A Sunday Night On The CW… Ads, ads, ads!
By fred | May 28, 2008
As you probably heard, The CW recently gave up on Sunday nights, and simply sold it away. Starting next season, Media Rights Capital will be in charge of programming the shows and selling the advertising for the CW Sunday nights. And MRC announced a part of “their” upcoming schedule, which goes as follow :
6.30 - In Harm’s Way – A reality show that looks at lives of people doing dangerous jobs. Executive Producer is Craig Piligian (Dirty Jobs, American Chopper, Survivor).
7.30 - Surviving Suburbia – Half-hour comedy about a family and their new neighbors. Kevin Abbott is Executive Producer (Roseanne, Grace Under Fire, Reba, My Name Is Earl).
8.00 - Valentine, Inc. – One-hour dramedy about an agency that finds lost loves, true loves and mends broken hearts. Kevin Murphy is Executive Producer (Reaper, Desperate Housewives).
9.00 - Easy Money – One-hour drama about a family that runs a high-interest loan business. Executive Producers are Andy Schneider and Diane Frolov (Northern Exposure, The Chris Isaak Show, The Sopranos).
Okay so while none of it sounds really amazing, I mean Surviving Suburbia sounds like a “perfect match”, as it seems exactly to fall on The CW line of shows : Gossip Girl, Surviving The Filthy Rich, 90210… And with Valentine, Inc. (adapted from an original movie script for a romantic comedy) they are after the same demo, young females.
But wait, that’s not the worst part…
No, that MRC tries to fit in with The CW ways makes sense, the scary part is when they go the NBC way. Indeed, looks like these shows will be written and produced with one kind of people in mind, advertisers !
As the official press release states :
All of the shows will begin production, pilot-free, by mid-June. MRC and The CW sales team will begin meeting with advertisers and agencies this week. Consistent with the MRC integrated business model, all five showrunners will participate in the initial meetings to present their creative points of view and hear advertiser needs from the on-set (sic) of the creative process.
“Our approach…is simple: when you put talented people like our artist partners and the advertising folks together in a room, they come up with smart and creative solutions to problems. We want them integrated and talking from the beginning,” explained [MRC executives].
Right, “smart and creative solutions to problems” uh? The so-called problems being “how to make kids buy more iPods?”, “we need a show praising McDonald’s”, or “your main character has to eat Stride Gum during the whole episode, and must love it, now be smart ane creative about it!” of course.
Much like what NBC is doing, they want to put advertisers at the center of the “creative” process. It’s not about people coming up with ideas, characters and stories that people will enjoy anymore, it’s all about selling products, and constructing the shows around said products.
Your next TV shows won’t be about guys having ideas or stories to tell, willing to entertain you or make you dream (and think), but companies selling phones, cars or whatever. And for that reason only, I hope The CW’s Sunday nights will fail miserably, and the same goes out to NBC new series, the Crusoe, My Own Worst Enemy and other Knight Rider…
Seriously people, you need to react, you need to send them a strong message, and not watch those shows. Because if you agree to lower your standards and put up with this crap (because “there’s nothing else on”), networks will kick that door wide open and feed you with nothing but crap for the rest of your lives. And soon, such shitty extended commercials passed as TV shows will become the only thing on TV, and the thing new generations find normal and expect from TV shows…
Posted in News
Shows: Easy Money, Surviving Suburbia, Valentine Inc
