.

Because their anchor shows, like "Murder, She Wrote" were geared to an older demographic.

Because their anchor shows, like "Murder, She Wrote" were geared to an older demographic.

Yeah, their programming was very geriatric. They were good shows, but they were mostly safe and family oriented. Sometimes they would flirt with taboo subjects (Murphy Brown's baby for example), but they never crossed the line into vulgarity.

You know, I kind of miss it!

Magnum P.I., Newhart etc... etc...

It still has the reputation of being the old people's network..and it still kind of is, in a way. Just look at shows like CSI: New York and Vegas, which had around 10 million viewers but almost all of them were 50+ (leading to their cancellation).

It does have some younger-skewing comedies now like How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory (although even those shows aren't as young-skewing as many comedies on other networks) but it's still the "oldest" of the networks, especially with dramas.

To make a general observation, CBS during the '80s and early '90s weren't really hitting the lucrative (from an advertising standpoint) 18-49 demographic w/ their biggest hits of the era like Murder She Wrote. The shows from this period were either w/ an older actor/senior citizen as the lead (like Murder She Wrote or Diagnosis Murder for example) or arguably otherwise boring shows like Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman or Touched by an Angel.

Growing up I kind of saw the major American broadcast networks like this:
*CBS was the network for the older generation (e.g. over 50 crowd).

*ABC was the network for families/kids because of TGIF (as well as domestic sitcoms like Home Improvement, Roseanne and Grace Under Fire) and their Disney connections.

*NBC was the network for the affluent, upper-middle class folks

*Fox (especially pre-the NFL) was the maverick, edgy and hip network.

*UPN was the urban (Fox was like that too in the early years w/ In Living Color Martin, Living Single and New York Undercover, but UPN took it even further) and sci-fi (mostly due to Star Trek) network.

*WB was the network for angsty, coming of age young adults (especially high schoolers). In a sense, it was what ABC Family could be considered today.

Growing up I kind of saw the major American broadcast networks like this:
*CBS was the network for the older generation (e.g. over 50 crowd).

*ABC was the network for families/kids because of TGIF (as well as domestic sitcoms like Home Improvement, Roseanne and Grace Under Fire) and their Disney connections.

*NBC was the network for the affluent, upper-middle class folks

*Fox (especially pre-the NFL) was the maverick, edgy and hip network.

*UPN was the urban (Fox was like that too in the early years w/ In Living Color Martin, Living Single and New York Undercover, but UPN took it even further) and sci-fi (mostly due to Star Trek) network.

*WB was the network for angsty, coming of age young adults (especially high schoolers). In a sense, it was what ABC Family could be considered today.
I would say today it's:

ABC - middle-aged women (Once Upon a Time, Grey's) and families (basically all of their comedies)

CBS - older generation (safe, formulaic procedurals/multi-camera comedies)

FOX - young, somewhat 'hip' vibe (the cartoons, New Girl, Glee) and also people who like watching people sing. the "edginess" moved to cable but the network still has a youthful vibe for sure

NBC - ???? (used to aim for the young urban professional vibe with their 'smart' comedies like The Office, 30 Rock ect but who knows anymore?)

CW - teenage girls (Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl) and genre fans (Arrow, Supernatural)

So...overall not much has changed, I don't think.

CBS was also still hanging on to older shows like 60 Minutes, Face the Nation, The Price is Right, Guiding Light, and As the World Turns, while it seemed that overall NBC and ABC had more turnover.

Yes...Murder, She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, and especially 60 Minutes (and the other CBS news anchors in general: Cronkite, Rather, Schieffer, Kuralt, etc.) cemented the network's reputation as the old people's network. Plus, those shows went on forever, and 60 Minutes still is!!! :eek: :crazy: :lol:

even some of the lesser-known sitcoms during this period were geared to the middle-aged crowd such as Evening Shade (w/ Burt Reynolds who was about to begin entering the beginning stages of sporting his salt and pepper toupees) and Major Dad (w/ Gerald McRaney).

And other dramas such as In the Heat of the Night (when it moved to CBS from NBC in the fall of '92).

Same probably could be said for Unsolved Mysteries as well (when that show moved to CBS from NBC later on).

i didn't know they were called thee old people network i enjoyed watching martial law and early ediiton couple years ago they weren't for older people

Call me an old fart but I loved watching Murder, She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, Murphy Brown and Evening Shade with my grandparents. Those were not-miss shows for us back then. I can't relate to most of the stuff they show on any network now.

