Up Frontin’
One year ago I spent the entire upfronts week feverishly clicking my refresh button looking for the latest information on the coming fall television season. What a difference a year makes. After the 100-day writer’s strike left most of the network’s schedules flopping on the dock like a hooked but forgotten flounder, no one (not the advertisers, not the networks, and certainly not the audience) seems particularly thrilled about the network announcements (or lack of announcements) for their future plans. This week is, after all, FOR the advertisers, and since network television is no longer viewed as being all that lucrative those advertising dollars are looking for something more than the typical slate of potential prime-time disasters. Take ABC, for example. The network plans on adding a whopping TWO new programs to its fall prime-time line-up, choosing instead to bring back almost all of it’s fall ‘08 slate (minus, Carpoolers, Cavemen and October Road). But who cares, especially this early in the process? More after the jump…
The real news is that the networks have finally caught on to the fact that leaving their schedules more or less empty (save for reruns and fourth-rate-reality) during the summer months simply will not cut it. Instead, the typical September/May television season is going the way of the tight-rolled-jean to make way for the 52-week season. Clearly the networks are going to have to start programming all year long if they want to keep up with cable et al. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean we will suddenly get Lost or Friday Night Lights in July, but will instead translates to American Gladiators. In other words, they’re still not going to try particularly hard, but at least the cheap reality crap will be their A-list crap.
Perhaps the real question is what could the networks (any networks) possibly do to make us excited to tune in? I think the answer is: not a damn thing. I say this because no one cares about networks anymore. There is no “Must See TV.” People care about shows, and since more and more people are time-shifting or getting their content online, the actual channel on the cable box no longer matters. Right now I watch at least one, but rarely more than two shows on just about every network (cable and broadcast combined) — this in addition to web-video and podcasts. My fear in all of this is that the amount of great programming on the networks will be watered down with product placement or simply never make it to air. I know I shouldn’t care. I know the most interesting stuff will always be on cable, but there is a part of me that is still attracted to the idea of tens of millions of people all tuning into the same show at the same time every week and then talking about it the next morning. There is a cultural currency there that highlights the very best of television has to offer. I always go back to Lost. Like the show or not you have to admit it is unsalably cool that in its first season 20 million people were watching something so inherently weird. It will be a long time before so many people rally around something so demanding.
Tags: ABC, cable, CBS, FOX, NBC, networks, The Industry, Trends, Upfronts
