45 hours (+30 seconds) TK - 54:00 minutes (no change) Michelle - 51:45 minutes (-30 seconds) Judd - 50:45 minutes (+15 seconds) Paul - 30:15 minutes (no change) Marjan - 29:00 minutes (no change) Grace - 23:45 minutes (+15 seconds) Mateo - 23:15 minutes (+15 seconds) Carlos - 18:45 minutes (no change) Tim - 6:45 minutes (+15 seconds) Nancy - 6:00 minutes (-15 seconds)

Averages Owen - 10:30 minutes (+15 seconds) TK - 5:30 minutes (no change) Michelle - 5:15 minutes (no change) Judd - 5:00 minutes (no change) Paul - 3:00 minutes (no change) Marjan - 3:00 minutes (no change) Grace - 2:30 minutes (+15 seconds) Mateo - 2:15 minutes (no change) Carlos - 2:00 minutes (no change) Tim - 0:45 seconds (no change) Nancy - 0:30 seconds (-15 seconds)

Again, the changes were minimal. But I like knowing that it’s more accurate. I’m doing season 2 now and hope to be done soon. When I am done, I will make a post like this for those changes, and include the changes to the series totals and averages.

If you read until the end, thank you and thank you for your continued support!

[911lonestarscreentime]

 Judd Ryder Screen Time Meta Post

Welcome to the fifth post in the series analyzing the screen time of 911 Lone Star characters post season 2. We’re half way through the main characters! The previous characters were Owen, Marjan, Tommy, and Paul.

This post we will be looking at Judd’s screen time!

Check out my analysis below the cut!

Season 1

Judd’s arc dealing with the aftermath of the loss of the original 126 played a big part of the first season, and his screen time is very reflective of that. He came in fourth for most screen time of the season (behind Owen, Michelle, and TK respectively). The most screen time Judd saw in season 1 was actually for the pilot episode (1x01) with a little under 8 minutes. He also saw around 7 minutes of screen time for 1x07 (”Bum Steer”) and 1x09 (”Awakening”).

The least amount he saw in the first season was in 1x08 (”Monster Inside”) with a little over 2 minutes. Other than that, Judd got over 3 minutes, usually around 4-6 minutes. 

Season 2

Judd’s screen time for season 2 is actually quite interesting because in the first half of the season, 2A he really didn’t have a lot. In fact 2B episodes (episodes 9-14) account for actually 65% of his screen time for season 2; aka more than half, and that’s across 6 episodes, verses only 35% across the first 8 episodes in 2A. 

Of course this is largely due in part to 2x09 (”Saving Grace”) - which essentially served as a Judd Begins. While it’s telling the love story of Judd and Grace, it’s all framed from his POV (I discuss more of my thoughts on that in this post). But that episode accounted for 52% of Judd’s screen time in 2B, and 34% of all of season 2. At 22.5 minutes, that is the most screen time for a character in a single episode yet, and the only two characters that come close are Tommy in 2x13 (”One Day”) with 21 minutes, and Owen in the pilot episode with 20.75 minutes. 

When it came to lower numbers, the lowest 5 episodes all occurred in 2A, with the lowest being 1.25 minutes in 2x08 (”Bad Call”). 

Total Screen Time

Judd’s total screen time for season 1 was 50:30 minutes, and for season 2 was 66 minutes - bringing his total time for both seasons to 116.5 minutes (or 1 hour and 56.5 minutes). As always, it’s worth reminding that season 2 had 4 more episodes than season 1, which is why the characters total screen time for the second season is higher, and why looking at the average screen time is much more indicative if you want to see any changes between seasons. 

Average Screen Time

Judd’s average screen time for season 1 was 5 minutes, while for season 2 it dropped to 4:45 minutes. This should not be a shock, considering half of the episodes in season 1 were over 5 minutes, while only 4 out of the 14 episodes in season 2 were over 5 minutes, one of those being “Saving Grace”. It was pretty clear Judd was not getting as much screen time in the most recent season as he did in the first. 

His average for the series remains at 5 minutes. 

Outliers

When it comes to episodes that are much higher, or much lower than what Judd usually sees, there were no outlier episodes in season 1, and unsurprisingly the the 22.5 minutes in 2x09 (”Saving Grace”) is an outlier for season 2. Additionally, that episode is an outlier for the series (seasons 1 and 2 combined).

What happens when you remove the outliers?