Oh yeah, I enjoyed many of those same shows as well. I had quite a crush on Faith Ford when she appeared on Murphy Brown. In fact, I never really considered those to be older viewers' shows per se, except I knew that a lot of seniors were Angela Lansbury fans.

I also think they were called "old people's network" because they were not hip because they lost there sports. Remember, when the NFL left CBS that was a huge blow. Also, the NBA left CBS in the early 90s as well.

Even though they were on NBC(and later ABC), Matlock
and Columbo were also considered old-skewing shows. The
same could also be said for The Waltons and Little House On
The Prairie(though to a lesser extent).

I remember watching Promised Land and Diagnosis Murder on CBS instead of NBC TV's must see Thursday during the 1990's. I was in my 30's at the time so I guess I was never hip. lol

I also think they were called "old people's network" because they were not hip because they lost there sports. Remember, when the NFL left CBS that was a huge blow. Also, the NBA left CBS in the early 90s as well.

Losing the NFL to Fox was one of the biggest blunders in CBS' history. It cost them a lot of important affiliates and without the NFL, it made it harder for them to draw people into viewing their prime time shows. It was as if, CBS didn't think that the NFL would ever seriously consider giving the National Football Conference over to Fox, since they were still only a few years old, never broadcast sports before, and didn't have nearly a 40 year relationship with the National Football League as did CBS.

CBS also lost Major League Baseball after the 1993 season. They wound up losing approximately $500 million over the course of four years of covering Major League Baseball (they payed about $1.2 billion to outbid NBC and ABC in the broadcast TV rights).

They also didn't have a whole lot of college football (CBS currently shows the SEC and for a while, the Big East too) during the early part of the '90s save for I think, the annual Sun Bowl.

I always blame the leadership of Laurence Tisch for why CBS was in such a bad position during this period. Tisch was to CBS what Jeff Zucker was to NBC a few years down the road.

CBS also had many TV Specials in the 80's and early 90's.

I remember them playing cartoon specials like Garfield, Bugs Bunny, Charlie Brown, and even Rocky and Bullwinkle.

I felt that after "All in the Family" ended, CBS went back to rural shows...replanting the trees that were once pulled-up in 1971.

When I was a kid, Lawrence Welk was considerer an old persons show. As a 5 year old anyone in the 40's was old. Dress, hairstyles, speech all tend to dictate how one looks. Take today, Wendie Malick looks good for 60. Molly Goldberg of the Goldberg looked elderly when she look 45. If the show has a good plot, I don't care if it an old person show or not.

I'm certainly not old and love those shows mentioned. I miss the way TV was. I'm just not a Reality TV fan and most of the sitcoms aren't what I enjoy. Anyone who met me would never guess I'd prefer the older, family oriented shows. :rock:

Well Murder She Wrote just came on TV Land and I wanted to throw up:lol:

Call me an old fart but I loved watching Murder, She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, Murphy Brown and Evening Shade with my grandparents. Those were not-miss shows for us back then. I can't relate to most of the stuff they show on any network now.

I feel you. I can't relate to 90% of TV shows nowadays.

Diagnosis Murder is great, easily better than any of the current shows on CBS. And I'm in the 18-34 demo. Murder She Wrote, on the other hand, I could never get into, pretty boring. It does have a good theme song though.

When I was a kid, Lawrence Welk was considerer an old persons show.

I don't know if you're implying that the Welk show was a CBS network series, but just for the record, it wasn't. ABC aired it from 1955 to 1971, after which new shows were produced for syndication (and it continued to run for about a decade).

I don't know if you're implying that the Welk show was a CBS network series, but just for the record, it wasn't. ABC aired it from 1955 to 1971, after which new shows were produced for syndication (and it continued to run for about a decade).
To be honest I didn't know what network it was on. I just remembered that it seem to be watched by older americans. The teenagers were into American Bandstand.

To be honest I didn't know what network it was on. I just remembered that it seem to be watched by older americans. The teenagers were into American Bandstand.
I used to put it on when I wanted to take a nap. Great sleeping music. lol

Talking about Murder She Wrote, My brother came to visit in the mid 80's and asked my dad and mom" What shows do you watch on Sunday nights. He said we see 60 minutes and think Murder She Wrote is pretty good. My dad said Well Jim we don't think much of it. We all laughed. My folks thought it was a little corny and my folks were in their mid to late 70's then.
A fellow by the name of Donald Bain writes books called Murder She Wrote with all the characters from the show.

