Sometimes I try to visualize how proposals for TV series are presented to network buyers. It is especially curious for series that get pulled after only a few episodes are shown or when the series gets cancelled.
Writers just ‘lift’ from existing series.
I have watched several medical dramas. One theme that shows up in them is the child-given-up years earlier by one of the drama regulars and years later turning up at the hospital as a doctor.
After a while of watching some crime dramas, one can usually figure out the villain within 15 minutes.
I am not sure a strike now — after 2 years of COVID shutdown and number of episodes reduced significantly — is a good idea. Networks can pull up literally thousands of shows to rerun. And they can always revert to more ‘reality’ programs.
I just finished Hunter. LOL
Writers, nowadays, have no “real-life” experience and, truly, lack imagination (like today’s current crop of auto-designers). They don’t employ subject-matter experts as advisors; especially on police and military shows. Some of that crap is so cloyingly stupid , I wanna gag! It’s obvious that the scripts are written based on the writers jaundiced depiction of what real life actually is. It’s sad that the purveyors of so-called entertainment are so disdainful of the consumer. Even, print media is subliterate.
The networks use focus groups (as well as ratings) to figure out which shows to cancel.
Low ratings can be misleading since it may take a while for a new show to gain fans—but focus groups showing the audience is bored, uninterested, or (especially these days with the woke garbage) hostile can tell the tale.