Free Republic

Broadcast-TV ratings may again be on the decline — as they have been since… well, for a while! — but that does not mean ABC, CBS et al are about to close up shop and leave your Zenith with nothing but test patterns. And here is the important reason why. Money. “But,” you argue, “ratings are down! You typed it right up above! I see it with my own eyes!” And the short retort to that is: Remember what your high school economics teacher told you about supply and demand…. The longer answer, for those interested enough to stick around:...

It's a widely accepted piece of TV ratings dogma that same-day numbers represent a starting point, not the complete picture for a given show. What's also true, however, is that in 2018-19, the starting point for nearly every returning broadcast series retreated from the previous season. In fact, only 10 percent (10 of 102) of veteran series increased or held steady with their same-day adults 18-49 rating from the 2017-18 season. The Hollywood Reporter's comparison includes same-day ratings for all original episodes of series that aired more than one episode in the 2018-19 season, including those coded as specials. Only...

TV series are including more LGBTQ characters and adding gender-nonconforming ones, but there’s a need for richer, more complex stories about them, according to the media advocacy group GLAAD. LGBTQ depictions increased in the current season across broadcast, cable and streaming platforms, the group’s annual Where We Are on TV study released Thursday found. Shows contributing to the change include NBC’s reboot of “Will & Grace” and “The Deuce” on HBO. […] Of the 901 characters set to appear regularly on prime-time network series in the 2017-18 season, 6.4 percent are identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender or queer....

This is the worst fall for new TV shows in the decade I’ve been a professional TV critic. And it’s hard to find one much worse in all the years I’ve been cognizant of “new fall TV” as a concept, since the late ’80s. The comedies didn’t make me laugh. The dramas made me roll my eyes. Even with the boom in platforms making new TV, there’s but one show I’d recommend wholeheartedly and a smattering of others that made me say, “There could be something there if they work out the kinks.” The vast, vast majority of the new...

When I first saw the KTVU video in which anchorwoman Tori Campbell gave the fictional names of the Asiana Airlines pilots -- Captain Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk and Bang Ding Ow -- I laughed. I laughed out loud, and then I watched it again. After days of watching the painful news about the July 6 crash that killed three and left many wounded, it felt good to laugh. I didn't think that the gaffe had racist intent. I figured it was just a puerile newsroom prank that somehow made it on the air. I never...

On Easter Sunday evening, a TV show about good and evil aired on the History Channel -- the final installment of "The Bible" miniseries in which Jesus is executed. AMC ran the season-ending episode of "The Walking Dead" -- the series where zombies try to eat the brains of human beings. One footnote: The world might have been a better place had the zombies preemptively gotten to the guy who thought up this series in the first place. Anyway, the zombies won. They beat Jesus in the ratings, especially among viewers ages 18 to 49. What lesson can be...

The Hollywood elite's concern for the children stops at the water's edge of physical fitness. They simply do not touch the subject of moral fitness. On The Huffington Post, former entertainment executive Laurie David offered this pre-holiday piece of encouragement: "Thanksgiving Conversation Starter: Is It Time to Ban Soda Ads on Prime Time Television?" At the same time that the broadcast networks are allowing -- even advocating -- the removal of all limitations on nudity or profanity on TV, at any hour of the day, David is most upset about those old polar bear ads for Coca-Cola: "Knowing what I...

Washington corruption has a new foe in the guise of Oscar winning actor Kevin Spacey. Interviewed at a screening of his latest film Casino Jack, in which he plays nefarious lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Spacey dropped political science on a CNS reporter. As much as they’d like to pretend they cleaned up the lobbying industry by throwing this guy [Abramoff] in jail, they haven’t. It’s still got too much influence… To some degree, I blame the networks. You know, I think if network television started to agree to run legitimate ads that you knew were true – if you’re gonna say...

ANOTHER REASON NOT TO WATCH NETWORK TV Last night I found myself in the unusual situation of actually watching some network television. When I turned the TV on it was tuned to some sitcom starring Ted Dansen. Well, I used to like Cheers and the writing seemed decent so I decided to give it a thought for a moment or two. Evidently Dansen plays a doctor. During one scene he is handing some teenage kid a bag of condoms. The kid tells Dansen’s character he isn’t really concerned about HIV because, after all, they have some sort of a cocktail...