1 of 1- RadioActive
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The Worst Summer For Free Over-The-Air TV In The Medium's History
It’s the last week of August and most of the new network TV shows will debut at the end of September and the start of October.
But as a lifelong free TV watcher, it occurs to me this may have been the worst summer for television in my lifetime. They used to rerun a lot of the series from the regular season, and they still do – witness the endless repeats of Law & Order on NBC, the FBIs on CBS and Will Trent on ABC as examples. But if you're a fan, you’ve probably seen most of those and aren’t likely to rewatch them.
In the past few years, TV networks used to at least pretend to have actual original dramas instead of the endless reality and game shows we’ve been stuck with since the beginning of June.
True, CBS “gifted” viewers with Tulsa King, a Sylvester Stallone show taken from its Paramount+ service. But other than that, it was, well, nothing. This is the first summer in my memory where I barely DVRed anything for three months straight. I’m sure a lot has to do with the after effects of the actors and writers strikes and the fact the Olympics grabbed all the attention for two or three weeks.
But I’ve never seen a time where there was so little to watch in the off-months. With streamers constantly adding new material and getting all the Emmy attention, they really can’t afford to let their audience drift elsewhere for so long – because some may not come back.
I hope next summer is a little better. But I doubt it. With fewer and fewer eyeballs watching regular TV, it may be a self-fulfilling prophecy, the opposite of “Field of Dreams.” If you don’t build it, no one will come.
This year, with certain exceptions, they haven’t.
- andysradio
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Re: The Worst Summer For Free Over-The-Air TV In The Medium's History
Things are not much better on the 'paid' side with many "stations" [non-streaming services] running repeats and the same shows that others are also airing. As for sports, unless your into the Jays there is very little to watch.
- paterson1
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Re: The Worst Summer For Free Over-The-Air TV In The Medium's History
CTV, Global, City, CTV2 and at times CBC had stronger evening schedules than the big four south of the border. CTV in particular had some new original programming during the summer and didn't schedule as many game shows. The Canadian networks also showed more movies than normal, and some like Elvis were recent.
The only network that I have seen that has been advertising the fall schedule to any length up until now is City TV. The other three are just beginning to promote what is coming up, and it doesn't look strong.
The Olympics for many was a nice break from the regular programming. I wonder if this is one big reason why many sports like football, hockey and baseball do well in terms of ratings. Simply because there isn't much else to watch on regular OTA TV. Even CFL football hasn't been doing bad in the ratings on TSN this summer. They will get a boost when weekly games begin on CTV Fridays in September. However I haven't seen one promo for this yet.
- RadioActive
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Re: The Worst Summer For Free Over-The-Air TV In The Medium's History
I remember in ancient summers past when they would fill airtime with failed pilots of shows that didn't get greenlighted. Some were good, most were bad, but it served two purposes - a) you got some never before seen programming and b) there was something new to watch if you were interested enough to see it. Those days are long gone.
The modern equivalent seems to be taking the first season of a long running streaming show (Yellowstone or Only Murders In The Building or even Star Trek: Discovery) and airing that to fill in the time, while tempting viewers to subscribe to see the following episodes. They didn't really do that much this time.
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Thread Starter- paterson1
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Re: The Worst Summer For Free Over-The-Air TV In The Medium's History
Maybe they are waiting to get the Labour Day Weekend out of the way, but you would never know the new fall shows are starting up on September 18th. Like the upfronts last spring, the fall season for CBS, ABC, NBC or FOX has no buzz as yet.
Bet there will be more interest for the mid season programming early 2025. More original programming for the Canadian networks will come out then as well. Seems like more and more, all networks are saving a lot of their best programming for mid-season.