Broadcast Networks 2022: The Year Everyone Started To Wave The White Flag
Old schoolers like the late Gil Schwartz of CBS used to hate it when the press would commandeer executive sessions at TCA in the aughts with questions about the death of broadcast TV. HBO had come to dominate the Emmys year after year and the perception was that programming on the Big Three just wasn’t sexy, no matter how much Schwartz would argue that the size of CBS’ audience was far more valuable than the trophies it never seemed to collect at the Shrine Auditorium. He was right, of course: other than The Sopranos, which set HBO records, no show on premium cable could come close to the reach of a CSI.
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Looking back, the fact that anyone was defending broadcast TV seems positively quaint these days. Those types of champions are now few and far between, especially since a number of veteran broadcast executives were handed their walking papers this year from CBS and the CW, while Fox’s Charlie Collier left network TV for a career in streaming. Not only does it seem like a fait accompli that broadcast TV is dead, no one seems to be the least bit sad about it — unless you’re a fan of, say, Days of Our Lives and Dancing With the Stars, who futilely bombard our message boards each week with angry missives about losing their once-beloved free shows to subscription-based streamers.
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Otherwise, the current M.O. is to continue moving resources away from broadcast TV. Of the Big Three, only CBS has a dedicated programming executive for the broadcast network – Amy Reisenbach, who was promoted in November as a replacement for two veteran programmers, Kelly Kahl and Thom Sherman. In contrast, Craig Erwich oversees programming for both ABC and Hulu (as well Disney Branded Entertainment fare for Disney+), while Susan Rovner’s job is to lord over shows on Peacock, USA and Syfy as well as NBC, which is already considering whether to save money by giving up the 10 p.m. hour. In the meantime, declining linear ratings have lead to tighter show budgets and the loss of scripted series, while live sports that bring eyeballs and cheap reality shows have become the new (and depressing) broadcast focus.
“The name of the companies used to be the networks,” laments one veteran broadcast executive. “As networks have become just another part of a larger corporations, there are fewer people who give a damn. It’s also been exacerbated by a lousy ad market, and then on top of that, there are increasingly more outlets for advertisers to find advertising vehicles at the Netflixes and Disneys of the world. Corporations want to take the new younger, prettier girl to the dance.”
“As networks have become just another part of a larger corporations, there are fewer people who give a damn.”
veteran Broadcast Executive
While broadcast remains the only television content Americans can get truly for free (rabbit ears, anyone?), Washington doesn’t seem the least bit concerned about its demise. Where are those politicians who went positively apoplectic over seeing Janet Jackson’s right boob during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show on CBS? Pearl clutchers at the Family Television Council used to exhaust themselves with complaints about Seth MacFarlane and his Family Guy. (“That’s like getting getting hate mail from Hitler,” MacFarland once said). Now, the only way politicians will step up and take notice is if local stations stop running their ads or cover their policy decisions. Otherwise, no one in the capital seems to care about the extermination of the Big Four.
Reisenbach is at least trying to appear like she’s not going down without a fight. She began her tenure as CBS’ new entertainment president in November by telling the troops, “I want to let you in on my mantra. Despite what you may have read or heard; Broadcast is not dead … surrender is not in my vocabulary.”
She may want to make sure the rest of the company is on board with that: on Dec. 20, Paramount Global announced it would cancel its traditional May presentation at Carnegie Hall — which used to be the highlight of upfront week because of its comedy antics and live performances — and replace it with “a series of high-impact, intimate gatherings in April.” In other words, CBS is no longer considered valuable — or sexy — enough by the top brass to put on a glitzy presentation. If that’s not a surrender, I don’t know what is.
Stations will continue to serve a vital role. If a tornado is on its way, folks will always turn on the local news to see where the wind is blowing. There will always be some kind of network that bands together these stations. The question is whether the industry will keep looking for ways to benefit from the broadcast networks, not run from them. At the very least, the Big Three can continue to serve as promotional platforms for the streaming services, where all broadcast series are ultimately headed. Or they can look to the CW as a possible test case on whether a broadcast network can survive on modestly budgeted scripted originals with cheap imports and reality.
Better yet, maybe it’s time for someone to challenge those old rules about owning more than one network. The big nets aren’t the only game in town anymore — far from it. If two or more are able to combine, then maybe — just maybe — broadcast TV will be able to outwit and outlast their bigger and stronger streaming competitors in the ultimate game of Survivor.
Nellie Andreeva contributed to this report.
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