What are your predictions for future TV? For example, what will be on in reruns? Where will cable TV be? What shows will be on broadcast networks?


Of course all of us can make a clear prediction that reality TV will probably be more dominant as it is doing now. As for cable TV, I predict that more stations will go reality based or they may go defunct. A lot of people are shutting off cable and buying DVD's. My aunt has over 200 channels with digital TV and nothing is on! As for rerun predictions, I see a lot of reality show reruns making their way in. Notice that A LOT of shows from the '50s, '60s, '70s, and '80s, are drifting away forever. Im worried about The Golden Girls moving to Hallmark channel. I remember when The Facts Of Life was on there, Hallmark skipped over a lot of episodes. They did this with Bewitched also.

I heard that in the near future sitcoms and other TV series will be rare. The networks make more with Reality, no big name stars to pay.
I think the old shows will soon vanish from TV and Reality take over. :(
We choose not to watch Reality because life is Reality enough for us.
We want to sit in front of the TV at night and laugh like we once did and forget the problems of this country and the world, if just for a brief time.

We also have over 200 channels and it's difficult to find anything on. The ONLY reason we have stayed with Dish is because we can't get cable and can't get one channel with an antenna.
We have considered getting rid of dish but we do enjoy a few channels. If things continue to head south we'll just get rid of it and use that 100.00 per month to buy more DVD's.

I've been waiting for a topic like this for a long time. TV has definitely gone downhill. It started basically with VH1 when they started to put their annoying logo on the bottom right hand corner of the screen forever. Now, granted, I have found this helpful if I'm scanning stations. I know exactly what station I'm looking at. So I guess in that respect, I'm a hypocrite!

Secondly, the networks (cable included) seem to think that shrinking the credits down after a movie ends saves time-yeah... time for more commercials. I hate that AMC dropped their "classic" movie status and has started showing more recent films-with commercials. Actually, I was livid when I saw that they started doing that. Now, either I've gotten used to it, or it's gotten better. I do like the variety of movies (old and new, although it's hard to find old ones on AMC anymore), and I also like their original series "Breaking Bad" and "Mad Men"
Another thing I hate is all these stations copying one another. Food Network, HGTV and Bravo all have reality show "competitions" and almost every station has another reality show of some type.

I think these are going to continue to stay popular (much to my disgust), and I have a feeling that some soaps (as well as most sitcoms) will disappear as well. Perhaps that's why there is such a market for putting TV shows on DVD. Who would have ever thought that people would actually pay to watch something that they watched for free as early as last year?!

Andrea

The networks don't even seem to care they are losing viewers. They are seeking a certain age group and assuming that it'll please them. Not everyone likes all the reality, that leaves a Large group in the cold.
The new trend seems to be growing....canceling cable and dish and buying DVD's. They don't leave us a lot of choice.
The ONLY thing that keeps me hanging on is my hope that someone will offer us some of the classics from the 50-70's. It would be great if Ted Turner decided to make a Turner Classic Sitcom network.
Anyway, my husband enjoys a few shows on CBS and we can't even get one channel with an antenna.
We are seriously discussing throwing in the towel in 2009 unless we get RTN and or AmericanLife.

We tend to watch TCM much more often(AMC needs to change the name, it's no longer Just American Movie Classic's.) I also like that I can request a movie on TCM and it's on within a decent period of time. :D

PattiB -- Did you ever get another copy of My Three Sons DVD series?

Yes I did. :)

This is a great post, PattiB and I'd like to comment on a few things...
The networks don't even seem to care they are losing viewers. They are seeking a certain age group and assuming that it'll please them. Not everyone likes all the reality, that leaves a Large group in the cold.
This is SO true. The soaps are notorious for firing the 40+ year olds who have been on the show forever in favor of teenage storylines. I don't think they realize that adults watch soaps as well. What happened to when they used to appeal to the American Housewife? Of course, that term has probably gone away now....



The new trend seems to be growing....canceling cable and dish and buying DVD's. They don't leave us a lot of choice.
Since most of what I watch is on a cable station, I wouldn't dream of canceling it. I would LOVE to have TCM, but it's only offered in the really expensive package. I wish the cable companies would have a basic line-up and then give people the option to purchase a separate package. In the package, it should have stations that the customer can choose (like TCM) and then they just pay the extra fee instead of having to pay so much more to get a whole slew of stations that they don't want.

It would be great if Ted Turner decided to make a Turner Classic Sitcom network.

OMG, this wold be the coolest ever! Great idea!



We tend to watch TCM much more often(AMC needs to change the name, it's no longer Just American Movie Classic's.) I also like that I can request a movie on TCM and it's on within a decent period of time. :D

You are SO right about AMC. I think it's a stupid name, now that they've changed their concept. I hated it at first, but now I find myself watching the films that are broadcast. I just wish they didn't have so many commercials. :mad:

Andrea

in the future, I predict that TV will have A LOT more commercials (unfortunately), that it will be 99% reality shows, reruns of reality shows, and you'll have to search high and low before you find any sitcoms. And 50s to 70s shows? Forget about it!!!

And, I agree about AMC. It used to be, AMC and TCM were the best movie stations. Now, it's just TCM; they're the only station that shows movies the right way. No edits, no commercials, and all their movies from the 50s up till today are shown in the "letterbox" or "widescreen" format. (in the 50s, studios started making their films bigger, to compete with TV. Sadly, hardly anyone shows them this way)