Yes. A huge portion of the television audience is using the T.V. as a way to relax and disengage their brains. They want something that goes down smooth and easy and doesn’t challenge them or make them have to work. They also want something that they can watch while they cook dinner or read a magazine or fold the laundry.
I said upthread that I found Boomtown too convoluted. I like to read challenging books and see challenging films, but for my T.V. viewing pleasure, I prefer something more fomulaic. As has been said elsewhere on the boards, sometimes a Law & Order rerun is preferable to anything the networks are offering.
That said, it’s always a little sad when a show that had a following is taken off the air.
av8rmike - 20 years ago the number one show in the country, Dallas, aired on Friday night and had some of the greatest popular buzz in the history of television. All it takes is the right hook to get people to give up the movies for “must-see” T.V.
Yeah, I figured someone would come up with at least one example to refute me. Even “The X Files” held its own for two or three seasons before FOX rescued it to Sunday night.
However, you said it yourself-- “Dallas” was twenty years ago, and people’s TV preferences may not have changed that much, but the number of TV alternatives have. Network executives have evidently been less and less willing to give “edgy” shows any sort of break in recent years, at least on Friday nights. All the “must-see” shows recently have been things like “Survivor,” “Friends,” and the prime-time game shows, but few of them air Friday nights.
Not powerhouses, but L&O:SVU has (until this year) been a Friday night show and done reasonably well for 4 years (of course, it’s an L&O - built in audience). Providence also went 3.5 years on Friday night to semi-decent ratings. And I’m pretty sure JAG has bounced back and forth between Tuesdays and Fridays for ages. (Or at least I only caught it when it was on Friday)
And the X-files ratings were always better on Friday than they were once it moved to Sunday. It is, however, one of the only things that has ever worked for FOX on Friday night, the 3 major networks have had much better luck at the end of the week.
Still, by moving it into Friday night, new people were unlikely to give it a try, and by retooling it into something awful, the old viewers weren’t going to watch anymore and it was left without an audience.
There’s always a ready supply of mind candy on TV. As I said in the OP, I’d just like one or two shows that offer something more intelligent. It’s like the networks target smart shows because they make ordinary shows look even dumber in comparison.
LOVED that show when it began, because of its originality. Yes, it did force the viewer to think. Obviously, it turned out, a little too much.
I was stunned to learn that they were totally overlooked come Emmy time (but not surprised at all that CSI Miami and my favourite actor of all time, David “over-the-top” Caruso, was nominated and even took away the honors).
They abandoned the original format along the way, and the quality of the show suffered. Too bad. There are SO few quality programs nowadays, with networks pandering to the lowest common denominator.
With the move to Friday night (aka ‘the kiss of death’), I knew Boomtown would soon join shows such as My So-Called Life, Homicide: Life on the Street, etc. And so it was. I was just surprised the decision came so quickly.
David Caruso has never won an Emmy and CSI: Miami has never been nominated for a major Emmy.
And those were both shows that only lasted as long as they did because of huge critical praise married to faithful cult followings (and a few Emmys to boot), but neither could be considered mainstream successes, IIRC.
Ooops. My bad. I was under the impression that CSI Miami had won for best drama series. Damn memory failing me again. Don’t mind me.
But no, I didn’t think that Caruso had won an Emmy; the way the sentence was constructed, however, it might have led one to that interpretation. And I do maintain my opinion as to Caruso’s abilities as an actor. Another one in that category was Avery Brooks in Deep Space Nine. UGGGGHHHH.
The first season of Picket Fences (as per air dates on the TV Guide’s showguide) it bounced from Friday, Monday and Wednesday. While it was on Friday after that, it couldn’t have done too well on Fridays the first season (what with it being a Save Our Shows pick and all) or they wouldn’t have kept changing the day. I think the only reason it was ok on Fridays after that was the fans’ grattitude that they were able to get the intended cancellation go away.
David Caruso has never won an Emmy and CSI: Miami has never been nominated for a major Emmy.
