ANOTHER ONE CANCELLED: WHY TV AUDIENCES ARE LOSING THEIR PATIENCE.

Dear Friends,

As an avid sci-fi and fantasy fan I am seriously disturbed about the current trend of televisual programming that is plaguing our screens of late. Over the course of the last year and a half I have borne witness to potentially great TV shows falling under the corporate axe.

2015 has been a most depressing year for me television wise. My wife still hears me ranting about the plethora of potentially great stories that have been chopped down before they had the chance to reach the potentially dizzying heights executives want them to reach. Friends at work continuously roll their eyes at the “why did they do it rant” they are invariably forced to listen to at least twice a week. And I still find my jaw locking into a near explosive tension whenever I see on the TV at my local gym that the soul destroying Jeremy Kyle Show has been going for ten years.

This year saw programmes like Believe, Backstrom, Garfunkle & Oats fall to the executive executioners guillotine. But the most mourned for victim of televisual axing was, without a doubt, Constantine.

Now, most people who know me are aware of my lifelong love of the original Hellblazer series. Constantine was DC’s first real example of how a wise cracking, chain smoking, alcoholic, exorcist scouser could be successful and accessible to a comic book audience. Naturally when a series was commissioned I, as a fan and a writer both, was elated.

When it was first broadcast on October 25th last year it was, without a doubt, one of the very best anniversary presents I have ever received and the following weeks did not let me down either. The show would progress from strength to strength, crafting a wonderfully told story that had me gripped and foaming at the mouth for more come the seasons end.

And then disaster struck. Constantine became a victim of the trend of premature show chopping.

The official reason was ratings of course but while they never achieved Game of Thrones style numbers the shows figures still beat most of Hannibal’s viewing figures for its collected three season run.

So why then is it that such great programming is more often than not struck down? I cannot give you any definite answers my friends but I can hypothesise from what I have gleaned over the years.

In general there are three things that studios care about – Cost, Content and Ratings so let’s try and break it down one by one.

Cost – How much is this show going to cost me and am I going to reap the rewards afterwards? It’s a very simple question that TV networks ask and one any good businessman should. When a network puts its hand in its pocket it is with the intent of making an investment. This show is going to be made in an effort to draw in the viewing audience away from my competitors. Not only that but is this show going to generate enough of a buzz so I can capitalize on the hype in DVD and merchandising sales?

Content – Is the content going to leave me open to reprisal? TV studios have never been afraid to court controversy. There has been a long standing history of programmes using scenes of explicit sex or violent rape or course language in order to shock the audiences to stay riveted to their seats. Unfortunately content, sometimes of tamer sort, has left programmes open to cancellation. Back in 2000 a little known animated show called “God, The Devil and Bob” was pulled from American TV screens due to right wing Christians claiming it was blasphemous

Ratings – Is this show going to pull the public away from my competitor? At the end of the day, all content on all networks is derived from a need to pull the audience away from competing channels. This sort of one-upmanship has been going on since the television was invented so why should it stop now?

How, you may ask, does all this relate to the title of today’s blog?

It is because of these three factors and the fear that comes from falling to the competition, that excellent programming is being cut off before it has had its day in the sun.

When new and different programming ideas are pitched these three questions are always taken into account. Yet with the recent successes of both the Game of Thrones adaptation and the plethora of comic to TV adaptations and the ratings giants they have become, new programmes struggle to stay afloat.

This in turn has resulted in a very jaded viewing audience and is producing a vicious cycle.

There are scores of not only sci-fi/fantasy fans, but also casual viewers who have given up the ghost. They have simply stopped giving programming a chance at the first series as they have been burned once too often by the fears of the corporate machine. When a show has proven to grab the attention of a member of the public and then dash their hopes of a second series, well, that person becomes a little jaded.

The attitude is now quite ridiculous. People don’t want to invest their time or emotional effort anymore, they have simply been burned once too often and instead are turning to the junk food of “reality” television.

This of course works in the favour of TV networks. “Reality” TV costs considerably less money than a full television series and, as we have all witnessed, has the power to draw powerful ratings numbers.

So why does this make me so mad? The answers to that question could make the entire length of another blog so I won’t bore you with the hundred or more reasons why I hate “reality” TV.

However, I will leave you with this. Until such a time as Hollywood starts being fearless and stops relying on breakneck ratings and previously established fanbases, expect the cycle of premature cancellation to continue.