Even though there are lots of ways for people to entertain themselves, television is still probably the biggest avenue for entertainment. Every year networks spend millions of dollars trying to find ways to keep the general public watching their shows. Hit shows can be a trial and error process, as the saying goes, "there's no accounting for taste". In an effort to try and predict successful shows, networks may use focus groups. The focus groups will be shown episodes of television shows before they've been shown to the public. The focus groups will then provide feedback to the networks, based on what they thought about the shows. There are many episodes produced every year of potential new shows that never make it on the air. Television is a very lucrative and competitive business; a hit show can bring a network literally millions of dollars in ad revenues. Television is also a copycat industry; that's why if one network has a huge hit show, it'll only be a matter of time until the other networks try to copy that show. The public actually has more power when it comes to what's on television than they do with the politicians they elected. The public has long been considered lazy when it comes to watching television because people have a tendency to lean towards lighter, easier to follow shows, instead of the more complex shows, where the plots aren't so obvious. Unfortunately, the networks have also decided to become lazy. Instead of having new comedies and dramas to look forward to, the only new shows the networks appear to be releasing are reality shows. Reality shows are television shows where non professional actors are used. The networks would like the public to believe these are normal people, but what normal people are followed around by television cameras. There aren't any plots to reality television shows, regardless of what networks would like you to believe. All reality shows have the same hook, which is, these are regular people on these shows. The networks are selling the point that reality shows have no professional actors. But the reality is that once the camera is turned on, everybody becomes an actor. Reality shows are just a step above game shows. It's obvious that the public likes reality shows because every time you turn around, there's a new one. The networks love reality shows because they make them a lot of money, they're probably cheaper to make then regular productions and they don't have to worry about actors holding out for more money because the casts of reality shows change constantly. Maybe there is no more creativity in the television industry, maybe all the ground breaking shows have already been done. It's a shame that television has turned its back on producing quality shows. But maybe this is what the public deserves because television had produced a lot of critically acclaimed shows in the past, but the public didn't watch; now television is turning out mindless, cheap fodder and the public can't get enough of it. |
