Strength Against Strength

All this week the major broadcasting networks have begun trotting out their line-ups for next fall (nothing like planning ahead, I guess). It's the first glimpse at what got cancelled and what got picked up. For TV nerds it's a very exciting time because they like to see what the next hit show will be. Simultaneously it's very exciting time for the people with gambling issues, because it's a whole new set of things to bet on. Odds almost immediately began to pop up on what show will be the first to be cancelled and just how many episodes it will take. (I'm totally serious about that, by the way. You really can put money on stuff like that in Vegas.) However, in checking out what is going to be on TV next fall when I won't be able to obsess about football or basketball due to both probably still being in the middle of their respective lockouts, I notice some thing and it had nothing to do with Vegas.

A quick look at the upcoming schedule has revealed that everyone wants to cram all the good shows into a two or three hour period. I don't mean two or three hours a night - I mean for the entire week. Really, why are the few good shows we have left on at the same time? There are nights when absolutely nothing is on TV, but then every show I enjoy comes on at the exact same time. The more annoying part about this is that you know the networks have an idea of when shows are going to be on, so they could totally avoid these kinds of conflicts. I understand the mentality that says you want to put your best stuff against the other guys best stuff just so you aren't conceding the victory, but is that really the best way to go about this? Wouldn't you rather completely crush them at least one night a week instead of tying or marginally losing to them for five?

I think the reason this bothers me so much comes from when I worked at the second sports-talk radio station in Boston. See, we were losing in the ratings, so the heads of the station adopted a policy - have one of the producers listen to the #1 sports-talk radio station and when they went to commercial break, we were to go to commercial break immediately after. It was never properly explained to me, but I believe the thinking was people listening to the other station would flip over to our station to hear what topic our hosts might be talking about, since they were obviously sports fans. Then they would get sucked in to that last minute of conversation, thus staying through the break. It probably won't shock you to learn that the station wasn't on the air for much longer.

See, I always thought it made more sense to listen to the other station and then extend the current segment after they went to break, thinking that we would keep more listeners with our sports talk instead of annoying the people who flipped over to hear sports talk and instead got more commercials. People who then probably kept flipping around the dial until they landed back on the #1 station (who by this point was back from break) and forgot they even landed on our station at all.

That's why I think some of these networks would be better off staggering their best programs throughout the week. Most TV viewers are loyal and they are going to stick with the show they watched last season even if the new show on another network is better, so why not at least give those new shows a chance by putting them up against the weakest of the other guys shows and let them build some fans instead of trotting an unknown commodity out against the biggest and the best? I'll give you points for cockiness with that strategy, but all you've done is get your show cancelled.

Now, you might be thinking that these programmers believe all their programs are good and they can win every night. That's why they're doing this - confidence. Trust me, I've seen the line-ups and even these executives know most of their shows are garbage. That's why we're getting two-hour extended "Biggest Loser" episodes - they know they can't even come up with enough good programming to fill two hours, let alone two nights. I guess they figure that coming close to winning on one night a week is just as good as a real win the rest of the week. Either way, it looks like Wednesday is going to be movie night around here.