When you take 22.5 minutes out of the data set for season 2, the average drops significantly down to about 3:15 minutes. Which, while still more than the lower billed characters, is still a big change from Judd’s average with the number included, showing what an impact this episode had on Judd’s data. 

Taking that episode out of the data set for the series, Judd’s average would be 4 minutes, which is also a fairly significant decrease. 

Closing Thoughts

It’s not a shock that Judd’s character is one with some of the higher numbers considering how high Jim Parrack is billed on the show. But I do think he is one of the more interesting characters to look at in season 2 because of the impact 2x09 had on the data. Even with that episode, his screen time was slightly less than what was seen in season 1. Without that episode, his screen time would have been significantly less. It does make you wonder if that episode had been done differently, for example focusing on Grace more over Judd, or even making it more even, how would that have impacted the data?

But overall, we have to include it because that was a deliberate decision the writers and directors made to place the focus on Judd for that episode. But it also shows how they took the camera off of him a lot more in the second season, compared to the first. I definitely think season 3 will be interesting when it comes to his character and seeing which direction he goes in.

[911lonestarscreentime]

Paul Strickland Screen Time Meta Post

Hello lovely people! Did you think I forgot about this series? I did not. Just took a little break, but I’m hoping to get a few more done now and wrap this up before January (or at least, that’s the hope).

This is the fourth post in the series analyzing the screen time of 911 Lone Star characters post season 2. Previous three characters analyzed were Owen, Marjan, and Tommy. 

This post we will be looking at Paul’s screen time!

Check out my analysis below the cut!

Season 1

In the first season, it shouldn’t shock anyone that Paul’s stand out episode was 1x05 (“Studs”), with nearly 7 minutes of screen time. That was his episode to provide backstory to his character. Most of the other episodes that season were around 2-3 minutes. This is a theme that is common for most of the main supporting characters.

The least amount of screen time he got was in 1x02 (”Yee-Haw”) with just under 2 minutes (1:45). This really is not that much of a drop, considering the other episodes are also around 2 - 2.5 minutes.

Season 2

In the second season, there was not that much of change for Paul. The most amount of screen time he got was in 2x06 (”Everyone and Their Brother”) at 7:30 minutes - his record for most screen time in a single episode. He also played a larger part in 2x05 (”Difficult Conversations”) and 2x11 (”Slow Burn”) receiving over 4 minutes in each of those. 

The least amount of screen time he got was around 15 seconds in 2x09 (“Saving Grace”) and 2x13 (”One Day”) - two episodes which also set lowest records for a lot of characters since the plot centraled around Judd & Grace and Tommy respectively. 

Total Screen Time

Paul’s total screen time for season 1 was 30:15, and for season 2 34:30. That brings his total screen time to 64:45. Divided in half, that would be around 32:15 minutes - which makes sense considering season 2 did have more episodes. His screen time matches up closely with Marjan’s in terms of how much they get and where they fall ranking wise.

Average Screen Time

Paul’s season 1 average was about 3 minutes, and 2:30 minutes in season 2. The drop in average screen time is likely due to the fact that there were more episodes where Paul saw less than 2 minutes of screen time, compared to only 1 episode in season 1 where he got less than 2. 

His average for the series currently stands at 2:45 minutes. (which is also the same as Marjan, Grace, and Mateo). 

Outliers

Outliers are the episodes where a character sees much more or much less screen time than the other episodes. The outliers also changed based on the numbers in the data set, so that’s why three data sets are worked with (season 1, season 2, and series). 

In season 1, Paul’s outlier episode is 1x05 (”Studs”) with 7 minutes. There are no outliers for Paul in season 2. For the series, 1x05 (”Studs”) and 2x06 (“Everyone and Their Brother”) can be considered outlier episodes.

What happens when you remove the outliers?

In season 1, removing 1x05 brings Paul’s average down nearly 30 seconds to around 2:30 minutes. The season 2 data remains the same since there were no outlier episodes. Removing 1x05 and 2x06 from the series data set also drops his average down about 30 seconds to 2:15 minutes. 

Overall though, removing the outliers doesn’t impact his stats too much. 

Closing Thoughts

I think we can all agree Paul is on the list of characters who we should see more of in season 3. For how revolutionary his character is for a network television show, it’s a shame for his character to only be given one episode a season to really shine and then be shoved in the background for the rest and reduced down to his most basic traits. Obviously this can be said for many of the characters on the show, and hopefully we will see a change since this data has caught the attention of certain people involved in the show. 

