Three Reasons Why No One is Watching TV Dramas

Tweet

Since the strike eneded shows like Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty and House have seen ratings dip. Television people - who are always scratching their heads, every day, it is their whole job - are running around, desperately trying to come up with Answers. Bill Carter ventures to help them in the New York Times, saying it is serialized story lines that are keeping people away. while The TV Addict wonders if it has anything to do with videogames. What is happening here? Why is everyone tuning out? Find out after the jump. 1. People forgot what was going on People are easily confused. Serialized televisions is hard to understand when you stop in the middle and then start up again on some arbitrary date. In the countless interviews magazines and newspapers have done with actors and other creative types on television shows, many have said things to the effect of "Oh we were just humming along, picking up momentum. It was such a bumm*r to have to stop. When there was nothing left for audiences to see, for an indefinite time, they slowly steeled themselves to cope with the bitter loss. It was time to move on and forget. And that is not easy to undo. It takes time and therapy. This is why comedies have done fine, there is no difficulty jumping right back in. My advice is to just let it be for now, then come back, publicity gu*s blazing, in the faill. That is what people are used to. 2. Like adopted gypsy children, viewers secretly wanted to run away Many people do not like their addictions. But you suffer through them anyway because they are a part of you. If cagarettes were just suddenly disappear one day, unavailable for months at a time. I`d probably quit once and for all. And I`d be happy about it. The same can probably be said for Ugly Betty Or CSI. What beter time to open a book, take a walk, or more realistically, ramp up one`s sexy viewing and knickknack shopping on this creaky old internet? People, I think, were secretly glad for all this extra time in their lives. And now they do not want to cede it back to the glowing boy. I advise the networks to alter the way they relate viewership to advertisers, at least for the time being. Emphasize the quality and loyalty of the viewers who have stayed on. Everyone else will realize that they were rash and foolish to leave. They will come crawling back. They always do. 3. Grand Theft Auto America is violent and hormonal teenage boy. People want things blown up, and they want them blown up now. I really have no sense of just how big this game is but the computer and news people are telling me that lots and lots of people are playing it, often until the wee hours, instead of doing their civic duty and watching TV. If you can shoot/rape them yourself, why watch someone else do it on SVU? This, obviously, will blow over, once people beat it or get bored or realized they have been alone for three days and have not said a word aloud in hours. Basically, I do not think the nets should be too worried. These are just inevitable poststrike aftershocks. The main thing is to just focus on the dall, while churning out that popcorn reality garbage that people so love in the summer. And hey, CW. While you are at it, why not show some reruns of that summers series from long ago, Young Americans? I really miss that crazy show. Keep posting. Happy Mylotting. Best regards, Jeff