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On Television |
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...GONE WILD!
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Don't turn your set on
if you hate reality TV
of TheColumnists.com
Remember when summer
TV meant reruns of your favorite shows? You had a chance to catch
up on ones you missed, or watch again some favorite
episodes.
“Remember when” wasn’t that
long ago--how about less than five
summers ago. But something changed in recent summers. The traditional
networks, obviously taking a page from the cable nets that program
new
series year-round, decided to jump in with their own “new”
summer
programs. Alas, we are not talking dramas or comedies, but reality
programs.
Welcome to the summer of reality gone wild. Pick a network--any network --and you will find it programming reality shows nightly. Some of the shows run during the regular season, but others are “just for summer.” Here are some of them:
NBC: “American Gladiators,” America’s Got Talent,” “Nashville Star,” “Celebrity Circus,” Last Comic Standing,” “Deal, No Deal,” “Most Outrageous Moments.”
ABC: “The Bachelorette,” “The Mole,” “Wife Swap,” “Supernally,” “Extreme Makeover, Home Edition.”
Fox: “Moment
of Truth,” “Hell’s Kitchen,” “So You
Think You Can
Dance,” “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader,”
“Don’t Forget the
Lyrics.”
CBS:
“Price is Right Million Dollar Spectacular,” “Million
Dollar
Password.”
The CW:
“Beauty and the Geek,” “America’s Next Top
Model,” “Farmer
Wants a Wife.”
OK. So why so many reality shows? Three
reasons: 1.) they are cheap,
cheap, cheap to produce. 2.) serialized dramas (like “Lost,”
“Grey’s”,
etc.) and comedies to a certain extent (“My Name is Earl”
) don’t do
well, ratings-wise and advertiser-wise, in reruns. 3.) Last season's
strike by the Writers Guild of America left the networks without
a lot of scripted series to scatter through the summer.
Summer TV was not always like this. Back
in the last century the
traditional networks did offer first-run series in the summer.
CBS’ “Northern Exposure” premiered in July 1990.
And “Moonlighting” debuted
in March 1985 with a two-hour movie, then came back as a regular
series in August of that year.
In recent summers cable networks have become
the ones to watch for
fresh dramas and comedies. For example, back again this summer
are
Lifetime’s “Army Wives,” TNT’s “The
Closer,” USA’s ”Burn Notice,” TBS’
“My Boys,” and Showtime’s “Weeds,” among
others.
And rememember that PBS programs its “Mystery!”
series in the summer
months. This summer it’s presenting “Inspector Lewis,”
“Foyle’s War,”
and “The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.”
So, really, summer is not totally a reality wasteland--but just too much reality for my taste.
©2008 by Donna J. Plesh. The photo
is courtesy of NBC. This column first posted June 23, 2008.
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