Quality control at the major broadcast networks is lousy: How else to explain the fact that 19 of the 38 shows introduced during the 2012-13 season were cancelled according to this report from Media Experts.
Remarkably, that was not an aberration, something to be chalked up as an “off” year. Network television sees half of its new products fail every single year. No other business sector comes close to matching its futility in new product launches.
With some exceptions (Lost, Friday Night Lights, possibly Hannibal) the quality of network TV’s offerings has been surpassed by premium cable and, more recently, streaming services like Netflix.
It was cable that introduced viewers to anti-heroes like Tony Soprano, Stringer Bell, Don Draper and Walter White, characters who are ruthless, venal and deeply flawed – just the way viewers like ‘em.
In the prologue to his great book Difficult Men, author Brett Martin describes this new generation of shows as “narratively ruthless,” their storylines determined not by audience popularity but by the demands of the story.
“In keeping with their protagonists, this new generation of shows would feature stories far more ambiguous and complicated than anything that television, always concerned with pleasing the widest possible audience and group of advertisers, had ever seen,” writes Martin.
Some reports have pegged this season’s batch of new shows as the best in recent years, the networks goaded into action by the very real threat posed by competitors such as HBO and AMC. It’s worth noting, however, that the Media Experts report picks only two breakout hits and 14 “survivors” (shows renewed for another season) among the 32 shows debuting this fall.
In other words, it will still business as usual.
