I watch
television for the same reason I read books- to hear stories, to watch
characters, to be interested and entertained by their lives and their choices
and their relationships. Unfortunately,
television doesn’t work like books do.
The industry is not designed to sell stories, it is designed to sell
cars, Swiffers, beer, cell phones, yogurt and toilet paper, along with a host
of other things. In the business of
television, the stories told within the shows are literally just the hook to
get viewers to watch commercials.
And so TV is all
about the ratings. Because money from
ads gets higher the more eyes are tuned into the ads. So higher ratings = more money = winning, as
Charlie Sheen might say. Which is fairly
appropriate, since his (old) network is currently “winning.” They have got some killer shows (in terms of
Nielsens, which I’m a bit skeptical about, but that’s discussion for another
time), including: The Big Bang Theory,
which competes against American Idol
on Thursday nights and consistently holds its own; a number of procedurals such
as CSI (and the other two CSIs), Criminal Minds, The Mentalist,
and NCIS.
As a network,
CBS seems to be falling into the same mindset of the three TV networks in the
60s and 70s, which is basically, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Television in the 1960s was mostly
meaningless and stupid (not exclusively, but on the whole- for example there
was a show called My Mother the Car,
where a man’s mother is reincarnated, as an old junky car), and this crappy
programming led Newton Minow to refer to television as a “vast wasteland.”
The wasteland of
the 60s though, didn’t go anywhere fast, as TV viewership was pretty much at
its peak. TV was crappier than ever- and
people across America were eating it up.
Since television success is measured in viewership, networks would end
up making more shows that were just like the ones already raking in the ratings. Well, not just
like. The policy was “completely new,
exactly alike,” meaning that they took the basis of the show and tweaked it a
little to become a whole new show. Like
when ABC had huge success with Bewitched,
NBC went and created I Dream of Jeannie,
which has pretty much the same premise.
This sort of
thinking can be seen really clearly in CBS’ programming today. Since television is about making money, they
photocopy their shows that are making money, so they get even more shows that are making money. This can be seen in the large number of
procedurals (and really clearly in CSI,
CSI: Miami, and CSI: NY), making
up most of their drama programming, as well as the multi-cam “setup, punch
line” sitcoms that are all too prevalent on the network.
Clearly
something needs to change if the way success is measured in the television
industry ends up perpetuating dull shows that bring in an audience, instead of
fostering creative storytelling and character development. Networks are often not willing to take
creative risks, because they can make money comfortably with shows that are not
particularly interesting or entertaining, but have huge numbers, such as Big Bang Theory’s 16.0 million viewers
just last week.
Network
television is constantly looking for big numbers, something that shows such as Community or Chuck could never hope to achieve.
And so shows like those two rarely survive (unless they’re on NBC, which
sometimes just doesn’t have other options).
But just because they can’t get 14 million people to buy super strength
paper towels doesn’t mean they don’t have clever storytelling devices or
fascinating characters.
So the big
question is- why do we structure TV around a commercial format? Why is it about the number of people watching
commercials and not the quality or entertainment value of television shows? Should there be shift toward a new type of
television programming? I don’t
know. But I do know that if CBS is
“winning,” something is clearly wrong.
