After any major world event, war, natural disaster, recession, the country is looked upon to see how it comes out of its wounds. While not as drastic as the following examples, many people are looking at the post-writers strike affect on television programming. Many noted an early jump to the ratings as programs rolled out their final episodes for the season. Yet overall, audiences are tuning out of the big hitter shows and tuning in to the unexpected.
The ratings for the top shows including American Idol, Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy are dropping at a shocking rate following the strike. An article by John Rash in Advertising Age noted that Fox’s American Idol is down 22 percent from last season. This show along with others are simply failing to meet expectations. Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy slipped over 16 percent from the past few years followed by Lost sliding down 14 percent.
Some shows harder hit include Fox’s House, which while placing fifth overall in the rankings for the week is over 24 percent off its average viewership for this time of the year. Crime show CSI slipped 18 percent, following the trend with lower ratings. The question is, where are all the viewers going?
Many have decided to cut the commercial time and tune directly in online. In February, video views toppled 10 billion feeds as noted in a publication by Todd Spangler in Multichannel News. This number was up 66 percent over the past few years. This attracted over 135 million viewers spending approximately 204 minutes online viewing videos.
Because of this trend, many networks are pulling their television shows from online to try and draw viewers back to television. Brian Steinberg wrote in an article for Advertising Age that the CW will be pulling the last five episodes of its run away show of the season, Gossip Girl, from the net hoping to lure viewers back to the television. Executives are still unsure of how to maximize the profit from the online community so are luring viewers with contests that force them to tune in to the show.
Many are saying the drop in viewership is due to the end of the writers strike and a disappointment in programming. Honestly, I think it’s a trend our nation will lean closer and closer too. Audiences are finding it hard to tune in and be berated by commercials during their favorite programming. This helps increases the desire for more online programming by the major networks. I also think audiences are finding other programming. A recent post of mine explains the increase in sporting events ratings, which could be a possibility. I find it entertaining that the Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch was able to produce the highest rankings of any season premiere ever for them, bringing in 3.39 million viewers. Maybe people are simply tired of the dramas and want more real life drama. Whatever the case, programs continue to slip and may be in jeopardy.