I don't know if you're implying that the Welk show was a CBS network series, but just for the record, it wasn't. ABC aired it from 1955 to 1971, after which new shows were produced for syndication (and it continued to run for about a decade).

Lawrence Welk was an old person's show, and when I mean old, I mean for grannies in their 70's and 80's back in the 1970's and 1980's. That music was so old fashioned. It was old fashioned and square in 1945.

Made me wonder when Lawrence Welk was young, were his fans young with him, or was his audience always old as in, would he go to old folks homes with his orchestra?

Did anyone call him Larry? Larry was a native born citizen of the United States, born inside a community in North Dakota so isolated that the people thought they were back in Germany. So Larry got his start entertaining Lutherans at church socials waiting to be discovered by evey other gereiatric on the Planet.

I think he has a son named Larry. What I get a kick out out of, his first champaigne lady was let go for she showed too much leg. I do tend to think the show was geared toward the age 65 and over all through the run of the show. Which I think is fair. The young had American Bandstand and the older folk Lawrence Welk.

This may have been the most shocking song to ever be sung on Lawrence Welk's show. :lol:

Ye3ecDYxOkg

Lawrence Welk was an old person's show, and when I mean old, I mean for grannies in their 70's and 80's back in the 1970's and 1980's. That music was so old fashioned. It was old fashioned and square in 1945.

It's too bad that there seems to be no one on these boards who can appreciate that show -- and as I said, it wasn't a CBS series to begin with, so we're off on a tangent. But I'm a fan of Sandi Griffiths, so I keep watching (and hoping that her episodes are the ones shown).

It's very easy to slam something you don't like, and say more or less that you're too "hip" to enjoy it -- but there was some good music on there, and it's too bad that it gets dismissed so harshly. I've watched it pretty much most of my life -- pre-teen, teens, and later in my 40s in the current PBS run -- so not all of the viewers had one foot in the grave, as you would have us believe.

It's too bad that there seems to be no one on these boards who can appreciate that show -- and as I said, it wasn't a CBS series to begin with, so we're off on a tangent. But I'm a fan of Sandi Griffiths, so I keep watching (and hoping that her episodes are the ones shown).

It's very easy to slam something you don't like, and say more or less that you're too "hip" to enjoy it -- but there was some good music on there, and it's too bad that it gets dismissed so harshly. I've watched it pretty much most of my life -- pre-teen, teens, and later in my 40s in the current PBS run -- so not all of the viewers had one foot in the grave, as you would have us believe.
No and I joke about the show but it was good music to listen to and my parents were in their 30's and 40's at the time the syndicated version ran and they liked the show. It still runs sometimes on my PBS station.

On the Reputation of CBS as the Older Viewers' Network (https://raritania.blogspot.com/2022/01/on-reputation-of-cbs-as-older-viewers.html)

I have recently had occasion to think about CBS' reputation as, well, an older person's TV channel.

One explanation for that reputation I have come across is that CBS was the king of the ratings back in the '70s and early '80s, thanks in large part to Norman Lear (All in the Family was the #1 show on TV for five straight years (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-rated_United_States_television_programs_by_season#1980s), and he had Maude, and Good Times, and The Jeffersons), and Dallas, and MASH, and Hawaii Five-O and Kojak, and 60 Minutes, and The Dukes of Hazzard, and Magnum P.I. and . . . well, you get the picture. In the 1973-1974 season it had nine of the top ten shows, eight the next season, and if there were ups and downs after that, between the 1979-1980 and 1984-1985 seasons on average seven of the top ten and eleven of the top twenty rated shows were running on that one channel, a truly extraordinary proportion of the market. Of course, CBS' hit machine virtually sputtered out later in the decade (during which one was more likely to see NBC at the top, with the likes of Cheers and Family Ties and The A-Team and The Cosby Show). The result was, presumably, that anyone who was still watching CBS was someone the channel won over in earlier, better days, who were sticking with their declining hits down to the end after most others jumped ship, were simply in the habit of watching the channel when they sat down in the front of the TV, and so because they were on the channel and see a promotion and maybe get interested, or just happened to have the channel on when the show started, wound up following shows that the rest of the public never noticed or never got interested in because their attention was directed elsewhere. And because the hits that made CBS viewers of people were from years earlier, and because it seems to have been the case that compared with younger viewers those older viewers were in their TV viewing habits more prone to follow channels than shows, that audience was on the whole older than the average.

