Hand Me Downs
Gordon Pepper
This isn't the first time that a show has gone from a
major to a minor network, but it's the first time that
something of this magnitude has happened. Mark Burnett's
INXS baby has made a big poo in it's diapers. As a
result, CBS is cleaning up by shipping the Monday
episode over to VH1.
With that, CBS is now the last of the Big 4 to move a
show over to it's little brother. Each of the big 4 has
a little network that they will ship the shows that
haven't been performing up to snuff. ABC has sent
All-American Girl to ABC Family, NBC moved the Last
Comic Standing Finale to Comedy Central and FOX has
KO'ed the Next Great Champ over to Fox Sports (and
shipped Playing it Straight and My Big Fat Obnoxious
Boss to On-line oblivion).
CBS's record, however, had been spotless. With the
exception of The Will (which only got 1 episode), every
CBS reality show has gone through it's cycle on the
network. This is the first time that even a part of it's
programming has been outsourced to it's littler
affiliate.
This is underlying a greater problem this Summer - the
television ratings for reality shows has been extremely
underwhelming. The usual suspects think that it's a sign
that the reality show era is over. Of course, as usual,
they are wrong, as the publie clearly loves shows such
as Dancing With the Stars. In my opinion, the audience
isn't rejecting reality shows as much as it's rejecting
BAD reality shows.
Televisions biggest problem (and a problem that was
spoken about before) is that everyone wants to jump on a
success. Lost had huge ratings for ABC this season as
one of the only sci-fi shows on a big 3 network. What
happens this Summer? We have EIGHT new sci-fi shows
coming in the Fall, and an exec even admits that the
influx is because of the success of Lost.
There's nothing wrong with copying a great idea, as long
as you make a spin of it's own and don't make a carbon
copy. The Biggest Loser and Big Brother are sterling
examples - they are grown from Survivor, but they have
enough differences in it's play to make them different
(and hits) in their own right. Let's go to some of the
new shows this year. The Cut - 2 teams compete against
each other in challenges, and Tommy Hilfiger eliminates
people from the losing team. I Wanna Be a Hilton - 2
teams compete against each other in challenges, and
Kathy Hilton eliminates people from the losing team. The
Law Firm - 2 teams compete against each other in
challenges, and Roy Black eliminates people from the
losing team. Do we see a pattern here? Even Rock Star is
an imitation of American Idol - and the audience has
clearly decided that they need a break after 22 weeks of
voting between pop stars and dancing queens.
It's not to say that there aren't any good Summer game
shows. There are many good new summer game shows out
there. The problem is that they all happen to be on
cable - which, in a strange twist, is where some of the
bad Summer game shows are winding up as well. Somehow, I
don't think that part of the effects of all of those
channels was to view what didn't work on the networks,
but in this case it is. The big networks could take a
lesson from the little networks - if for no other reason
that if they don't, then they will be giving the little
networks free programming.
Gordon Pepper recently had to switch to cable. E-mail him at gordon@gameshownewsnet.com |