[911lonestarscreentime]

How balanced are the episodes of 911 Lone Star?

Lately I’ve been rewatching season 1 with my mom (she only started watching season 2 with me as it aired) and last night after we watched 1x05, she commented that she thought that the distribution of screen time was better in season 1 compared to season 2 (she does know I do screen time calculations... I don’t know if she fully understands how much of my free time is dedicated to the project but I digress). Anyway, I was caught off guard and wasn’t sure how to answer. I would like to think season 2 is better, but is it?

Obviously, it’s unrealistic to expect that every episode be equally balanced. There would be development of characters if that were the case. However, we all know at this point that when it is unbalanced, the higher times are usually skewed towards Owen. Which is an issue, and I do hope there is some change going forward. But looking at all of the screen times for each episode, it does raise the questions: Which episodes are the most balanced? And is there a difference in balance between seasons?

Answer: In season 1 it’s 1x03 and 1x09; In season 2 it’s 2x05 and 2x06. And there really is no difference in balance between seasons.

Want to know more? Check out my actual analysis below the cut.

Also just to be clear before I go into detail, only the screen times for main characters were taken into account (so not including Nancy, Gwyn, ect;) and credit-only episodes (episodes where the character received credit but did not appear on screen) were taken into account as “0.”

To answer the first question, I’ll break it down by season. The two most balanced episodes by my calculations are 1x03 “Texas Proud” and 1x09 “Awakening.” Some of the other more balanced episodes of the season include 1x04 “Act of God,” 1x05 “Studs,” and 1x10 “Austin, We Have Problem.” The most unbalanced episode (unsurprisingly) is 1x01 “Pilot.” (personal note: seeing it laid out like that makes sense that my mom would think the balance for season 1 is better, watching x03, x04, x05 back-to-back, and not watching x06, x07, x08 yet... all three of which fall in the bottom half).

In season 2, the most balanced episodes are 2x05 “Difficult Conversation” and 2x06 “Everyone and Their Brother.” Some of the other most balanced episodes include 2x02 “2100°,” 2x04 “Friends with Benefits,” 2x08 “Bad Call,” and 2x14 “Dust to Dust.” The most unbalanced episodes are (also, unsurprisingly) 2x09 “Saving Grace,” and 2x13 “One Day.” (again, my moms observations make sense since the most recent s2 episodes she has watched are the ones in the back half of season 2, all of which (with the exception of 2x14) fall in the bottom half of screen time balance).

So, is there a difference between seasons? The short answer is no. While there are more episodes that could be considered “more balanced” in season 2, there are also more episodes in season 2. And looking at my calculations (which I go into more detail about at the bottom of the post) if you remove the four episodes that fall on each quarter percentile, it lines up basically the same. 

The only real difference is who has the most screen time in the unbalanced episodes. In season 1, all episodes except for 1x08 saw Owen having the most screen time. However, in season 2 there were 7 episodes where Owen didn’t have the most. That’s half the episodes of the season. Granted, 5 of these episodes fall in the top half for most balanced; but the other 2 are the episodes that are most unbalanced, with Judd having the most in 2x09 and Tommy having the most in 2x13. So however you want to interpret that... yeah. In my opinion, it is getting better. But we’ll see how season 3 goes.

Okay so now that I actually told you the answers, you might be wondering how I came to those conclusions. If you’re not a math person than feel free to ignore this last part...

Of course one could easily just look at the infographics and see that 1x03 looks fairly balanced, but I wanted data to back it up... so I may have figured out my own formula. Idk if this is like mathematically correct but it did the trick.

So I started by calculating the average for each episode. Using 1x03 as the example, the average screen time for that episode is 3.94 (rounded). Then I took the highest screen time (7.5) and subtracted the average from that. Then I did the same thing with the lowest screen time (0.5) and subtracted that from the average. Those two numbers are 3.56 and 3.54, the distance between the highest and the average and the lowest and the average. Then calculating the distance between those two numbers, the total is 0.12 - a very low number, bringing me to the conclusion that the balance for 1x03 is fairly good.

However if you do the same for 1x06, highest (12) - average (4.08) = 7.92, average (4.08) - lowest (0.5) = 3.58, 7.92 - 3.58 = 4.34 - meaning that 1x06 is more unbalanced in screen time compared to 1x03.

here are the charts if you’re interested because why not:

[911lonestarscreentime]

Well that’s fun. Thanks for the support, Ronen (I guess?) (source)

[911lonestarscreentime]

 Tommy Vega Screen Time Meta Post

Welcome back to the third post in this series that is analyzing the screen time of 911 Lone Star characters post season 2. You can see the first post that discusses Owen here and the second post about Marjan here.

