Creston wrote on May 18, 2017, 12:46:

Ozmodan wrote on May 18, 2017, 12:04:
The quality of network programming is getting worse by the year. All you have to do is look at what Netflix, Amazon and many of the other streaming services are doing, MUCH better shows.

To be fair to the networks, that as much because of regulations hampering what they can do as it is because of their own ineptitude.

Also a need to appeal to everyone, but especially everyone 18-34. A Netflix show, or a FX show, getting 3 million viewers is an enormous hit. Getting 1 million viewers is enough of a hit. Networks need to get 3 million 18-34 year olds. A show getting just 3 million viewers is a huge failure. So they can't be as niche or take as many risks as FX, because it needs viewers. Being too controversial and pushing anyone away is bad.

Breaking Bad is acknowledged as a huge hit, but it didn't break 2 million viewers until the Season 4 premier, and didn't do it again until the Season 5A premier. That's 45 episodes with under 2 million viewers. ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox can't survive on that. It more needs Season 5B numbers, which was weirdly double anything prior (with the finale being a 5X increase.) Mad Men peaked with an average of 2.61 viewers one season. These are insta-cancel numbers at networks.

Their hands are tied behind their backs. They're still multiple times larger than any of their competitors, even if they're shrinking. I mean, how many people are watching Bojack Horseman, or Wet Hot American Summer, to name two Netflix shows I'd rewatch a dozen times before watching a single show on networks not called Bob's Burgers (seriously, Bob's Burgers is the only network show I've watched since Community was canceled - when I see lists of what shows are going to be canceled I'm usually impressed if I've heard of even 10%. I love my pop culture bubble.)

Personally, I think networks need to consider shorter seasons. Less filler, and less risk. Part of why I started ignoring network TV, before even Netflix went streaming, was because it couldn't keep anything going. Some shows take a while to find their footing, and everything was trying to be Lost. But when it gets canceled after 15 episodes, or 18, or even 24, that's a double digit amount of hours you just wasted on something going nowhere. The lack of commitment to something not catching fire means no slow burn shows that increase in intensity and quality, and the focus on immediately popular ones that they mandate keep similar numbers means those shows are risk-adverse and don't grow.