Network shows slow to draw viewers
Broadcast networks have asked for a serious commitment this fall – and so far, viewers are balking.
The five top broadcasters introduced 12 new hour-long dramas that are serials, mysteries or otherwise advance a larger story each week.
They join several returning hits that already fall into that category, such as “Lost,” “Prison Break” and “Desperate Housewives.”
So far only two such new shows – NBC’s “Heroes” and CBS’ “Jericho” – can rightly be said to have exceeded expectations.
CBS’ “Smith” has already been canceled and NBC’s “Kidnapped” has been told the end is near.
Other slow starters include ABC’s “The Nine” and “Brothers & Sisters,” NBC’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and a handful that need only a glance at their titles to see the obvious debt to Fox’s “24”: “Standoff,” “Vanished” and “Runaway.”
“They threw up too much at once and there’s only a certain amount of commitment that viewers are willing to make,” says Steve Sternberg, analyst for Magna Global.
Many of these shows came about because networks are concerned that the popularity of procedural dramas like “Law & Order” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” may be fading, Sternberg says. Those shows also skew older, and the networks hope to entice younger viewers with mysteries and adventure, he adds.
“Jericho” and “Heroes” have done well so far because of canny scheduling: they’re on at a time fans of their genres have few other options, Sternberg says.
The flip side is NBC’s highly-acclaimed “Friday Night Lights,” whose 7.2 million viewers last week represented the smallest premiere audience of any new show on ABC, CBS and NBC, according to Nielsen Media Research.
“Why would NBC debut ‘Friday Night Lights’ – a show about sports – on the first night of the baseball playoffs?” Sternberg asks.
There are no new comedy hits this fall. But unlike the dramas, the networks are being extremely careful introducing its new comedies.
NBC waited until this week to debut Tina Fey’s new sitcom, and ABC put off two new comedies it had planned to start in September.
The serial glut is having its obvious shakeout, notes David Bianculli, television critic for The New York Daily News.
“You don’t have to wait 22 or even 13 weeks to guess how most of these shows will end: badly,” he wrote on Tuesday.
The networks have a problem: How do you cancel a show that has obviously failed without alienating the few fans who have invested time in a story and want to know how it ends?
NBC struck upon a novel approach with “Kidnapped.” The network told producers to wrap up the story within 13 episodes and moved the show to Saturday, an otherwise dead time on TV that’s usually devoted to reruns.