The Season of Broadcast Disconnect
With
cable's vampires, stage moms and methheads, this could be nets' worst summer
yet
By
Anthony Crupi
Perhaps
no series is more emblematic of cable’s summer slate than the HBO vampire drama
True Blood. A gory bouillabaisse of sex, death and escapism, Alan Ball’s
gleefully erratic swamp opera seems to share a strand of DNA with nearly every
show on cable.
Overstuffed
and overheated, fleshy and flashy, True Blood embodies all the things that
makes cable appointment viewing during the sultry months. Crammed with more
antiheroes than FX’s Sons of Anarchy, Blood can be as brooding and
self-reflexive as Breaking Bad. And the ghoulishness isn’t limited to drama—the
moral turpitude of Blood’s Bon Temps has infected reality series like A&E’s
Storage Wars, Lifetime’s Dance Moms and truTV’s Southern-fried repo farce
Lizard Lick Towing.
If
True Blood is a metonym for cable’s summer slate, broadcast’s goofy roster of
empty-calorie fare puts one in mind of Count Chocula. It’s a sugary slurry of
competition series and hook-up shows studded with the occasional marshmallowy
nugget of drama. The networks’ summer offerings aren’t meant to serve as a
meal; rather, they exist to sort of tide viewers over until it’s time for the
autumn repast.
Given
cable’s lowly beginnings as a warehouse of crummy old movies and repeats of
creaky detective series, the sheer amount of original content now available is
stupefying. AMC’s Breaking Bad is arguably the finest TV show since David Simon
typed the “–30–” at the bottom of the final script of The Wire; more so than
the (deservedly) fawned-over Mad Men, Vince Gilligan’s unsparing portrait of
dissolution offers the sort of high-grade drama once reserved for the likes of
HBO. Though sharing dimensions of a standard sitcom, comedian Louis C.K.’s
idiosyncratic FX series is almost impossible to classify. Set to return for
Season 3 on June 28, his autobiographical comedy Louie is a profoundly human
meditation on what it’s like to be a sentient being in post-everything America.
Of
course, neither series is everyone’s cup of chamomile. Breaking Bad rarely gets
within shooting distance of the 2 million viewer mark and Louie is lucky to
deliver half that. If either show premiered on a broadcast network, they’d be
canceled during the first commercial break.
Which
isn’t to say that cable doesn’t have its share of reach vehicles. USA Network
now boasts more popular original dramas than any other net. Since assuming
responsibility for USA in May 2004, Bonnie Hammer is pitching a near-perfect
game; except for the 2008 series The Starter Wife, every drama introduced
during her tenure has been renewed for at least a second season. Last summer,
USA accounted for five of cable’s most-watched series, ensuring its sixth
straight seasonal sweep of the three primary ratings categories: total viewers,
adults 18-49 and adults 25-54.
That
said, only a handful of cable series can outdeliver the average broadcast
audience. On Wednesday, June 13, the series premiere of TNT’s Dallas whipped up
6.9 million viewers, making it the night’s second most-watched program on
television. Only Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance almost bested J.R. Ewing,
drawing 6.7 million viewers in the 8-10 p.m. slot. Trouble is, the Dallas
audience was a little long in the tooth. The two-hour opener averaged a 1.5 in
the 18-49 demo, a rating that was eclipsed by Fox’s competition series (2.5).
“You
have to hand it to cable—they may not get very big numbers, but they’re all
anyone wants to talk about,” says one network executive, who asked not to be
named. “Pro wrestling and Pawn Stars deliver the ratings, but that gets lost in
all the hype. I’ll say this: the amount of press some of these shows gets tells
you these guys are fantastic marketers.”
Gone
Fishin’
If
broadcast’s summer stars are unlikely to appear in lush Vanity Fair photo
spreads (the networks tend to save the sexy for the fall, when HUT levels and
ad rates are much higher), the nets are making a more concerted effort to hype
their warm weather output.
In
the run-up to the season premiere of America’s Got Talent, NBC splashed the
mugs of Howie Mandel, Sharon Osbourne and new judge Howard Stern all over
Manhattan, with the King of All Media uncharacteristically agreeing to a few
high-profile media appearances to prime viewer interest.
Thus
far, the new-look AGT is a hit. Through the first nine episodes, the show is
averaging 10.9 million viewers and a 3.3 rating in the demo, making it the
summer’s most-watched, highest-rated series. Even in head-to-head competition
with Game 1 of the National Basketball Association finals on ABC, AGT on June
12 averaged 11.2 million viewers and a 3.0 rating.
Unfortunately,
no other summer series is anywhere near those deliveries. Now in its ninth
cycle, Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance bowed May 24 to 6.26 million viewers
and a 2.4 in adults 18-49, a drop of 27 percent from the year-ago 3.3 rating.
And while ABC’s The Bachelorette is on course to deliver its highest ratings in
three seasons, the rest of the network’s lineup is wilting in the heat.