This post we will be looking at Tommy’s screen time, which I had hoped to get up earlier but you know, life and stuff. I’ll probably stick to this once a week schedule though going forward, probably on Thursdays or Fridays depending on what my week looks like.

Check out my analysis below the cut!

Season 2

Tommy was a new addition this season, so there isn’t a prior season to compare to. But since she was filling in the void that Michelle left, we kind of knew what to expect when it came to screen time. The most screen time she had in an episode, unsurprisingly was 2x13 (”One Day”) with about 21 minutes. This is actually the second most screen time in a single episode for a character (record for first is held by Judd with over 22 minutes in 2x09). 

Some other episodes where she received a lot of screen time were in 2x01 (”Back in the Saddle”) with around 8:30 minutes, and in 2x07 (“Displaced”) with around 7:30 minutes. 

Her least amount of screen time was seen in episodes 2x03 (”Hold the Line”) and 2x04 (”Friends with Benefits”) where she only saw about 45 seconds. 

Tommy’s total screen time for this season was a little over an hour, at 71:45 minutes (or 1 hour and 11:45 minutes).

Average Screen Time

Tommy’s average screen time came in at around 5:15 minutes, making her the character with the second most average screen time per episode behind Owen. Since she has only appeared in season 2, her average for the series is the same number. 

Outliers

Taking outliers into account, episode times that are much higher or lower than the other times, it should not come as a surprise that 2x13 (”One Day”) is an outlier episode for Tommy at 21 minutes. All of her other episodes fall under 9 minutes, leaving a huge gap between this episode and the rest. 

What happens when you remove the outliers?

If you remove this episode from the data set, Tommy’s average drops significantly down to a little less than 4 minutes. Without this episode, Tommy actually has a screen time average and total much similar to what TK saw this season and that’s how she was trending until this episode pulled her stats up.

But like the other outlier episodes discussed for characters so far, the conclusion is that these episodes did happen and therefore are included when calculating the stats for the characters.

How does Tommy compare to Michelle?

As was stated above, Tommy was the replacement for Michelle when Liv Tyler exited the show due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Which then begs the question; if she was brought on to fill in that slot, how similar are the two characters screen times? 

Tommy’s total screen time (71:45) is much higher than Michelle’s season 1 screen time at 52:15. Though considering there were only 10 episodes in season 1 compared to the 14 in season 2, and also taking into consideration the last 4 episodes include Tommy’s outlier episode, if you remove those last four episodes from the data set, Tommy’s total for the first 10 episodes of season 2 comes out to 43 minutes. If you just remove 2x13, her total would be 50:45.

As for averages, both characters ended up with the same episode average at 5:15 minutes. Very pleasing, if you ask me. 

I think the biggest difference between the two was that Tommy had her huge episode in 2x13. Michelle’s biggest episode was 12 minutes in 1x08 (”Monster Inside”). It is interesting though that when you take out that episode, their totals are more in line, but leaving it in makes their averages come out the same. Regardless, it’s clear that the characters are essentially equals. 

Closing Thoughts

Being the second billed character on the show, it’s not a surprise that Tommy’s statistics are higher than the other characters, though not quite as high as Owen’s. Personally I really enjoyed seeing her character development this season and I hope to continue to see a similar pattern in season 3. I think she’s a good example of a character who had her moments and significant story lines, but also could step aside and still be in the episode but not in the forefront all the time. 

[911lonestarscreentime]

In terms of season 1, I kinda get the whole screen time thing with Owen having a lot. The show did start off with the idea of him being the main character who moved to Austin with his son so that they could both battle their demons.

That being said, as the series progressed (both season one and two) the need for building other characters and their storylines became important. To be honest, I love Owen (not Rob though😅) but I hated the whole friendship that he had with Carlos' father that felt like it took too many episodes trying to catch the arsonist.

He's at home resting, let him rest! I wanna see more Temp Cap Ryder! I think the Saving Grace episode was my favorite out of both seasons. And Nancy is probably my favorite season two character, I'm actually happy for Brianna😊

Sorry for my rant😅 Love your blog, it really gives me a lot to think about.

These are some great insights and I don't mind the rant at all.

