Check Cable's Reality
Unscripted Lifestyle Shows Filling Schedules
By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 7/13/2003 8:00:00 PM
Hollywood, Calif. — The reality genre may be dying on broadcast television, but it's surging along in the ratings and in terms of viewership shares for cable networks.
A majority of new summer and fall series announced at last week's Television Critics Association press tour here fell within the reality-and-lifestyles genre.
A healthy number of scripted shows were also on display last week during the cable portion of the TCA, though many networks are still leery of the financial risk involved in launching high-profile, expensive weekly skeins.
Unlike the broadcast networks, which have relied on big-event reality programming like The Bachelor and American Idol, cable's latest batch of reality series focus more on lifestyle aspects, like home makeovers and relationship building, to better reflect the mood of an American public weary and unsettled over current world events.
As a result, shows such as E! Entertainment Television's Style Court, in which a judge and jury determine whether people are committing fashion crimes; TLC's Date Patrol, in which five dating coaches help people with their dating skills; Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, in which five gay men provide lifestyle tips to a heterosexual man; and Home & Garden Television's Outer Spaces, in which a contestant gets a yard makeover, are making their way to the small screen.
Shows for nesters
"The reason you're seeing all of these shows is there is a kind of nesting going on around the country because we're living in troubled times," Lifetime Television executive vice president of entertainment Barbara Fisher said. The network in October will premiere its own reality series, Merge, which combines the furniture of two recently married couples under one roof.
"There's nothing more soothing about working in your garden or making your home beautiful," Fisher added. "People caring about where they live and what they do to their homes, I don't think, goes out of style."
Not all of cable's new reality series are soft touches. Industry observers say hidden-camera shows like Sci Fi's Scare Tactics, BBC America's 3 Non Blondes, Oxygen's Girls Behaving Badly and (now that it can finally change over from TNN) Spike TV's reality-and-scripted skein The Joe Schmo Show provide viewers with a wide variety of reality-based programming from which to choose.
Even MTV: Music Television's The Osbournes, not quite the cultural touchstone it once was, received the green light for a third season.
USA Network is bringing Nashville Star back for a second season in 2004.
Cable's reality series and other programs continue to draw viewers at unprecedented share levels at the expense of the big seven broadcast networks.
Since June, the broadcast networks — which usually offer repeats during the summer —have made a concerted effort to compete with cable by launching a multitude of fresh, reality-based programs. Despite a few earlier exceptions like American Idol, though, such shows have failed to resonate with viewers.
In the second quarter of 2003, cable averaged a 51.2 share, up 7 share points from the same period in 2002. On the flip side, the broadcast networks' 43 share in the quarter was down from last year's 44.5 share.
Why is cable doing so much better with its collective reality programming? Turner Entertainment Group president Mark Lazarus said cable's reality series tend to better reflect the programming niche served by the network that presents them, thus attracting a more loyal audience than that of the mass-appeal broadcasters.
"The ones on cable tend to be a little more substantive and they tend to be truer to what the network's brand is, instead of [being] generic and sometimes sensational," he said.
Few scripts
While reality shows will be plentiful during the summer and fall months, cable still suffers from a dearth of scripted series, although the numbers are rising.
Only a handful of scripted series are set to debut over the next few months, as networks continue to shy away from the costs and high fail rate for such fare.
"Original scripted series is a challenging business," said Lazarus, whose Turner Network Television is expected to launch a scripted series within the next 18 to 24 months. "The risk is high in terms of expense and the reward is not certain, so the industry has said let's take a few more at bats with the scripted fare."
Nevertheless, ESPN will jump into the scripted arena with its pro football-based drama Playmakers this August. ESPN executive vice president of programming and production Mark Shapiro is aware of the risks involved with scripted programming — particularly for ESPN, which may alienate core fans.
But he said the potential of reaching new, casual sports fans is worth the risk.
"The chips are up against us: We've got one shot to make it resonate with our viewers," said Shapiro, who added that the network is talking to film director Spike Lee about developing a second scripted series for a potential 2004 launch.
"As long as we stick to the authenticity of the game on the field and at the same time are able to produce proactive television that focuses on daily lives of pro athletes, we think it will resonate with viewers because that' what they see everyday," he said.
CSI goes west
USA, fresh off a successful second-season debut of its detective series Monk, on July 30 will premiere Peacemakers, a rare Western-based detective series starring Tom Berenger. "We like to think of it as CSI in the Old West," said USA president Doug Herzog.
Lifetime will add two more female-targeted drama series to its lineup of originals —1-800-Missing, about a psychic crime solver, and Wild Card will both premiere Aug. 2, said Fisher. A&E Network will also get into the drama series arena with its July 22 debut of MI-5.
Oxygen, buoyed by the success of Hey Monie — the animated Black Entertainment Television co-production — this month will debut a second animated comedy series, Life's A Bitch. Two more scripted comedies, In Your Dreams and Sexual Anthropology, are also on tap for next January, added Oxygen CEO Geraldine Laybourne.
Pay network Showtime unveiled plans to launch a lesbian-tinged series, The L Word, next January, while Home Box Office will bow its much-anticipated skein Carnivale in September.
| Dose Of Reality | ||
|---|---|---|
| Three series claimed all of the slots among basic-cable's top 10 reality shows during June. | ||
| Network | Program | Rating |
| For the period May 26 to June 29. *From 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. ** From 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. Source: ABC Cable Networks Group analysis of Nielsen Media Research data. |
||
| TLC | Trading Spaces (6/7) | 3.4 |
| MTV | The Osbournes (6/10) | 3.2 |
| MTV | Real World XIII (6/10) | 3.2 |
| TLC | Trading Spaces (5/31) | 3.1 |
| MTV | Real World XIII (6/17) | 3.1 |
| TLC | Trading Spaces (6/28) | 3.0 |
| TLC | TS: Designers Cut (5/26)* | 2.9 |
| TLC | Trading Spaces (6/14) | 2.8 |
| TLC | TS: Designers Cut (5/26)** | 2.8 |
| MTV | The Osbournes (6/17) | 2.8 |
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