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The Impact of the Post-Network Era in Fiction Programming
Some contemporary authors feel the changes that occurred in television in the last few
years have had a harmful effect on classic television genres. The diminishing ratings and the
changes in technology have affected the way television is made and perceived. This paper
analyzes the impact the post-network era has had on fictional genres one-hour drama, soap
opera, and made-for-television. The choice of genres is motivated by a desire to unite all the
ideas into one conclusion about the state of fiction in the current television landscape.
Post-network television refers to the creation of a new television culture where the
broadcast networks give way to a multi-channel, multi-medium landscape. This new situation
leads to a disappearance of mass, passive audiences and sees the emergence of interactive
viewers, and niche audiences. The post-network era leaves space for both reality television and
quality dramas, as media conglomerates look for new ways of making television and revenue
in a global media culture.
In his article Television Network and the Uses of Drama, Christopher Anderson argues
that networks expectations for one-hour dramas must change in order for the genre to survive.
The author supports his claim by asserting, Television drama evolved in conditions that no
longer exist (66) and wonders whether the familiar one-hour drama [is] a vestigial remnant of
an earlier stage in the mediums history (67). If drama series cannot attract mass audiences to
the channels anymore, their main reason for existing on network television is removed.
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One of the conditions that have changed since the development of the drama series is
the proliferation of different new genres, such as the various kinds of reality shows. Fictional
series are now merely one item on televisions abundant menu of programming (Anderson 66);
which means that the audience is more scattered now than ever before. Fewer viewers mean
smaller revenues for the networks, which leads to less money to produce shows.
However, broadcast networks depend on advertisers for their revenue or, as Anderson
puts it, commercial networks are still in the business of delivering viewers to advertisers (73);
they are not just a medium to communicate artistic messages, they need to make money out of
it. These advertisers want their products to reach as many consumers as possible. This
translates in a lot of pressure for one-hour dramas, the high cost of whichmust be justified by a
large viewership. However, one of the main changes experienced by television in recent years is
the migration of viewers from network television to cable television and theinternet, so this
large number is no longer possible.
Moreover, the demographics that advertisers desire the most are the ones who are
leaving network television in favor of cable or other ways of watching dramas: the internet and
digital video recorders. Anderson continues, Discerning viewers are still drawn to drama series,
but they have acquired a taste for an unadulterated viewing experience (73). The absence of
commercials and the ability to create a personal viewing scheduleconstitute this new
experience, which can be achieved thanks to digital video recorders, video streaming or
premium cable channels.
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Anderson proposes a change in the relationship between the networks and the dramas,
especially in the use they make of them. The characteristics that defined the one-hour drama in
its beginnings need to change in order to adapt to the new television market. However, one-
hour dramas are very expensive products. This genre is a labor-intensive form of programming
that also requires a significant investment (Anderson 85). This makes changes very difficult, as
the system is very resistant to transformations.
Being that this isthe case; the article uses words like accommodations to talk about
the small changes the networks have introduced to reach the more discerning viewers.
Networks try to project higher production values on some shows, such as on location shooting
or expensive visual effects; or they make small concessions to viewers tastes, i.e. eliminating
commercial breaks from series premieres.
However, the author is not very optimistic about how far these little changes can go.
Anderson explains the current series model as a safe bet and explains that networks have
come back to a form of procedural drama that does not imply transformation. They are trying to
contain the audience they already have. This tactic leaves a large amount of viewers the ones
looking for complex stories and characters, the kind they are used to seeing in other media
without anything to follow on television. Moreover, the safe bet strategy makes it impossible
for any changes in the drama series to occur.
This article is written from the industry point of view and analyzes the economic
repercussions that one-hour dramas have for networks in the current environment and how
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their viewership, although the most sought-after by advertisers, is the group that is leaving
network television.
One of the aspects Anderson emphasizes the most is the high cost of producing drama
series. In a time when reality shows draw ratings higher than most drama series, traditional
drama series look increasingly like an extravagance that survives form a distant era of
television (Anderson 78). Therefore, networks are looking for new programs that cost less
money or for a way of making one-hour dramas cheaper. This contradicts the idea of
accommodations explained before, which means that network television still does not follow
a clear strategy when it comes to series.
In the time of fragmented audiences, Andersons article explains the need for a massive
audience in order to make dramas profitable. With this argument, we are led to believe that
dramas have no place in network television anymore. This helps us understand the trend of
programming quality television, especially dramas, on cable.
Cable series do not need to produce as many episodes per season, letting creators
concentrate on shorter, more carefully crafted seasons. These dramas can be genre-specific and
do not need to become a jumble of different characteristics that sometimes do not match.
