Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Why Aren't People Watching?

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - CBS and ABC fell to their lowest ratings among the coveted adults 18-49 demographic in two decades last week, as reruns and summer alternatives drove viewers from their couches.

It's not really much of a mystery to me, though it is to the network executives. Here's a list of some of the sparkling, intelligent programming that is bringing the networks to their knees:

FAST CARS & SUPERSTARS
PIRATE MASTER
AMERICA'S GOT TALENT
HELL'S KITCHEN
ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER?
AGE OF LOVE
DEAL OR NO DEAL
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE
NATIONAL BINGO NIGHT
LAST COMIC STANDING
AMERICAN INVENTOR
THE NEXT BEST THING: WHO IS THE GREATEST CELEBRITY IMPERSONATOR?

Some of those titles look like MAD parodies. I mean, really, are you kidding, ABC has a TV series about bingo? Who's watching this stuff? Well, nobody, actually. 3.4 million tuned in for NATIONAL BINGO NIGHT, all of them at least 75 years old, I presume. DEAL OR NO DEAL is actually a hit, even though I can't imagine a dumber, duller game show that requires less skill or intelligence. It makes WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE look like JEOPARDY.

1 comment:

James said...

I would imagine summer ratings would go down every year. There's a lot more fun stuff to do now. Also, I think PVR and DVD and Internet-delivered television has taken a lot of viewers from the broadcast channels. I haven't had cable in 18 months. Everything I watch is on DVD or over the net.

Oh, and everything in your list was crap.