I think it does make sense to have the focus be on Owen at first, but at this point in the series there's no reason for him to still have as much screen time as he does. As I always like to say, he can have the most because he's Rob Lowe and I've made my peace with him being the focus, but I don't see a reason for him to have several hours when other characters don't even get 30 minutes.

I have mixed feelings about his friendship with Gabriel... it definitely could have been done better. I'm actually getting curious about what Gabriel's screen time looks like, having been in a few episodes this season. I may be putting out a poll for him and other characters to see which characters other people are interested in me calculating over the hiatus (but I want to finish the meta posts for the main characters first...).

I wish we could have seen more of Captain Ryder as well! I don't think they'll ever do this, but it would be so nice to see if Owen did end up getting the deputy chief position after all and then Judd took over as captain. I've talked to one my friends about this, but on Chicago Fire for example, they do have several commanding officers with the highest being chief (also including a captain and two (well now three if you watch the show :)) lieutenants) so idk rambling at this point but if the 126 reopened and was expanded to be the biggest station in Austin then Owen could still be the chief of the entire station and Judd could be captain of just ladder 126... okay definitely strayed away from screen time there but you got me thinking.

Anyway "Saving Grace" was such a great episode because it showed what happens when you do focus on characters who aren't Owen. I still wish we could have seen more of Grace in the episode, but I understand why they went from the focus of Judd. And also agreed on Nancy! I mean from the second episode of the season we saw what Brianna could do and I'm so excited that the producers took note of that too and we will continue to see even more of her character!

[911lonestarscreentime]

Is there a blog like this for OG 911 that you know of?

I have coordinated with @liesoverthec who reached out to me wanting to do something for the original 911 and has since done a great job looking at the screen time for that show using similar methods! 😊

[911lonestarscreentime]

Marjan Marwani Screen Time Meta Post

Welcome back to the second post in this series that is analyzing the screen time of 911 Lone Star characters post season 2. You can see the first post that discusses Owen here.

This post we will be looking at Marjan’s screen time because... I don’t know I’m in love with her I guess and I want to alternate between the higher billed characters and the lower billed ones so she seemed like the next logical choice. (also, it’s Marwani Wednesday ;)

Check out my analysis below the cut!

Before I talk about Marjan, just a small disclaimer about my previous Owen post. I doubt anyone did notice but it’s bothering me enough that I feel the need to be upfront about it; there are a few tiny inconsistencies in the data due to the fact that I forgot I had changed some of the data on the spreadsheet to reflect the numbers I calculated using the new method (despite saying that I would only be using the data collected using the old method for this series). Therefore the data isn’t necessarily wrong, but it is inconsistent. Sorry about that, and I have changed the numbers back so there shouldn’t be any issues going forward.

Season 1

Looking at her screen time in the first season is actually fairly interesting because she never really got an episode where she was the focus. Of course the first episode that came to mind before calculating screen time was 1x03 (”Texas Proud”) and while that did reveal a lot about her character, her screen time in the episode about the same as Carlos and Judd (at around 3:45 minutes), and more than a few minutes less than Owen, Michelle, and TK. 

The episode where she did have the most screen time was 5:30 minutes in 1x06 (”Friends Like These”) but she still had less than Mateo, and I would say the plot was more centric to developing his character over hers. This episode accounts for almost 19% of Marjan’s total screen time in season 1.

The least amount of screen time she saw was around 30 seconds in 1x05 (”Studs”). Her and Paul mostly fell around the same amount of screen time in the first season.

Season 2

The second season did give Marjan her well-deserved centric episode, coming in at 8:30 minutes in 2x04 (”Friends with Benefits”). This was quite the episode considering she was the first lower billed character to get more screen time than Owen (Michelle and Tommy both had more than him in certain episodes, but they are also higher billed, closer to Owen). She saw more than a minute more than Owen did this episode. 

She also saw a lot of screen time in 2x11 (”Slow Burn”) at around 7 minutes. This episode, and 2x04 accounted for 41% of her screen time this season.

With that record, also came the records for least amount of screen time in an episode; with her seeing only about 15 seconds in 2x09 (”Saving Grace”) and 2x13 (”One Day”) - both episodes that placed a greater emphasis on other characters. 

Marjan fell around the same amount of screen time as Grace, Paul, and Mateo this season.

Total Screen Time

Marjan’s total screen time in season 1 was 29 minutes, and in season 2 was 35:45 minutes . That brings her total screen time for the two seasons to 67:45. Divided in half, her screen time would be between 33:45 and 34 minutes; which does track for the two seasons since there are more episodes in season 2 than in season 1. 