Cable channels can afford lower ratings, making them perfect for the era of fragmented
audience.
Another genre affected by the changes in the television landscape is the soap opera.
Despite its diminishing ratings, Seiter and Wilson state in their article Soap Opera Survival
Tactics that this is a genre resisting its disappearance. The very use of the word survival in
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the title of the article suggests a struggle to keep the genres position on the television grid. This
implies a hostile environment, where the genre has steadily lost viewers and seminal programs
have been pulled off the air.
However, the soap opera is a genre that does not want to vanish from television. This
genre seeks to keep its defining characteristics but change its tactics when it comes to reaching
their audience. Soap operas may change the medium, the kind of viewers they aspire to attract
or the thematic genre in which they tell their stories, but they are determined not to disappear.
The methods this genre is using to maintain a sliver of its status are imaginative and match
current television characteristics.
One of the new approaches to maintaining soap operas place is their repurposing for
digital cable. This way, the genre is attempting to revitalize and address the changing lifestyles
of [its] audience () with the option of syndication (Seiter and Wilson 141). The creation of the
SoapNet network gives a new life to soap operas, rerunning old programs and making the new
ones accessible to a completely new type of audience.
This new viewership is precisely the most desired by advertisers: working women and
college students as more sophisticated audiences (Seiter and Wilson 142). SoapNet seeks to
attract them by giving a new spin to classic programs, adding a cynical, ironic twist to its
marketing campaigns. In addition, it makes access to daytime soaps easier by rerunning their
episodes on prime time, on the same day of its original broadcast.
In the era of the niche casting and catering to very specific audiences, SoapNet tries to
attract a wide variety of viewers with one common characteristic: their love for soap operas. It
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is possible in this day and age for such a channel to exist because of the possibilities cable
television brings.
This article is very optimistic about the fate of the soap opera. Although it outlines all the
difficulties the genre is going through, the authors seem enthusiastic about the strategies
adopted to salvage the genre. This optimism is in part because the authors highlight the role of
the audience in the configuration of the genre. However, one pillar of their argumentation the
creation of the cable channel SoapNet lost part of its strength when it was announced that the
channel would be removedin February 2012.
Elena Levine seems more pessimistic about the future of the soap opera in her article
Like Sands through the Hourglass. The Changing Fortunes of the Daytime Television Soap
Opera. This article emphasizes, The steady, continuing decline in ratings for daytime soaps
presents an alarming situation for the commercial media industries that allocate funding
(Levine 38). This affirmation reflects a different point of view from the previous article, as the
author is adopting an industrial point of view.
Therefore, the tactics outlined in this article are labeled effort at survival (Levine 46).
Although the article still points out the different ways in which soap operas try to still be
relevant, the production changes explained do not seem as harmless as the repurposing the
main article describes. The soaps have worked to cut production costs in a number of ways in
the post-network era (Levine 47). These production cuts include changing contracts conditions
or firing more veteran actors, offering a lower salary to young actors and eliminating breakdown
writers.
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Apart from its relocation to cable or the internet, soap operas become a program for the
post-network era by adding different genre features into its narrative. Seiter and Wilson (Soap
Opera Survival Tactics 146-149) use the example ofPassions, an NBC soap opera that aired
from 1999 to 2008, to explain how supernatural elements were introduced into the show in
order to attract a younger audience. Along the same lines as one-hour dramas, producers tried
to amalgamate various niche audiences, appealing to their tastes in different genres.
Prime time soaps bring this genre mixing to the next level. They represent the evolution
of the classic soap opera in form and content. Their higher production values make them
adequate for discerning viewers of drama series. This more active audience can appreciate the
intertextuality of the prime time soap opera, which takes elements from the melodramatic and
the satiric.
Erin Copple Smiths article, A Form in Peril? The Evolution of the Made-For-Television
Movie, deals with the last fiction genre analyzed in this paper. Made-for-television movies
seem to have disappeared from broadcast networks programming. However, as Smith states,
the arrival of cable and the related fragmentation of the broadcast audience caused economic
changes that led to migration of the form from broadcast networks to cable channels (138).
Thus, made-for-television movies can be considered a clear example of the changes that
occurred in the post-network era.
Made-for-television movies play a significant role in cable programming. First of all, as
cable channels need a much less numerous audience to be profitable, films with ratings of 3.8
which would be considered a failure on broadcast networks are seen as a huge success on
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cable. Copple Smith points out that, cable networks () often boast their highest viewership
when airing original movies, although even these ratings rarely come close to the viewership
required to be a moderate success on broadcast (145). This reducedpressure as far as ratings
are concerned makes cable a perfect environment for creative movies that would not find their
place on broadcast television.
