Networks are lamenting the fact that fewer people than ever are watching their shows. Unsurprisingly, they refuse to accept any blame for it. Every time I read one of these stories, I become more convinced that I could take any broadcast network and make it #1 in two years.

Why are NBC's ratings in the pits? Because they have a lot of bad shows and they market them terribly. Why are SURVIVOR's ratings so low? Because it's been on forever, and every season is exactly like the one before it. Why are LOST's ratings sinking? Because it's not very good, extremely un-user-friendly, and ABC took it off the air for four months in the middle of the season. Oh, wait, I'm wrong. It's because Daylight Savings Time started early.

One thing the networks need to do is find a new (better) way of calculating ratings. It was only this year that they started counting college campuses.

Missing Viewer Alert

I'd really like to start a Ministry of Slapping People Upside the Head. Broadcast television, broadcast radio, record companies, and movie studios would all get slapped upside the head and then have explained to them what everyone else seems to understand about their sagging profits (as if making billions and billions instead of billions and billions and billions is one of the great tragedies of modern society).

My heart bleeds for them. :rolleyes:

I think the biggest factor, well second biggest biggest behind network tv sucking so bad these days, is the interminable hiatuses most of the popular shows took in the winter/spring. A show like HEROES is bound to lose its audience if you make them wait too long for new episodes. I'm still watching HEROES but I gave up on LOST at the end of the first season. I just didn't care enough to find out what happened after four months, and that was the regular summer hiatus. Now they've got a new mid-season hiatus.

I find it especially annoying that the networks completely abused the long story arc format with LOST, 24, PRISON BREAK, etc., then they decide that the format doesn't work on the one show where it does work, VERONICA MARS, and changed the format to single episode stories there. VM probably won't get a fourth season. CW certainly didn't help it by yanking it off the air for two months and then putting it back on with minimal promotion.

I'll be interested to see what happens with HEROES. They've given themselves a deadline for New York blowing up so they have to resolve that storyline before the end of the season. They've done a pretty good job with the pacing so far. Hopefully they will end things well for the season.

I didn't get past the first few episodes of Heroes, but...the season's story arc culminates in whether or not The Big Apple gets turned into The Baked Apple? Huh...that'll be interesting.

Because you know that if it doesn't, most folks'll wipe their brow and go, "Whew...that was close."

I still think the biggest problem, the single biggest problem, is commercials. A half-hour show is now 10+ minutes of commercials, hour long shows are only 40 minutes long. I just find television irritating now, even w/ good shows. I record HOUSE, if I had to watch it with the commercial breaks I don't know if I'd even bother. But I have no patience for these ridiculously oversized breaks, the ads during shows, etc. Bring back regulation!

I think a lot of the viewers now wait for box sets to come out, especially if there's a story arc. I remember renting the hell out of LOST season 1, and hearing many people say that they are going to watch the second season on tv. Well, after missing one show, you're screwed, but with a dvd you can watch them all at once.


marc

I don't watch LOST but I think they're on the right track with their current "end game" strategy of only three more seasons of 16 episodes each with all the episodes running without breaks between weeks. Then it's done.

We'll see if they can keep the ratings up enough to make this experiment a success (or vice-vera have the nerve to really end it if the ratings start to soar). It's a strategy I wish had been employed for other needlesly stretched-out series such as X-Files.

They're going to blow up New York by the end of the season?!! :o Well, when does the season end? I've gotta pack up and get out of here! Does everyone ELSE know about this? Everyone around here seems so...so...calm. :unsure:

In case anyone here does still watch LOST but hasn't seen last night's episode yet, there is what I can only assume is a pretty huge spoiler on Yahoo's home page.

Therein lies the danger/trade off of waiting to watch certain shows on dvd (or even recording them to watch at a more convenient time). If Tony Soprano buys the farm at the end of his series, I'm sure I'll read about it the following day, whether I want to or not.

The TV critic for one of the papers I read has a nasty habit of giving away that a character has been whacked in the first paragraph, or even the accompanying photograph.

He gave away the big one for Season One of 24, and a couple for the second season of Lost. Either he assumes that no one is waiting to watch 'em on DVD with no commercials, or he's just a punk.

I Tivo most of the shows we watch, so that we can watch it the next night and FF through the commercials. They're just terrible and if I see Sally Field check out another tomatoe, I will do something terrible!

I'm beyond mystified that other networks don't follow Fox's good example with 24. It's always on in the same place and at the same time, no repeats. Given a consistent presentation audiences tune in consistently. What's so difficult about that?

