Network TV's Case of the Missing Men (Or, "The Day TV Died")

fox ^ | 11-21-03

[steppenwolffe]

Young man, turn on your television. Please. The networks are begging you.

Due to an exodus of 18- to 34-year-old male viewers, the four networks' new TV shows are getting booted off the air faster than "Survivor" contestants this season.

[steppenwolffe]

Two words: Counter-Strike. That, and the fact that tv is biased, insipid and juvenile.

O.k. That's something like 12 words, but, you get the point.

[Severa]

My husband's answer to TV (at least before this deployment) was Star Wars Galaxies.

[Lee Heggy]

Could it be that Network programming is so bereft of any real creative talent in both writing and concepts that it fails to grab the imagination of young people...yeah it pretty much sucks big time.

[AntiGuv]

Maybe if they ditched the endless, tired, degenerate reality TV show knockoffs, more guys would tune in. As for myself, I haven't had much reason to watch anything besides sports & cable news since X-Files and Star Trek:TNG went off the air.

[ItsOurTimeNow]

Mine is reading and having tea parties with my daughter.

Network TV blows. Perhaps if they stopped trying to "teach" us with liberal-biased themes, and stuck with entertainment, they'd have something worthwhile.

SpikeTV entertains. FX entertains. Comedy Central entertains.

Do you think the networks would get it by now?

[egarvue]

If you like Counter-Strike, I encourage you to try two other Half Life mods: Day of Defeat, a WWII team game, and Natural Selection, an intense aliens vs. space marines game that plays like you're in a game of Starcraft.

[SunStar]

"There's no reason to watch," said Michael Kingsley, 30, of New York, who makes exceptions for "24," "NYPD Blue" and "The Simpsons." "There's nothing really engaging out there."

As a 27 year old man, let me add to this list of exceptions:

1.) Threat Matrix
2.) Oh well, nevermind.

[Semper Paratus]

percent prime-time declines among men 18 to 34

CBS's Victoria Secrets special may have helped.

[2banana]

I'd like to see more gay oriented sit-coms, left leaning news programs and shows that make people eat really strange things...

[My Favorite Headache]

LOL

[RebelBanker]

I generally agree with you, but will make an exception for "Star Trek - Enterprise." Like every Star Trek series, it is taking a while to find itself, but I think it has some decent potential and is worth watching. I will absolutely NOT watch any of those horrible "reality" shows!

[who knows what evil?]

"24" and "Smallville"...that's about it. I don't even waste time with sports anymore.

[50sDad]

More and more homes have the Net. For those who want sex, it's all over the place, in levels the Networks will never (I hope!) be able to touch. For those who want greater intellectual stimulation than the Idiot Box can provide, that is out there, too. I'd rather play a bad mod level of Thief than watch the cr@p that the Networks think I should watch.

[lelio]

I would add in HBO's "The Wire" too. Engaging storyline, no preachy "drugs are bad" or "drug dealers are just misunderstood" lines. Their 6 Feet Under is good as well.

That, the Simpsons, and 24 is about all I need to watch.

Well except for Melrose Place reruns mornings on E / Style. Yes, I am hopelessly addicted to that show. Anyone care to fill me in on why Peter's face was cutup? I'm guessing it was an altercation with Kyle, whose soon to be ex-wife he's sleeping with, and Kyle just found out that she's Peter's long dead ex-wife's sister.

PBS's Frontline is usually really good as well.

[Squawk 8888]

"Coupling" didn't die because of demographics, it died because it was bloody awful. Even with the same scripts it was no match for the original (IMO the funniest show since Fawlty Towers). Face it, Hollywood just can't do sex farces the way the British and French can.

[Adder]

Perhaps if the shows weren't so heavily anti-male, especially anti white male, more guys would be watching.
I know I don't watch to be preached at by some uber feminist whose idea of programming is to have men as buffoons and idiots and in supporting roles to the woman who is now a man[meaning that women are not acting like women but rather like traditional male characters].
Women didn't like such characterizations and neither do men now.
Hell, even Monday Night football intros now have women trying to extoll the virtues of a game that they know nothing about[and it shows: they say the words but have little clue as to their meaning].
NO ONE wants to mention that angle: it may not be the prime reason but it is surely a significant reason.

[FroedrickVonFreepenstein]

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

We have a winner!!!!!!!

[TroutStalker]

Cable TV + digital video recorder = watch what you want anytime and skip the commercials.

[over3Owithabrain]

What this man watches:

NFL Sunday ticket
Simpson/Seinfeld reruns
FoxNews (when not doing Kobe/Scott/MJ)
Old movies (with wife, works for foreplay)
Playmakers (guilty pleasure, male sports soap opera)

[Ciexyz]

The only new show of the season that I watch regularly is "Tarzan" on WB, and that show is going on hiatus. The network will see how the next couple episodes do. Sunday eve at 9 PM, if anyone's interested.

I always catch any new incarnation of Tarzan. Unfortunately, the networks never give new shows time to find an audience, they just brutally cut them if they don't click right away.