"I Want My Gay TV"

Gay TV is the new black. Even the Nielsen Family people are considering going queer.

From a programming perspective, Showtime had "ground breaking" QUEER AS FOLK. (The original British version is head and shoulders better.)

Then Bravo made the hit show QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GUY.

Viacom announced the LOGO channel exclusively targeted to gays and lesbians.

Not to be outdone, Bravo had the idea to do America's Next Hot Male Model, better described as Uber Gay Show To Date: MANHUNT.

Just don't confuse it with this.

Nielsen Gives Hope to the Networks

It's true that the Nielsen numbers are not what they used to be ten--or even five--years ago. Alas, network executives, fear not!

Wednesday's numbers--and likely Thursday's too--tell a simple, but powerful story: the viewers are out there. And they will turn to the major broadcast networks in droves if we put out original, quality programming.

It's a simple calculation, really. A Nielsen "share" is the percentage of total TV viewers at any given moment. So for instance, if a show received a 5 rating and a 9 share, that would be about 6.25 million viewers (5 x 1.25M viewers) and 9% of the total viewers who have their TVs on at that specific time.

Looking at Wednesday at 9:30PM, we count among the 6 broadcast networks a total share of 93! That means of all of the TV's on at that time, 93% of them were on a non-cable network.

This, my dear reader, spells hope for the broadcast networks. Theoretically, with more broadcast networks than ever before, competition should produce higher quality shows. (On the dark side, they could go in reverse and it would be a competition for who makes the least objectionable. I prefer to look from the brighter side.)

Most importantly, however, a 93 share is empirical evidence that viewers can (and have) come to broadcast TV. The numbers are right before your eyes.

It bears worth repeating: If you make TV good, they will come.

(At one point in the night, ABC's THE BACHELOR was in 6th place [out of 6], or dead last.)

Notably, this is premiere week when the hype is high, the families are home from vacation, and kids are starting school. It could be just all downhill from here. Or, maybe later in the season, we'll see a 95 share, then a 96 share.

In one month's time, broadcast networks will see if these levels hold up--and so will we.

The Gay Old Party

The GOP makes me angrier every day. Their tactics of fear-mongering and hate-building scream of the Ku Klux Klan.

Here's the latest.

Meanwhile, under pressure, another high-level Republican leader comes out of the closet.

FBI's Most Wanted

I think this counts as Hollywood and Politics.

LOST wins

The LOST season premiere handily won its time slot. At its peak, LOST earned a rating of 7.0 in the key demo (18-49 year olds), compared to its closest competition: the DR. PHIL's Special at 4.8.

AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL tied for last place at 2.0.

Each point translates into about 1.25 million viewers.

There are many explanations to why all of this happened and to extract every permutation would be lengthy. I suggest LOST did so well--and will do so well--not be because its pilot episode was particularly well written (again, I LOVE show-creator J.J. Abrams), but the idea of the show is different.

In a crowded TV marketplace, people will watch just about anything. But what people want is innovative, unique TV. The premise behind LOST is just that. I just wish there wasn't so much pipe-laying in the pilot, "Back when I was a resident...", versus showing a character practicing medicine on 12 people and the viewer is smart enough to figure it out. And cliched characters, a pregnant woman going into labor, the "foreign" couple with a dominating Asian husband barking orders which need subtitles, and a stupid fat guy.

Why does TV refuse to make fat people smart in shows? And for the record Camryn Manheim's character in THE PRACTICE was not smart. And Tyne Daily... well, you get my point.

What if you made the foreign couple Arab? Too daring? It's a national audience, we can't put Arab's in a show where a plane goes down! We need to stick with familiar stereotypes. I think little tweaks in story could get even more viewers.

Just because it's on broadcast TV, doesn't mean producers need to dumb it down. LAW & ORDER has had--and continues to have--a strong run because Dick Wolf and his talented group do not dumb the 20 LAW & ORDER shows, down.

Aside from being different than any other show in premise, LOST benefited from huge amounts of advertising which is not sustainable for the entire season. We all know how easily people are manipulated with commercials. Look at the presidential race to see that. Just because George Bush advertises more, doesn't mean he's better. The same can be said for LOST.

This is certainly not to imply that LOST is the George Bush of TV choices. Rather, the lesson to possibly be learned from Disney is to cross-promote properties. In LOST's case, it was on the Travel Channel; ESPN 1, 2, classic; Discovery Channel, and more.

TV learned another big lesson last night. Save that for tomorrow.

