Wednesday, December 9, 2009

The Constantly Adapting Field Of Television Programming

By Connor Sullivan

Popular TV shows are constantly changing from what they have been in the past. A decade or two ago primetime TV was filled with family sitcoms depicting the adventures of teenage boy dealing with typical teenage issues. Now the primetime programming is home to a Las Vegas Criminal Defense Lawyer, a team of attractive medical students, a criminal forensic scientist tormented by a past case, and a hardened New York Detective. Program featuring a personable, intelligent, and daring character in a fast-paced job or life, like the Las Vegas Criminal Defense Attorney type, have the most success lately and have almost entirely replaced the character of the teenage boy dealing with his first high school dance on primetime television.

An easily recognizable difference in present TV programming is reality television. Reality shows have become one of the main types of programming on TV. Reality TV consists of a wide variety of subject matters. Survival or adventure shows, dating shows, cooking shows, or shows following families. People find enjoyment in watching what they believe is real life and production companies have taken notice and cashed in on this curiosity. What isnt made apparent to most viewers is that most of these real people in real situations are not as real as they are presented.

TV has also changed in the sense that sports are being televised more often now. As professional athletes become more and more like celebrities in their status and their salaries, the amount of programming created around sports has increased exponentially. In the past, there might have been one football game on TV, now there are two afternoon games and a night game, and there are potentially two games on your TV during each of the afternoon games. Furthermore, a football game on TV is no longer just the game. They have created pre-shows and post-shows for football games and of course elaborate half time programming.

The new trend of creating extra programming around a game seems to be mostly around football, other sports are also gracing the basic channels more often. Soccer, tennis, baseball, and basketball can all be found during their respective seasons on basic channels. When looking into the channels available through cable, sports that are not quite mainstream are being featured on the multitude of sports only channels available, like bowling, archery, and rugby. There are even channels dedicated solely to college level athletics.

Recently a trend in television programming is concerning talk shows. Talk shows have been a consistently present on television; however, how the hosts are chosen has definitely changed over time. Lately talk show hosts, for the day time and late night shows, are chosen because of their already established name of some sort. Furthermore, talk show hosts, like professional athletes, are being recognized as celebrities. They are being featured on red carpets and being paid increasingly high salaries.

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