What do networks refuse to fill their schedule with during the strike ?
By fred | December 31, 2007
Because of the strike, networks are running out of fresh content to put on the air. Sure, some of them might still have a few episodes here and there, or even for the most lucky ones (half) a season waiting, but that’s far from enough to fill their schedule.
And while reruns, games and, of course, reality TV programs are invading each and every network like crazy, there is one other type of programs that networks could use to fill “in the holes”, but that they decided to completely ignore !
The news.
Sure, for some people now the news will always be better, and only worth watching, after they’ve been worked on and turned funny thanks to writers from Late Night with Conan O’Brien or The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but “traditional” news shows are actually a programming genre that networks could turned to in this difficult times, because like reality TV they are much cheaper to produce than scripted series.
And it’s not like the news are dry and there’s nothing to report, I mean even if the war doesn’t sell so much these days - despite people dying every day - isn’t there a Presidential election coming up soon ??
Yet networks only plan so far to insert a minute or two of Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary results between commercials during prime-time, nothing more. And the reason is very simple : network execs don’t care about quality, nor do they care about what the viewers want, they only care about, and are after, money. Easy money. Lots and lots of money, in no time!
As said Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs : “It’s not surprising that you’re not seeing news filling the gap caused by the writers’ strike. More and more, the networks are only about whatever sells. They used to genuflect in the direction of the public interest. Now they only bow down before money.”
And reality sells more than news. Especially because if, due to a special event, a news program may occasionally attract a wide audience, it won’t last. A news program can not turn into a “hit”, like reality programs can, building up very large audience week after week, for years and years.
Not to forget that, besides this, viewers watching reality crap tend to be younger than those of news programs, and advertisers like young people more. Which is also why the news program themselves have “evolved”, being less about news, or informing people, but, as their reality-siblings, tend to be about fame, celebrities, about shinny pictures, about “what’s hot”, it’s about distracting people from serious issues so that they stay dumb and unaware.
This phenomena, referred to as the “hyper-tabloidization of TV news”, was even one of the most important “moments of significance” as listed by the AFI recently. Because again, they consider their audience as stupid morons who do not care what’s on, who do not care whether it’s good or not.
Hopefully, people will prove them wrong by simply going away from television itself, turning to other things like maybe new media for their daily dose of entertainment…
Posted in News
