Mreh @ TV, i.e. - american audiences suck

I'm not normally one of those people that goes crazy over TV shows. I usually take it for granted that shows I like will be renewed, and if they aren't, then oh well. I mean, I do get pissy when something I like is canceled or on the verge of cancellation, but I'm not some fat Joss Whedon fangirl (is that redundant?) that signs a bunch of e-petitions and goes to cons with a paper petition and makes t-shirts that they still wear 5 years after the show is canceled. But as of late with the economy (dun dun dun I finally dropped the E-bomb) the way it is networks are kinda slimming down their "pickins'" to nothing and the network that I thought was doing better than everyone is actually doing the worst out of the major four.

Apparently NBC is shit at this point. It's funny how quickly things can change, Heroes was this "breakout hit" and then the next season they're calling it crap. With shows like The Office (which I don't watch for the most part), 30 Rock (which I don't watch but heard is good), My Name is Earl, the aforementioned Heroes, that Life show that I hated (which I assumed would make it wonderful in the ratings) and all of those crappy Law & Order shows that everyone seems to love, I figured that NBC was on the top of the heap. How mistaken I was.

So that brings me to my point of order: Chuck. Chuck is apparently on the precipice of getting hucked off the TV cliff. I like Chuck, a lot. I have sat idly by and watched The Riche$ get canceled, 10 Items or Less (even though it might've deserved it in its 3rd season) and many others I'm sure I'm forgetting that did not make the cut. And if there were superior-performing shows around I wouldn't be too miffed about Chuck riding the cancellation fence, but goddamn. First, I'd like to preface this rant with a fact or two. One, NBC is paying Jay Leno a varitable mint to do his show at 10 PM five nights a week, this working two-fold: one being that dumping more money into Mr. Leno's pockets means less money to make more shows with and two -- perhaps more importantly -- it eliminates five hours of primetime programming from the lineup every week. Also, Chuck goes up against Fox's House every week, and has been since the beginning of this season, that's gotta spell doom for every show up against it. House is pretty much Fox's number one show, it's #1 in the scripted department and only loses to American Idol (groan) in terms of overall viewership. I love House. In fact, House is the only show that I will drop everything for to watch, even if I've seen the ep 20 times already.

That said, there are a lot of shows that are just awful that I cannot fathom how they stay on the air, other than audiences having really bad tastes. Now I'm not even going to bother bringing up Lost, because that's a moot point. I will, however bring up FRINGE and Dollhouse and Lie to Me. I've pretty much made peace with the fact that shitty shows like Dancing with the Stars and American Idol are cash cows and cost the network little to nothing and enthrall the dumbass masses. Fringe began airing at the same time as Chuck, and I watched both. I thought that Chuck had kind of a silly premise at first, but it quickly grew on me. Fringe never really held my interest at all, and when they brought the stereotypical characters in, the crappy "plot" and compared it to the X-Files -- ew. Then it became "acclaimed", wow, I thought, "People cannot have that bad a taste in shows." Then that Lie to Me show came along, and that was gimmicky, poorly cast, poorly acted and generic. Somehow this show is probably getting a renewal. And Dollhouse, despite having the combination of getting the Friday night death slot and being abyssimal, has somehow weaseled it's way to "50-50" on getting a renewal.

And all you can blame are the numbers. The studio isn't really at fault. If not enough people watch a show, it's gone. TV is a business, afterall. So that brings me to the conclusion that the typical viewer in this country has a room temperature IQ and loves repetitive, regurgative idiocy and loathes new and innovative entertainment. They also love namesakes, Southland is made by the creators of ER and I can guarantee that'll get picked up, and Law & Order and all of its incarnations are in like their 20,000th seasons now, right? I don't see them getting canceled anytime soon. And don't tell me that the idea of karaoke being televised and then judged and then spit back into 6 other forms like dancing, is innovative.