Television Thins the Herd

After the long strike, and the time of never ending re-runs, it would seem that the writers would be eager to pump out some great new stuff. After all, how long can you think only about what you are going to do after leaving the picket line?

The problem is that we, as consumers, don’t hold these people’s feet to the fire - we don’t demand excellence anymore, especially on broadcast television. The public perception of commercial television is that it is something that the poor people watch, because they can’t do any better, or don’t have the intelligence to be watching public supported television.

So now we have a few new shows coming back, but with fewer episodes, and all looking like these were scripts that barely escaped the trash heap, back when the corporate denizens figured out that there was definitely going to be a strike. Why should we, as the ultimate contractors, accept any less than the full number of episodes this season? Would this be allowed in any other profession? Would a carpenter be allowed to delay the framing of houses, ‘until next season’, because he had been on strike? I think not. Name almost any other profession, and the results would be the same. If you don’t finish a job, you don’t walk away, saying that you’ll try again next year.

We are told that the number of new shows will be down next year. What does this mean? It means that without the same amount of new shows coming, a poor show, which would normally be obliterated over the summer, will now continue in its mediocrity. In some cases, it will mean that not only will this season be short, the next season will start later than normal - so again, more reruns.

The people who run the broadcast networks are complaining each year about the erosion of their audience to cable and satellite television.  What stupidity! Why would the audience not fade away when presented with better viewing choices?

What are you doing about this? Have your viewing habits changed?

I know that this sort of behavior is what has changed my viewing to many new shows on the non-premium cable channels, and extremely limited viewing of any programs on the broadcast networks. The silliest thing about this is that many of these shows spring up from the subsidiary networks. For example, I watch many shows that are on USA and SciFi, both of which are owned by NBC, yet I can’t name a show that I currently watch on NBC itself. There just isn’t anything there to get excited about. NBC seems to be the worst of the networks, bringing back loser shows from 20 years ago, using news shows as filler for hours otherwise uncovered, and reality shows that should have seen their last episode years ago.

If you are fed up with the poor programming that you are paying for (whether you like it or not) why not write a letter to the appropriate network - maybe all four! Because so many people are known to do nothing, the effectiveness of a well written letter is very high.

Give it a try.

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[tags] television habits, writer’s strike, short viewing season, broadcast networks, cable television, public supported television [/tags]

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