I suffered through something I haven’t done in years — watching an ABC primetime show live — with commercials and all. I don’t recommend it. I don’t know how anyone does it. With so many ways to record content and fast-forward through the commercials, watching live makes absolutely no sense.
The show was SHARK TANK. We were looking for some mind-numbing thing to watch to distract us from all the news channels (for the obvious reason).
It was an ordeal.
And again, it demonstrated to me just how totally clueless broadcast networks are today. Now, I should say I haven’t watched any of the other networks live during primetime so I can’t say that all networks do this. But ABC did.
The avalanche of commercials — that I expected. Any sponsor who pays big money to be the fifth straight commercial is insane. Everyone is in the kitchen, bathroom, their room to get the computer — anywhere but the TV screen. Take the tiny audience you have for the show itself and figure more people bail after every commercial. So if you have the fourth or fifth spot, the only one watching is the family dog. Hope you didn’t pay $100K for that privilege.
But here’s what I wasn’t expecting. A slew of ABC promos — in some cases the same promo. That’s fucking crazy! You could have five or six more minutes of program content. You could have made the commercial breaks somewhat more tolerable. Sure, networks need to promote their upcoming shows, but Jesus, how many times do I have to see THE ROOKIE? And the promos are usually buried in the commercial breaks. So even the family dog has left the living room.
Networks claim they’re working hard to enhance the “viewer experience.” That’s their excuse for cutting credits. Time is too precious to acknowledge the people who made the show, but not too precious to show the same damn ROOKIE promo over and over.
Are networks short-sighted? Or worse, do they just not give a shit? Do they know the end is coming and they’re trying to squeeze every dollar they can? Is their focus so on the future and streaming that the broadcast networks are now just a foster child?
I’m sure only us Boomers care. ABC used to mean something. All the networks used to mean something. To someone born in this century they mean nothing. So I’m one of the few who is still pained by the way broadcast networks are hastening their own demise. I wonder if anyone inside ABC feels that way? I’m guessing no.
58 comments :
Did you watch The Simpsons last night? I felt the writer (Dan Vebber) did Martin a disservice and threw away a lot of the character development you and David gave him in Saturdays of Thunder. If you haven't seen it yet, I would appreciate your thoughts in a future blog post.
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> Are networks short-sided?
I believe the expression is "short sighted"
Try watching a current sitcom live. There are like 6 acts breaks in one half hour. Who can stand a commercial break every five minutes? As if the current sitcoms aren't bad enough!
I remember ABC's promos circa 1970 with 2001 animation and Bacharach's "Nikki". The other two networks must have had their own promos but no one talked about those.
One of the things I don't understand, with DVRs and time shifting, is why local news even bothers with "Tonight at 10... Plus the forecast for tomorrow." Yeah, sorry that's yesterday's news and weather.
Are networks short-sided? Or worse, do they just not give a shit? Do they know the end is coming and they’re trying to squeeze every dollar they can? Is their focus so on the future and streaming that the broadcast networks are now just a foster child?
I'm sure that you know that the answer is yes to all of the above.
I grew up with network television of the era from the 70s-80s-early 90s, but that era is long gone. I wish could say otherwise, but the media models, not to mention the political models, need to be replaced. Not by social media trash that is currently destroying our minds, but by something that gives us the balance of entertainment and real discourse and information that keeps us functioning.
It's amazing what blithering nincompoops they are regarding commercials. Since the first VCRs came into the hands of consumers, commercials became irrelevant. Then answer? PILE ON MORE COMMERCIALS! To hear my uncle and aunt talk, the old days of commercials required a real sprint to get a drink or a pee break before the show returned. All I know is in current times, the number of commercials means any task can be done at a relaxed and casual pace.
FAR worse than commercials are those pop-ups that happen mid-show. I don't know how many shows have been soured because of a bright yellow banner leaping into the screen telling me to buy Sudsy! One show was essentially ruined because the villains spoke in their own language, with English subtitles supplied...until a galloping promo (might have been for "Rookie") blocked those subtitles. We were left floundering as to what was going on...
We feel the same way. When we need a break from real life as far as watching TV we see if HGTV has anything to distract us. Luckily as is HGTV's wont they were running nothing but Home Town yesterday. It can get a little cloying, but we generally enjoy that show and one or two others they feature. If HGTV has something we don't like we go for a walk. Lately we've been walking quite a bit.
CBS also has countless advertisements for their own shows when I watch YOUNG SHELDON on Thursday nights. I mute *all* commercials.The average YS episode is about nineteen minutes long, so that's a *lot* of advertisements.
