A summary of the early season from The New York Times:
Three weeks into the new network television season, three new shows are giving early signs of being winners: “Heroes” on NBC, “Jericho” on CBS and “Ugly Betty” on ABC. And some scheduling moves have worked brilliantly, like ABC’s shift of “Grey’s Anatomy,” now television’s hottest show, to Thursday night.
The Fox network had virtually nothing good happen with any of the shows it introduced; CBS has found scant interest so far for its expensive new sit-com, “The Class,” even though it is the creation of David Crane of “Friends” fame; and the new CW network, the combination of the old WB and UPN, has found viewers seemingly unaware that most of its shows are even on.
NBC is the only network showing overall growth from last season, bolstered by “Heroes” and the addition of N.F.L. football on Sunday nights. ABC has countered with the shrewdest scheduling gambit of the fall, its relocation of “Grey’s Anatomy” to Thursday night, where it has moved past the former titan, “CSI,” making ABC a new power on the most important night of the week.
NewMexiKen’s daughters watch television, it seems, exclusively via TiVo. Nights and times likes those discussed in the article excerpted here seemingly have very little meaning. Jill and Emily both claim, I think, that they watch more TV with TiVo, but in less time overall.
Yeah, the networks still haven’t caught on to the fact that the television-watching “experience” is completely changing. They are still wrapped up in counterprogramming and nights of the week, without realizing that these things are becoming increasingly meaningless.
Which is one reason why network ratings drop and drop every year.
Advertisers, however, HAVE caught on and are coming up with lots of ways to make their products and pitches parts of the shows themselves, since we’re all fast forwarding through their commercials nowadays.
Since my kids came along, watching TV is impossible. I watch anything that I’m gonna watch via TIVO after the kds are asleep. I LOVE my TIVO! No more commercials.