The Murder of Television

It has been very clear that the age of television is dying.  It's slow and painful, but it's happening. With more shows being put onto network sites and websites like Hulu.  It is easy to understand why television ratings sink lower and lower, with people having the option to watch their TV shows later.  I am not blaming the viewers for the cancelations of higher quality shows, but I am blaming the way networks calculate their number of viewers.  The Nielsen’s ratings system is flawed in so many ways.  This ratings system is centered on the ads that are being watched.  So if you are a viewer that fast-forwards through commercials or DVR’s your show, are not being counted as a viewer.  No one watches commercials on television anymore.  In my experience, the most commercials I have seen were when I was watching on a website.  On websites the ads are usually forced to play after sections of the episode.  They only way someone would be able to avoid the advertisement is if you muted the sound and looked away from the screen. 

 

Due to the incapable rating system I have lost dearly loved shows that deserved more then their short-lived existence.  Shows such as “Firefly,” “Heroes,” “Dollhouse,” “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” “Legend of the Seeker,” etc… have been lost to the Nielson black hole of death.  These shows are destroyed without any hope of the resolution to story lines of characters that viewers have become invested in and attached to. I have experienced a lot of frustration on many different things including viewers’ taste in shows, the writing, and even the budget given to the shows by producers.  I have found myself trying to justify a show’s lack of success by blaming it on whatever I can, but at the end of the day I have to just enjoy the show while it’s airing and mourn the loss later.  Many people who have experienced deaths of their favorite shows tell me that they will not even watch a show if it’s ratings are low, even if they really like it.  A part of keeping a show alive is actually sitting down and watching it.  If everyone has the attitude to not bother with a low rated show, then mostly like shows ratings numbers will continue to fall.  There is hope with shows such as CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory,” which pulls in ratings averaging 5.5, with 15-16 million viewers.  Any other networks’ total number of viewers is around 5-10 million, which is around CBS’s demo ratings.  CBS is clearly the King of the ratings, but does it necessarily have the best programming?  I don’t think that really matters, because everyone has different tastes in television. 

Ending with a period of mourning, I want to talk about the real reason I’m going to be writing these posts. Personally I have enjoyed recent shows such as “Pan Am,” “The Playboy Club,” “V,” and “Charlie’s Angels.”  All of these have gotten the ax from their home network.  Some could argue that some of these shows were bad by using the ratings as the evidence.  I say that they left to early.  "Pan Am" definitely had to short of a life, just because I would like to have a break from the medical and forensic procedural shows that dominate TV.  I want to create awareness of under appreciated shows and to create a gathering place for fans to come together.  I have am not biased in my opinions, because I literally love every television show there is.  My taste in television shows includes shows such as “The Walking Dead” on AMC to “Dance Moms” on the Showtime network; and I’ll even admit to watching “The Clone Wars” on Cartoon Network. The time has come to save the underdog programs of television.