Network Series

“The simple truth of it is that network president John Landgraf is perhaps the finest, smartest, and most talented TV executive working right now. No matter how hard other networks try, it’s almost impossible to match FX/FXX’s recent record of success,” writes Neil Turitz.

If Freeform’s upcoming Marvel series Cloak & Dagger hews closer to the superhero shows on Netflix and the CW, rather than sister network ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or The Inhumans, then it should be a winner when it debuts in 2018.

Despite being in fewer homes than the year before, MSNBC has seen its fortunes rise at least partially due to the election of Donald Trump. Seen by many as the network of the opposition, MSNBC has enjoyed record ratings thanks to shows led by Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes and Lawrence O’Donnell.

Spike will soon relaunch as the Paramount Network, which will introduce a plethora of new shows, including Taylor Sheridan’s ranching drama Yellowstone, adaptations of the movies Heathers and The First Wives Club, the comedy American Woman from legendary creator John Wells, and the star-studded limited series Waco.

The thriving network has several interesting projects on the horizon, including an adaptation of Howard’s End from Oscar winner Kenneth Lonergan and starring Hayley Atwell, and the sci-fi series Counterpart starring Oscar winner J.K. Simmons.

It’s unclear how much money the network spent on its Twin Peaks sequel, but whatever the figure was, it doesn’t appear to have been a great investment. The 18-part series was hardly watched at all, averaging less than 300,000 viewers per episode.

With both Veep and Game of Thrones, coming to a close, there are a few projects that could potentially fill the void — chief among them, the third season of True Detective starring Oscar winner Mahershala Ali.

“What to say about Hulu? Seriously, I’m asking, because it’s not entirely clear that the streaming service itself knows what it wants to be,” writes Neil Turitz.

When it comes to Amazon Studios, it really is a tale of two cities. On the film side, things are pretty good, but with TV, Amazon has been trying like hell to establish itself and somehow seems to keep slipping.

Netflix has over 100 million subscribers now and, in spite of the billions of dollars it brings in through subscriptions, it continues to borrow billions more to keep churning out that content. How long can the business model hold?

The CW has created a business model unlike any of the major networks with a combination of actioners from Greg Berlanti, genre YA series, and a few light-hearted dramas for its long-time viewers.

Fox may be drawing younger demographics but the network is still struggling to find a new hit.

While ABC came in a close second to NBC last season in the prime demo rankings, without any sports programming to speak of, they also finished a distant third place in total viewers, with 6.2 million per show, losing nine percent of their audience from the year before.

The Peacock Network, which used to be known for its Must See TV Thursday night lineup of sitcoms, has mostly eschewed them of late to focus on hour long dramas, and found great success in the process. But can This is Us and the NFL keep the network on top?

With Labor Day now in our rearview mirror and the new TV season about to knock on our door, it’s time once again to turn from the big screen to the small. Considering that CBS has won the crown for most viewers for nine straight seasons, and 14 of the last 15, it’s hard to imagine that it was ever a punchline, but it was. A big one.

With the final entry in our Network Series, Neil Turitz is here to talk about the Walt Disney Company owned network and how they fall into the everchanging landscape of television.

Even small victories for cable networks come amidst turmoil, frustration, and shedding of viewership. Today let’s take a deep dive into FX and FXX, Time Warner’s TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim and TruTV, and AMC Networks’ AMC, IFC, BBC-America, WeTV and SundanceTV.

Only one of NBCUniversal’s 15 cable properties gained viewership from 2014-2015. The networks saw a boost in ratings from NBCUniversal’s monopolistic coverage of the Rio Olympics, but now that the games are gone the question remains: will people stay to watch?

It’s tough to target just how Viacom can turn things around, but even if there was a concrete method to do so, it’s not going to be easy, simply because of the nature of the cable business. It has to hope that Shari Redstone and her new board of directors can make changes that will help matters, and that both MTV and Nickelodeon can once again draw the viewership numbers it used to.

As we discussed last week, it’s tough for anyone to compete with Netflix at the moment, but it becomes even tougher when the operation interested in doing so, Hulu, can’t really decide what it wants to be or how it wants to become it. However, Hulu’s upcoming fare sounds like it’s all smarter, more upscale forms of entertainment, which could be a good thing.

So far, Netflix remains the dominating streaming service for original content in the television sphere, but Amazon isn’t far behind them. With Amazon’s endless well of resources and how many projects they’re developing, they could soon be a much bigger player.

With hundreds and hundreds of hours of original content produced each year, Netlix has grown into a giant of the television industry and it isn’t even on television. Is the bubble going to burst on Netflix or will their unprecedented growth continue?

Starz is now the second most subscribed pay cable network but still has yet to find it’s buzzy award winning show. With interesting new projects, current sleeper hits, and a partnership with Lionsgate can the network make the jump into the pantheon of prestige television?

The 40 year old Showtime is one of the oldest pay cable network there is, but a lack of buzz worthy shows has caused the formerly second most popular network to decline in viewership. Can an interesting array of new projects help bolster viewership and bring Showtime back into the upper echelon of cable television?

You all know the slogan, as it’s one of the best known of any in the world of television. “It’s not TV, it’s HBO.” Home Box Office started out as a second-run movie network, and slowly became the most respected broadcaster of original content on television. While it has some challenges, it’s hard to argue that it doesn’t continue to hold that spot.

The main job a television network has is to draw viewers and achieve good ratings. It has always been this way, as long as there has been television and the networks that appear on it. Except, of course, when it’s not. Take, for instance, The CW.

There’s no real easy way to climb the ladder, other than to keep trying to innovate. Yes, there is plenty of the familiar on the horizon, but one of the things that Fox has always been willing to do more than its competitors is take the big swing.

Since the start of the century, ABC has been the top-rated network only once (all the way back in the 2000-01 season) and since then, they’ve been losing millions of viewers as their shows and ratings have stagnated or dropped. Channing Dungey and her team have their work cut out for them, and a fairly difficult road to maneuver to get back on top.

All in all, things are pretty good at NBC. They could certainly be worse, and in fact were, quite recently. Under Greenblatt’s guidance, the network has steadily climbed the ladder over the past few years, the question is, can it overcome the strength of CBS? For that to happen, a lot has to go right, and that’s sort of a risky place to be.

Not so long ago, CBS was a last place network. A bad joke that was hemorrhaging viewers, and giving the impression that those it kept were all senior citizens. But two things occurred that changed things. The first was the rise of Les Moonves, and the second was achieving an understanding of what its viewers really wanted.