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The network share of TV's audience keeps dipping
of TheColumnists.com
"I never watch network
TV these days,” sighed a neighbor of mine as we chatted
amiably on the wintry streets of Toronto.
Her answer shook me at first because we’ve been chattering
about what series we like and dislike for years.
Then I realized her answer was equally true for me. After retirement
as TV critic for The Toronto Star, I no longer have to
waste my time catching up on all those mediocre network TV series
out there. What I choose to watch these days are purely personal
favourites: "Mad Men" (AMC in the U.S. but also on
the Canadian network CTV ), "The Hills" (MTV), "Judge
John Deed" (BBC Canada), "Location, Location, Location"
(HGTV), old movies on Turner Classic Movies, and so far there
are no network staples on the list.
The way we watch TV has radically shifted in the past few years.
As a little kid I can remember when the first family on our street
got a TV set: it was 1950 and the choices in Toronto were two
Buffalo stations: WBEN (CBS) and WGR (NBC). There was no Canadian
station until CBLT, the CBC affiliate, came on in 1952 and half
the programs were U.S. imports anyway.
In 1971, when I became TV critic of The Hamilton Spectator,
I had exactly 10 channels to watch and criticize. If I wanted
to preview a new show I had to drive to Toronto and watch it
in a tiny screening room as an editor ran it off a film projector
or tape machine.
American material in those days was shipped via the daily plane
service from Los Angeles to Toronto and was often unavailable
for prescreening. Canadian stations liked to show something like
"M*A*S*H" or "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"
days before the U.S. schedule in the hope Canadian viewers would
watch them first. In those days U.S. shows were also cut for
additional commercials–"Mary Tyler Moore" always
had that last tag minute missing, which I always felt ruined
the series. Then somebody at Hamilton’s CHCH invented a
TV Speedometer which “hurried up” the program by compressing
the 54 minute drama to 52 minutes. You could always tell by the
way the musical scoring seemed like a bunch of chipmunks chattering
away.
When I wanted to screen the 1975 TV premiere of "A Moon
For the Misbegotten" with Colleen Dewhurst, I had to drive
into Toronto at 5:30 a.m., sit in a CBC control booth as the
new-fangled method of satellite transmission brought the two
hour special into CBC’s technical hands, where it was taped
for presentation a few days later.
My neighbour told me she remembers the live days of TV and the
excitement it brought. These days she tapes anything she wants
and watches it at her leisure. She sees bits of "The Tonight
Show" at 6 a.m. as she prepares for her nursing shift. Her
teenage daughter never watches TV at all but streams programs
like "The Hills" onto her various electronic paraphernalia
including her electronic notebook and her Blueberry.
Then all her friends watch it together during school breaks.
The way we watched TV has indeed changed and the old line networks
are looking more like dinosaurs than ever. Cutting edge shows
have migrated to cable networks which have loose censorship rules.
The old networks no longer have the money to throw around as
audiences switch allegiance.
And so for the past decade TV networks have been crumbling away.
At first it was a rather sedate procedure but now collapse seems
imminent. In Canada private networks CTV and Global are considering
closing small town affiliates which are no longer profitable.In
Britain the once mighty BBC is threatened with a reduced subsidy
because people are no longer watching TV in the old ways.
In the U.S. once mighty networks are now
owned by conglomerates: CBS by Viacom, NBC by Universal, ABC
by Disney.
What’s the TV world coming to? One summer about 10 years
ago I counted over 50 U.S. pilots being filmed in Toronto. These
days pilots are deemed too expensive so new series make a demonstration
reel and it shows in the finished product. People are always
coming up to me and ranting about the low quality of this season’s
new series. Reality TV shows are thriving because they’re
cheap to make.
The audience base for network TV is getting smaller by the season.
This year’s number one new show, CBS’s "The Mentalist"
(I’ve caught it on occasion), is attracting 18 million viewers
a week. By contrast the number one rated show in the three-network
universe of 1963, CBS’s "Beverly Hillbillies"
notched 60 million viewers a week and a rating of 39.1.
I remember Julie Sommars of the 1969 sitcom "The Governor
and J.J." telling me her show was cancelled by CBS with
an audience of almost 25 million–which is more than today's
top-rated "The Mentalist."
So, what are people watching instead of the old line networks?
I catch loads of cable weblets including 24-hour news networks,
BBC Canada, IFC, such purely Canadian offerings as HGTV, SLICE
and the Canadian version of Bravo! I buy or rent some DVDs although
a story in The Times of London claimed Blue Ray and DVD
sales are being threatened by the new method of renting movies
on line from an Apple outlet.
The way we watch has changed, too. There are almost no hour long
variety shows these days because years of exposure to MTV have
turned us into jittery TV watchers. We never stick with anything
these days. We click merrily away in our 700-channel universes,
on our huge flat screens, with stereophonic sound and our own
popcorn machines popping away. Every kid in the house (if you
have kids) is watching something different while texting friends
and blogging away, You Tube is red hot but what teen watches
CBS these days?
When I explained to a group of students that in the ‘50s
when I was growing up I had to go to a neighbourhood movie house
to catch a movie they considered me deprived. In my finite TV
universe I had the choice of just five channels and the black
and white TV screen was 19 inches. Our antenna pointed to Buffalo
because that’s where the three U.S. networks were coming
from.
Just as I was about to pronounce TV networks finished along comes
the inauguration of President Obama. I watched the live coverage
for hours and found the NBC version the best because I admire
Tom Brokaw so much. But I also peeked at CBS and ABC far more
than CNN. Here was network TV at its best--live, relevant, exciting.
It’s not often we get to see a new president being sworn
in (twice!) but the whole package of hoopla proved to me this
could be the salvation of the networks in deploying their still
mighty resources to explain the complexities of the modern world
with live coverage all day every day..
©2009 by Jim Bawden. The illustration is from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA. This column first posted Jan. 26, 2009.
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