TV's Awful Decline

[Myron Falwell 3894]

On 1/14/2023 at 4:21 PM, bpatrick said:

What happened to docudramas?  Remember in the '70s "Pueblo" and "The Missiles of October," to name just two?  Why can you not find a program like "The World at War" on a broadcast station?  I even remember one year in the '60s when ABC had "FDR," CBS had "World War I," and NBC had "Profiles in Courage" either in prime time or just before.
My students have a very limited knowledge of history; shows like these could entertain as well as teach, and perhaps we teachers could use some of the made-for-TV movies to point out factual errors.

That’s literally what PBS does on a daily basis.

[MediaZone4K 943]

On 1/3/2023 at 9:10 PM, VHSgoodiesWA said:

Do NOT get me started on cable TV. What was entertaining (Cubs games and Bozo on WGN, great movies and Night Tracks on TBS, Cartoon Express on USA etc.) has become a wasteland of binge-watching repeats, zillions of commercials (of which Limu Emu gets at least 1/3 of the airtime), and reality shows that keep getting worse by the year. TruTV aired 'Jurassic World' last night. The channel for live, rolling court coverage and analysis is now running not just hours of Impractical Jokers, but also MOVIES. What gives! Nickelodeon = zillions of SpongeBob repeats with oodles of commercials. Food Network = tons of food competitions, very few how-to cooking shows. Where art thou, Essence of Emeril, Barefoot Contessa, etc.? TWC spends all night running Highway Through Hell repeats (and all day on weekends) and once in a while, they will shove those away if there's major tornadoes. The ghosts of Dr. John Hope and Dave Schwartz haunt the studios, I bet. What was Chuck Roberts and Gordon Graham on Headline News 24 hours a day has turned into WEST WING repeats. Oh, and a zillion Forensic Files showings. Might as well call it TNT2 at this point. TLC's constant reality garbage, same with Bravo, USA, MTV, Discovery Channel. GSN's constant Harvey Feud repeats, too! Isn't he on a few other cable channels...TVLand maybe?

 

Honestly, I'd be fine only getting ESPN, ESPN2, and a few other sports networks a la carte. The rest of cable TV is garbage. Yes, that includes CNN/FOX News/MSNBC. 

 

Honestly, I stopped watching TV for the most part after the start of the pandemic. And for the most part, except for some sports, and maybe the local news, I haven't come back. I would rather watch a classic movie or Seinfeld repeat than 95% of what's on TV nowadays.

 

RANT OVER.

On top of all of this, cable companies have the nerve to charge into the hundreds for basic cable --while providing poor and slow customer service -- yet act puzzled as to why cord cutting is the new norm.

Loved South Park's take on this:

[TheFizzle21 36]

There was a point in time in 2018 or 2019 that I thought to myself and realized....there's hardly any scripted TV shows on television that people want to see, mainly because, as someone alluded to earlier, these companies put their money where their mouths are, and that's with the streaming services. I mean...is it safe to say all these big 4 networks have outside of reality, news, and sports are their legacy shows? NBC with their Law & Order trifecta...ABC and Grey's Anatomy...CBS continuing on with NCIS after all this time....Fox with two Sunday night animated comedies in Family Guy and The Simpsons, I guess? One thing's for sure, nobody I know is flocking to the TV for the newest ABC drama or CBS' next big comedy led by a well-known actor. This leads me into my next point.

 

Appointment television. I miss the hell out of it, or at least what comes with it. When I used to watch Chuck on NBC, I had quite a number of days where I'd hop on Twitter and follow along with everyone watching the show at the same time. I did this with a few other shows and a quite often once I found subreddits in Reddit for my favorite shows. That level of camaraderie is something you can't replicate with a Netflix or Disney+ show that rolls out new episodes at 3am on a Wednesday or Friday. While this isn't going to take away from whether or not people enjoy a series, appointment TV is something that'll rarely be seen, or at least not in the droves that it would lead to if you had to tune into a show at 8 or try and watch a DVR recording a week before the next episode.

[DirtyHarry 585]

1 hour ago, TheFizzle21 said:

There was a point in time in 2018 or 2019 that I thought to myself and realized....there's hardly any scripted TV shows on television that people want to see, mainly because, as someone alluded to earlier, these companies put their money where their mouths are, and that's with the streaming services. I mean...is it safe to say all these big 4 networks have outside of reality, news, and sports are their legacy shows? NBC with their Law & Order trifecta...ABC and Grey's Anatomy...CBS continuing on with NCIS after all this time....Fox with two Sunday night animated comedies in Family Guy and The Simpsons, I guess? One thing's for sure, nobody I know is flocking to the TV for the newest ABC drama or CBS' next big comedy led by a well-known actor. This leads me into my next point.

