@ Ruler of the Interwebs:

I don’t know… There were always the 2-3 good shows on TV with high production values and good cast. Besides, you don’t need a huge budget to create a decent show. All you need is a good script and competent cast.

I’m concerned that there will be less of these big budget shows though now that they are forced to compete with reality TV which costs nothing. But then again, you might be right.

Well, I think there’s a polarizing effect here as well. Along with the absolutely insane amount of “reality” shows on TV (3 hours of America Doesn’t Have Talent last night!!!!), we’re starting to see a real revolution in the quality of the serial format. 24, before the last few seasons, was a good example of an original idea with great acting, story, excitement, action and dialogue. Lost is an incredibly deep and intellectual quasi-scifi show with a huge talented cast, an unbroken 5-season storyline, and great production value. The Office is great comedy and acting. Kings just finished its first year, and I was impressed with the deirections it took. There are others, but my point is that with standard production values getting higher and higher, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to compete in the market of quality television series’. Stations have to resort to reality television because they can get the same ratings with lower production value, but that doesn’t mean TV is dead. It just means you have to look in the right places.

@ Morghan:

I no longer watch anything on Syphilis. Used to watch BSG, but that’s over now.

Square wrote:

I typically watch Adult Swim as I fall asleep, and when I wake up I’m presented with ‘Live Action’ shows on an all cartoon TV station.

Heh! Me too! I put it on every night when I go to bed. :)

Zel wrote:

I don’t really see the expansion of Reality-TV in here though, people seem rather bored of it : two major channels stopped their version of American Idol after 5 or 6 seasons as ratings were dropping like flies, and currently there’s only one channel still running one Reality-TV, but on the 18-19h slot and with maybe a prime time a week.

That’s interesting. Perhaps this is a local phenomenon. For example, all my coworkers talk about lately are reality shows. It’s refreshing to know that there are places where the reality formula is not working out that well.

I understand channel being obsessed with ratings, seeing that their advertising slot price directly relates to them. I don’t really see the expansion of Reality-TV in here though, people seem rather bored of it : two major channels stopped their version of American Idol after 5 or 6 seasons as ratings were dropping like flies, and currently there’s only one channel still running one Reality-TV, but on the 18-19h slot and with maybe a prime time a week.

What I do see is the return of many famous TV games that were on when I was a child. Shows that were stopped for 10 to 20 years are resurfacing, with a heavy (trashy) lifting but the principle remains the same. I guess TV people are starving for ideas, as they can only seem to either make copies of foreign TV (you should watch an episode of the french remake of CSI or Grey’s Anatomy, it’s so bad it’s hilarious) or dig up old shows that would have been better off left buried.

I’ve noticed first hand the decline of Cartoon Network. I typically watch Adult Swim as I fall asleep, and when I wake up I’m presented with ‘Live Action’ shows on an all cartoon TV station. With this, I firmly believe the network no longer deserves the title of Cartoon Network.

But then again, MTV has its name and no longer does anything with music on television (hardly).

It isn’t a big deal for myself, seeing as I don’t watch much television. But, the more it happens, I find that I too am affected when I do get the urge to turn the television on. Let’s just hope Comedy Central doesn’t go down the same path.

Eureka is the only show I still watch regularly on the new syphilis network. I’m not sure about Warehouse 13, and Stargate Universe would be nice if it was worth watching but I’m sure not going to hold my breath.

I think the niche TV market will be taken over by online streaming sites like Amazon’s new on-demand video and Crunchyroll’s anime streaming. Even Youtube and some of the other networks have started picking up entire seasons of various niche programs.

The real question is whether more of these shows will be produced. Right now we’re suffering the backlash of the whole US Writer’s Guild strike, when networks realized that reality TV ‘writers’ weren’t part of the guild. There’s no quality content being aired because there’s not as much of it actually being written.