I find this explanation plausible. But it also seems to me a matter of such hits as the channel managed to have when it faltered. Consider the biggest hit CBS generated between Magnum and the end of the century--Murder, She Wrote. Indeed, for the decade or so from 1986-1987 on, by which point most of the older hits were either gone from the air (like the Norman Lear sitcoms or MASH), or in decline (like Dallas), 60 Minutes and Murder, She Wrote were the CBS shows far and away most likely to make the Nielsen ratings' top ten--a weekly TV newsmagazine then late into its second decade (which had the curmudgeonly Andy Rooney for a mascot), and a "cozy" mystery series about a sixtysomething mystery writer solving murders--which were hardly the thing to bring in that younger crowd. And even if other CBS shows also made appearances in the top ten, like Touched by an Angel and Everybody Loves Raymond (a show about watching grouchy middle-aged people fighting each other when they were not fighting with even grouchier old people), they, along with more modest but still important successes like Diagnosis: Murder and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, affirmed the impression of a channel catering to an older audience. Then, as a result of holding on to viewers won in past days while finding it tougher to get new viewers the channel's viewers were on the whole older; the channel's management responded disproportionately to material aimed at an older audience; and so CBS kept the "old people's shows" on the air, and picked up new ones; while younger viewers passed on its offerings.

Still, when considering why this went so far it may be helpful to remember that, contrary to the solipsistic view prevailing, the outcome of a competition is never a matter of just what one party does, but what the competitors do as well--and it was the case that in these years the competition was getting a lot tougher, with there being that much more to draw away the attention of those younger viewers. After all, between the mid-'80s and mid-'90s the country saw the arrival of three new broadcast networks, all of which were very aggressively chasing younger viewers, and in at least some degree catching them. FOX had 21 Jump Street and Beverly Hills 90210 and Party of Five, while the newer and even more youth-oriented WB had Dawson's Creek and Felicity and 7th Heaven (and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed and Smallville for sci-fi fans), and UPN had Veronica Mars. Cable was scoring, too, with MTV, for instance, airing shows like Beavis and Butthead and The Real World. Meanwhile, if NBC had Matlock, The Golden Girls and Empty Nest it also had its family sitcoms, and much more youth-oriented shows like the college-set A Different World, and not long after, Friends, and Seinfeld (which if not being about teens or twentysomethings was not exactly about "adults" either, and still commanded quite the youth audience at the time), while ABC had its own youth-friendly TGIF block.

Not unrelated was that matter of "edginess." Where CBS had once been more daring and provocative than its rivals (as with the Norman Lear sitcoms, the politics of which ABC refused to touch--as one sees in its completely-missed-the-point attempt at All in the Family-minus-the-politics, the short-lived The Paul Lynde Show (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paul_Lynde_Show)), it was now the channel known for offering safe, cozy stuff as the others pushed the envelope, with CBS offering Touched by an Angel as ABC contributed to broadcast TV's last truly great bout of moral panic over sex-and-violence-on-TV with NYPD Blue. (Indeed, it may say a lot that CBS' line-up from those days now makes up such a large part of the weekday lineup of the Hallmark channels.)

Certainly CBS did make some effort to vary its offerings that way, scoring cult successes with quirkier and sometimes more daring material (like The Flash, or Picket Fences), and even a measure of real commercial success (as with Northern Exposure), but when it broke with its pattern it seems to have more often been a matter of trying to make something out of its rivals' declining properties and outright cast-offs, and often not succeeding (as with its picking up longtime TGIF staple Family Matters well past its peak, only to see the onetime top twenty hit fail to make the top hundred in its one season on the channel, finishing out its run at a dismal #108). The result was that even when the channel started having top ten-caliber hits with a broader appeal--indeed, began setting trends with shows like the reality TV-pioneering Survivor and forensics show boom-launching CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (I didn't say they were good trends, just that CBS launched them)--the old person's image stuck and the channel never quite shook it. But then TV was becoming an old person's scene anyway, the young inclining toward the Internet, especially after streaming took off, and indeed a glance at the Nielsen ratings these past few years, dominated by the NCIS franchise, and The Big Bang Theory franchise, and Blue Bloods, make it look like it's the '70s all over again, with 2020-2021 seeing it ratings champion for thirteen straight years (https://www.klove.com/news/u-s-and-world/cbs-is-the-champion-of-television-ratings-for-13th-consecutive-year-23043).

