TV Ratings Hit Rock Bottom While Great Shows Flourish In Cable Uplands
Published July 12, 2006
The numbers are in… and they aren't looking so hot for the broadcast networks.
While it is of course the summer, and most people of non-geekish and non-orkish ancestry are more busy with beaches and suntan lotion than the faint blue glow of the Idiot Box, it is nonetheless significant that the four broadcast networks – ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox – posted the lowest combined weekly audience (20.8 million viewers) in recorded history. The previous low had been set in July of 2005.
Is it a sign that a New Age of on demand digital content is here to stay? Are the MySpace hordes too busy on their BlackBerrys and two-way pagers, hitting up daddies skiing in Gstaad via web 2.0 online collaborative interface? Or maybe the eco-revolution, spearheaded by Al Gore (with help from Manbearpig), has inspired a new generation of kids to embrace and save our environment, brandishing copies of An Inconvenient Truth and The Dharma Bums, recycled pages fluttering on the new and exuberant open mists?
Maybe a little bit. More than likely, however, it's because there are more television choices than ever, and the summer is proving to be an increasingly fertile time for basic and paid cable stations to steer eyes toward genuinely high quality offerings.
For those who can afford it, HBO continues to outpace, dwarf, and overshadow broadcast television with nearly every original program it puts to air. Entourage is the current bell of the ball, a can't miss Sunday night pleasure that crowns an HBO-only night in my household. Season Three may have lost a touch of the edge of the early episodes, but Jeremy Piven as super agent Ari Gold is reason enough to tune in, and Kevin Dillon as Johnny Drama could read a phone book (longingly, yearningly for a part in some A List project) and still entertain. "One Day in the Valley," which self-consciously parodies Almost Famous, is the quintessential teenage fantasy: becoming the biggest movie star on the planet, hooking up your boys with a Maserati, and shot-gunning some brews.
Deadwood, also in the midst of Season Three, continues to trail blaze its strangely compelling mark upon the Western genre. As the writing grows ever more rich and Byzantine – imbued with as many subtle charms and wry observations as "fucks" and "cocksuckers" – it's becoming clear that this is a show and a world to become immersed in, as opposed to becoming fixated on getting from Point A to Point Wherever. Nonetheless, the culmination of Hearst's plans to reign supreme over the camp will be a joy to behold no matter how it plays out. And there is no more of a despicable and watchable character on television than Al Swearengen (Ian McShane).
Best television moment of the summer, thus far: Bullock fully and entirely and ruthlessly kicking the snot out of E. B. Farnum.
Even Tourgasm, a half-hour reality show that follows comic Dane Cook and several buddies on a month-long cross-country stand-up tour, is worth watching for an episode or two. I'm a sucker for road stories, and while this one is somewhat artificial and filled with frat boy antics, it's fun to watch Cook take a boyish dream (take your friends out on the road to make people laugh, get paid, pull pranks, and hang) and make it real. Or real reality in this case.
Eric Berlin is the Executive Producer of Blogcritics.org and publisher of Online Media Cultist. He's also prone to referring to himself in the third person in author bios in an attempt to make it look like someone Less Important wrote it for him.
Contact: dumpsterbust@gmail.com
- TV Ratings Hit Rock Bottom While Great Shows Flourish In Cable Uplands
- Published: July 12, 2006
- Type: News
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Comedy, Video: Drama, Video: Film and TV Business, Video: Television
- Part of a feature: Cathode Ray Fray
- Writer: Eric Berlin
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Comments on this articleComments
Thanks empath! I must admit certain cable nets get my attention more than others -- there are just so many now to choose from. I have been hearing good things about The Closer and have the first season somewhere in the depths of my Netflix list. The Blade film did not interest me at all, I'm afraid. Could the television version have made the same dramatic leap that Buffy the Vampire Slayer did?
Summer TV is good so far. I agree on Entourage, and Tourgasm. One TV show you missed is The 4400 on USA. That is by far my favorite show of the summer with new episodes.
Yeah, I just never caught on with that show. It had a creepy religious overtone to it for some reason, which I'm sure I'm completely wrong about.
I fell off the USA bandwagon a while back when The Dead Zone seemed to tire and wear itself out after a really spectacular couple of seasons.
Eric, I have the same problem with certain cable nets catching more of my attention than others. When a friend of mine recommended Blade to me it actually took me a while just to figure out where Spike was in my cable lineup. TNT is kinda off my beaten path as well, but after FX started making such good tv with the Sheild, I guess it proved that even these smaller, more esoteric cable nets can compete in terms of quality. All the better for viewers.
Empath, I couldn't agree more. More competition is always better. Think about top-rated shows from the '80s and how they would fare today. The big nets are slow to move and react and that's part of the reason why they're slowly losing market share. That said, they still do have the ability to produce smart, well produced programs (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip looks like a can't miss, but we'll see) but the ability of cable to take risks, be agile, have less restrictions on content, etc. will mean that broadcast networks must work harder and harder to stay relevant.
Eric, your enthusiasm in you TV writing has turned me from a TV hater to having tons of TV seasons on my blockbuster queue.
I'd curse your name, but darnit if you aren't right most of the time.
Thanks man, and you have my sincere condolences.
(I loaded up my Netflix queue with two or three dozen series just last week).
good taste man. always sunny, rescue me, the daily show, the colbert report, and (to a much lesser degree) tourgasm are all shows i enjoy.
Don't forget about Monk and Psych! The latter of which had higher ratings than The Closer which makes it the 2nd highest rated series on cable.
You know what? I thougt Psych looked good. I checked out the first episode. I like the premise, but I can't be on board, I don't think. The jokiness and campiness are just a little too much. I wouldn't want it to be as overly serious as "Numbers" but I think Psych (at least the pilot) is kind of hacky.
Ack--I mean highest rated series on cable--not 2nd.
Battlestar Galactica is one the best shows on TV, but is always ignored. I've heard people say it is better than 24, but suffers from being labelled a "sci-fi" show, aired on the sci-fi network, and that it airs on Friday nights (When they have new episodes).
Please don't hate on BSG just because you are closed minded about good TV.
Who hated on BSG, Ty? I haven't had time to check it out, but based upon its legion of fans I think you can easily group it with the new wave of quality cable television shows.
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Good point! In the summer cable just destroys the networks completely.
I just wanted to add two summer shows that you left out: The Closer(TNT), and Blade(Spike). The Closer is a very good cop show vehicle for the very talented Kyra Sedgewick. The first season with its "Prime Suspect" style office tension was probably a bit stronger, but Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson is one of my favorite TV cops in years. Blade has been surprisingly (at least to me) strong in the first couple of episodes. It may not have Wesley Snipes, or the audio/visual punch of the movies, but the plots and writing are more interesting by far, and this could turn into one of the best vampire geekfests on TV since Buffy.