Ratings Renaissance

Sometimes it pays to lose touch with reality. It's bad enough already without television networks selling more of it back to us day after day through the lives of utter strangers. To even think that years ago people would escape to their TV sets in order to achieve the opposite effect.

There was a time when reality was king, but the tides are changing and viewership is slowly growing tired of the long reign of reality that dominated the greater part of the past decade. After unsuccessfully airing re-runs, spin-offs, and some original programming, Fox announced just last week that it will be shutting down all operations for the Fox Reality Channel. In this case, Fox took the hit for being out of touch with the viewing needs of the American audience, but other net execs are bound to soon swallow their poor investment in reality television as well.

The major television networks are in dire need of a reality check: reality-type programming is past its prime but is still on air consuming huge timeslots in primetime schedules. Overall network ratings are down (again) this fall, but it’s some of the rookie, scripted-fare shows—“FlashForward”, “Modern Family”, and “Glee”—that are turning heads and exhibiting viewership promise. The American TV audience is slowly growing weary of the long reign of reality that dominated the greater part of the past decade. So now more than ever before, network executives should jump at the chance to win back the droves of TV viewers and resurrect the popularity of quality dramas and sitcoms for the sake of good business and the intrinsic value of true art. They have put far too much faith into a genre that lacks the viewership support it used to enjoy, and are being exposed to the business reality they can’t seem to come to terms with: reality television goes stale fast.

Overall network ratings that are down (again) this fall—leaving the much of the blame to rest upon the reality-type shows that dominate the largest chunks of network schedules. Many of these reality franchises horde an extended amount of peak hours on network schedules, sometimes with individual shows running for consecutive hours on several nights each week.
ABC and Fox aren’t really putting their best foot forward by devoting three hours weekly to “Dancing With The Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance” (respectively) on two separate nights in their lineups. The lackluster ratings that these have-been shows are producing can be explained in part by the American viewer who is less willing to sit through a show with no real content (or are more prone to record and fast forward if they care at all). Little value is added to the viewing experience by having a “live-air” show one night, and then producing a next-night “results” show with re-hashed footage and padded with unnecessary fluff. Despite the warning signs, the networks seem hopelessly devoted to reality programming and determined to fix the problem the only way they know how—by having shows like “American Idol” assume a spot (or two) on Fox and “Celebrity Apprentice” parade onto the NBC schedule later this season.

The most glaring business problem is that there’s no investment in something that the networks can count on as an enduring source of revenue; all they succeed in doing is turning a quick profit on content that is cheap and easy to make. Viewership on the first airing keeps these shows afloat, but no one cares enough to re-watch last week’s “The Bachelor”. And why should they care to tune in and catch what they missed, since after all, there’s practically no developing plotline and no crucial character development. If there’s any value to the episode as part of a larger season, it’s only to discover the ending result (who advances to the next round, who has been voted off, etc.)—something that’s sooner read in the grocery store checkout. Other than that, the content is worthless.

Additionally, there is almost no afterlife for these shows through syndication on other cable channels (Fox learned this the hard way), and there is very little market interest for them in the home entertainment department. Viewers don’t care enough to buy the season DVDs because their redeeming qualities, again, are too few to make them enjoyable a second time around.

As long as the networks are content to back unscripted reality-type TV that hijacks primetime slots, they will continue to do themselves a financial disservice by assisting in the death of their quality shows. In essence, the half-hour success of “Cougar Town” doesn’t have the weight to affect the big picture when three hours of “Dancing with the Stars” is on steady decline. Simple enough—and yet, only CBS has strayed from the trend, choosing to build a schedule with less reality emphasis. Their “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race” air only in hour-long segments each week. Fancy then that CBS holds the current top spot in overall TV networks ratings for viewers, and fares well in most all of the distinct age ranges.

The idea is that quality shows need to first get competitive ratings and attention to earn the corporate backing that they deserve; television is a business, and no right-minded net-exec has the unabashed courage to schedule a show (no matter how great it is) if nobody is watching. Let CBS be a test case; people will respond to the actually creative process that includes intelligent writing, talented actors, and skilled direction and cinematography. Now is the time for network executives to promote more quality programming first and foremost within their industry and stop falling back on cheaper, easier productions just because Americans supported them in years past. Industry trends are changing and viewer response regarding the current fall lineup is an indicator that a “renaissance” of the ratings is waiting only for the networks to get with the times.