TV. It's All; About Ratings.

       Have you noticed how much broadcast television ratings have dropped? TV programming just isn't delivering the way it used to. The number of cable networks making out pretty well running reruns of old TV shows seems to be growing. Between them and the ones showing old movies, there's barely any room for broadcast television to register any viewers.
       Why do you suppose that's true? I think the problem is that the level of intellectual content is so low, that people are finally getting sick of being taken for dopes. Just think about the programming these days. How much of it are viewers likely to be watching ten years from now as reruns?
       That's what made the broadcast networks. Of course ten or twenty years ago they didn't have the competition. But uncharacteristically, they put lots of money and effort into providing good viewing for their TV audiences. Normally lack of competition breeds mediocrity and competition provides the impetus to do better. The opposite has happened in Television.
       Here's a test question you can ask yourself. How many of the TV shows on any of the networks that are not already reruns, might you likely be watching ten or twenty years from now? How many sitcoms, westerns, private eyes and the like from current programming will you realistically be watching in the future as reruns? It's a trick question, because there aren't any. Or very, very few. No Dean Martin shows, or Ed Sullivan or Johnny Cash or Red Skelton or any of those.
       Today's programming includes pretend reality. Pretend Reality, is that what everyone wants to see? Is that something you're likely to be watching in the future because you enjoyed it so much in the past? Everything seems to be done on the cheap today in TV. Good ratings don't seem to come along on the cheap. I wonder if anybody has noticed that? I suspect not.