Average Screen Time

In season 1, Marjan averaged about 3 minutes. While in season 2, she averaged about 2:45 minutes. This is interesting, considering as was outlined above, Marjan had two episodes where she got a decent amount of screen time. However, there were also several episodes where she saw less than a minute, which would explain why the average was dragged down. Additionally, I would like to take the time to note that every number you see is rounded. The screen time for each episode is rounded up or down accordingly, and then those numbers are used to calculate the average which also is then rounded up or down accordingly. Therefore, considering season 1′s screen time average was rounded up, and season 2′s screen time average was rounded down, the difference between her average screen time comparing both seasons is really not that much different.

Marjan’s average screen time for the series also comes out to around 2:45 minutes.

Outliers

As explained in the Owen meta post, outliers are the episodes that are much higher or much lower than the screen time that is usually seen for that character. Additionally, the outliers change based on the data set, which is why season 1, season 2, and the series as a whole are each looked at as individual data sets.

There are no outlier episodes in season 1 for Marjan. In season 2, 2x04 is an outlier at 8:30 minutes. And looking at the data for both seasons, 2x04 and 2x11 (at 7 minutes) are both outliers. 

What happens when you remove the outliers?

Since there are no outliers in season 1, nothing about those results change. When you remove 2x04′s screen time from the season 2 data set, Marjan’s average screen time decreases by 30 seconds, coming out to 2:15 minutes. And when you remove 2x04 and 2x11 from the series data set, Marjan’s average screen time also comes out to around 2:15, dropping nearly 30 seconds. 

In that sense, it’s especially interesting that in season 1 her average screen time was nearly 3 minutes since when you remove the season 2 outliers, the season 2 and series averages are now about 45 seconds less than that. However, as was discussed in the Owen post, those episodes (2x04 and 2x11) did happen and should not be removed from the data when looking at the results. But for the purpose of these posts, I do think it’s an interesting concept to explore.

Closing Thoughts

I don’t really see much change for Marjan between seasons 1 and 2. While it was nice to have 2 episodes where she was a big focus, there were also more episodes where she was on screen for less than a minute. Her average screen time did not see much change, and her total screen time for season 2 was only higher because of the four extra episodes. 

[911lonestarscreentime]

ohh im curious about TK's now! I'd mainly noticed that any tarlos storylines really focus on him rather than Carlos so I guess I hadnt clocked that he had less this season. I look forward to your thoughts on his screentime.

I was wondering whether you were thinking about doing an overview of the season for each character/all the characters at all? like, to see how their screentime fluctuates episode to episode? if thats not something you want to do, I totally understand, it was just something that occurred to me.

(sorry for spamming your inbox, luv u jamie)

I think TK’s is the post I’m most looking forward to making (so that also means it will be near the end...)

Also I’m not sure exactly what you mean? If you’re talking about like a chart for say Owen for example just bc that’s who I’ve been talking about, that has a bar for each episode (like he got xx in episode 1, xx in episode 2, ect) to see that trend- then i did consider it, and i was also going to do one of how the average fluctuated from episode to episode but I decided I needed a break and just posted the meta before i could add any other info 😅 Maybe I’ll do it at some point though! (if that’s not what you meant though, feel free to elaborate.)

[911lonestarscreentime]

I’m suprised TK has so much screen time, it feels like he’s barely around ever since he switched teams. Even when he is on screen it’s usually never about him. I think the show treats both him and Carlos as a prop sometimes.

I think TK's screen time is actually the most interesting to look at. He really saw a decrease from season 1 to season 2, and I don't think even think it was because he switched teams because he did not have that much in the first few episodes of season 2 when he was still a firefighter. I think it's because his storyline was not tied into Owen's this season, whereas in season 1 TK was a big part of Owen's cancer plot. But this season, he was kind of holding his own stories similar to Marjan and Paul, and while he does get more than them, he is getting much less than we saw last year.

[911lonestarscreentime]

Owen Strand Screen Time Meta Post

Welcome to the first in a series of posts analyzing the screen time of characters post season 2 of 911 Lone Star. I thought this idea would be more interesting, and efficient, than trying to put all of my thoughts for every character, and the entire season into one post. 

First up is Owen because he’s the highest billed character and because when I put out a poll, he was the only character no one wanted to see first. So let’s dive in! 

