What The Fuck Is Happening To TV?
36 shows? Really?!
Thirty-six series. There will be thirty-six scripted series airing on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox this fall. That is counting all shows between drama, comedy and animation. To put that number in perspective, in 2010, just before the streaming boom, that number was over sixty… just in the fall… just among those four networks.1 But wait, it gets worse. Because among those thirty-six shows, only seven are new series. We are only getting seven new shows this fall. Again, compared to 2010, it is a drop of 65%. What the fuck is happening to TV?
Everyone thinks they have the answer. It’s the corporate consolidation. It’s the push to streaming. It’s COVID. It’s the strikes. It’s the international co-pros. It’s the audience. It’s the business model. It’s the collapse of linear television. It’s the influx of feature talent. It’s AVOD. It’s FAST. It’s YouTube. It’s TikTok. And while all of this is certainly a contributing factor, it is not a singular explanation… because maybe there isn’t one.
This post is not here to provide answers. If I wanted to do that, I’d still be writing for Forbes. This is about something else. This is about acknowledging things have gotten very bad and it is, indeed, not just because you’re not doing enough.
Television used to be simple in a way features once were. You came up with an idea, you took it to a studio and/or network, they ordered a pilot script, they ordered a pilot, they picked it up to series, you staffed your room and you were on the air within six to eight months. Now? Now you’ll spend upwards of four years of your life trying to take out an animated series someone could make just by throwing $5 million at ten episodes… and they still won’t buy it. They won’t buy the big IP show that costs $20 million an episode, they won’t buy the small sitcom that costs the price of that show’s catering budget.
Shows will get ordered, but won’t read lower and mid-level writers because the ten-episode season just needs two upper levels to fill out the staff. The room’s full Canadian. The room’s full UK. Sorry, we’re doing this one through Ireland. Are you Australian by chance?
What happened to simplicity? What happened to a process that made sense? What happened to ROI? I told you, this isn’t about answers. It’s about acknowledging how fucked up it all seems to be now.
My father likes to say, “Merrill, the industry has been collapsing since the day you got off the plane.” He’s not wrong. I got off the plane from Long Island in January of 2014. Did I catch that big streaming bubble? No sir. Not unless you count a Post-PA job in 2019 and Writers PA job in 2020 right before COVID as catching it before the pop.
I watched whole rooms get ordered, produce scripts and not shoot a single frame. I watched the rise of indie-funded TV on YouTube. I watched the lifecycle of Go90 and SeeSo. I’ve seen the bullshit. But through it all, I never thought the likes of CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and The CW would turn the way they have. I don’t think I was ready to see the slate I’ve seen this week. Some will argue the moves make sense, such as NBC wiping an entire primetime programming night off its slate in order to make room for the NBA. Maybe they’re right. Maybe this is the networks actually returning to a model that supports profit making again… but was there not a way to have both, like there always was?
I’ve watched the dismantling of cable television for a decade only to witness everyone discover that there may actually still be gold in them thar hills (welcome to the party, Versant). We’ve all seen the Ridiculousnes-driven MTV schedule meme. We’ve all watched adult animation leave Comedy Central. We’ve all seen TNT give up its dominance in scripted drama. We’ve all witnessed the rise and fall of G4 for the second time. Characters welcome? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Seriously… what the actual fuck is going on? I want to know. I want to know why we broke it so severely. Why I have to partake in multiple text conversations and phone calls with writers, producers and even some execs that all amount to a collective, “WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!”
I hold on to hope because I don’t know what else to do. I hold on to hope because I genuinely believe the thing I love, the thing I uprooted my whole life to partake in eleven years ago, can be repaired. I hold on to hope because I’ve been doing it for too long not to, at this point. But nothing is going to happen until we start looking around and acknowledging that we are, indeed, in the shit. Shit that we have to pull ourselves out of because no one else is going to.
And that starts by asking the simple question that will, hopefully, get us back to a simple fix: what the fuck is happening to TV?
The CW has been left out of this equation because the nature of its Nexstar business model prioritizes international co-productions to fill its slate. These shows do not increase job availability in the U.S. market. If The CW’s 2010 numbers are included, the number of fall shows goes over seventy.
Fascinating, I need to get a TV and explore all these happenings.
That’s exactly what I said when I quit watching tv in 1997.