IM a runt of Generation X, which means 1) Im supposed to define myself entirely through ironic references to pop culture, and 2) as a member of the last generation to come of age in an era of only three TV networks, I assume everyone will understand when I drop a quote from Scooby-Doo or The A-Team.
But the generation immediately after mine has never known life without cable, and the generation after that wont know a life without streaming video. Having only three TV channels to watch must sound as quaint to them as radio plays do to me. Todays entertainment universe provides endless variety for every demographic and taste, and the things that everyone actually wants to watch together are few and far between.
Thats what makes NBCs decision to surrender its weekday 10 p.m. timeslot to a new Jay Leno talk show as inevitable as it is sad.
NBC at 10 p.m. was once the birthplace of dramas like Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, L.A. Law, Law & Order, Homicide: Life on the Street" and E.R. These were groundbreaking shows and, for the most part, mass successes the kind of hits that plenty of people at any school or office would be able and eager to talk about. Now, because the expanding television universe is shrinking individual audiences, and because NBC has shown depraved indifference to the idea of program development for the last decade, the network has no better option for the hour than moving Jay Leno from late night to prime time.
Next fall, when Mr. Leno assumes his new timeslot, NBC will continue to schedule football on Sunday nights and repeats on Saturdays. That leaves only 10 prime-time hours for original programming, and knowing the way NBC operates these days, at least four of those will likely go to super-sized editions of The Biggest Loser and Deal or No Deal.
This reminds me of a joke Tina Fey told at the Television Critics Association awards ceremony. She thanked us for making 30 Rock the most successful cable show on broadcast television, and added: Oh, its a great time to be on broadcast television, isnt it? Its exciting! Its like being in vaudeville in the 60s!
We all laughed, but it was the sort of laughter designed to fight off tears, you know? The big networks have all been trending inexorably downward for years. Shows that pulled in an audience of 20 million or more viewers only a couple of years ago are now happy with numbers in the mid-to-high teens, and the acceptable slice of the demographic pie is getting ever narrower. (Expect a press release someday soon boasting that a reality show won its timeslot among redheaded girls ages 11 to 11 .)
As the audience shrinks and the networks increasingly program for niches instead of the general public, they resemble cable channels more and more.
But the generation immediately after mine has never known life without cable, and the generation after that wont know a life without streaming video. Having only three TV channels to watch must sound as quaint to them as radio plays do to me. Todays entertainment universe provides endless variety for every demographic and taste, and the things that everyone actually wants to watch together are few and far between.
Thats what makes NBCs decision to surrender its weekday 10 p.m. timeslot to a new Jay Leno talk show as inevitable as it is sad.
NBC at 10 p.m. was once the birthplace of dramas like Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, L.A. Law, Law & Order, Homicide: Life on the Street" and E.R. These were groundbreaking shows and, for the most part, mass successes the kind of hits that plenty of people at any school or office would be able and eager to talk about. Now, because the expanding television universe is shrinking individual audiences, and because NBC has shown depraved indifference to the idea of program development for the last decade, the network has no better option for the hour than moving Jay Leno from late night to prime time.
Next fall, when Mr. Leno assumes his new timeslot, NBC will continue to schedule football on Sunday nights and repeats on Saturdays. That leaves only 10 prime-time hours for original programming, and knowing the way NBC operates these days, at least four of those will likely go to super-sized editions of The Biggest Loser and Deal or No Deal.
This reminds me of a joke Tina Fey told at the Television Critics Association awards ceremony. She thanked us for making 30 Rock the most successful cable show on broadcast television, and added: Oh, its a great time to be on broadcast television, isnt it? Its exciting! Its like being in vaudeville in the 60s!
We all laughed, but it was the sort of laughter designed to fight off tears, you know? The big networks have all been trending inexorably downward for years. Shows that pulled in an audience of 20 million or more viewers only a couple of years ago are now happy with numbers in the mid-to-high teens, and the acceptable slice of the demographic pie is getting ever narrower. (Expect a press release someday soon boasting that a reality show won its timeslot among redheaded girls ages 11 to 11 .)
As the audience shrinks and the networks increasingly program for niches instead of the general public, they resemble cable channels more and more.