For decades, networks scheduled series relatively conservatively. They put shows in a timeslot, let it run every week, only occasionally preempted them for a special, mostly confined reruns to Thanksgiving week and the Christmas holiday, and ended their seasons in March or April. And, hey, those shows had millions more viewers than today's shows. Could there be a connection?

The decline of TV GUIDE, the increased number of channels and networks' haphazard scheduling makes finding your favorite program more difficult than it ever has been. So why don't networks do their part to make it easier?

I'd be totally lost if it weren't for boards like this and my trusty Pocket TV Browser. I dimly remember seeing a promo for TRAVELER months ago, but I never saw another peep about it until I read your review last night just before air time.

Even for shows that I follow, it's easy to miss new episodes. I had given up looking for VERONICA MARS. Good thing my commercial skip button landed on a promo for it during the only other CW show I watch, SUPERNATURAL.

Maybe they should take the same tack as the movie studios, and start remaking '70s and '80s TV shows? :ph43r:

Personally, I suspect I'm half the reason Korean Broadcasting System is showing a profit.

The commercial factor is huge.

A 1-hour drama from the 1960s is approximately 54 minutes long.

Now they're 40-42 minutes.

Made for cable 1/2 hours show -- The Soup on E! for example -- barely clock in at 20 minutes.

When program are running the screen is clogged with banners advertising other shows -- sometimes as much as 1/3 of the screen can be obscured.

The ultimate effect is not just a lack of respect for the content AND the viewer; it's utter contempt for both.

Contrary to the opinions of the American networks, people are not stupid, and do not take kindly to being treated badly. Complaints to the FCC mean nothing these days unless they're about nudity and/or sex, so what solution is left?

Turning off the tube. And people are doing it in droves.

But the popularity of Netflix and TV box sets of DVDs suggest that the audience wants the programming, it's just the shitty presentation that's driving them away.

Take away credits and "Previously On" prologues, and SUPERNATURAL runs 37--38 minutes.

Take a deep breath America. All is not as bad as it seems.

TV around the world - in my view Australian local production has ground to a halt bar a few internationally sold soaps, UK television is great for ads and doccos but locally produced drama passes me by, and Japan seems to be the same as it was in the 1970s (daytime comatose and evening drivel). I did enjoy some Australian TV like Bondi Rescue, UK stuff like The F Word with chef Gordon Ramsey and Tokyo's Sunday lunchtime local karaoke singing shows.

This USA season had stellar productions like half hour comedy The Class & The Office S3; Toons King Of The Hill & The Simpsons; one hour drama like Jericho, Heroes, Lost, 24, Boston Legal (that is really great comedy). I am surprised that Studio 60 was hung out to dry (I liked it a lot), and was amused when somone hereabouts reported how they tried to promote it on Nascar! I think the writers got it wrong on Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica, but only at the end of this season did I realise the full extent (S1 & 2 were f.a.b.). I was also looking forward to more from (cancelled) Blade.

I didn't follow through the complete (last) season 1 of Supernatural, Ghost Whisperer (but have those and S2s saved), and know that S2 & S3 of Desperate Housewives and S1 of Ugly Betty will probably be DVD catch-ups.

There is great stuff there, and it could not be produced anywhere else in the world unless it was through the American commissioning system.

Your TV Ads/straps/promos suck, BTW, I agree. Carry on the good work!

NBC may be getting smarter.

Look for 30 episodes of both HEROES (kinda) and THE OFFICE next season and 25 of MY NAME IS EARL. Plus, LAW & ORDER and MEDIUM return in January, so they will mostly air new episodes consecutively.

And SCRUBS is back, though downsized to 18 (maybe final final?) episodes. It will lead into ER, which makes sense. It's on fairly consistently, as NBC played peek-a-boo with THE OFFICE and EARL this season. Both seemed to take a powder after New Year's.

I just realized I don't watch any shows on CBS and ABC, though one of them has a sitcom with the appealing Judy Greer. I don't see myself watching a remake of THE BIONIC WOMAN, not unless there are guest appearances by Lee Majors and Bigfoot. :)

Apparently next season is the last for SCRUBS. Two reasons it's only getting 18: it's a very expensive show ($2 million per episode...what the hell are they spending it on!?) and four episodes of THE OFFICE will be one hour long, cutting into SCRUBS' time slot (THE OFFICE is finally getting the well-deserved SEINFELD slot).

Not counting sports, I don't watch anything on ABC, and THE UNIT is the only thing I watch on CBS.