Read my analysis below the cut:

Season 1

I’ll be honest, when I started calculating the screen time I had no idea how much of an impact Owen’s time would have on the fandom. I really don’t recall there being that much discourse over it until I posted the results... and it didn’t really bother me before I saw the numbers? But after I did that first episode I was like oh..... yeah that’s a problem. 

At least that pilot episode was the most screen time he’s gotten, though I’m willing to bet that will change with season 3′s “Owen Begins.” I mean in a way, the pilot episode was his begins episode (or could even be considered “Begins Again” like what they did with Bobby on 911) since it was about him packing up and starting a new life as captain of the 126. Essentially, the pilot episode served to set up that this would be Owen’s show. 

The other episode where he took up a larger chunk of the screen time was 1x06 (”Friends Like These”) which makes sense because it was exploring his friendship with Billy... little did we know how important that would be later.

Most of his screen time in season 1 was concentrated around 8-10 minutes. Obviously that is the most screen time given to a character on the show, which makes sense since the show and the character was written for him and he hold the executive producer title. 

The least amount of screen time he got was around 7.5 minutes in 1x03 (”Texas Proud”) and 1x08 (”Monster Inside”). I do find that especially interesting since those are still episodes where he played an important role in the plot, compared to other characters whose least amount of screen time meant they were lucky if they spoke one line. It’s also worth noting in 1x03, Owen still had the most screen time (though Michelle was a close second) and in 1x08, Michelle did beat him by a few minutes.

Season 2

We really went into season 2 with higher hopes, though it wasn’t much better (I would argue there was some improvement... but I’ll talk about that more later). 

It says a lot that Owen’s top 3 episodes are 2x10, 2x11, and 2x12. Though he didn’t beat his previous record of over 20 minutes, he got nearly 15 minutes in 2x11 (”Slow Burn”)... which if you didn’t already know, is also the episode that was written by his son, John Owen Lowe, and directed by his brother, Chad Lowe. He also got around 12 minutes in the two episodes that buffer that one, 2x10 (“A Little Help From My Friends”) and 2x12 (”The Big Heat”). This three episode arc accounts for about 32% of his screen time this season.

Before that major arc in 2B, in the first half of season 2 his big episodes fell around 10 minutes each; 10:45 in 2x07 (”Displaced”), 10:00 in 2x03 (”Hold the Line”, the crossover), and 9:45 in 2x01 (”Back in the Saddle”)*

A big difference for this season compared to season 1 was that there were episodes where he did not get as much screen time. Whereas his least screen time was 7:30 last season, this season there were four episodes that were lower than that; 7:15 in 2x06 (“Everyone and Their Brother”), 6:00 in 2x13 (”One Day”), 5:30 in 2x02 (”2100°”), and of course, a mere 1:00 in 2x09 (“Saving Grace”). That is really the only episode where Owen has completely stepped aside, playing a very minor role in the overall plot. In 2x02, 2x06, and 2x13, Owen came in second behind Tommy (in x02 and x13) and Paul (in x06). And in 2x09, he came in fourth (the only time thus far he was not in the top 3) behind Judd, Grace, and Tommy.

(*I’ve mentioned the new method I’ve been using to calculate screen time on a few occasions now and I’ve only revisited 2x01 so far (almost done 2x02 tho) anyway, I’m using the data I collected using the old method for these posts but in an effort to be totally upfront about how the new method is going, Owen’s screen time for 2x01 is actually about 30 seconds higher than I originally calculated, coming it at 10:15 instead of 9:45. Not much of a difference, and idk how much the rest of the new method results will impact this meta post, but I wanted to be clear about it).

Total Screen Time

As the infographic above states, his total screen time for the two seasons comes in at nearly 3 hours and 45 minutes. Divided in half, thats around 112 minutes per season, which does fall in line with the totals for each season (103.25 minutes for season 1, 120.5 minutes for season 2). However, there was only 10 episodes in season 1, compared to the 14 we saw in season 2. With that in mind, you can begin to see how season 2 was actually a smidge better than season 1 when it came to how much screen time was given to Owen. But the real indicator is the averages, which is discussed next.

Average Screen Time

As you can see in the infographic, Owen’s average screen time in season 1 was around 10:15 and dropped to 8:30 in season 2. The series screen time (which is the total divided by 24, not those two totals divided by 2) comes in at about 9:15. 