The secret to watching TV is not watching live. DVR shows and skip through the ads (and for football, between plays and through timeouts). That's what I do. I have Altice (not an ad) and their Altice One DVRs let you skip ahead 30 seconds with one button, back 10 with the other, and a whole minute either way with channel up or down. I'm only interested in ads or promos if I recognize the live-action or voice actors. For example, Jim Meskimen (Marion Ross's son) is the voice of KFC TV and radio ads, doing a great Colonel Sanders impression.
ScarletNumber, maybe Dan Vebber will go back to Futurama once that returns. He was better there, anyway.
Sadly, you could just as easily be describing the baseball owners as they try to extract the last few dollars from the sport they are killing. Just has kids born in this century care nothing for the networks, most of them have no attachment to baseball
Back in Com 250 at WSU in 1980, there were predictions that the big 3 networks were soon to become dinosaurs, in the words of the professor.
Over the weekend I received an announcement about the book DIRECTED BY JAMES BURROWS. The announcement even came with a review, and the book won't be available until June. It would be wonderful if you could have him as a guest on your podcast when the book is published.
Within a decade, I predict live TV networks will no longer exist. Streaming is the way of the future, whether we like it or not.
Ken, when you have an afternoon free, go see The Batman. It's terrific. You'll probably find it too long (it's 175 minutes) but it's worth your time. Paul Dano is truly creepy and scary as The Riddler. This ain't Jim Carrey's Riddler. There are allusions to January 6 insurrectionist types. Strong echoes of the movie Seven. Zoe Kravitz is hot as Catwoman. Colin Farrell nearly steals the movie as Penguin. The prosthetics on his face are astounding. It's got next year's Oscar for make-up in the bag.
Bumpers.
Remember those - the 2-3 second gap between the commercials and the program?
And between the station break and the program?
So when we were fast-forwarding past the breaks, we'd know when to slow down when they went back to the show?
And we wouldn't have to backtrack to get the parts we missed (sometimes as much as a whole scene)?
My age is kicking in again, with a vengeance.
As I've said before here (often), I'm a Fifties Kid: born in 1950, with three networks and an indie here in Chicago, and everybody took their sweet time getting it all in.
I miss that.
The Modern Need For Speed is getting to me when I watch older shows from my DVD Wall.
I find myself wondering what's taking everybody so long: "Get ON with it, already!"
Not a good way to approach this, I know ...
I could go on and list all the things that I grew up with, and which have slowly vanished in recent times ...
... like theme music ...
... and readable credits ...
... and pacing in drama and comedy ...
... and all of you can add your own pet peeves (and I don't doubt that you all will) ...
I've been retired (not exactly voluntarily) for nearly a decade.
I'm enjoying it less and less as time goes on ...
You raise an interesting question...how do the networks charge for commercial placement? And how do the charges reflect that many (most?) watchers simply Tivo/record the shows they are interested in watching then blitz through the commercials with the fast forward feature. The few network shows I watch are always recorded and then watched from a 15 minute lead time for a half hour show or days when I'll watch when I get around to it. Is there an unspoken pricing discount now built into TV advertising charges to reflect the kill-the-ads technology?
I don't think I have seen this mentioned here. CBS has gotten to showing whole 1-2 minute scenes of shows as promos. UGGG.
Also, I have noticed recently that TIVO auto skip no longer skips all of the ADs. It might include one add at the beginning or end. That or it will include network promos.
I'm wondering if the promos represent local ad space that wasn't sold...
Same issues with terrestrial radio, which I used to enjoy. They're writing their own obits. Every few months I'll purposely bounce over to FM from SiriusXM or CarPlay and confirm again that yes, it's still wall-to-wall commercials. And I'm not a conspiracy person but I swear that with all the same station owners, the stations run ads at the same times. ... When I was a kid in the 80s the FM stations would do "94 minutes" or "100 minutes" of commercial-free music (during drive-time!) as a hook. If they bother doing that now, it's lost on me. ... I'm surprised some haven't tried an approach of having the sponsor(s) name-checked frequently between songs, instead of running blocs of ads that have us reach for the dial. Sirius gives quick Sirius promos and drop-ins that the terrestrials could mimic. I'd listen to a local station if they did that.
So when Reagan's FCC got rid of the limits on advertising, I was a kid reporter at our local newspaper and did a story on it. The GM of the ABC affiliate told me that they would add ads, but not too many. He said if you overdo it, you will lose viewers. And he proved to be prescient, eh? Cable was JUST coming in, by the way.
