Filed under: Industry, Ratings, Reality-Free

No, I’m not referring to Jack Black or Lewis Black or our own Jay Black. I’m referring to the fact that CBS has managed to become the first network to actually show a profit in these difficult economic times, thereby proving that there’s still money to be made.

While I don’t watch the big CBS dramas like NCIS and The Mentalist, I have seen episodes of How I Met Your Mother and The Massive Bang Theory and enjoyed both, wishing that there were more hours in the day that I could watch even more Television than I do (although I still doubt I’d ever watch Two and a Half Men, but that’s just me).

Even more interesting is the fact that all the above shows have gone into reruns and yet CBS has still managed to swing a profit. Hopefully networks will take this as a sign that scripted shows triumph over all other types, but I tend to doubt it.

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Filed under: Industry, Reality-Free

In an economy where businesses fight to simply survive, it’s more and more unlikely that they will shell out the $3 million for a 30-second spot that the Super Bowl requires. Leave it to NBC and ad agency Cesario Migliozzi to figure out a way around that.

They’re taking the thirty second commercial and sharing it among advertisers each of whom pay a fraction of the cost. On one hand, it’s a brilliant business move. It only takes a few seconds for subliminal advertising to work (which is why there are billboards along the highways of most of the country). On the other hand, it’s unlikely we’d get any of the pleasing storyline commercials that take two or three spots (these are usually the best part of the broadcast).

If this works, then it could be new way for advertisers to inundate the public during one of the most watched television events of the year. It’s just another step in making television and the World wide web into the same thing.

UPDATE: It looks like NBC nixed the idea.

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Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Web, Festivus, Reality-Free, Webisodes

Um, I don’t know if anyone has told you yet, but the economy of the United Says, and the world, is in the crapper. Seriously, I saw it one day while doing my business. It was just floating there … one step away from being flushed into the world of depression. I had to get it out with a piece of toilet paper, and it’s now drying on my bathtub ledge. Gosh, I hope it’s okay.

Anyhoo, things are bad out there. And, not just for us working peons. This recession is affecting everyone, from the muckity-muck CEOs of the soon-to-be bankrupt corporations, to the hot dog vendor outside of Penn Station whose wieners are spending longer and longer amounts of time in their hot water bath. Somewhere in the middle of this are the television networks. Buffeted by both good and bad news, these former stalwarts of the economy are getting knocked around, as well. The meaning, for us poor schlubs, is a restructuring of television as we know it.

Continue reading Top Television Stories of 2008: The economy’s effect on the TV industry

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Filed under: Industry, Ratings, Reality-Free

It looks as if The CW might have backed the wrong horse. My Network Television is going strong in the ratings and has been beating The CW for the past three weeks.

The biggest mistake made by The CW was probably abandoning wrestling programming (which was picked up by My Network TV) in an effort to go for the Gossip Girl demographic. This tactic seemed unusual to me at the time because 1) wrestling, care about it or not, brings in strong ratings, and 2) usually after establishing oneself, a network tries to expand its programming to get to the widest base possible rather than limit itself to a particular group.

While I’m liking Smallville again this season, I have the ability to only hope that The CW uses this as motivation to create some programming that a variety of people like. If it doesn’t, then the channel reserved for The CW on my cable box could become My Network Television sometime in the near future.

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Filed under: Other Drama Shows, News, Industry, Programming

The NAACP’s Hollywood agency issued a scathing report yesterday against the entertainment industry harshly criticizing the lack of diversity on Television. The 46-page report, titled “Out of Focus, Out of Sync — Take 4″, takes on each aspect of the industry, arguing a “serious shortage” of minorities in front of and behind the camera.

I don’t think that this report comes as a surprise to anyone. As an overly avid Television watcher, it’s no shock that most series center around white characters while people of color often play secondary or tertiary roles. I mean, almost each series out there this day has to have a BBF (black ideal friend) or EBF (ethnic ideal friend) and if not that, then the GBF (gay best friend, but that’s another report all together), but it is disappointing to note that there are so few people of color in lead roles.

