Worse than really bad things? Possible not, but with the TV schedules emptying faster than an Amy Winehouse gig, the US networks have started to turn to their last great hope: reality TV. More of it.
Could there possibly be anymore? Having looked at the schedules, they already have dancing, singing, wife swapping, dating, divorcing and too many property shows for one lifetime (how many times can you say: you're a moron, no one paints their house yellow? Or puts a loo in the kitchen?).
The writer's strike is five months old and those sitcom scribes are not backing down. They are clearly owed a decent deal, but if that deal does not come soon this is what we will get.
According to a report on Reuters, John Langley tried and failed to sell a "cinema verite-style TV series tracking police officers on patrol". He tried for five years (which is frankly very depressing). Then came the 1988 writers strike and now 'Cops' is a reality show institution (at least that's what the press notes say).
That show is 700 episodes in and now the networks are looking around again for more reality ideas to fill the gaps left by shows like '24' being massively delayed.US networks have as many as 40 reality shows stacked like cans of beans ready to go. Joining the likes of Fox's mega reality hit 'American Idol' and ABC's hit 'Dancing with the Stars' will be CW and 'Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious' and over at NBC 'Celebrity Apprentice'.
That's just the thin end of the quality reality TV doorstopper. ABC's has 'Dancing' spin-off 'Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann' while Fox has 'When Women Rule the World'.
Eventually we will all start to suffer. It is kind of like the scene in 'Studio 60 on the Sunset strip' where the network boss rains down reality on those below. You mean you didn’t see it?
As the Writers Guild of America points out, reality TV is a euphemism for nonunion television. They have a point. Cheap and cheerful (actually mostly no that cheerful, but definitely cheap.
Jeff Hermanson, assistant executive director of the WGA, West, said: "We think networks should be embarrassed to put on shows where people who create them are treated in violation of California labour laws."
Embarrassed is the word.
The very worst part of it is that the one of the best programme on TV (or at least IMHO) is not likely air to something like 2010. Yes, I am talking about the final season of the "reimagined" Battlestar Galactica (and yes I might have done this before), but it is very cool and dark. It is to the very antithesis of reality show TV. Not so cheerful, not so cheap and as dark as a trip through everyone's favourite Joseph Conrad novel, which in part is what the story is about.
One last thing, I just have to show you this. It's partly about how the show embraced the web with its mini webisodes that prequel the coming season, but it is partly about how they brought back the bad guys from the 70s and still managed to make it look cool. The 70s? I know, how hard is that?.
Gordon Macmillan
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