This goes back to something that a department chair at my community college later told me: "If you give an administrator a hand, he will take your arm." That proved true, especially after he became a dean. Same principle, I'd say.
@maxdebryn
Young Sheldon is my favorite prime-time show, and PTI is my favorite afternoon show. However I am at the point where I can watch neither one live. It's like CBS and ESPN know they have cash cows so they are milking them for everything they are worth. I start them at 8:10 and 5:40 respectively, and I finish the same time as the live broadcast.
@Unknown
I recently had to drive a loaner car which did not have SiriusXM in it. It was unlistenable. SXM has really spoiled me for FM radio.
@Unknown When I listen to terrestrial radio, I notice the same thing: commercials at the same time. So when I hear the obnoxious Fran Drescher soundalike telling me "It's a crime to pay more than a dime" for a car, I turn and hear the other obnoxious car ad or HVAC company and go right back to SiriusXM.
As much as I love the service, Pluto probably wins the repetitive commercials contest hands down. I give them benefit of the doubt because it's still a relatively new service so they probably don't get many sponsors, but if they ever charged to go commercial-free I'd actually consider.
I've predicted the demise of the networks for years, even before streaming. When the networks started putting their shows online with minimal ads I knew it was only a matter of time.
Like Mr. Doran, I'm a child of the 50s. Back then, a half-hour was 26 minutes of program, three one-minute commercials, and one-minute local breaks (no hot-switching). And series did 39 episodes a year, occasionally even more. Nowadays, even 13 19-minute episodes is apparently too much effort for some people. Harrumph, harrumph.
More ads! More ads!
I don't know if they're still doing it, but I remember a few years ago watching Frasier reruns on Hallmark and noticing they were slightly speeding up the footage of the show. Not the commercials though. Those were at normal speed. Hmm...
ScarletNumber, I had the same experience (as a passenger) in my dad's loaner car two weeks ago. Terrestrial radio was the only option. It was HD radio, which meant I could listen to WFAN-FM on its main "channel" or CBS Sports Radio on the subchannel. Either way, the hosts and guests inevitably said "at the end of the day" and I switched away in disgust. Thank goodness I remembered there was a smooth jazz subchannel on WNEW-FM, and further thank goodness my dad only needed the loaner for two days. SiriusXM has spoiled me, too. I tend to go back and forth between Watercolors (smooth jazz), Real Jazz (straight-ahead jazz), and Escape (beautiful music). And if I have trouble sleeping at night, the SiriusXM app on my phone is set to the app-exclusive Spa Instrumental channel. It seldom puts me at ease, but one time, I was half-asleep with a sleep mask on and hallucinated an interactive map.
As for Young Sheldon, I am averse to single-camera sitcoms, so I haven't watched, but my parents love it. (Plus, David Murray of The 8-Bit Guy YouTube channel loaned a Tandy computer and modem for use as props in one episode.) A show I do watch airs an hour later on Fox: Call Me Kat. It's written and produced by many Big Bang Theory ex-pats, and stars Mayim Bialik. It's multi-camera, but without a studio audience due to COVID regulations at the time of filming. I figure if there's a third season, there will be an audience. I love inside jokes and breaking the fourth wall, so this is a great show. And Leslie Jordan is adorable.
I used to like Around the Horn and PTI, but politics led to my disenchantment. I will watch occasionally. I have all the PTI "Mail Time" segment voice over lines committed to memory: "Mail time!" "Next letter!" "Mail...this." "More mail?!" "Last one!" Also, the show's announcer, Kat Cressida, was the voice of Dee Dee on Dexter's Laboratory.
Broadcast networks are as you said a foster child. Another problem is the local affiliates. Back in the day most local stations had local ownership. Now the owners are large national companies or worse, hedge funds who only seem to be interested in getting their "2 & 20".
What gets me about the commercials is the way stations will run one ad, then another, then rerun the first ad. It's like they looked at their demographics and decided "our audience is so old we need to run the ad twice so they'll remember what its about".
I used to actually like commercials when I was young. They seemed so much more cleaver. The Volkswagen Commercials were fun. The Sandy Duncan commercials with Nicholas H. Janopoporopolus. Alka Seltzer’s “Momma Mia, that a one spicy meatball commercial. The bank commercial that featured a song that became the Carpenters hit “We’ve Only Just Begun”. So many memorable ones. Nowadays most commercials seem like they’re for drugs for diseases I’ve never heard of with an appalling number of awful side effects. But they never mention the side effect that all of the seem to share. Apparently they all make you move in slow motion.