 

Appointment television. I miss the hell out of it, or at least what comes with it. When I used to watch Chuck on NBC, I had quite a number of days where I'd hop on Twitter and follow along with everyone watching the show at the same time. I did this with a few other shows and a quite often once I found subreddits in Reddit for my favorite shows. That level of camaraderie is something you can't replicate with a Netflix or Disney+ show that rolls out new episodes at 3am on a Wednesday or Friday. While this isn't going to take away from whether or not people enjoy a series, appointment TV is something that'll rarely be seen, or at least not in the droves that it would lead to if you had to tune into a show at 8 or try and watch a DVR recording a week before the next episode.

 

They can stream all they want, but they're never going to get me. And to be honest, I don't really miss anything they're not offering anymore enough to pay. Pretty stupid and shortsighted to give up the biggest platform they have. If anything, they should augment it with social media, sending texts, reminding people to go into their TV set to watch a show.

 

I use the free streaming plenty, so I'm not just some old guy who refuses to try something new. I just think the free OTA platform is easiest and most convenient for people. I pay for the local newspaper and the Wall Street Journal. Anything else I have to pay for, I can live without.

[MediaZone4K 943]

On 2/3/2023 at 3:58 PM, TheFizzle21 said:

There was a point in time in 2018 or 2019 that I thought to myself and realized....there's hardly any scripted TV shows on television that people want to see, mainly because, as someone alluded to earlier, these companies put their money where their mouths are, and that's with the streaming services. I mean...is it safe to say all these big 4 networks have outside of reality, news, and sports are their legacy shows? NBC with their Law & Order trifecta...ABC and Grey's Anatomy...CBS continuing on with NCIS after all this time....Fox with two Sunday night animated comedies in Family Guy and The Simpsons, I guess? One thing's for sure, nobody I know is flocking to the TV for the newest ABC drama or CBS' next big comedy led by a well-known actor. This leads me into my next point.

 

Appointment television. I miss the hell out of it, or at least what comes with it. When I used to watch Chuck on NBC, I had quite a number of days where I'd hop on Twitter and follow along with everyone watching the show at the same time. I did this with a few other shows and a quite often once I found subreddits in Reddit for my favorite shows. That level of camaraderie is something you can't replicate with a Netflix or Disney+ show that rolls out new episodes at 3am on a Wednesday or Friday. While this isn't going to take away from whether or not people enjoy a series, appointment TV is something that'll rarely be seen, or at least not in the droves that it would lead to if you had to tune into a show at 8 or try and watch a DVR recording a week before the next episode.

Appointment television was the best. The most recent instances I can recall were Empire on Fox, Shonda's TGIT on ABC and now the Dick Wolf blocks on NBC. Maybe this becomes the new trend: show creators taking over a single night on a network. 

 

We've probably discussed his before but the scripted cable series bubble has largely burst. There was a time AMC,  MTV, VH1, Lifetime, USA E! and others were clammoring to put out original dramas and comedies. Now aisde from HBO, Hallmark, BET,  and maybe TBS, non children aimed cable channels have largely stuck to reruns, live sports reality shows and movies. (Not counting Lifeime movies as a continuning series). 

 

TV networks probably thought that prestige programming might bring them noteriety or an audience, but I know alot of people who've heard of Schitt's Creek --from streaming -- but couldn't tell me it originated from the Pop! Network. 

 

Will *new episode* streaming sydication ever become a thing? A studio makes a show (that doesnt have a home network) avalible on multiple streaming platforms owned by different companies.

Edited February 5 by iron_lion

[compubit 614]

1 hour ago, iron_lion said:

TV networks probably thought that prestige programming might bring them noteriety or an audience, but I know alot of people who've heard of Schitt's Creek --from streaming -- but couldn't tell me it originated from the Pop! Network. .

Actually Schitt’s Creek originated on Canada’s CBC. Pop! just technically picked it up in foreign syndication…

[DirtyHarry 585]

Right now, the main advantage I see with free streaming is that the picture quality is generally better than OTA. The main OTA Channel may look good, but subchannels tend to be fuzzier. ATSC 3.0 is supposed to alleviate that. If that's what ends up happening, I don't really see what you need cable TV for. Just program the sub channels better and put everything up on there and make it easy for people.

[VHSgoodiesWA 224]

Shows like 24, Alias, and Smallville had huge 'appointment TV' fan bases. Everyone had to wait until the next episode and were predicting what would happen next to the characters. But that was going on 20 years ago.

 

With Dr. Phil and (likely) Rachael Ray closing the curtains this year, broadcast syndication continues to decline too. It's cheaper to sell more lawyer and political advertising during a 3:00 or 4:00 newscast. Cheaper costs for the station as they don't need a Hollywood broadcast crew to do it.