Tuned In

Critics and Networks: Unhappy Together

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The Television Critics Association summer press tour begins in Los Angeles… right… about… now. Or so I’m told. I don’t go to press tours most years even when the networks have a great deal of new product to promote, and this year—when the broadcast networks have few pilots yet and are relaunching much of their 2007 schedules in what is charitably called a “do-over”—there’s less than usual. The tour remains useful, though, for newspaper TV reporters who don’t live in New York and L.A., and I’ll be following it through some of the blogs you’ll find in the blogroll at right.

What will make it an interesting press tour to watch, even from the sidelines, is that it comes at a rough time for both TV critics and TV networks, at least the major broadcast ones. The theme of this year’s TCA could well be: Misery Loves Company.


You’re familiar with the networks’ problems: primetime ratings are down, way down, in part from the aftermath of the writers’ strike; there’s less inventory in the pipeline (same reason); and, oh, look!, there’s the possibility (if an outside one) of an actors’ strike coming on top of that.

As for the TV critics: they’re becoming as decimated as the networks’ fall development. It seems like every time I look at Romenesko or the TCA newsletter there’s news of another massive buyout, which, likely as not, has claimed another newspaper critic who is not likely to be replaced. Some are leaving the biz altogether; some, like David Bianculli and Diane Werts, are making a go of freelancing or blogging; others are being shuffled into different jobs or beats that have less and less to do with TV. The trend, it seems, is that except at perhaps the biggest papers, if there are critics at all, they’ll need to become critics-plus: critics plus editors, critics plus general feature writers, critics plus bloggers / pop culture columnists.

To maintain its ranks amid the retirements and downsizings, the TCA has been accrediting more and more bloggers for press tour, which is a good development insofar as it means that anyone, anywhere, is managing to make a job of doing full-time criticism. But the annual rumblings that press tour has outlived its usefulness are getting louder. This year Reuters The Hollywood Reporter took a swipe at it: “One could argue that, given the tight economic times, TCA is something of an antiquated holdover from the era of excess.” And other events—in particular, the summer Comic Con, which draws panels from more and more TV shows—are now competing for newsworthiness. (Last year, the producers of Lost caught hell for trying to save big news about the show for Comic Con rather than sharing it at TCA, but who can blame them? The fanboy and -girl buzz increasingly makes or breaks shows.)

Is press tour worthwhile anymore? I try to stay neutral on that question, because while press tour isn’t usually worth the trip for me, as a critic at a national magazine, that doesn’t mean that it’s not worthwhile for local paper writers who get months of stories out of it, yet are having a hard time getting their editors to budget the tour anymore. With fewer and fewer critics showing up, there’s talk that press tour, if it doesn’t go away altogether, may morph into some kind of distance-learning affair, with executive press conferences and new-show panels held by webcast.

In other words, those of us remaining as TV critics may end up watching press tour on a screen, which is what we do best.