I love everyone predicting "Death of terrestrial radio" and "Death of Broadcast TV", it isn't going to happen. Not everyone can afford streaming services, or fast enough internet to stream or new satellite radios. Both radio and TV are free. Of course, nothing in life is free, so there are commercials, and will always be commercials. Suck it up buttercups.
I enjoy a few broadcast shows, and I watch them by DVR and fast forwarding through the commercials. I am fortunate enough to be able to DVR shows.
If you really want to get peavied, watch network news. In Chicago it is on at 5:30pm, after 5:45pm, it is one story for a minute, then 3 minutes of commercials.
Was watching HBO for John Oliver, commercials for upcoming HBO shows before and after. Can't get away from it.
Of course, I am in agreement, too many commercials. Let's talk about the super bowel....
Used to know a network news executive. He was gaga to realize the potential to continually cut minutes from shows to use the time for advertising, thus increasing revenue. He didn’t realize what it was doing to the viewing experience.
Related: TV Land and other Paramount-owned stations often stretch their sitcom time slots to 36 minutes. And they’ve already trimmed the episodes. So the commercial breaks are interminable.
Yes, Lemuel,
One of my strongest childhood memories. ABC (usually Tuesday) Movie of the Week theme...started in 1969, and continued through the 70s...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbU7bNGNbwY
I have a boxful of old Christmas movies and specials on disc, and that's my go-to for holiday video. Yes, many of them still get prime time broadcasts, but in addition to trims they're loaded with glitzy modern commercials. Somebody could rack up major goodwill by sponsoring a vintage show and keeping the mood with vintage or simulated vintage spots, instead of cutting in with cgi-glossy mini movies, hip comedy (even if it's actually funny), currently omnipresent campaigns (unless the gekko is in hand-drawn animation ala UPA), etc.
Early in the VCR era I had a notion of doing a commercial in slow motion, with a subtitle indicating this was for the people fast-forwarding. The actors would talk slowly, and gravity would be drawn out with obvious mechanical effects. Unfortunately I was only doing newspaper print ads at the time.
Oh, and the CBS Late Movie Theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55bZ0NWVs1U
1982 - wow, forty years - ABC Sunday Night Movie intro...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDos1qPYlcc
I do watch "Call Me Kat" (Hulu, no commercials), but it is rather pedestrian. Plus, Swoosie Kurtz has become too distracting and disturbing.
Yes, running an ad, then another, then rerun the first ad. Aargh! The current one running this way that makes me want to shoot my TV is the "It's an all bag kinda' night" for "Skinny Pop." I will never buy that product just based on this loud, absurd, annoying ad.
I'm a geezer, so I also loved the ABC (Tuesday) Movie of the Week. There were a lot of excellent films there - DUEL, THE NIGHT STALKER/ STRANGLER, BRIAN'S SONG,THE POINT! and many more.I watched them on the tiny black & white television in my bedroom.
Mitch
Maybe you're right, but if affordability and access was as pivotal as you suggest, then, as a comparison, Blockbuster would still be in business. No one would have predicted the extinction of the local video/DVD store. Now the only way to rent a movie is through digital platforms.
I see your point, Leighton, but as a creature of habit, I thrive on the pedestrian. The only distraction for me is the laugh track, knowing how different it would sound with a real audience. I also like how the fourth wall is occasionally broken (aside from always breaking it during the credits).
"Did you watch The Simpsons last night?"
Is that thing still on?
Sometimes there are no more sharks to jump.
Not only that, but they are clearly chopping off the scenes, at beginning or end, to make room for the ads. It's infuriating.
CBS shows are available to watch the following day on their website, but ABC and NBC lock their shows for eight days. I only watch NBC for the departing THIS IS US and ABC for THE WONDER YEARS, which I fear won't be renewed. That leaves me with CBS and GHOSTS, THE NEIGHBORHOOD and mighty little YOUNG SHELDON, which trounced the LAW & ORDER revival last week.
People still watch Network programming?
Network News. Yes, first 15 minutes is all news. Then, "Coming up next..." They show 15 seconds of the next story. Then 3 minutes of commercials. Then those same 15 seconds of story with an additional 5 seconds bonus material. Then another 10 seconds of another story. Then, "Coming up next..." Repeat the same exact process.
And those repeated commercials. Anyone recognize this? (Singing) "Let it go. Let it go. LET IT GOOOO-OOOOH!!!"
This was a constant on local Chicago television. For months. This commercial would play, then another commercial. And then, "Let it go. Let it go. LET IT GOOOO-OOOOH!!!"
