As more and more of us switch to time-shifting devices or online viewing, the number of people watching live tv will continue to go down. The new 5 million plus is 3.5 million because the others are watching on Tivo or Hulu or Netflix.

Also people have more things to do now than they did in the heyday of television even a decade ago. Networks who are unhappy with 1.5 million+ viewers are crazy in today’s world. 1.5 million people is a goldmine to those who know how to market it. what networks need to do is learn what people who watch these types of shows want and market products to them in a way that is non-offensive.

Lets face it. Those of us who time-shift and view TV online are not going to set through 5 minutes of ads. If your going to make money off your ads your going to have to charge money for them. Big money. If companies still want to market to those of us who are using new technology that is becoming a standard of living for this generation then they will have to pay for that privilege. Internet content providers should not undervalue themselves nor allow themselves to be taken advantage of by companies demanding low prices because of lower performance.

This generation is not ad friendly and advertisers are just going to have to learn to live with that fact. The more you push your product on us the less likely we are to even consider it at a later date. Your best bet is to go with a sponsor ad before and after the show with a maximum of two different ads promoting two different but similar themed products that would appeal to the type of people who watch particular content.

Nothing makes me angrier than having to set through the same ad 20 times in one week. It drives me crazy and makes me hate the product more and more each time I see it, and I share those feeling of dissatisfaction with anyone who will listen.

Anyway, enough about ads.

Another thing that annoys me is this new way of doing TV by breaking the season up. Most of the series are on break until late January or early February of next year. This drives me crazy and its causing a loss of viewers who just can’t keep track of these involved series over such a long period of time. TV worked well when they showed the offerings twice during the year completely and had fewer specials and interruptions in the initial offering. Save the specials for summer when more people are doing outside things rather than in the winter when people are more likely to be inside watching TV, and for God’s sake don’t forget or ignore the timeshifters and online viewers. Your going to have to deal with us eventually as broadband becomes more available and more and more people only watch TV online.

It was only a few years ago when I first started watching TV series on DVD that I realized I enjoyed and was more involved in the series being able to watch the entire season over a week or two rather than waiting 22 weeks broken up by a couple of months break time for crap I never seem to want to watch. Things I missed in previous viewings now make sense since I can view them as I would read a book rather than as a bite-sized bit of content created to make a small group of people more money than the average person makes in an entire lifetime!

Now to answer your main question:

What makes a genre show last? First off it takes a network and content producer who is willing to look at realistic results. When you are showing genre shows you normally have people watching your network that would not ordinarily visit your channel or site. Look at these shows as a chance to create good feelings in these viewers by showing that you care about their likes and dislikes and they may find something else of interest to watch. Canceling a beloved show because its not getting #1-#3 positions is not going to gain you any brownie points with these viewers who will go where ever they can to find the content they want to watch.

Your genre show has got to treat the topic at hand is serious. Zena and Hercules were decent shows and sometimes even extraordinary shows, however, for the most part they were comedies. I like the fantasy and sci-fi genres and I would prefer more adult shows.

Some good examples of shows I think are currently fitting that bill and presenting challenging and unique work are:

Flash Forward, V, Legend of the Seeker, Torchwood, Doctor Who, Fringe, Dollhouse, Sanctuary, SGU and Primeval. I like Warehouse 13 but cut down on the humor and go to the serious makes you think type of theme. Humor is good, but weave it in with the show in a more natural way.

Some previous shows that showed this quality were: Firefly ( what idiot decided to cancel this unique show, he should be fired! ), Jeremiah, The 4400, Earth2, Babylon 5,Threshold ( what a real bummer this has the potential to be huge! ), Invasion, and Surface.

Legend of the Seeker, Sanctuary, Fringe, Flash Forward, V, and Torchwood along with Dollhouse and SGU are all going in the right direction to keep this sci-fi and fantasy exclusive viewer happy but I’m concerned about getting into watching some of them considering the nature of network TV.

Shows that invest in the character development that will hold a viewers attention takes time and the first season is rarely a good gauge of their overall performance over time. LotS was just average at best during its first season, however the second season is some of the best fantasy TV I have ever seen and coming from a semi professional critic of the genre that is saying a lot.

This sites article entitled Legend of the Seeker – The Most Under rated series is correct. This is some serious drama and acting if you can get over the fact its in a fantasy setting.

Primeval is a gem many of you have never heard of or probably judged by its first season. Season’s two and three were spectacular and managed to keep its humor without taking away from the story line.

SGU worries me. This series has so much potential and yet something is missing. What that something is, I don’t know yet. But they could learn from LotS because I keep comparing the two in my head for some reason I have not identified yet. SGU is moving to slow as a plot even if the shows are reasonably paced.

Fringe is one of those shows that should focus more on their main story line and quit moving away from it. Its a great show, but needs tighter focus and less flaky humor. The good doctor should get his right mind back and start becoming a serious force of science to deal with rather than a dottering old man who saves the day each week.

As you can see from the length of this comment I am serious about the genre and well versed in its lore. I love sci-fi and fantasy and don’t watch anything else. If TV withdraws its support of the genres then I’ll just go back to reading those stories I love.