One
of broadcast’s few summer dramas, Rookie Blue returned to 6.1 million viewers
on May 24 with a paltry 1.4 rating, down 13 percent from last year and 26
percent from its June 24, 2010 premiere. Meanwhile, newcomer Duets is averaging
a 1.4 in the demo in ABC’s stab at the musical competition genre.
Under
entertainment president Paul Lee, ABC is unreservedly taking a 52-week approach
to programming. “My job isn’t to launch our entire schedule in one week in the
fall,” Lee said earlier this year. “My job is to bring great television and
spend the year launching it.” As such, ABC has prepared the largest cache of
summer series, lining up no fewer than 10 shows to air between now and the
fall.
If
CBS has its way, the next series scheduled to debut on ABC will never see the
light of day. CBS is suing ABC over its new reality strip The Glass House,
arguing that the format is basically a rip-off of its own Big Brother. So
determined is CBS to foil the June 18 launch that the network is seeking a
temporary restraining order to halt production on the show.
As
in the old days, when broadcasters hung out the “Gone Fishin’” sign and
blanketed the summer airwaves with repeats, CBS is leaning heavily on
previously aired installments of its procedurals and comedies. Since signing
off for the 2011-12 season, CBS has introduced just one new series, Dogs in the
City. Through its first two episodes, the show is averaging 5.9 million viewers
and a 1.1 rating. While those numbers are anemic by broadcast standards, Dogs
still managed to beat out nearly everything that aired on cable that same
night. (The show was no match for the decisive Game 6 of the NBA Western
Conference Championship Series, which drew 9.5 million viewers and a 4.1 rating
on ESPN.)
For
its part, NBC has earmarked just four summer series, although the lighter load
has much to do with its upcoming coverage of the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Like ABC’s Lee, NBC Broadcasting chairman Ted Harbert has embraced a more fluid
television programming schedule, bowing four new series in late spring.
Harbert
has been outspoken about the outdated September-to-May seasonal span construct
that was adopted 50 years ago. (That each new season arrives in the fall is a
reflection of automakers’ annual launch schedule.) “It’s time for us to update
our ‘report card,’ the way we keep score on the ratings—our seasonal
measurement—to reflect that we and our competitors program year round,” Harbert
said during NBC’s May upfront presentation. “We’ve never made the adjustment in
our reporting. The summer isn’t just repeats anymore. In fact, NBC’s summer is
60 percent original. Cable measures the whole year and they seem to be doing
pretty well.”
Naturally,
broadcasters can’t combat the lull that comes with the onset of warm weather
and more hours of sunlight. Most executives will tell you that the Big Five are
doing a fair job of delivering those viewers who actually plop down in front of
the set. But recent viewing trends suggest the networks aren’t doing enough to
stem the tide. Last summer, broadcast fell 6 percent in adults 18-49 as viewers
watched an average 7.6 hours of network TV per week. Meanwhile, cable watching
improved 3 percent to 17.1 hours.
“From
a business perspective, we have to be more proactive,” said one network
executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “There are scatter dollars
to consider, not to mention the fact that we have a narrow window in which to
promote our fall season. We’ve all spent a lot of money on our new shows, and
if we don’t start promoting them now, we have to shout above all the noise in
September.”
By
the same token, any increase in summer programming budgets is somewhat undercut
by the fact that the repeats have already been paid for. Reality, like talk, is
cheap.
Even
when the networks have introduced a game changer in the summer, the road to
renewal is never entirely free of peril. In the summer of 1989, NBC famously
introduced a one-off pilot starring a New York club comedian named Jerry Seinfeld.
Released without the benefit of any advance promotion, and on the evening after
Independence Day, The Seinfeld Chronicles managed to deliver a 10.9 rating,
good enough for a limited renewal in 1990.
While
nearly 11 percent of TV households watched the Seinfeld pilot, viewers did not
find the show at all sponge-worthy. The pilot was unstintingly faithful to
Larry David’s concept of airing “a show about nothing.” Test audiences carped
that they weren’t interested in watching two guys do laundry, an unfortunate
assessment given that nearly a third of the pilot takes place in a laundromat.
From
such humble beginnings came one of the greatest television shows of all time.
In its final season on NBC, Seinfeld averaged a mammoth 34.1 million viewers
and an 18 rating in the advertiser coveted 18-49 demo.
A
nice story, but it’s ancient history.
Since
the turn of the century, two of broadcast’s biggest reality franchises were
given summer trials. CBS’ Survivor was such a phenomenon that it catapulted the
Tiffany Network into first place, where it has remained for the better part of
the last 13 years. The inaugural season finale scared up a massive 51.7 million
viewers and a 22.8 18-49 rating, and some 125 million watched at least part of
Richard Hatch’s victory, according to Nielsen. Two years later, Fox introduced
American Idol, which to this day stands as the second priciest buy on the tube
behind only NBC’s Sunday Night Football with an average unit cost north of
$500,000.
“Would
we like to see another huge hit? Of course we would,” said a national TV buyer
who asked not to be named. “Think of all the studio money you could send to the
next Survivor. At the same time, cable offers a really nice mix … and you can
buy time on the shows everyone talks about for a nice price.”
Don't need em
