TV Worth Blogging
by David Thiel, Program Director for WILL-TV
An insider's view of public television programming and the issues that help determine what and how you watch
This Just In... PBS Tops News and Documentary Emmys
On the heels of Sunday's big wins for "Little Dorrit" at the Primetime Emmy Awards comes word that PBS carried the night at Monday's News & Documentary Emmys ceremony. Public television took home six statues, more than any other broadcast or cable entity.
The list of winners after the jump!
Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story - Long Form
Frontline "Bush's War"
Outstanding Informational Programming - Long Form
Nova "A Walk to Beautiful"
Outstanding Interview
P.O.V. "Inheritance"
Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing
Bill Moyers Journal - Essays: Gilded Age, It Was Oil, Memorial Day
Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cinematography
Frontline "The War Briefing"
Outstanding Individual Achievement in Graphic Design & Art Direction
Illicit: The Dark Trade
Big "Little Dorrit" Emmy Wins
Masterpiece Executive Producer Rebecca Eaton had much to be happy about after "Little Dorrit" hit it big at the Primetime Emmy Awards. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences gave the Charles Dickens drama a total of seven statues including one for Outstanding Miniseries. "Dorrit" screenwriter Andrew Davies and director Dearbhla Walsh were also honored during Sunday's televised event.
Four additional awards went to the Masterpiece production during the “Creative Arts” ceremony held last week: Outstanding Art Direction, Casting, Costumes and Cinematography for a Miniseries, Movie or Special.
But it wasn't all Dickens at the Primetime Emmys. American Masters was chosen as the Outstanding Nonfiction Series, and John Williams’ composition for Great Performances got the nod for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music.
And A Chin Shall Lead Them
The Jay Leno Show begins its history-making run September 14 on NBC. That’s right, without having seen a single episode, I can confidently claim that it will make history. When future pop cultural anthropologists penetrate the Miley-Britney Stratum and begin to excavate our era, they will wisely look at each other and cluck (yes, chickens will rule the future) “This day was the beginning of the end of network television.”
That’s because today is the first time an American commercial television network has turned over five hours of prime-time to a talk show. Big deal, right? Actually, yes.
NBC, once the unstoppable juggernaut of “Must See,” home to E.R., Seinfeld, The Cosby Show and Cheers, has run up the flag of surrender. Firmly in fourth place, lacking a strong program development slate, they’ve essentially given up on trying to fill twenty-two hours of prime-time. They’ve declared that audiences in the age of TiVo, Hulu and XBox have become too fragmented to pay for all of those expensive dramas and sitcoms.
I’ve seen this coming for at least a decade. As cable and satellite systems continued to expand their offerings, they pecked away at the dominance of the so-called “Big Four” networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox). Lots of people were watching television, but an ever-increasing number of them were engaged by programming targetted to their niche interests.
Not too long ago I pulled out the earliest Nielsen ratings book in the WILL-TV archive, from February 1976. For no particular reason, my eyes alighted on Petrocelli. If you don’t remember that one, you’re not alone. It was a legal drama that ran for two seasons on NBC. In fact, it was cancelled shortly after this particular ratings book was issued. Yet in our local market, Petrocelli ended its run with a 17 rating. Seventeen percent of all households with a TV were tuned to Barry Newman as small-town lawyer Tony Petrocelli.
By comparison, in the May 2009 book for our market the final four episodes of this year’s American Idol competition averaged a 15 rating. Idol, arguably the most buzzed-about series of the past decade, doesn’t even crack the level set by Petrocelli just before the axe fell.
The problem with all of this is that the niche audiences which have migrated to cable and satellite aren’t large enough to attract the advertising dollars necessary to pay for top-line talent and production values.
That’s not to say that there aren’t some fine programs out there in the “500 channel universe.” Most of the bigger cable networks have one or two higher-end productions which they use as their calling cards. Shows like Mad Men, Damages, Battlestar Galactica and Project Runway attract attention and awards; they help build corporate identities and invite viewers to check out a channel's other offerings.
But none of these so-called “networks” can afford to make anywhere near the number that once populated the Big Four’s lineup. They fill the rest of the time with cheap programming and repeats of shows that once aired on broadcast TV.
What I foresaw–and what I think the coming of Jay Leno to prime-time portends–was a future in which no channel, not even the broadcast networks, could pay to produce more than a handful of shows at the level of quality we once took for granted.
Whether or not The Jay Leno Show succeeds–and remember, as Time’s TV critic James Poniewozik points out in his recent cover story, the bar for success is ridiculously low–it’s a clear indication that the business model has irrevocably changed. The future is coming, and Mr. Leno’s prodigious chin will point the way.
Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street? I've Got All These Emmys to Deliver!
Public television won 16 Daytime Emmys in last weekend's awards ceremonies conducted by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Sesame Street took home four, not including a special Lifetime Achievement Award for their 40 years of service. The latter was promptly eaten by Cookie Monster, who declared it to "taste even better than Latin Grammy." Kevin Clash ("Elmo") won Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series for the fifth time.
Public television's tally was second only to ABC's 17 awards, and doubled the number won by the other closest competitors, CBS and Nickelodeon. Children's series Between the Lions, WordWorld and From the Top at Carnegie Hall all won top honors, as did This Old House.
Read on for the complete list of public TV winners!
Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series: Kevin Clash as "Elmo" (Sesame Street)
Outstanding Children's Animated Program: WordWorld
Outstanding Children's Series: From the Top at Carnegie Hall
Outstanding Pre-school Children's Series: Between the Lions
Outstanding Lifestyle Program: This Old House
New Approaches - Daytime Children's: Sesame Street
Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design/Styling: Sesame Street
Outstanding Direction in a Children's Series: Sesame Street
Outstanding Achievement in Main Title and Graphic Design: Biz Kid$
Outstanding Achievement in Single Camera Editing: Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie
Outstanding Achievement in Single Camera Photography: Equitrekking
Outstanding Achievement in Multiple Camera Editing: From the Top at Carnegie Hall
Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition: Animalia
Outstanding Writing in Animation: WordWorld
Outstanding Writing in a Children's Series: Between the Lions
Outstanding Special Class Writing: Landscapes through Time with David Dunlop
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