Here's my Tivo break-down for everyone who was clamoring for one:

NBC -- THE OFFICE, HEROES, SCRUBS, 30 ROCK, STUDIO 60*

FOX -- SIMPSONS, FAMILY GUY, 24, PRISON BREAK, HOUSE

HBO -- SOPRANOS, THE WIRE, DEADWOOD, C.Y.E., ENTOURAGE*, asst. HBO Originals

FX -- THE SHIELD, RESCUE ME, THE RICHES

COMEDY CENTRAL -- DAILY SHOW/COLBERT

SPIKE -- UFC fights

SCI-FI -- BSG

TBS -- SEINFELD and FAMILY GUY re-runs

It seems like a lot of TV hours, but considering the seasonal aspect of programming (I don't watch repeats of hour-long shows), and being able to cut the total time by 1/3 because of skipping through commercials, I suppose that's not too bad.

However, this is playoff season for hockey and basketball, and being a Detroit native, I'm probably watching 15+ hours of sports a week.

* Shows that I rip, even though I watch them.

SPOILERS:

Studio 60 returns 24th May to probably burn off the remaining episodes that were in the can.
Jericho was left with a cliffhanger n'er to be resolved (cancelled), so I can assume most townsfolk were wiped out in the gun battle (before the military arrives to halt the skirmish).
And in The Class I guess their fictional lives carry on...
I'll miss 'em all more than any shows of recent years.

The much-loved-by-too-few VERONICA MARS has also been cancelled.

Am I reading that right... ER is still on the air?

I thought that thing was mothballed years ago.

I think ER was on the verge of cancellation last year but rallied this year and is now getting good ratings again. But I hear my beloved Hunky Doc [Goran Visnjic] is leaving so I'll probably give it up next year.

I'm really sad about VERONICA MARS though I could see the writing on the wall. CW network honcho Dawn Ostroff intimated that Veronica could return in some form. I assume she was referring to that VERONICA MARS FBI series that Rob Thomas has
mentioned, but she was very vague and not very encouraging about it so I doubt it will happen.

They are keeping that crappy teen drama ONE TREE HILL. SMALLVILLE and SUPERNATURAL will also be back. That stupid Pussycat Dolls thing is coming back for another season [didn't they already find a new Pussycat Doll? Are they going to rotate in a new Doll every year?]

EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS is returning. I don't get why they are so in love with EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS. I don't know anybody who watches it but they've tried to ram it down our throats since day one. Chris Rock must have blackmail photos on network executives.

Among the newly announced CW shows, it looks like the same old crap starring a lot of teen underwear models. The one new show that could provide some unintentional comedy is called REAPER. It is described thusly:

The new drama "Reaper" features one of the CW's oldest new characters: a 21-year-old. His parents sold his soul to the devil and he's assigned to track down evil escapees from hell.

I remember this show when it starred a 45-year-old and was called BRIMSTONE.

ER is still in there swinging and I like the addition of Stanley Tucci this year as an (what else?) autocratic Chief of Staff. Having worked for ten years in a major metropolitan hospital I'm a bit picky about medical shows; while I just don't buy the terminology on GREY'S ANATOMY I've always found ER to feel real, its outre flourishes notwithstanding. Last night's surprise reveal of a major character having become a double amputee was shocking but ER's constant need to suckerpunch its viewers by bringing harm to its characters is a bit tiring. Who do they think they are, THE SOPRANOS?

ER does harm its cast on a routine basis, but I literally uttered an expletive last night when the revealed the double amputation. I was expecting a coma or something like that - one of those "life hanging by a thread" standards that seasons wrap up with.

The show itself finished a strong season, and to its credit seems to have found renewed life after sliding into mediocrity - sort of amazing given how long it has been on.

Stanley Tucci is a great addition. I know he did a recent short-lived medical drama of his own, but he seems very much at home (thus far) on ER.

I can't speak for the rest of the viewing public, but this viewer has gone to iTunes. I gave up cable for good in 2003, after realizing that I hadn't really watched TV for several years at that point, and preferring to spend my $70 or so per month on DVDs. Cable was never what I wanted it to be... until iTunes started selling shows per episode. THAT is what I wanted all along, and it is perfect for the little bit of TV that I actually consume. If NBC is concerned that my weekly viewing of The Office is not demographically useful to their cashflow, well, they can console themselves with their share of the $1.99 I pay for that download. I'm willing to bet that their cut of my purchase is worth a LOT more in actual dollars than whatever ad revenue is generated by having one single viewer more in the ratings, eh?