Obviously, even 8.5 minutes is still a huge amount of screen time. But compared to over 10 minutes in season 1, his average screen time is seeing a clear downward trend. I would take this as a win. It’s a small change, but it’s an indication that we are heading towards a day where Owen doesn’t eat up the majority of the screen time each episode.

Outliers

The idea of outlier episodes wasn’t even something I considered until a few weeks ago. This would be an episode where the screen time total was either much higher, or much lower than what is normally seen for that character.

According to my calculations, in season 1 the pilot episode at 20:45 is an outlier for Owen. In season 2, 2x09 (”Saving Grace”) is also an outlier at 1:00. And looking at the data set for all the episodes in series, both numbers (20:45 and 1:00) are outliers. (Outliers change based on the data set, so we need to look at each data set (season 1, season 2, and series) individually and not assume that an outlier for one season would also be an outlier for the series). 

What happens when you remove the outliers?

That brings us to the above question. Is Owen’s 20+ minutes in the first episode the reason why his time is so high in season 1? Is his 1 minute in 2x09 bringing down his time in season 2? And what about the series?

I’m not sure if it’s worth examining how the totals are affected since that’s pretty self-explanatory. Obviously all the totals will go down if you take out the outlier episodes. But where it makes a difference as far as we’re concerned is the averages. 

Obviously the average number is how much you should expect to see that character during an episode. But if 20 minutes is much higher than normal, and 1 minute is much lower than normal, then what happens when you take out those numbers? Well, something actually fairly interesting happens, that almost contradicts what I said before about the progress...

When you remove the pilot episode from the data set for season 1, the average comes to around 9:15. When you remove 2x09 from the data set for season 2, the average comes to around 9:15. When you remove both episodes from the series data set the average comes to (you guessed it) 9:15. 

9:15 is more indicative of what to expect for Owen’s screen time in an average episode, and since it hasn’t changed that says a lot about the progress we’ve seen for screen time distribution.

Now as for what to do with this? Honestly, I have no idea. I mean the fact is that while these episodes are outliers, they did still happen. There is an episode where Owen only had about a minute of screen time; just like there’s an episode where he got over 20 minutes. Outliers are weird because I don’t want to not acknowledge them, and I think it’s important to look at when studying the screen time as a whole. But as for the reported numbers, we can stick with what is laid out in the infographic.

Closing Thoughts

It’s hard to say whether this season saw less Owen, or about the same. Of course when taking all episodes into account, it is less. But when you remove the outlier one minute episode, it’s really not that much better. But then again, the fact that we did get an episode where he was only on screen for a minute is a very good sign, so taking it out of the data set doesn’t exactly make sense.

I guess the biggest takeaway still is that Owen still has a lot. He always will. Even if he did have less this season, it’s still much more than the characters who come in second and third had. I like to think it will get better, and maybe it will, but personally I’ve accepted that Owen will always have the most, and he will have much more than other characters, but it shouldn’t be as much as it is. Hopefully his screen time will continue to trend down and allow for more time to explore the other characters on the show.

[911lonestarscreentime]

I find these stats so fascinating and I love your analysis. I did a little of my own, for fun. Carlos has had the least screen time or been credit only for 12 out of 24 episodes. Grace was at the bottom for seven, although one of those episodes was a no-Carlos episode and has one credit only episode. Mateo is the member of the 126 who has been at the bottom most often with four, although two of those were shared. Paul and Marjan have been bottom three times each, Paul has shared bottom twice and his third was a no-Carlos episode. Tommy has been at the bottom twice, one episode was 2x03 which had no Carlos or Grace. TK shared the least amount of screen time in 2x13 with Paul, Mateo and Marjan. The only time, in two seasons, that the person with the least amount of screen time was white was Michelle in 1x09, which was a no-Carlos episode.

that’s very interesting! i’ve been also keeping track for this season but had not gone as in depth as you had, taking in other factors and such. thanks for sharing!

[911lonestarscreentime]

According to my maths, which is definitely not my strongest point, Gwyn with seven episodes had just over a minute less screen time than Carlos had in the entire season and her average screen time per episode is higher than Carlos, Grace, Mateo, Paul and Marjan.

Yes and yes :)

totals:

averages:

[911lonestarscreentime]

911 Lone Star Average Episode Screen Time by Character and Season

*please do not repost without credit*

so you can see, the difference between season 1 and season 2 can be summed up with less for owen, tk, and paul; and more for grace. everyone else is more or less the same... even michelle and tommy are equal. i’m not sure how much different this will come out once i revisit all the episodes using the new method but for now... :)