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Do you REALLY want your shows back ?

By fred | January 14, 2008

Do you ? Or do you not care about them, and to you watching an episode of Lost, House, Life, Pushing Daisies, Grey’s Anatomy, or The Office is just about the same as to watch Clash Of The Choirs, Donald Trump in one of his Celebrity Apprentice, Big Brother or some “celebrities” dancing around ??

The question has to be asked, because it seems that an awful lot of people are watching reality TV and other crap networks are filling their schedule with, as those programs do get good ratings, having everyone already chanting how they can go on without writers, especially the morons over at NBC !

“Time periods may be lost to scripted shows. CBS can fill three hours a week with Big Brother for about five bucks,” proudly declared Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment.

So far, the strong performances of non-scripted programs has put huge grins on network executives’ stupid faces. “If I were a writer and I saw ratings like that for a show that costs far less than Chuck, I’d be scared to death” said an executive about American Gladiators, which finished with about 60 percent higher ratings than Chuck used to do on that same timeslot.

Sadly, forced to admit that a lot of people are watching crap these days, and that really is depressing to me. But it should also be mentioned that I believe (hope?) people will not keep watching those crap every day or weeks and weeks. If the networks’ only offer is reality TV, viewers will eventually go somewhere else, be it cable networks, or the Internet.

Besides, it is also possible that the impact of the writers’ strike hasn’t yet hit networks the hardest. When writers walked out, networks still had, and on occasion still do have, completed episodes left in the can. So viewers may not have actually seen anything different on the air. Then came the holidays, Christmas and the new year. A period during which it’s not unusual for shows to disappear or go to rerun mode for a few weeks.

But now, a lot of shows are done. 30 Rock, Desperate Housewives, CSI or Grey’s Anatomy all had their last episode to air recently, and things might get quite differently fast.

Silverman was quick to say that “in every other country in the world, the majority of prime-time programming is unscripted“. First, I’m not sure this is true. I know for a fact that some countries in Europe, the majority of prime-time is not unscripted, but made out of (mostly American) scripted series.

Second, this kind of reaction, to say that it was inevitable because it’s cheaper to produce and “young people like this kind of programming“, will only lead to one thing : the death of television. I for one believe that, should all networks go the non-scripted way, a large part of their audience might turn away from television, or the main networks at least.

We all know that nothing is as good as a good scripted series, and you will never find the kind of dedication, or devotion, the fans of Lost have shown for their favorite show, generated by some Big Brother show. And that includes lots and lots of extra money : DVDs, action figures, magazines, etc The best television still comes from writers, we viewers know it, and advertisers know it as well, which is why they always favor and pay more to appear during scripted programs.

And if Silverman praised how great American Gladiators performed, facing Desperate Housewives the viewers still mostly went for scripted content : 19.8 million and 7.2 for the ABC hit-drama, 12.0 million and 5.9 for NBC non-scripted shows. Yes, it did good; but ABC clearly won.

Good scripted series are rare these days, and maybe some viewers do tune in for reality crap. Probably many turn the TV on, and do something else while Supernanny is only a background noise. Yes, for now, it’s possible that viewers aren’t tired of non-scripted shows, not yet, and still tune in passively, but make no mistake : no one will ever watch a non-scripted shows the way people watch Lost, devoting their whole attention to the show, no one will ever fall in love for non-scripted crap.

I do not watch unscripted content, and I can only hope & pray that more and more viewers every day will stop doing so, because, again, if you love your scripted series and want them back, you have to let networks know !

So, again, do you want the strike to end as soon as possible ? Do you REALLY want your shows back, or do you not care for quality, intelligent programs, and watch non-scripted shows ?

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