Series Premiere category not attached

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The Series Premiere of "Resident Alien" on SYFY (1/27) does not have the category "Series Premiere" or "Premieres" associated even though it is marked as a "(Premiere)". This means it does not show up when you do a category search for "Premiere" or "Series Premiere". The categories it does have are: Series, Science Fiction, Comedy Drama.

Is there a reason EPG123 did not add the "Series Premiere" category to this episode? I thought there may be a limit to the number of categories that could be attached, but I see others that have 5 categories, so I don't think that is the issue. Perhaps it didn't initially have the "(Premiere)" indicator and there is an issue when modifying the existing episode to include that flag that it does not also include the additional categories? Perhaps this is something that needs to be fixed with the Verify?

EDIT: I checked the MXF and see that it does not include the categories for Premieres and Series Premiere, so this looks like a problem with EPG123 and not the LoadMXF (so would not be a fix for the Verify portion, but for EPG123 when it creates the MXF).

[garyan2]

Interesting. I think this may have to do with it being shown at the same time on USA which is not flagged as a premiere for some reason. If epg123 downloaded the schedule entries for USA before Syfy, then the categories were determined by the USA schedule entry (without premiere).

The Premiere categories are assigned by epg123 based on the (first) schedule entry for a program it processes. This is an interesting scenario, but I am not inclined to do anything about it.

When I removed USA from the download, the Syfy categories were fine to include Premieres and Series Premiere.

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I'm currently using futoncritic.com to find series premieres, so was able to find this one. I use WMC Series Premiere category search as a backup, as it does find some that are not on this website (usually ones on channels that aren't covered there).

Unless this issue is resolved, I would not advise anyone to use WMC category search as their sole means of finding Series Premieres. It is not uncommon for premieres to be simulcast on multiple channels. I'm not sure how common it is for only one channel to have the "premiere" flag, but if you miss an important premiere because of it, once may be too many for you.

[StinkyImp]

I'm currently using futoncritic.com to find series premieres.

I've experienced missing a premiere by relying solely on the "Premiere" flag in WMC. Thanks for providing this link!

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I haven't done any extensive research, but I do think that the "premiere" flag is not always attached to premieres, so even without this issue with EPG123, it is probably a good idea to not rely on it. From my experience, premieres on major broadcast networks seem to be the most consistent with having the flag, but premieres on cable channels are hit or miss.

[garyan2]

Though I have a problem with calling this an "issue", I have changed my code a little to ensure any premiere programs (tagged with premiere in any schedule entry) will get assigned the appropriate premiere categories. I don't want to hear any screaming at me because they setup a series recording on USA Network only to find out later that USA was only going to show the first episode and the series actually runs on Syfy.

[Space]

Nice, thank you.