What Network TV Programming is Not
There’s been a lot of gnashing of teeth and hand wringing in the TV viewing public over what’s been canceled, staying around seemingly forever, given an abbreviated run or coming to an (voluntary) end in the near future. If you’ve spent anytime working in the television industry trenches, these are ho-hum decisions that happen every year about this time. But for viewers, watching TV has become more of a politically charged, social media tussling, angry emoji filled event.
Broadcast in particular has turned into a game of whack-a-mole with viewers’ patience being tested as their favorite programs teeter on the edge of life or death. There are many things TV programming is, but there are a few things it is not. It’s important to understand these points to make TV programming decisions less painful as a viewer.
- It’s Not About Politics (at least not the Washington DC variety): There’s been a lot of noise around ABC’s canceling of the steady ratings grabber Last Man Standing from conservatives who think this is a liberal conspiracy. A real issue is who owns the show -- in this case not ABC, but Fox. If you're ABC you're looking for a home for your own in-house produced product which could bring you similar ratings and revenue. Also, ABC’s Friday night scheduling made a radical shift away from comedy. ABC cancelled the prestige award-winning series American Crime, which can be viewed as a lefty-liberal poster child of TV shows.
- It’s Not About “Liking” The Showrunner: As much as it’s easy to say this, liking someone is heavily outweighed against advertising sales revenue and ratings. Shows get canceled all the time by heavyweight network-friendly showrunners (Dick Wolf’s Law & Order, Shonda Rhimes’ The Catch). If a show is not pulling in the coveted ratings numbers in the lucrative demographic, you may as well wave goodbye.
- It’s Not About Fan Petitions: Rarely does this work. Of course networks hear when fans and viewers are unhappy with a cancellation, and programming and scheduling are sympathetic to that as they’re TV fans, too. And every now and then a petition can work. The bottom line, though, is what invariably wins out.
It’s a tough thing to understand when a show you’ve loved doesn’t make it another season (I’ll miss you Pitch, American Crime and Brain Dead). Knowing and understanding that these are decisions not bound to emotion or personal vendetta makes it a bit easier. And remember, with Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, many of those long gone shows can live on for repeated binge watching for years to come with new favorites in the making arriving on your devices every year.