I was just talking to a friend of mine in broadcast media sales today about 'American Idol' and how it just delivered a 10.4 rating with 18-49 yr old adults. His response : 'I can't believe I'm going to say this, but, is that it?' And right after that I got a feed about the Wednesday edition of 'Idol' and noticed that the new show, 'Human Target' a James Bond savior for the small screen, lost over 50% of the lead -in audience. The conversation then turned to the heavy promoting on Showtime of season 4 of 'The Tudors' and an older HBO movie called Night Shift ( we had also been talking about Conan O'Brien)
So where is all of this going? Ratings are important in broadcast and its that measurement that makes or breaks a show. But I challenge you to name 5 or more watercooler broadcast TV shows for the 2009-2010 season. Come on, give it a try. Do a mobile or text call out to your friends and family. Difficult isn't it?
How about cable or premium TV. And you don't even have to like the shows - these are just random buzzworthy shows:
The Tudors
Hung
True Blood
Nurse Jackie
Dexter
Californication
Weeds
Spartacus: Blood and Sand
Party Down
Crash
Entourage
Jersey Shore
Big Love
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Boardwalk Empire
Dirty Jobs
Damages
Nip/Tuck
The point here is there's a lot of moaning and groaning about no creativity, bad writing and the inability to truly engage an audience in a show long enough to keep it on the air. All the shows I just listed probably cost much less to make than their broadcast brethren, know how to keep an audience engaged and make money for their networks and production companies.
Broadcast isn't dead by any means, it just needs a jump start and a transfusion to give it some new life.
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