LOST may have nowhere to go

The first 15 minutes of LOST seems disappointingly mundane and full of cliches. And I'm a huge--I mean HUGE--fan of show-creator/director J.J. Abrams, whose almost-a-hit-show ALIAS is also on ABC. (Sunday nights, 9PM.)

ALIAS is "appointment TV" for me. That is, it's in my Palm Pilot like an appointment so I don't miss it.

If the first act of LOST is any indication, ALIAS will be the only Abrams' appointment TV show I'll be watching this season.

Three acts to go.
(submitted 8:20PM, 22 Sep 2004)

Addendum:

I never made it through the first act of LOST. Instead, I channel flipped over to UPN to watch AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL. Keep in mind, I never watched last season's show. I did watch half of a painful "recap" episode. That was, perhaps, one of the worst things I've ever watched on broadcast TV aside from WHOOPI (also from last season, NBC).

If I'm not alone in my channel flipping--and we'll learn if I am tomorrow thanks to the TV Nielsen gods--ABC may be in trouble. They are heavily invested in LOST, an expensive-to-produce, highly marketed and publicized show.

(I even saw commercials of LOST on the WORLD SERIES OF POKER [on ESPN, a Disney-owned channel] and the World Poker Tour [on the Travel Channel, another Disney property!])

AMAZING

AMAZING RACE 5 won its timeslot for the entire 2-hour season finale. Congrats to CBS on their excellent programming and scheduling; congrats to the producers for a terrific show.

CBS, and naturally their leader Leslie Moonves, deserve credit for how they've pushed NBC out of the Number One spot after a long reign in that position. It was NBC's to lose.

During the 90's, NBC had an unbeatable lineup. But "Must See TV" is rare these days. And when it does happen, it's not for NBC.

One of the reasons NBC was so strong was its comedy line-up. Now, there are few stand-out comedies on NBC. They don't have a night to rule.

So, today, kudos to CBS.

The Priceless Larry Flynt

The outings of closeted, gay but anti-gay Republicans continue. Thanks to take-no-prisoners Larry Flynt, who--it's been suggested--hired young men to be available to Republican leaders during the New York convention.

I have a first-hand account of such things happening. No, I wasn't one of the rentable young men, but I did witness an older Republican fellow in my hotel escorting a young man to his room. The amusing part happened already in the lobby. Because of heightened security, all guests needed ID and a special keycard. Visitors of guests--hired boys included--needed to be escorted, in an ironic twist.

I listened to their awkward banter on the elevator:

Republican Daddy: So, you got here sooner than I expected.

Twink Boy Toy: Yeah.

Republican Daddy: Very fast. Really.

Twink Boy Toy: Yeah, the cab was quick.

(longer awkward pause)

Twink Boy Toy: No traffic.


Ding. My floor! And I left the two love birds to their own.

Makes You Proud to Be a Republican

Thanks, Brad.

Miss What TV Used to Be, Miss America?

Newsday calls this year's Miss America Pageant a "hit with viewers" with about 6 million total TV watchers on Saturday night. Six million TV viewers beat the other "major" broadcast networks for the night.

Oh, how the times have changed.

Just FIVE years ago, the MAP had nearly 16 million viewers--and it was a 3 hour show! Who has that kind of stamina to watch Stepford women for 3 hours?

In 5 years, 10 million people have decided to watch or do something else.

Here's why.

MAP was one of the first successful reality shows. Ironic since reality shows are anything but. But it was a TV model that everyone copied (I love play on words, forgive me; I promise no more parenthetical; this is a blog [not the Back Page of Time Magazine] where parentheticals are tacky in the former [but what about brackets?]).

Like I was saying, MAP is a TV model everyone copied. It was a familiar, almost comforting structure. Mini-contest after contest, tensions rise as contestants were whittled away through elimination, then a final winner.

MAP couldn't have predicted how many spin-offs of them would happen in just 5 years. THE SWAN, BACHELOR, WHAT IF I MARRIED A MILLIONAIRE, the list goes on.

Beauty pageants aren't anything special anymore; TV isn't anything special anymore.

The ratings prove it in both cases.

But there's hope.

TV can be special again but it will take bold leadership. Unfortunately, this is hard to come by in both politics and Hollywood. Some say the viewers lost to XBox players and the Internet are gone forever. I disagree.

If you make it good, they will watch.

Let's start making it good again.

The Blog Craze

Tomorrow... something fun about TV.

But for today, have you seen Bloglines? It's great--at least what limited functions I know about or comprehend.

It was refered to me, of course, by my estimable friend and blog/geek-mentor.