Studio 60

Why is it that whenever they create a smart, funny, entertaining drama it gets cancelled almost immediately now? I have enjoyed Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip more than almost any other show on television this season, but now I read rumors that it will be cancelled? I’m sure it will be replaced with a crap reality show that I will blatantly refuse to watch, or perhaps a game show that I also won’t even hesitate on for more than two seconds. I’m not sure how they select Nielsen families, but the ratings system needs to be drastically revamped. I don’t watch shows the night they air, I watch them days later when I can squeeze it into my family life, and I know there are many other DVRing families just like mine out there. It used to be that there were many shows we wanted to record, now there is just a handful. It is getting easier and easier for me to give up television without even really wanting to. I won’t watch something simply because it is better than anything else on the air (well HGTV is the exception, but I am even getting tired of that).

I love that Studio 60 has a storyline that is making fun of reality TV. I feel like I have a voice out there because my hatred for that crap TV is echoed back to me on a show with good writing! I’ll admit that I only started watching Studio 60 because of all of the players who were previously associated with perhaps the best television show ever to air (The West Wing), but it is good in its own right. Honestly, I’m still not over The West Wing ending. How on earth ER, a show I used to watch religiously more than 5 years ago, can continue on the air in its now perpetual state of crapiness while The West Wing was cancelled is beyond me. Why NBC doesn’t promote the hell out of the best show in its lineup is a complete mystery. Studio 60 is a damn good show, and the boneheads are going to ditch it because the executives are too stupid to understand it, or do understand that it is painting them in a very negative light and it makes them quake in their boots.

Perhaps I am just too naïve to understand it. Clearly I am not the target audience anymore. Perhaps they could create another Law and Order series because each new addition to that line just seems to get worse, or perhaps there could be a spin-off from Deal or No Deal, or another flavor of The Apprentice. It doesn’t matter to me, I won’t be watching anymore. I really thought that reality television was a fad, and that it would pass, but it hasn’t. They keep creating more and more, and apparently the masses keep watching it. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised; I thought there was no way our current president would be elected (I still don’t concede that he was elected the first time, so therefore in my mind he was never reelected), but he was. I am not implying that everyone who voted for Georgie likes reality TV, or that everyone who likes reality TV likes Georgie, it is just becoming clear to me that I am not a target advertisers are aiming for in more ways than one.

I do think that the best way to kill off network television is to keep targeting shows to the lowest common denominator. Eventually many more people will walk away. For now, I’ll enjoy the rest of the season, and hope that my few other favorites will hang on for a while. Perhaps one day the network execs will wake up, I can only hope.