Recently I have become a bit of a television turtle. I use that term because I realize that every time I sit in from of the small screen in my living room, like a turtle, life moves in slow motion...and I’m not really going anywhere. Call it one of my failings...such is my mentality to hold television in such low esteem. That said, they (the Network Nitwits) have managed to hook my imagination on a few shows (smh).
After hooking me, I suppose they think it’s funny to subject me to stress and see me squirm. In truth, they probably aren’t thinking about me at all...and that’s a huge mistake. I’m not alone. In fact, I’m part a huge and influential group called “the viewers.” See, we are the people that decide, by way of viewership, which shows stay on television and which don’t. I enjoy the power, it’s...liberating. I detest the nitwits that run these networks taking that power into their own hands. I mean, things really aren’t that complicated...until you complicate them.
So the nitwits want to be “number one” and want their show to trump all others. I don’t see anything really wrong with that, but I think there are better ways to go about it than the way they do. Let me get specific. I watch “Arrow” on the CW network on Wednesday at 8 p.m. It’s one of the best shows on television. I happen to watch another show that is also one of the best on the small screen...”Revolution,” on NBC. Safe to say, someone interested in “Arrow” and that genre will likely also like “Revolution.” So why did NBC decide the best move for that show was to broadcast it opposite “Arrow?”
What nitwit decided to derive pleasure from creating such a conundrum? Why did they think it was such a great move to make watchers of both shows choose one over the other? I’d very much like to know who was responsible for this idiocy, and have my viewership registered on that day so that it can be documented and understood how bad that decision was.
If there are one million viewers of these shows (and let’s lump them together since folks that like comics often like science fiction as well)...what sense does it make to get a portion of that total viewership, instead of all of it? The options are simple, show it on another day or show it at a different time. Ok...so it may not be that simple, but moving it to directly compete with a show that likely shares the exact same audience is just...dumb.
Take “Elementary” (CBS) versus “Scandal” (ABC). I hear the latter is all the rage, being talked about in every social media medium available. I’m happy people are enjoying it. For me there are no issues since I’m not just a pop culture and sci-fi geek...but a very cerebral one at that. My choice is obvious and you don’t have to be the world’s second greatest detective to deduce what I’m watching at 10 p.m. on Thursday night. I even doubt both shows draw the same type of crowd.
I’m not gonna pretend there isn’t a lot I don’t know about network television, because there is. The one thing I’m certain about the business is that it’s driven by money, and that’s the bottom line to what we watch on television. That said...give a shout if you find yourself among the minority of viewers that have seen a great shows leave the air...presumably because nobody was watching it with you. I have a theory about that, and it goes something like this: the show doesn’t reach projected viewership numbers even though it has a large audience. Somebody enlighten me if I’m wrong.
It seems to me that despite what I don’t know about the business, it does seem to be inundated with nitwits that make decisions counter to those of us with taste. Decisions that see great shows like “Stargate Universe,” “The 4400,” and “Journeyman” go the way of the Dodo. Perhaps one day the nitwits will learn, in the meantime I’ll remove myself from the madness and stress...and embrace the wisdom and comfort of watching my shows “On Demand.”
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