We interrupt this program...
The media - both news and entertainment on television, radio or in print - is a counter intuitive business. It just doesn't make much since. Even in my own production company, Hat Digital Media (http://www.hatdigitalmedia.com/), we are sometimes forced to make adjustments to perfectly logical and well thought out plans because the television or radio network we're doing business with has some strange policy we have to follow. And the strangest policy of all is that of "pre-empting."
Pre-empting a television series is a common practice these days, but it used to be reserved only for "emergencies." If there was a breaking news story that had national or even local impact, you might have your favorite show interrupted so the information could get to you in a timely and efficient manner. Today, however, it seems that anything is an excuse to pre-empt a show. A high-speed car chase in a city that is not your own is not exactly a reason to break in. And, I'm sorry to say it sports fans, but baseball and basketball games should be on the very bottom of the list of things that bump programming.
Just think, what if other products could be pre-empted? What if, say, you were ordering a latte from you favorite coffee spot and instead they gave you a coffee cup full of gasoline? Certainly gasoline is important and useful - and with prices at the pump going up they might have a hit on their hands. People might LOVE the idea of being able to get a cup of gas at their local Starbucks. But a cup of gas isn't why you came there, and it isn't what you ordered. Your expectations and desires are being ignored in favor of something that someone else wants. You're suffering from the problem of YOUR wants or needs being less important than those of someone else.
Sports is a big money commodity. There are millions of people who would love nothing more than to watch football, baseball, basketball and whatever else comes along 24/7. So I won't argue - sports has a huge audience. It's a big money maker. People WANT to watch sports. That's why there are ENTIRE NETORKS devoted to sports.
This begs the question - "If there are, like, eight ESPNs, why do they have to interrupt 'House, M.D.' for six weeks to run baseball games?"
The interruptions do have an impact on the shows they pre-empt, by the way. Fox, in particular, has a catalog of programs that they took off the air because of low ratings. The shows received low ratings because no one could ever FIND them. As soon as people discovered a show in a particular time slot, it was pre-empted for months at a time in favor of whatever sport was in season. And here's some shocking news... there's ALWAYS a sport in season.
Shows like "Futurama," "Family Guy," and "Firefly" all fell victim to Fox's shortsighted decisions on pre-empting, and that's just from the "F's." What else will fade out of existence this year because someone at the network thought seeing four hours of men standing around scratching themselves made for good entertainment?
I may sound bitter. I suppose I am. I'm a TV advocate, after all, and not a big fan of the sports scene.
Pre-empting has also caused a major change in the way television operates. Has anyone else noticed that a "season" for a show is now around 13 episodes? Does anyone remember that a season used to be 26 episodes? New seasons used to start in August. Now there are many shows that do not debut new episodes until November!
Even long-time champions such as the Simpsons are impacted by this shift in the TV paradigm. There have been a few years in a row now where the much vaunted Simpsons Halloween special, "Tree House of Horror," isn't actually run until November! While most people are preparing for Thanksgiving, Fox is running Halloween programming that had been bumped by baseball.
I suppose it all came to a head for me last night as I was watching one of my favorite shows, "House, M.D." The season premiere was two weeks ago. Last night, after the third episode of the season, we the viewing public were enthusiastically informed that the show would take a short hiatus until after the World Series. So for the next couple of months there will be nothing that I, personally, care to watch on Tuesday nights. Not on that particular network, anyway. I'll go elsewhere. Maybe I'll just start waiting for everything to come out on DVD and rent it.
Here's something else that the networks may want to consider in all of their program shuffling - advertisers. This isn't an obvious thing, because frankly the network sells advertising no matter what the programming may be. But the ads that run during a night time drama are different than those that run during a baseball game. Sports ads are usually for beer or...well...beer. They're usually heavily laden with sexual innuendo, scantily clad women and idiotic men who lower the IQ standard for the populace. Granted the audience is different. Those who watch sports may not enjoy night time dramas or comedies. But what is that saying, exactly? That the sports crowd is somehow more important than everyone else? That's the clear message that I get, personally. My values and preferences are inconsequential to networks like Fox.
I'm being a little unfair to Fox, I suppose. They're not the only network that pre-empts programming. They're just the worst offender - in my own opinion, of course.
So here's my proposal. Stop interrupting. There are networks dedicated to sports that people can tune to for this stuff. There are blocks of time that are not in use by new, original programming that can be used. There are half a dozen ways if not more that people can be exposed to sports entertainment while allowing those of us who could care less to continue unabated. At this point, the only excuse for interrupting a program is that you simply do not care about your audience. I guarantee you - we will eventually stop caring about what you have to offer as well.
posted by Unknown @ 5:08 AM
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