Quoting from the analysis:

"Everybody Loves Raymond (a show about watching grouchy middle-aged people fighting each other when they were not fighting with even grouchier old people)"

I don't believe that Debra, Raymond, and Robert were "middle-aged," they were younger than that, with very young children. I think that statement is misleading. The writer seems to think that anyone past age 29 is "middle-aged"...!

I agree; shows like ELR and King of Queens, later Two and a Half Men aren't old-people shows. However shows like JAG and NCIS are geared to the older set, I think.

Ray Ramono was either 38 or 39 back when the show first started in 96.

Most of this stuff is marketing driven. The other networks would rather attack CBS as a whole, rather than have to do it show-by-by. Critics and reporters are willing accomplices, because they want to imagine there's a cutting edge that they're part of. The dopier part of the audience just laps it up. The same thing goes on today, except anything with recorded laughter in it is the supposed villain.

I agree; shows like ELR and King of Queens, later Two and a Half Men aren't old-people shows. However shows like JAG and NCIS are geared to the older set, I think.

Don't forget Walker, Texas Ranger. I know a lot of older women have been watching the CBS shows since the 60's, because of the seasoned male leads.

Shows such as Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, Mannix, Cannon, Hawaii 5-0, Magnum P.I, Murder She Wrote, Walker, JAG, Dr Quinn, NCIS and etc just naturally come with and older audience built in.

CBS always sucked

In my eyes the reason why people thought CBS was geared to the audience of 55 to 70 was because CBS had programming that was fit to attract that audience in the 80's and 90's. And with shows like Knots Landing Murder She Wrote Magnum PI CBS knew that the senior audience loved these shows and it was a huge hit. But also the daytime hour of CBS is also a hit with seniors because as many of you know seniors LOVE game shows and that's why The Price Is Right and Let's Make A Deal get high ratings but I think when reality shows Survivor The Amazing Race and Big Brother came out in the 2000's CBS saw an age difference jumping from 55 and older to 20-30 because reality shows were beginning to be a fad with the new generation and CBS knew that they had to develop shows that appealed to that age group and so that's why the CSI franchise became a hit and we saw more sitcoms and dramas appealing to the new generation. And as CBS continues developing more sitcoms and dramas for the new generation they will become number one in TV networks

CBS was always willing to give a show more time to find an audience. The other networks have always been quick with the cancellation ax. Veteran TV watchers (aka older people) know this so they gravitate towards CBS programming.

Don't forget Walker, Texas Ranger. I know a lot of older women have been watching the CBS shows since the 60's, because of the seasoned male leads.

Shows such as Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, Mannix, Cannon, Hawaii 5-0, Magnum P.I, Murder She Wrote, Walker, JAG, Dr Quinn, NCIS and etc just naturally come with and older audience built in.

I think my mother, when she was in her 90s, watched NCIS due to Mark Harmon. And she watched most of those other shows, too.

I was reading this review (https://unobtainium13.com/2025/06/25/brad-reviews-family-of-cops-1995-starring-charles-bronson/) Family of Cops, which was the first of a series of made-for-TV movies in the '90s for CBS starring Charles Bronson. It was basically, Blue Bloods before Blue Bloods to put things into perspective. This part of the review really stood out for me:
FAMILY OF COPS is a perfect example of what I would refer to as entertainment for the “older person crowd,” and I don’t mean this as a put-down in any way as I enjoyed the movie. I just mean that it fits a type of entertainment that was popular in the 80’s and 90’s. These types of shows would depend greatly on the charisma or reputation of a veteran actor or actress, would contain simple production values, and would usually follow formulaic plots. Examples of the types of shows I’m referring to include MURDER, SHE WROTE with Angela Lansbury, MATLOCK with Andy Griffith, DIAGNOSIS MURDER with Dick Van Dyke, and WALKER: TEXAS RANGER with Chuck Norris. A combination of my dad, mom and grandma loved all of these shows. I’m a big fan of MATLOCK myself. In this case, FAMILY OF COPS leans heavily on Charles Bronson’s five decades as a tough guy icon to anchor a somewhat formulaic crime film and family melodrama. The role of Paul Fein fits a 73-year-old Bronson like a glove. He’s still in good physical shape, and the movie gives him a couple of opportunities to punch the **** out of some much younger thugs and henchmen. That was fun for me.

Really stupid promotions like the colonoscopy sweepstakes doesn't help the old image of CBS. I think they stopped that nonsense when Paramount took over.