I try to get to the USA every year. Politics aside, I enjoy its diversity and commercialism, and the fact that no matter where you are, or what you need, the country works. Nothing (apart from the economy) is broken.
And being on vacation I watch a lot more TV than at home. I take careful note, ‘cos it allows me to get a start on predicting the next dynamic medium. So see this as the “USA Report”.
Perhaps the biggest TV event while I was in the USA was the finale of Friends— yep, I know what happens. It was preceded by literally tens of programmes, talk shows and analyses of why, who, where – everything you wanted to know about Chandler but were scared to ask. To a South African it was astonishing – you felt like screaming, “Ok, enough already, let it go! Move on, for f*!* sake!”.
And? Well, spots sold out at US$2-million per 30 seconds, costing more than the Superbowl. It attracted over 52-million viewers (twice that of the Survivor finale a couple of days later) and was the fourth most watched series finale ever, behind M*A*S*H, Cheers, and Seinfeld.
A week later another stalwart sitcom wound up, the final episode of Frasier—yep, again I know what happens. And suddenly the cupboard is bare! It seems the most popular genre of TV programming, the sitcoms, may have outlived their use. They could be following the department store, radiogram, western movies, and vinyl records to the scrapheap. And there is a lot of evidence to support this theory.
This season in the US only four sitcoms – Friends, Raymond, Will & Grace and Two-and-a-half Men (with Charlie Sheen playing, you guessed it, Charlie Sheen) – are in the top 20 shows. Reality shows, and what looks like reality, the “reality dramas”, dominate. So Cold Case, CSI, and Law & Order fight it out with American Idol for viewer attention. Ten years ago things were very different, with sitcoms filling 11 of the top 20 in the Nielsen’s rating war.
Even if one examines the cable ratings things look dark for the sitcom genre. A typical week is dominated by another reality drama, The Sopranos, with ice hockey and WWE Wrestling right up there. Then basketball and Law & Order reruns — not one sitcom.
And reality is not a fad anymore, it’s everywhere and in every form. The established shows thrive – American Idol, Survivor, Amazing Race and The Bachelor. Every year a plethora of others are tried, both by the networks and some of the cable stations. Examples are varied, and in my opinion all fairly bizarre:
The Simple Life – where Paris Hilton and nogschleper move out of Hollywood to live in Buttcrack, Arizona, or somewhere of that ilk. One watches them work ineptly, and pick up men —fascinating?
Average Joe – here a beauty queen has to pick from a bunch of average guys, one is really short, one is really enormous, etc. And then the jocks arrive to join the competition.
The Apprentice – which debuted huge, and went on to pick up 40-million viewers in its finale. Here 16 contestants, selected from 250,000 applications, are set tasks by none other than Donald Trump. The winner is rewarded with a year-long work contract by Trump.
Other shows include one where straight men have to convince all and sundry that they’re gay. Plus a plethora of house-revamping in every guise, and finding the next (tick where applicable): world-title boxing contender, supermodel, country and western singer, comedian, stuntman, racing driver.
It leaves one overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time. The more bizarre, strange, real and challenging, the more the concept seems to blur into a sameness. But isn’t that the secret of deciding on any TV programme concept?
Harry Herber is group managing director of The MediaShop