For months. It would chill me to the bone. Now it's the play that goes wrong. Why do they do this? I usually hit the Mute, get lost in my phone, then miss the next 10 minutes of whatever I was watching.
And what about commercials that feature an alarm clock buzzing or a crying baby or some idiot screaming, "Lasagna!" All instant Mute.
Oh man, being copied and pasted twice by a spammer is an honor! Thank you, suggestmeshop. I'll be sure to browse your honest reviews for quality products.
@ Max
Yes! I had a small black and white TV in my bedroom during the late 70s. Actually, it followed me for three years in college. Then my first color TV lasted through about 2003! (Trinitron Plus - a great set).
When did they start filming "widescreen" TV? Early 00s?
Are there any current multi-cams filmed before an actual studio audience, a la the Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers late-night shows?
I rarely watch anything on the big three networks. Only SNL. The last things I watched and loved in prime time were 30 Rock and The Good Wife. Lately, even the short promos for prime time shows are unwatchable. There's one with a woman judge. Oh. My. God. The horror.
Ah, the long-ago ABC Movie of the Week with the fabulous Burt Bacharach theme song ("Nikki"). Those were the days.
Again the perfect analogy is Eastman Kodak. They invented digital photography but they were making so much money selling film that they couldn’t switch over.
*RANT ON* I second the gripes about the local lames-ass commercials [usually car] being played twice. Now I've noticed that sometimes they're playing them THREE times during a break. It does NOT make me want to buy a car from them, it just makes me want to go down to the dealership and kick them in the head.....repeatedly. What's worse, the digital sub-channels show nothing but the same scam ads everytime....boner pills/drinks/injections, catheter ads, Super Beets, that fucking My Pillow turd hawking his pillow stuffed with shredded Trump documents; the ones that hadn't been flushed, miracle frying pans that can't be destroyed short of a nuclear blast....maybe Ukraine should make a giant dome of that stuff over their country.....ASPCA ads, St. Judes hospital....that one "kid" has been on their for so many years he should be getting social security by now...Donate to save this, save that, ad infinitum.
Also, my hearing's getting bad enough that I tend to watch stuff with the captions on. Now if they could only find someone that could type the stuff legible, sometime I think they hired some alien from the Andromeda Galaxy to type the stuff. *RANT OFF
I interned at a broadcast station years ago, and they ran house ads only during slots they couldn't sell, so my guess is they've cut the content to accommodate hoped-for ad sales that don't come through, and then it's too late to add content.
We used to run PSAs when they counted as public-service time. That got undone early in the Reagan administration. After that, we did many more promos and a lot fewer PSAs.
I watch NOTHING in real time anymore. The news is filled with ads for Rx drugs for conditions that people hadn't heard of 20 years ago. I watched part of the Super Bowl pre-game; ads for all the new NBC shows ad nauseum.
"The Connors" shoots before a live-audience - 3-cam. Also, "How I Met Your Father," I believe...
Before we cheer the future of TV as it relates to streaming, Disney Plus is headed toward advertising as noted in the following video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdBLopti5ho
It will make life difficult for those that want to see shorts such as the one where Donald Duck battles a bee at the beach, the bee is aiming for Donald's raft the first time and it cuts to two commercials that can't be fast forwarded before we get the rest of the short. The best answer is to buy physical media.
@ Brandon in Virginia,
Why would Pluto go commercial-free? It's a free service everywhere I've seen it.
Yes, their commercials are repetitive. And arguably even less relevant to my life than those on the networks (I'm 34, so I don't need tons of prescription drugs yet). But hell, I could use their free service and get stuck with commercials I have to mute. Or I could PAY for the privilege of muting. Well that's no contest.
As a note, I do enjoy throwing on Pluto sometimes as background noise--it's nice to know there's a channel of each of Andy Griffith, Bob Ross and The Price is Right (along with dozens of similar shows) running 24 hours a day.
@Derek True, and the commercials are a small price to pay (no pun intended) for the amount of programming. What I meant was if they had a free and paid option, I wouldn't be against the latter. But as it stands I'm fine with the free version, repetitive commercials and all.
ABC and NBC shows are available on Hulu the next day -- and it only costs an extra five bucks a month to go ad free...
@Ghost
You can still rent movies at Red Box.
No one has brought up how some shows put the commercials in a box, shrink it, and then show stuff on the side. I see Kimmel do it, CBS Sunday morning, Colbert sometimes.
We don't need more commercials. We need more award shows
With all the development money and focus on streaming platforms, I wonder whether the broadcast channels are even still getting the same level of content, resources or talent to produce quality shows that can compete with Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, et al anymore.
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