This same phenomenon happens when we talk about one-hour dramas. As Anderson
claims, cable channels have the freedom to pursue alternative formats because they are either
partially or entirely independent of the advertising-supported model of the broadcast
networks (Television Network and the Uses of Drama 83). Given the failure of made-for-
television movies to retain viewers for network channels, we can consider them as an
alternative format, making them the perfect programming choice for cable channels.
Moreover, the made-for-television movie has the advantage of being less expensive than
drama series. Cable channels such as Lifetime or Sci-Fi (now SyFy) paid $ 2 million for about
thirty films in 2004 (Copple Smith 145). As the article reminds us, Because their audiences are
in most cases much smaller than those of broadcasters [cable channels] often also command
significantly reduced rates from advertisers, reducing their original programming budget. That
is why made-for-television movies have become such a convenient product for these channels.
However, sometimes cable channels decide to spend more money on films with higher
production values. These high-profile films are designed to draw the attention of critics
(Copple Smith 147) and to bring prestige and awards for the cable network. High budget films
are more easily sold to other markets; or, as Steve Koonin expresses in Copper Smiths article,
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the richer the production values, the longer the shelf life. Higher quality movies are more
easily sold outside the United States, which brings new revenue to the channel.
This article chooses the term peril in its title, but follows it with a question mark. The
author does not believe that the made-for-television movie is in any danger of disappearing
from television programming. The author acknowledges the lowering of ratings suffered since
the mid-1980s, but she sees the loss of popularity in broadcast networks as challenges that the
genre has been able to overcome: The made-for-television movie successfully adapted to the
multi-channel transition and, far from dead, came to thrive on cable during the post-network
era. The use of the term thrive implies a flourish of the genre, a growth in its economic and
artistic value.
Apart from its economic value, the made-for-television movies narrative adaptability
has proven to be particularly useful in establishing distinct channels identities or brands
(Copple Smith 138). In the era of niche casting, made-for-television movies can center their
plots in a single theme or textual genre action, science fiction, sports and cable channels can
use these themes to construct their identities around them. Cable channels use genre-specific
films to cater totheir audience and reinforce their image.
As was the case with the previous genres, cable channels appear as more open venues
for all kinds of programs. They have found a use for a genre that seemed to be dying in
broadcast networks and given it a purpose and relevance that can only compare to what it had
in the beginnings of television.
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This overview of fiction in the post-network era leads us to the conclusion that cable has
become the preferred destination for these genres. Lower ratings expectations and genre
specific programming create an ideal environment for one-hour dramas, soap operas and made-
for-television movies. Contrary to what happens on broadcast television, fiction programs on
cable channels can take risks with their narrative choices and can address viewers willing to
receive their messages.
The central questions raised by the articles cited will be very useful for the development
of my final paper on the television series Pushing Daisies (ABC, 2007-2009). I focused on
different types of fiction in order to get an impression of the factors and elements affecting the
development of drama series in the post-network era. I can use observations made about
ratings demands on broadcast networks to analyze the reasons for this shows failure on ABC. In
addition, references to what constitutes quality television and how it is a central aspect of the
post-network era may help define the characteristics ofPushing Daisies.
Finally, perhaps the most important notion that I can extract from the readings is the
centrality of niche audience in cable television. The main argument of my final project on
Pushing Daisies is the possibility that it would have been more successful on a cable channel
than it was on ABC. This show did not garner high ratings, but it attracted a very devoted and
specific audience. This is the type of audience cable channels cater to, so it could be safe to
claim that this would be the perfect environment for this series.
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Bibliography
Anderson, Christopher. "Television Networks and the Uses of Drama." Edgerton, Gary R. and
Brian G. Rose. Thinking outside the box. A contemporary television genre reader.
Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2005. 65-87. Print.
Copple Smith, Erin. "A form in peril? The evolution of the made-for-television movie." Lotz,
Amanda D. Beyond Prime Time. Television programming in the post-network era. New
York: Routledge, 2009. 138-155. Print.
Levine, Elena. "Like Sands through the Hourglass. The Changing Fortunes of the Daytime
Television Soap Opera." Lotz, Amanda D. Beyond Prime Time. Television Porgramming
in the Post-Network Era. New York, NY: Routledge, 2009. 36-54.
Seiter, Ellen and Mary Jeanne Wilson. "Soap Opera Surivival Tactics." Edgerton, Gary R. and
Brian G. Rose. Thinking outside the box. A contemporary television Genre Reader.
Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2005. 136-155.