There’s been a lot of speculation about the possible long-term side effects of a writers’ strike: that the disruption might change the development process or move the networks away from debuting most of their new shows all at once in the fall. Here’s another: will the strike burn viewers out on reality shows?
Idol, this year with 15% fewer Americans! / FOX
I’ve never been one of those critics who believes reality TV is a fad that will eventually disappear. I think it’s one of TV’s staple genres now, like dramas and sitcoms. But that means it will have up and down cycles like dramas and sitcoms too, and it’s had a pretty strong run in the ratings for the last seven or eight years. Like a runaway stock or housing market, it might be overdue for a correction. And oversaturation by strike replacement programming could be the thing to do it.
The results so far are mixed. On the one hand, American Gladiators was one of the top-rated new shows of the season, before or after the strike. On the other hand, the debut of American Idol was 15% off its debut last year–though it still drew over 30 million, and the fall-off may have been a reaction against the last season, which, fan consensus seems to indicate, sucked.
Personally, while I’m an unembarrassed fan of reality series, there haven’t been many that have really excited me the past couple years: Kid Nation is the one example that comes to mind this season, and there’s been the occasional minor success like Celebrity Rehab. It may be that the reality glut has led to a deficit of intriguing premises. (Of course, Moment of Truth could change all that.)
What do you think? I’m especially interested in hearing from those of you who don’t hate all reality shows as a general principle. Is reality TV losing its magic? Is the strike making that more apparent? Or are you in gladiator heaven?