Continue reading NAACP slams the TV industry

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Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Industry, Programming, Retro Squad, Reality-Free

The species known as the network executive (networkitus executivus) is unique in the world of nature. Seemingly human in stature and characterization, the network executive is uncommon in the sense that its brain is seated firmly in its tushie region. As this area of the executive’s body gets the least amount of blood during an average day this leads to some very strange programming decisions. Thus, the reason that viewers were entertained by Cop Rock, Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire? and that sitcom that starred Emeril.

This lack of blood also causes memory loss. At least, that’s what I believe it does because it’s the only way I could think of that NBC would hire Ben Silverman to co-chair the entertainment division. Or, rather, hire another man named Silverman to help program their primetime schedule. For, if their memories were working properly, they would have realized that another man with the last name of Silverman came to the NBC 30 years ago and proceeded to muck everything up as well.

Continue reading Hasn’t NBC learned? Never trust a guy with the last name of Silverman

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Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Festivus, Cancellations, Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Reality-Free

As we do each year, we here at TV Squad are reminiscing on the top TV news stories of the year. What has 2008 brought us? Well, while we were all complaining about the lack of quality shows that debuted this season, we might have missed the second-year shows going right down the crapper.

Let’s start over at ABC. Three very promising shows premiered last season — Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, and Pushing Daisies — to praise from the critics and buzz from the viewers. Dirty Sexy Money, with the cast that could be someone’s fantasy cast, started off strong. There was a mystery, one-of-a-kind and complex characters, and some integrity. With the writer’s strike went the integrity and the ratings, and recently, we got the news that no more episodes of Dirty Sexy Money would be ordered.

Continue reading Top Television Stories of 2008: Second-year shows go down the toilet

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Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Festivus, Celebrities, Television Squad Lists, Reality-Free

Oh, Festivus, Oh, Festivus, the holiday for TV fans. How exciting that once a year we can close our eyes, click our heels and make our wishes for the magical ways television can be made superior in the year to come. Still, there are more than a few changes that I think need to be made to make TV superior … not to say that it’s bad. It just that everything can be superior.

This is a great opportunity to get a little Scrooge-y and vent about what I want to see corrected/improved/altered in Television in 2009. Is it wrong that I hope the bigwigs at the networks and cable companies are surfing the net and take my grievances to heart? Is it wrong that I still believe they care about what viewers think? Yeah, probably, but here’s my wish list anyway:

Continue reading All Allison wants for Festivus

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Filed under: Industry, Reality-Free

Allowed, this is nothing new. It’s been actors vs. studios for decades if not centuries. This time Fox is using the tactic of going purely with AFTRA contacts and leaving the SAG union in the lurch.

I’m ambivalent about this. On one hand, actors should get their fair share of the products their image help make famous. On the other hand, I can understand why Fox would use this tactic as another strike would probably cripple television production.

This isn’t a good time for actors’ unions to get divisive. There’s a recession going on and the TV landscape is still recovering from last year’s writers’ strike. There’s not a single network that would want to go through the headache of figuring out which union contract terms work best for them (in previous years, they’ve been identical).

Fox has the upper hand at this moment. With so many people out of work, you’ve a lot of potential actors right there. They already have the unemployed part down pat.

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Filed under: Industry, Programming, Reality-Free

When NBC announced that Jay Leno would take over the 10pm slot each weekday night, a lot of people worried that not only would this mean that some of their favorite 10pm shows would either be canceled or moved to another time slot, they also worried that NBC was signaling that they were giving up on scripted shows. NBC sent out a memo saying “this does not reduce NBC’s commitment to scripted programs” and that it “enables us to focus on scripted development for 8-10pm.” But it seems like they’ll have no room for any more scripted shows.

I hope I’m wrong about this but just looking at what NBC has on their schedule it makes me wonder.

Here’s a list of the reality and/or games shows that NBC has or will have on the schedule:

Continue reading NBC will focus on scripted shows when Leno moves (insert laughter here)

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