Today's update makes two important parts of programming easier to understand: schedule performance and content popularity.
Bonus modifiers now remain visible after a show airs, lead-in effects stay on screen for the entire program, and popularity now follows a simple decay-and-recovery system with clear color coding.
Bonus Badges Stay After Airing
The bonus pills on schedule cards — Lead-In, Competition, Weather, Premiere, Momentum, Flagship, and other modifiers — now remain visible after a program finishes airing.
Previously, completed cards only showed the result. Now you can look back at any aired show and see what influenced its performance.
The badges remain readable even with the schedule's completed-card styling, giving you a clear performance history throughout the day.
Lead-In Stays Visible
The Lead-In / Retention badge in the Now Playing strip previously appeared only during the first 10-minute slot of a program.
It now remains visible for the entire program block, including the ad slots within it.
This makes audience flow much easier to follow while a show is actually on air — you can always see the carry-over effect from the previous program.
Flat 3-Point Popularity Decay
Content popularity is now much more predictable.
Every normal airing reduces a title's popularity by a flat 3 points.
There are two exceptions:
Live events do not decay
The first airing of each new episode is free
Popularity still has a minimum of 8, so heavily repeated content never becomes completely worthless.
This means you no longer need to understand different decay rates for different titles. Every repeat has the same clear cost.
Fresh Episodes Don't Lose Popularity
For multi-episode shows and talk series, the first airing of each episode does not reduce popularity.
A brand-new episode is fresh content, so airing it shouldn't make the next episode less appealing before viewers have even seen it.
Only re-airing an episode that has already been broadcast applies the normal −3 popularity decay.
Popularity Recovers When Content Rests
Popularity is no longer a one-way decline.
Each title now recovers +1 popularity per day toward its base value.
Recovery stops at the title's base, meaning:
Tired content gradually becomes fresh again
Resting your library is now a meaningful strategy
Popularity can never recover beyond its normal base value
Temporary boosts above base are preserved
If a title drops 9 points below base, giving it time off will restore those points gradually over several days.
Color-Coded Popularity
Popularity values are now easier to read throughout the game.
Every popularity display is colored relative to the title's base value:
🔴 Red — below base
🟢 Green — above base
🟠 Amber — at base
This applies across the Archive, schedule cards, content picker, and Marketplace.
At a glance, you can now tell which content is tired, which is performing above its normal level, and which is ready to use.
A More Readable Programming Loop
Together, these changes make programming easier to understand and plan around.
You can now:
Review why a past show performed the way it did
Follow lead-in effects throughout an entire program
Predict the popularity cost of repeated airings
Give tired content time to recover
Identify hot content instantly through color coding
Rotate your library instead of relying on the same titles repeatedly
The result is a clearer connection between what you schedule, how often you air it, and how your audience responds.
Why These Changes?
Programming decisions are much more useful when the game clearly shows their consequences.
Keeping bonus badges visible turns completed schedule cards into a readable performance log, while persistent lead-in information makes audience flow easier to understand in real time.
At the same time, the new popularity system makes content fatigue predictable: −3 per repeat, +1 recovery per day, and no decay on fresh episodes.
With clear color coding on top, your library now tells you at a glance what needs a rest, what's performing above expectations, and what's ready for another airing.
The goal is simple: make programming easier to read, easier to plan, and easier to learn from.